Blog
How Trump self-scored 36 points on LGBTQ rights — and why it’s a failing grade
The administration has done nothing whatsoever to support LGBTQ rights. The Trump administration has done nothing whatsoever in favor of LGBTQ rights. Don’t repeat its lie to the contrary. It causes pain and stress.
Republicans say: Make it hard to divorce again
The Party of Trump wants to stop your divorce. Independence? For whom? The Republican Party wants to end no-fault divorce. They want everyone to be married with children. This threatens everyone’s right to exit a bad marriage.
Transphobia is a bellybutton mirror
On the Tucker ’n’ Carlos Show, insights from Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelganger’. We have to stop copying historical patterns of hate and cruelty. I try to reflect the world in ways that are good and true, not through a pipik-mirror.
We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.
Humility: A needed balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls. In Lewis Carroll’s ‘You Are Old, Father William,’ a young person asks: ‘You balanced an eel on the end of your nose - / What made you so awfully clever?’
What is human dignity?
Where does it come from? How do we know it exists? Does dignity need to be pinned to God, or can it have secular grounding? Is it about humility, pride, or both? What does interdependence have to do with it?
When we disagree on politics and I lose a friend
I have to be a good person, and even then, it’s up to someone else if they want to be my friend. They don’t owe me what I gave as a gift, and certainly they don’t owe me what I never gave at all.
Does ‘woke’ mean saying — or not saying — certain words?
In any case, careful speech—including refraining from speaking — can build trust. When the right wing refers to “woke,” they may want to prevent others from saying certain words—or to reserve certain words for themselves.
It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s bigotry
If they really believe in free speech, this is how we’ll know. There are many reasons why people have prejudices and why they devote their speech to expressing bigotry. Not high on the list: commitment to free speech.