Blog

When the Nazis criminalized gay men
A story of persecution in ‘The Men with the Pink Triangle’ by Heinz Heger. The Nazis viewed gay people as weakening the gender binary. Gay men could be punished for “lewdness,” including simply hugging each other: prison or death.

100 years from now, transphobia will always have been wrong
A parallel between Wagner’s antisemitism and Rowling’s transphobia. 100 years from now, there could be a mass murder. But that’s not why Rowling’s transphobia is wrong. It doesn’t become wrong in the future. It’s wrong now.

This 1949 examination of fascist rhetoric shows us how we got here
More on the connection between transphobia and antisemitism. Max Horkheimer examined the social and psychological reasons why people become fascist agitators. This book analyzes antisemitic rhetoric in the US.

Earthpocalypse isn’t a ‘marginal’ cost (despite what economists say)
A couple observations from ‘El Planeta, Nuestro Cuerpo’. There aren’t ‘better’ ways to buy and sell nature, and GDP can measure poverty as much as profit. The absurdity reveals itself. Let’s choose more wisely.

One billion crabs have had it
Alaska’s snow crabs said: ‘You can’t fire me because I quit’. What happens to animals involves plants, bacteria, landscapes, water, air. Everything is connected. How do the snow crabs feel? When can we ask them?

‘Atlas of a Changing Climate’ shows warming in images
Fundamentals and details explained in Brian Buma’s 2021 book. ‘The Atlas of a Changing Climate’ explains the science in a “relatable and understandable” way, admitting that readers may react with “wonder” or “despair.”

War may change how we rely on big oil
Energy companies’ reactions to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Often, a catastrophe forces a business to change by hitting it in its wallet. This is an ethical crisis too. Businesses have to change. Today.

What we can’t conquer, we destroy and deny
A mindset that rejects wilderness will also reject people. Wilderness is the unknown. Much in the human is unknown too. A mindset that rejects wilderness will also reject humans who don’t fit social norms.

Talking to climate skeptics
Reflecting on ‘How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate’ (2015). Most USAmericans are scientifically illiterate. It’s not that they don’t memorize scientific facts; they don’t even know how scientific reasoning works.