Blog
My identity is a ‘luxury belief’, and other reasons Trump won
NYT columnist David Brooks says Trump voters just wanted ‘respect’ - and that’s somehow at odds with me being gay. He asked us to shut up so that Republicans voters wouldn’t go on to elect Trump to forcibly shut us up. He’s got some ‘paradox of tolerance’ going on here.
The US has an election result. What will we do now?
The way forward is muddy. A few words I’ve collected from others. Words of wisdom from people who’ve spent a lot of time raging, grieving, hoping, organizing. Let’s reflect on how we’re affected and how we can make change.
I can’t write the anti-gay argument for him
No one wants to be called a ‘bigot’ or a ‘fascist’. But it’s not my job to give him alternate explanations for his reasons or feelings. If I say something is bigoted, I may not be judging someone’s character, at least not primarily; instead I may be asserting why I’m not jumping on board.
Why we’re so bad at solving long-term problems
‘The Optimist’s Telescope’ by Bina Venkataraman. It’s hard to ditch our loyalties and biases. It’s hard to stop focusing on past and present and to ponder what legacy we’re leaving for the distant future.
Life on Earth: What has been, what will be
Climate change forces us to find life beyond our assumptions. We can’t stop all the major tipping points that are coming. We may be able to adapt to some. We have to try. We won’t be what we thought we were.
I’m trans, and I did not consent for this to be done to my body
Why is it happening? How can we make it stop? Pirates ate most of the Galapagos tortoises, and some of those species went extinct, and of one called “Fantastic,” there’s only one tortoise left.
‘This is the team’: Collective change on climate
‘Under The Sky We Make’ by Kimberly Nicholas. The ecological tipping points are upon us, and all is lost, unless we have a mindset change. “Look around you,” she writes. “This is the team. We are it.”
Animals want to live. Will they save us?
We are part of the world, but we don’t take it seriously. The Prophecy: They’ll renew time and heal the planet. The forest creatures find a way to show them the light. The oppressors can’t do it for themselves.
Everything around us? It’s ‘the surround.’
The word ‘environment’ puts the world in a cognitive box. ‘The environment,’ the entirety of Planet Earth, the world and its nature — so large, yet we manage to trap it in the box of our own minds.