Overall, Shayla Love’s recent article on the neurodiversity movement is pretty good. It’s a long, comprehensive brain dump, mainly aimed at clearing up her own confusion about the difference between the neurodiversity movement and anti-psychiatry. She did exactly what we ask people to do: ask the neurodiversity activists for clarification. And it was given. Still,…
White solidarity is one of the most deeply felt principles of white liberals, because of course it is. Liberalism emerged as a bad faith, righteous-sounding defense of colonialism and exploitation. The civil rights movement succeeded in making some of the whites feel bad, so they consciously distance themselves from the less-ashamed racists. But they don’t…
If the white people at Vox were really worthy of forgiveness, they’d already understand how tone deaf their whole special series on forgiveness is. Note that it’s currently Monday, and only the first 2 of 6 articles have been published. It could redeem itself in the coming days, but I doubt it. First, this is…
A recurring theme of this blog has been that Eric Levitz’s opinions on race annoy me. Of course, being obnoxious is a general tendency, and his latest column opens up a new front: his opinions on foreign policy. It’s not so much that he takes specific stances on what to do about Ukraine. As usual,…
Normal people really don’t seem to understand the depth of change required to see Others as human. Today’s example comes from Slate: The Most Difficult Part of Raising a Daughter With Down Syndrome. I was annoyed enough to Google Amy Silverman, and she has a book. From the book’s own blurb: Amy bravely looks at…
I’m generally in favor of “Buddhist modernism” or psychologizing the supernatural away. I don’t have a problem with the “authenticity” of this, because I don’t see it as different than Chinese Buddhism incorporating Taoist elements or Southern esoteric Buddhism incorporating alchemy. Further, I think intellectual honesty is more fundamental than tradition for its own sake.…
When you think about it, life would be so much easier if we could just abort Nazis. The burden they inflict on the rest of us is ENORMOUS. I’m sure the geneticists, psychologists, and social scientists could come up with a process of prenatal testing and parental interviews that could predict Nazism with high accuracy.…