Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Give me flak for this if you want, but it’s just my observation. Lately in this country and rather, the world, there has been a worrying trend towards the vilification and mis-attribution of negative stereotypes against people who identify politically as “conservative.” When I was a child, a person who was conservative usually believed in…
There should be no “us” vs. “them” – let’s focus on the “we.”
In the wake of the ridiculousness that has been going on recently, one thing stands out to me most sharply: The “us vs them” mentality has become pervasive in our society – our social media, our mainstream media, and thus our zeitgeist. Across the spectrum, this “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” paradigm…
The Danger of Dismissing Dissenting Opinions: Groupthink, Wrongthink, Thoughtcrime
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books and architect of the franchise, has been doing herself no favors lately. Twitter is not the place to voice or discuss difficult and nuanced positions on delicate topics – something that the author herself acknowledges in her subsequent essay addressing the furor over her tweet. The echo…
The Ginger Experiment
Some weeks ago, there was a sale on fresh ginger root at my local grocery store. I bought quite a bit to freeze, but, being inspired by a recently-viewed youtube video of a person propagating a ginger plant from a node, I decided to give it a shot. I used the pot that once housed…
Opinion: “Acknowledging White Supremacy” Only Makes it Stronger
I have been seeing demands for everyone from people to corporations to educational institutions to “acknowledge white supremacy.” What those who use this phrase seem to be demanding – based on the wording – is for the person/business/institution to say that they acknowledge white supremacy, i.e. believe that whites are superior to other races, and…
A Female POTUS: Pipe Dream or Possibility?
When I saw this picture on Reddit, my first thought was “Why can’t we have one like that?” My second thought turned to how shameful it is that the United States has yet to have a female President. Unfortunately, the fact that we haven’t doesn’t surprise me. Our Presidents are following the same path as…
Freedom of Speech is Freedom for All Speech – Not Just the Speech You Agree With
In recent days I have observed a nefarious and dangerous phenomenon – the favoring of certain ideologies’ freedom of speech over another. Our Constitution does not qualify who may speak freely; it states, in the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or…
Race vs. Culture as Primary Influence on One’s Behavior
I was reading this Axios article earlier and it raised the question in my mind: “If the number of non-white cops has increased but the amount of police brutality incidents against non-whites has not decreased, perhaps the problem is not race, but culture.” I have had this theory for some time – that it is…
Down with the Duopoly
Earlier this year, the Libertarian Twitter-verse exploded when Congressman Justin Amash (L-MI) announced his intentions for an exploratory Presidential campaign. In spite of various factors that contributed to his declining to declare an official campaign, Amash’s involvement injected energy to thousands of fired-up young people, and led to a burgeoning in support for the Libertarian…
Politics to Potting Mix 