Beyond Binary Thinking

The disproportionate murder of people of colour by police forces, and poverty has triggered a series of Black Lives Matter protests around the world.

Are the police racist, or merely policing a structurally racist inequality?

Will the arrest of "a few bad apples" fix the problem?

Does "playing the race card" and toppling statues make things worse in a multicultural society? And if so, why has decades of peaceful protesting been so poorly received? Will more active demonstrations achieve more?

For a nuanced discussion, of all of the above, we're joined by the enormously talented Jamie Mackie whose song features at the end. https://soundcloud.com/jamie-mackie-20259246

The Beyond Binary team debates whether it's possible to be a conscious consumer, how evolutionary psychology, social media, and a desire to succeed and be conscious drive us all to be more conspicuous in our spending habits, and whether the scorn of this all is helpful. From Zizek to Kim Kardashian via Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, we talk about poverty shaming, the politics of envy, whether greed is good, and whether progress is possible.

From harmless tales of Bigfoot and aliens, a mistrust of everything, and social media has mutated conspiracy theories into a monster. The Beyond Binary Thinking crew are joined by Jonny Miller to discuss how scientific illiteracy, skepticism, algorithms and echo chambers have us dying from preventable diseases, burning down 5g masts, and completely unsure who's running our elections any more. Will Newton's flaming laser sword save us? Do we really hate our own politicians so much, we'd rather leave Russian trolls and billionaire oligarchs in power? Does anyone actually believe Jeffrey Epstein killed himself? We try to go beyond the conspiracy theories. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ https://yourbias.is/ Check out the Stalwart Report: UK Gov investigation into mobile phone health effects from 3G roll out. 2003.

https://goodthinkingsociety.org/

Also, for a funny takedown, check out https://rationalwiki.org/

We invite knowledgeable and eloquent guests for a beyond binary discussion, and we knew we'd outdone ourselves as soon as we started talking with Philosopher Lewis Williams from our favourite podcast Searching for It. What followed was a free and open conversation, following the most interesting tangents intersecting philosophy, psychology, and culture. Why did Simulism capture the public's imagination and what does it have in common with death cults? How does meditation become a religion, and an ego-driven competition? Is a utilitarian perspective on ethics against our evolution? Are Buddhism and absurdism, two sides of the same coin? Do Chinese students study Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer to be edgy? We don't have all the answers, but we ask the fun questions. Support Lewis' Patreon here

The current pandemic is so controversial, we had to abort our first attempt at recording this episode. It devolved into a pretty heated argument.

So we came back vaccinated against disinformation, and ready for a calmer, more entertaining discussion, on how skepticism in the face of social media clickbait, our stone-age misunderstandings of statistics, and a mistrust of government has doomed us. Will everything be all right? Well it won't ever be the same! Thanks to Kit Zellerbach for the wonderful outro music.

America's history has always combined colonialist expansion with entrepreneurial spirit. Is Lockheed Martin sponsored war with Iran the inevitable logical step?

Following another longstanding tradition, two Europeans critique American foreign policy.

We're joined by an American political hip hop artist to help explain whether there's method to the madness of the orange president, and whether Christian Evangelicals are catalyzing world war three.

We struggle to play devil's advocate, and discuss how much America will be missed now it's losing its position of respect as a world power, and running out of money after spending trillions on losing profitable but illegal wars.

I was surprised when two senior leaders of The Satanic Temple agreed to a chat, especially given the organisations's dramatic growth following the warts and all documentary (now on Netflix).

I came prepared to play devil's advocate. How can a group whose values include the right to offend be inspiring and thoughtful? How does a growing and popular organisation stop themselves from becoming the powerful theocracy they're protesting against?

The Satanist label clearly gets a lot of press attention, but isn't it counterproductive for their work in schools and with mental healthcare? I tried to hold up the mirror to some criticism of their members' groupthink, and hypocrisy.

They responded thoughtfully, and left us awestruck by the depth of their understanding of religion, psychology, philosophy, and how to change the world for the better.

Please donate to help them keep up their vital community work. TST TV: https://thesatanictemple.tv/

Grey Faction: https://greyfaction.org/

TST Donation: https://www.thesatanictemple.org/dona... Reproductive Rights Donation: https://donate.thesatanictemple.org/s...

Artwork by Shirley Pipps: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3802727...

And here's a link to Denied Grace's music! https://www.deniedgrace.com/media

We invite Ilyas Kassam from Karl Marx Does The Washing Up to discuss why disagreements get everyone so worked up. Has Social Media really made our echo chambers worse than when we lived in small villages?

Is arguing online merely filling the lonely void since we left those villages? Is it part of our need to make our mark on the world, or make sense of the chaos?

How do we make these communities, and our conversations more productive and positive? Is argument and disagreement a negative thing?

Is it possible or desirable to win a debate?

Is the need for persuasion a symptom of an ego-driven shouting into the void?

Does shouting "Racist!" at someone really make the world less racist, or is it just you screaming your own prosocial behaviour when there's a more persuasive and nuanced conversation to be had.

Is the Left more nuanced than the Right, or does everyone think their side is more nuanced, because they understand it better?

We're joined by Brocialist YouTuber - The Swoletariat to discuss the Left, what it gets right, where it fails, and how it can improve and win an election for a change.

Tired of the narrative of "The Rise of the Right" we discuss pragmatically why the left is losing the culture war, how some are turning it around, and why woke scolding, witch hunting, social media slacktavist gatekeeping is so damaging to the cause.

We tackle identity grifters, dog whistlers and conspiracy theorists on both sides, sharing our heroes and decrying the villains. Sam Harris, Bill Maher, Owen Jones, Stalin, and the Twitterazi probably wouldn't like this episode. Contrapoints, Vaush, T1J, Noam Chomsky, Citations Needed, Christopher Hitchens and Bernie Sanders might. The Swoletariat's YouTube Channel is here if you want more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCko8bu6w_OpE8DlKDubg9sQ/videos

While the daydream Brelievers seem asleep at the wheel, the Remoaners' project fear remains as unconvincing as their attempts to call everyone racist.

Most of us ran out of hope and interest years ago, but after failing to avoid the topic, the Beyond Binary Team finally discuss Brexit.

We brought on our favourite troll from the Facebook comments as a guest speaker. Toby's job was to keep the conversation as hilarious and futile as the subject matter.

Chris tried his hardest to defend Brexit in a 3 vs 1 royal rumble.

Were bendy bananas really worth getting this upset over?

If the EU is a Mafia, was it better to be part of the family than in witness protection?

Is Boris Britain's Trump? Is Brexit Farage's wall? Is this Britain's chance to become a weed growing offshore tax haven (and Europe's Carribean)?

Would anyone turn out for another referendum at this point, and how dangerous would a Gammon stampede be if we ignored the result of the last one?