Key Thinking (Aloud)

Pride Month honors the hardfought accomplishments of the gay rights movement, but has become a sort of husk of what it's meant to honor: a limp season of market pandering to an already progressive USA. Rainbow flags are worn by countless logos, signifying a point so obvious to so many as to constitute almost nothing.. except dutiful virtue signaling. What's the point of all this?

Drugs are substances that alter consciousness, broadly speaking. But their subsets are vastly different: psychedelics are nothing like opioids, and even within a class like uppers, crystal meth is wildly different than caffeine. Let's think through the reasons why people take various drugs, explore the underlying implications and consequences, and contextualize each case, especially within party culture.

Here's an endorsement to travel again. I can recommend Miami, Florida, for people that want some fun and sun. Covid is less threatening these days and it's time to get back out there.

I used to be "pro-Palestine". Now I'm "pro-Israel", but to be honest, I'm mostly just annoyed by how society talks about this topic. Why is this the singular geopolitical issue that bascially everyone has an opinion about? And why is it so much trendier and cooler to support Palestine?

What is sexism? I don't even know anymore tbh, but I know it's a sort of third rail that I sometimes flirt with, depending on context. I want to discuss this honestly and openly, and really explore what sort of ideas I hold that could be problematic. I'm taking an IDR Labs test here to figure out if I may indeed hold any sexist attitudes.

I remain pretty agnostic about it. People that want a vaccination should get one (and have access to it). The goal is herd immunity; the real goal is freedom of movement, open culture and a return to "normalcy". I want to live! And if getting a little bit of death in my arm leads to that, then I'm for it. But it should be a personal decision, ultimately.

Moral Foundations Theory attempts to explain individual differences in psychology and political intuitions, as well as to make sense of the many instances of moral outrage and offense that are increasingly seen in public debate.

This is part 2of 2 episodes, in which I take this Moral Foundations test: https://www.idrlabs.com/morality/6/test.php

Social scientists argue that there are substantial variations in human morality, and that these differences influence not just a person's decision making and reasoning processes, but also their political outlook. In recent years, researchers and scholars from all over the world have converged on the framework on Moral Foundations Theory in an attempt to explain these individual differences, as well as to make sense of the many instances of moral outrage and offense that are increasingly seen in public debate. By drawing on findings from their research, this test aims to give you your scores according to the Moral Foundations framework.

This is part 1of 2 episodes, in which I take this test: https://www.idrlabs.com/morality/6/test.php

Just a little rant about this dumb night I had. Feeling triggered, might delete later.

"The houseless community" is being kicked out of Echo Park Lake, Los Angeles. Activists are protesting this as an issue of compassion for the homeless - the city and police are the villains in that narrative. But how fair is that? Is the argument to just allow the homeless to stay in our city parks? Yes, the city has to do a lot more to solve homelessness, but how is this a bad step?