Key Thinking (Aloud)

Our modern political fight is full of tired slogans, ambiguous chants and outlandish demands. Let's get specific, and target a true enemy of the people: the war on drugs. This policy - American and global - unjustly targets minorities and the poor, it costs billions of dollars a year, and it infringes on the personal liberties of citizens. Insofar as the war on drugs aims to ameliorate the problem of drug abuse, it turns what is clearly a health issue, into a criminal issue, solving nothing. It in fact exacerbates the social problems it purports to solve.

In this episode, I expound on these main arguments against this stupid and wayward federal initiative: it is socially unjust, it is a fiscally irrepsonsible, it is antithetical to our sense of personal freedom, and it turns a health issue into a criminal issue.

This episode also appears on YouTube as a videocast. I recorded this (for the first time) in front of a camera:

I'm looking forward to Donald Trump no longer being president, for many reasons. For that to happen, Joe Biden must be elected in November. If you live in a swing state, please vote for him. If you don't, I can't blame you at all if you don't feel like it. I outline the reasons why Biden - and the Democratic party generally - is hard for me to support these days.

This news story caught my eye today. I want to make a point about it: the police can be stupid, violent, poorly trained, misguided, aggressive and overly burdened... without being racist. Let's reform the police so this kind of story doesn't happen, even if the victim isn't black. Or can we only reform policing in the context of race?

What is feminism? Are you or I am feminist? It depends on the meaning of this word, and on context. Let's explore the ideas of this political movement over time, and also ponder its more personal, psychological implications.

Despite continual progress, the USA remains unequal and unjust across a variety of metrics. Insofar as race remains a major issue in the fight for social justice, we should be dealing with it. But is "White Fragility" a productive way to confront such issues? I answer a 20-question test to figure that out.

The Enneagram is a model of nine personality types. It is commonly used in self-help, business management, and spiritual development.

The abstract concept of equality has become probably the number one virtue for many of us, especially in the current protest movement. But what is equality, exactly? How do we do we measure it? And at what costs should it be pursued?

It's helpful to think of equality in at least two key ways: equality of opportunity, and equality of outcome. I advocate for the liberal freedom of equal opportunity, for which we must continually strive. I denounce the pursuit of equal outcomes, which is a radical Marxist impossibility.

We need to think openly and collaboratively about the hard issues surrounding race inequality. We also need police reform. But the academic movement of Critical Race Theory asks us to do something else: look inward, into our murky souls, and ask for something like redemption.

I’m skeptical of intersectionality and modern social justice. I think these movements miss the point, and careen way past our political goals. But my cousin studies this topic and sent me some introspective questions, so I'll answer them now. Maybe it will help the national dialogue.

This is an epistemological look at current events: health, masks, epidemiology and ongoing virus issues - contextuslized as an ominous backdrop to the protest movement. What can we even know about the details of the protests, and of the fundamental bases for them?

In the current zeitgeist of things, it can feel strange to just live your own life, especially on certain terms.