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Polarization Pointer
I came across this tonight; it's a good partial explanation for the flaws I've found in the various movements I've been involved in (or opposed) over the years. It's part of that story where various good-intentioned people and movements end up with a cultural rot that hurts rather than helps their cause, where people judge claims not by their ( Read more... ) -
Loyalty
This is meant to address three ideas:- Don't blame the victim
- If you care for me, you'd support me unconditionally
- Safe zones
For those we care for, we desire them to be happy, to succeed, to grow as people, and various other things. To that end, we offer them our support in various realms of life. ( Read more... ) -
What Do We Owe Each Other?
One of the central questions in political philosophy, or perhaps one of the most intuitive initial framings, is "what do we owe each other?". I prefer to ask this question as a foundational one; one which we ask while the different ways we might structure society, property, and rights or legal norms are in place. We ask it that early because an ( Read more... ) -
Suicide as Thought-Crime
I wonder if the prohibition on suicide is about those whose action would be prohibited so much as it is about disturbing a consensus; suicide as heresy. Heresy to the idea that the strength it takes to continue with life sometimes is a well-placed strength. Heresy to the idea that life is worthwhile and should continue until a natural end; illness ( Read more... ) -
Keeping the Praxis Straight
Today was (probably) the end of my affiliation with CFI-NYC. I came to the tenative conclusion last night, but hoped to leave on a high note; today's philosophy gathering was quite a good one, and happened to touch on some of the reason I'm leaving (although I didn't mention the leavitude while there). Largely, I'm frustrated with the recent focus ( Read more... ) -
BSA and GSA
Recently, Boy Scouts has been in the news; they finally appeal to be removing their ban on gay youth in their organisation, although leaders still must be straight. I've been unhappy with BSA for quite some time; my experiences with the organisation were fairly mixed and I've come to dislike portions of their messages. Having 3 younger sisters and ( Read more... ) -
CMU, the First Amendment, and Indecent Exposure
Earlier on my G+ stream, I commented on the matter of a CMU student who protested the Catholic church's coverup of sexual abuse by dressing as the pope, partly naked. I was disappointed that President Cohon had apologised on behalf of CMU to the local Catholic Bishop and the Catholic League. Now the matter has been resolved; she was charged with ( Read more... ) -
Diversity in Tech
In the technical meetups I've been part of in NYC, I've been noticing a demographics shift from them being practically all-male (e.g. 1-2 women in a group of 120) to them starting to have a little bit of gender-diversity (10-15 women in a similar size group). This is a good thing, and I've seen it across several groups. I don't think the content of ( Read more... ) -
AlJ should be more careful
I'm a bit disappointed in this AlJ story summary; it's dipping into uninformed sensationalism, in that it aims for a kneejerk reaction to a story that's not borne by the facts.
The title of the article is: "ex-girlfriend target bleeds when shot", showing a picture of a bleeding doll.
Obviously, were this an accurate summary, we'd be right to be very ( Read more... ) -
Not Going for the Face
One of the most important things I believe one should do in arguments is to allow for the possibility of your winning the argument without costing the other person too much face. Most people care a lot about face, even though they probably shouldn't; unless your debate is on behalf of a third party, or primarily for onlookers, if you want to ( Read more... )