Category: Politics
-
The Antivitist Trend in the West
Recent events have suggested that there is a trend afoot in the West: that life is overrated and that death is not so bad. Call it, for lack of a better term, antivitism (from Latin vita, life). People who are aware of their own commitment to this view call it, rather funnily, efilism, which is…
-
A Free Speech Credo
I. Free speech is nothing if not offensive. Free speech just is the right to say offensive things. Popular, safe speech needs no protection; only unpopular, unsafe speech does. Free speech needs protection precisely because and to the extent that it bothers, annoys, dismays, infuriates, emotionally wounds—and, yes, offends—other people. You have the right to offend…
-
Remarks on the drug crisis
As a drug-legalization libertarian, watching this video wasn’t easy: It’s a highly opinionated piece of propaganda; but it is also extremely persuasive. Thinking about this might make me moderate my position on drug legalization. I bear a few things in mind, which I will list simply: Cities like San Francisco and Seattle are being garbage…
-
Reply to Prof. Sears’ rant against free speech defenders
Updates below. Here’s a quickly-assembled response to this interesting Twitter thread, by a Matthew A. Sears, professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New Brunswick. When classics professors say the sorts of things he did early morning on April 28, I think a response is in order. (I’m not responding on Twitter,…
-
Are we becoming indifferent to freedom and democracy?
Originally posted December 19, 2015. Reposting. More relevant than ever. I know, I know: That title sounds ridiculously click-baity. But if you’ll look at my blog, you’ll see that I don’t really go in for click-bait titles. Unfortunately, I mean it quite literally. It’s an enormous problem that we aren’t talking about enough. And I…
-
Gay activists and Hollywood liberals vs. traditional Muslims vs. free speech liberals
Here’s a richly ironic slice of our strange, sad old world in 2019. Ellen Degeneres is (quite rightly) protesting the Sultan of Brunei for introducing the death penalty (stoning to death) for gay sex. He’s also executing people for adultery, but Ellen doesn’t mention that: To this, a reply was posted by an account, “Jihyo”…