Category Archives: Culture

Tara Westover: EDUCATED: A MEMOIR

And here’s a third memoir I read recently, inspired by that NYT list — though in this case, the book didn’t place on the final list, though it was nominated by a couple of the 500 contributors who revealed their … Continue reading

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Things That Don’t Change

In particular, the reactions by conservatives to things that do change. Topics today: Illegals and the military; How poor poll results must be fake; The American struggle between reason and ignorance; How one small town is indeed deeply conservative; Considering … Continue reading

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Ta-Nehisi Coates: BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

Here is the next memoir I read, after Joan Didion’s, as inspired by that NYT list. This is a statement by a black intellectual to his 15-year-old son, about life as a black person and the struggles and dangers he … Continue reading

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Long-Term Considerations

It’s a basic provisional conclusion on this blog that conservatives deal with short-term matters, corporate profits and so on, without concern for long-term effects, like climate change. They’re concerned about their children — but not enough concerned about how climate … Continue reading

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 9

This time: Children. The old nature vs. nurture debate is too simplistic and binary. Given implications of our innate human nature, the (by now unsurprising) takeaway here is that parents have far less influence on their children than people have … Continue reading

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There Is No Other Place

Cue the Conspiracy Theorists and Projectionists. Items today about yesterday’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump, and which side is the one that actually promotes violence. * Well, I didn’t suspect that so many on the right would blame the *left* … Continue reading

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Media Bias, Against Biden

More people are noticing the main stream media’s bias against Biden, while giving Trump a pass, since his interminable lying is old news: Robert Reich, Connie Willis, Heather Cox Richardson; With an aside graphic of the goals of Project 2025; … Continue reading

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Are We Living in the Worst of Times?

Or is it only human nature to think so? A Scientific American piece about the denial of reality. Maybe the evidence suggests we *are* living in the worst of times. Short pieces about MAGA infighting and accusations, economists warning about … Continue reading

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Loyalty vs. Principles

Three threads today, all related. Considering whistle-blowing as an example of wrestling loyalty vs. principles, and how this applies to Trump and his followers; Related items about how Trump supporters vow to “lie, cheat, and steal”; how Donald Trump knows … Continue reading

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The Ten Commandments as the Distillation of Tribal Morality

What to make of the continued efforts by the religious conservatives to impose the Ten Commandments onto schoolchildren and passerby in America’s courtrooms? Which part of the First Amendment don’t they understand? Some part presumption and some part ignorance and … Continue reading

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