Category Archives: Social Progress

Motivated Reasoning, Supreme Court Edition

Posted on Sunday 17 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Just one short, but provocative, item today. This is the opening piece in the “Talk of the Town” section in the March 18th issue of The New Yorker. It cuts to the core of Supreme Court, and conservative, thinking. The … Continue reading →

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Homosexuality Among Mammals, and Human Families

Posted on Sunday 15 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Several pieces about a recent study that suggests homosexuality evolved among mammalian species to reduce conflict “intrasexual violence”; A review of a book about the nuclear family, which the reviewer suggests doesn’t take alternatives into account. – – –   … Continue reading →

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Fixing the Budget; Civics Education and Constitutions

Posted on Saturday 30 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How to fix the national budget: more tax revenue (not necessarily raising tax rates); Civics education and various ideas for rewriting constitutions. Apropos of this weekend’s events in Washington DC. In some cases there are smart solutions to our problems … Continue reading →

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Murdoch, Azarian, Reich, and Scientists

Posted on Friday 22 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items today: The retirement of Rupert Murdoch, who became wealthy by degrading American politics and appealing to many Americans’ worst instincts; Republican hypocrisy example: John Fetterman vs. Lauren Boebert; with a classic definition: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Sciency Bits

Posted on Wednesday 20 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

False Memories and the Narrative Bias; Another piece with Lee McIntyre about misinformation vs. disinformation; And how the world’s population will likely peak by the end of this century, and then drop; And my thoughts on what the consequences would … Continue reading →

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Flickering and Shining: Adam Lee on Red and Blue America

Posted on Sunday 17 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Nothing has caught my eye this weekend in the papers or on the websites to blog about. So let’s look at a couple recent essays by Adam Lee, who’s blogged for years and self-published one book collecting some of his … Continue reading →

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Conservatives and Mental Health

Posted on Monday 21 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How Republican fears reveal their own mental health crisis; How Trump voters trust him more than family, friends, or clergy; How the worst people run for office (from Adam Grant), and how SF has anticipated this (from Isaac Asimov). This … Continue reading →

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Gays, Small Towns, Climate Change Backlash

Posted on Monday 24 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The increased visibility of L.G.B.T.Q. people as a sign of progress in a multicultural global society; Versus the sentiments of a country song called “Try That in a Small Town”; And global backlash against climate change policies as an indictment … Continue reading →

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Progressions

Posted on Wednesday 29 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Topics in this post: The success of wokeness. How the least religious nations are among the healthiest along many measures. Partha Dasgupta on how the GDP should account for the cost of what we use. Julian Baggini on philosophy and … Continue reading →

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To Conservatives, Woke Seems to Mean Whatever They Don’t Like

Posted on Thursday 16 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

So my take on wokeness, a couple weeks ago, as a “perhaps exaggerated respect for the sensitivities of others,” is not what most others mean by “woke.” To some conservatives, it means anything they don’t like or want to acknowledge, … Continue reading →

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