The Commentary

One theme that Ive touched on over and over again in my writing is that its easy to see bigotry when it affects you and easy to ignore it when it doesn't.Dilbert creator Scott Adams lived through the tail end of racial segregation, the beating of Rodney King and the murder of Open in app or onlineBl

For all his virtues, Socrates opened the door to a lot of the nonsense we have to deal with today.His priority of definition, allowed critical theorists to dismiss anything that couldnt be perfectly defined as a social construct.The Socratic method convinced people they could appear wise just by min

Every day, in all kinds of ways, the struggle to end racism is framed as a competition between black people and white people.There are black problems and white problems, and if your skin isnt the relevant colour, you can safely ignore whats happening to your fellow countrymen.Open in app or onlineI

Weve lost a lot of words to overuse lately.Mainly because its become trendy to go straight for thetop-shelf wordsto communicate distress or confusion or distaste.Genocide,bigotry, hatred, fascism, the list goes on.And one that I find particularly irritating; trauma.Open in app or onlinePeople Easily

Long before I considered myself a writer, I aimed to communicate as clearly and simply as possible.Getting an idea across is difficult enough as is.So if youre going to say something, you might as well say what you mean.Unfortunately, especially online, and Open in app or onlineWere Creating A Socie

One of the downsides of sharing your opinions online is the nagging worry that youre wrong about something important.What if dogs and knitting really can be racist.What if silence reallyisviolence.And what if, despite all my conversations and research on trans issues, Ive managed to miss the genocid

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Ive been spending a little more time on Twitter lately.And, to be honest, it hasnt been a picnic.If you wanted to build an environment that is perfectly optimised to strip people of their humanity, Im not sure you could do much better.The anonymity, the character rest

I hope you wont think Im oversharing if I tell you that Im the most sexually open-minded person I know.I think moralistic arguments about non-monogamy and sexual promiscuity are ridiculous.Im against kink-shaming, no matter how weird I might personally find those kinks to be.I think sexual expressio

For the past few years, trans activism has focused almost exclusively on questioning and redefining womanhood.And, inevitably, what is a lesbian.Dating apps, lesbian bars, the entire concept of same-sex attraction Open in app or onlineI Find It Frustrating How They Complain About Rebranding The Defi

As of this writing, Ive had well over 4000 conversations online.Most of them about race.Yet Im painfully aware that race, as most people think of it, doesnt exist.In my article, The Progressive Rebranding Of Racism, I pointed out that the concept of race is a lie that wed all be better off abandonin

Theres too much information on the internet.There are too many statistics, too many poorly contextualised soundbites, theres too much to read, never mind fact check and process, so we outsource that work to people we trust.Once upon a time that was the news.And once upon a time, they could mostly be

A few days ago, I stumbled across this study of over 7 million people that found in-group bias among black Americans is approximately 5 times stronger than in-group bias among white Americans.Honestly, I wasnt surprised to find a difference.There are many reasons, good and bad, why the notion of bla

Theres a fine line between activism and extremism.In fact, many activists who we revere today were viewed as extremists when they were alive.Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, anybody who sets out to change society will be seen as a troublemaker.What matters is wheth

As frustrating as it sometimes is, its impossible to be sure how an article will be received or how widely itll be read.Sure, you can edit and elucidate and express yourself as eloquently as possible, but in the end, you have to except that you only have so much control over how many people see your

Words like bigotry, racism, and transphobia find themselves doing an awful lot of heavy lifting lately.Do you feel like playing a video game about wizards.Do you still listen to Kanye West occasionally.Youre clearly a bigot.Do you think youre not racist.What more evidence could we need that youre ra

One of my New Years resolutions is to be more active on Twitter.I understand that this might seem insane (and that it probablyisinsane), but I have my reasons.One of which is that I want to spend more time talking to people I disagree with.Writing articles is great and all, but given that theyre usu

I spend a fair amount of time talking about the social media age.The algorithmically curated outage, the pursuit of likes and retweets, the easy formation of online mobs, the ability to cancel people for things they said a decade ago.But its easy to forget that the algorithms and the outrage are fue

I've spent most of the day wrestling with an article about lying.Specifically, the kinds of lies that are mistaken for virtue nowadays.Obesity is healthy, men are women, everybody is beautiful, all group disparities are proof of white supremacy.People use lies as markers of group affiliation or sign

A few days ago a reader sent me a link to this Twitter thread on The Lord of the Flies Theory of Millennials and its blowing my mind.The basic premise is that generations of children (now young adults) have grown up in an environment without adult guidance, where power is gained through means that a

In his recent SNL monologue, Dave Chappelle noted that there are two words celebrities should never say together, in sequence: The and Jews.But Id venture to say that there are at least two more: Mens and rights.In my article, Andrew Tate And The Male Empathy Gap Open in app or onlineI'm Not Surpris

My innate curiosity, coupled with my lack of psychic abilities, means I spend a frustrating amount of time trying to understand peoples motivations.Why do people eat mint-chocolate ice cream.Why does anybody find Ibram X Kendis ideas compelling.Why is The Bachelor popular eneough to be on its 26th s

My heart always sinks a little when I see terms like leftist in my comments.See also; alt-right, fascist, and increasingly, woke.These terms are almost always used by people whose brains have been captured by partisanship.People whose views on pretty much any topic can be predicted based on their ge

Ive always loved New Years.Yes, theres no particular reason to set resolutions and plan new starts on the 1st of January.But its a nice reminder to take stock of where you are.To look back over what weve learned.To re-examine ways of thinking weve come to take for granted.In my article, What Does Ni

Child abuse is a distinctly un-festive topic.Nobody wants to think about it, nobody wants to read about it, I certainly dont want to write about it.And this is precisely why it happens as often as it does.Predators thrive on our naivety, on our desire to look away, and in 2022, they can count on som

The internet has normalised lots of things.Video conferencing, reaction gifs, potentially fatal stupidity, but one under-appreciated contribution of the online world is debate.Its now perfectly normal for people from all walks of life and from all over the world to weigh in on fairly niche cultural