Reading Time: 9 minutes More policing is not the solution to anti-Asian hate crimes, says political scientist Susan Kang. There is a flawed system in play.
violence
Posted inRaising Freethinkers
Spare the rod—and spare me the rest
Every time a parent raises a hand to a child, the child learns that force is an acceptable substitute for reason, and that mom and dad have more confidence in force than in reason. Corporal punishment also doesn’t work. In fact, it makes things worse. The research on this is compelling. A meta-analysis of 50 […]
Posted inNews
Would raising the minimum age of combat soldiers curb US gun violence?
Reading Time: 7 minutes On a TV news show the other day, I listened to a Republican congressman opine that it was nonsensical and unfair to consider raising the legal age to buy firearms to over 18. In his opinion, 18-year-olds in this country can already legally vote and can also choose to put their life on the line […]
Posted inPhilosophy
How to fight hate? We need to cultivate indifference.
Reading Time: 7 minutes We’re often taught that love is the solution to hate. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” There is some wisdom here. But King’s vision of brotherly love is quite demanding. And love can be a dangerous emotion. Love can cause us to do unreasonable things. Indeed, […]
Posted inCulture
Yahoo boys, money rituals, and the magic of desperation
Reading Time: 6 minutes Yahoo boys, babalawos, money rituals. If these terms don’t already mean anything to you, brace yourself—we’re venturing into hard territory. Nigeria is a West African country with two-thirds of the US population packed into less than a tenth of the territory. And there, in recent months, a perennial cycle of violent rituals thought to bring […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
Well That Escalated Quickly: Knowledge and Consequentialism Discussed
Reading Time: 9 minutes So yesterday I posted a piece being very critical of Islam as a religious theology (in the context of teaching RE), just as I have spent 10 years doing with Christianity. The comments thread exploded and, I have to say, the conversation was really pretty good. There were lots of people who disagreed with each other […]
Posted inGeneral
The Exorcism of the Man in Black (LSP #145, TPD Ch. 25)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! We return now to our longform examination of Frank Peretti’s literary hairball, his 1986 fantasy novel This Present Darkness (TPD). In this installment, Bernice’s attacker has his very own Gerasene Demoniac moment, ending with a(nother) dramatic exorcism. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a millennia-old story retold again. (Please click here to find the […]
Posted inGeneral
How Villains Send a Message (LSP #144, Ch. 25)
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been reading and reviewing Frank Peretti’s 1986 novel This Present Darkness. To say the very least, this book’s a slow burn! But now that we’re past the halfway mark, things are finally picking up steam. In today’s installment, the evil villains spring into action. This time, they target not the […]
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Legalizing Sex Work to Stop Male Violence Is As Bad As Jordan Peterson’s Enforced Monogamy
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the wake of yet another mass shooting, I’ve seen men on Twitter suggesting that we legalize sex work in order to give these poor sexless dudes an outlet so they don’t go on shooting sprees. But this is just as bad as the enforced monogamy nonsense from Jordan Peterson, and it relies on women’s bodies and emotional labor to build peace.
Posted inEthics and Morality
Does Religion Cause Violence?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Of course, the problem here is in the question. What we mean by religion and what do we mean by cause and violence? The claim is certainly commonplace that religion causes violence to the point that even my own mother now often says it’s in light of news of religious violence around the world. But I think it’s […]