Editor’s Break 105 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: whether alternative social media platforms like Minds, MeWe, and Dtube can achieve mainstream status like Facebook and YouTube; the value for voluntaryists to engage in identity politics on either the left or the right; the concept of birthright citizenship and whether Donald Trump can effectively abolish it; and more.
Tag: identity
Discounting Identity
I recently remarked: “Appealing to your identity is a reason to discount what you say, not a reason to pay extra attention.” Why do I believe this?
On Mortality and Children
Today, I didn’t listen to any podcasts or audiobooks or music. I just walked in silence. The cemetery air was a little heavier than usual, and I got to thinking about mortality. It only took me a few minutes of initial discomfort to come to terms with my own mortality. It took me a little more time and discomfort to come to terms with the mortality of my wife and peers. Then an awful thought popped into my head. My children will die someday. I can’t begin to explain how dreadfully this hit me.
On Identity
It has struck me as a peculiar thing that each of us should choose our identities. Humans have a knack for identifying and labeling other things.
Actions Matter More Than Identity
Instead of worrying about who someone is, it seems smarter to focus on what they do. Anything other than their actions is none of your business and can’t harm you, and not many of their actions are your business, either.
Identity and Social Constructs
I pity most people who get lost in identity. These are people pigeonholing themselves. These are people who can’t accept themselves. These are people who can’t negotiate who they are and how they feel with society and so they abandon themselves and opt to become an artificial construct.
Defining Anti-Semitism, Threatening Free Speech
In May the benign-sounding Anti-Semitism Awareness Act appeared before the U.S Congress “to provide for consideration a definition of anti-Semitism for the enforcement of Federal antidiscrimination laws concerning education programs or activities.” No big deal? Let us see. S. 2940 is sponsored by Republican Sen. Tim Scott and has four co-sponsors: Republican Lindsey Graham and…
The World is a Theme Park
As we cross from one part of a park to another, we leave behind medieval knights and come upon space aliens. In theme parks, we are heroes, and we are surrounded by opportunities for adventure. Theme parks – from the mundane parks of today to the Westworlds of tomorrow – offer us access to romance of the kind most of us don’t see in our everyday lives.
The Voluntaryist Premise
Once a person adopts the label of voluntaryist (or the like) for their political identity, they assume, with good reason, the following premise: human suffering is terrible and should be prevented; aggression and coercion necessarily create human suffering. This premise leads the voluntaryist to hold a number of hypotheses with varying degrees of accuracy in some form or fashion within their minds at all times. Here are several of those hypotheses.
Papers, Please: Unfortunately, Trump Isn’t Much Ahead of His Time
Over the last few decades, the US has effectively re-created the Soviet Union’s old “internal passport” system. Your rights to move about, to work, to conduct your financial affairs, and in general just to live your life, are subject to the government’s demand that you prove your identity at any time and for any reason.