When you undergo a medical procedure or volunteer for a research study, you’re presented with forms to sign, outlining what’s going to happen (and what bad things could happen), and expressly consenting to have those things happen. If you’re accused of rape, “he or she didn’t physically resist” isn’t an acceptable defense. In fact, express consent is the emerging standard, sometimes to seemingly ridiculous degrees (i.e. re-requesting consent at each stage of an encounter). Consent, I think we can agree, is a big deal in America today.
Tag: voting
Democracy is Divisive and Hateful
One of the worst attributes of democracy is how it turns regular people who would otherwise have no problem with one another into bitter enemies.
The “Election Interference” Fearmongers Think You’re Stupid
Xi Jinping and Ali Khamenei prefer Joe Biden to Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin prefers Donald Trump to Joe Biden. That’s according to William Evanina, Director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center. “Many foreign actors,” he says, “have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and … Continue reading The “Election Interference” Fearmongers Think You’re Stupid →
Democrats & Jim Crow: A Century of Racist History the Democratic Party Prefers You’d Forget
In the last Presidential election, Donald Trump was lauded for his performance among black voters – he scored 4 percent of female black voters and a whopping 13 percent of black male voters, the highest since Richard Nixon. This isn’t shocking. Black voters have voted en masse for the Democratic Party since the mid-60s and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the social welfare programs of the Great Society. This solidified black voters behind the Democratic Party, but they had been moving there since the New Deal.
No, We’re Not All Antifa Now; But We Should Be
Fascism isn’t an historical echo or a distant danger. It’s the default position of all wings of the existing American political establishment, from the “nationalist right” to the “progressive left.”
Got Your Divide, Got Your Conquer
There’s a popular behavior that consists of dividing everything in two parts. All people are of two kinds — those who like this behavior, and those who don’t. First those of ill-will tell us we must choose (why must we, btw?). There are two occasion: being judicious, sometimes it is wise to make a binary choice, and sometimes not.
Trump’s “Free Speech” Doctrine: Never, Ever, Ever Mention He’s a Liar
On May 28, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order on “Preventing Online Censorship.” From the title and the document respectively we can draw to two lessons. First: Never, ever, ever believe the title of a government document.
Gun Rights are Decent Political X-ray
Libertarian science fiction and nonfiction author L. Neil Smith has pointed out that you can know what a politician thinks of you and your rights by examining his or her opinions on gun rights. Smith says it’s as good as an X-ray into politicians’ minds.
Being Forced to Help Not Helping
Being forced to help isn’t helping. Complying with a threat doesn’t make you a compassionate or moral person. It shows you can be manipulated and easily scared into doing what someone else thinks you should instead of acting on your own values.
Good to Occasionally Consider “What If?”
Everyone would be smart to consider “what if?” — especially where their beliefs and assumptions are concerned.