Category Archives: Race and politics
It was 20 years ago today…
Terror has reduced our rights and freedoms and given the ruling classes power over dissent. So says the Guardian opinion piece by Julian Borger. And…
Posted by in Freedom, Philosophy, Politics, Race and politics, Rant
John Ray on species fixity and race
For since in nature the number of species is fixed and determined, since ‘God on the sixth day rested from all his labour’, that is,…
Posted by in history, Quotes, Race and politics, Species concept
Is racism Christian?
I was taught that racism developed out of Johannes Blumenbach’s Anthropological Treatises in the late eighteenth century, specifically his doctoral thesis On the Natural Variety…
Posted by in history, Philosophy, Race and politics, Religion, Species and systematics, Systematics
Good faith, bad faith and no faith in reasoning
We are hearing a lot of calls for there to be public debates with climate deniers, the alt-right (that is, modern fascists), creationists and antivaxxers, and this has led to people marking the so-called “paradox of tolerance” named by Karl Popper in his epochal 1945 Open Society and its Enemies: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the […]
Posted by in Freedom, Politics, Race and politics, Social evolution
Religious exceptionalism is undemocratic
This is my submission to the government’s “review”. As usual, I get contrarian. Below the fold… Submission to the Religious Freedom Review Summary: Religious exceptionalism is undemocratic Introduction Many people of religious commitments believe they are under threat from such secular laws as antidiscrimination acts, the calls for the confessional to be regulated in cases …
Posted by in Politics, Race and politics, Religion
Thoughts on racism
For many years, I have been very hesitant to speak about race. I’m white (a stupid social construction in itself), male and middle class. Every time I make a comment, in come the critics, attacking me on everything from my own group identity (which, by the way, I do not adopt; being on the spectrum, Read More...
Posted by in Race and politics, Social evolution
Look over here – “terrorism”
The notion of terrorism is not well-defined.There are over 150 legal definitions in the US and more in international law. Here is the UN’s definition: Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a Read More...
Posted by in Freedom, Politics, Race and politics
The Abstract and the Concrete, or, the Road to Fascism
I was thinking about the way in which the anti-abortionists justify their views. I have always said that “Pro-Life” is a misnomer. Instead of being pro-life, they are pro-potential life. In order to protect potential lives, they ignore the needs and rights of those who have actual life – the women who cannot for whatever reason carry that Read More...
Posted by in Freedom, Philosophy, Politics, Pop culture, Race and politics, Rant, Religion, Sermon, Social dominance, Social evolution
On rights
I am as shocked about Orlando as everyone else, but I am shocked about a lot more. So I must declare my stand. I stand for homosexuals, intersex, asexuals, and all other kinds of sexual orientation. I stand for males, females, and everything in between. I stand for every ethnic and social grouping. I stand Read More...
Posted by in Freedom, Politics, Race and politics, Rant
The place of religion in democratic secular countries
There is a religion which oppresses women, which is enthusiastically adopted by marginalised groups, which hates democracy and which has declared the modern world to be a heresy they call “Americanism”. This religion, which is run entirely by men, demands of its adherents loyalty to a small group of clerics overseas, in a pseudostate set Read More...