The Sins of Assange
“Assange’s arrest represents an abuse of power, highlighting not only how true journalism has now been banished in the West, but also how politicians, journalists, news agencies and think-tanks collude…
free speech
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Fernando Arce discusses how Doug Ford’s attacks on labour create public health risks. And Amanda Mull writes about the futility of telling workers…
A Bit about Cancel Culture and Academic Freedom
I’ve written before about how I support free speech but don’t support giving platforms to “White Nationalists” or neo-Nazis or any other racist group who could use the venue to…
This Is Quite Powerful, And Also Quite Relevant
A Facebook friend posted the following, which is appeared on Dandelion Salad, a site I intend to explore as time permits. Bracing and sobering, the following video seems more relevant…
The Greatest Propaganda Machine in History
Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G. and Borat, among others) won an award from the Anti-Defamation League. Here’s his 25 minute acceptance speech. It’s in writing, abridged a bit, below…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kate Aronoff asks how much destruction is needed before we’ll start taking climate change seriously – though the answer at this point looks…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tom Parkin talks to Toby Sanger about the utter failure of corporate tax cuts to produce anything other than concentrated wealth and increased…
The ‘Chicago Principles’ are code for the right of the powerful and privileged to shout down everyone else
“Free speech in universities” is nowadays a rallying cry for the snowflakes of the extremist right, who can dish it out but can’t take it. It should come as no…
On J.S. Mill and Free Speech
Most on “Just say ‘no’ to hate speech.” Maverick Philosopher wrote about free speech today, and I’d love to comment there, but there seems to be no means. So I’ll…
The furious denunciations of Tzeporah Berman in Alberta are unprecedented, hypocritical and dangerous
Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. — George Orwell, 1984 + + + The stream of vituperation directed at B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman for…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tracy Smith-Carrier comments on the importance of addressing poverty as an issue of human rights rather than charity: It is not a matter…
Doug Ford and Andrew Scheer’s Assault On Our Universities
At first glance, you wouldn't think that Rob Ford had anything in common with Andrew Scheer.Scheer is a sinister religious fanatic and alt-right sympathizer, who despite the creepy smile that…
Censorship Quiz
I’ve been reading Bob Altermeyer’s book on authoritarianism written in 2006. Here’s a censorship quiz (p 84) that perhaps can help people recognize that few of us actually want every…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Brian Nolan examines the relationship between inequality and median incomes in developed countries, and concludes that there’s little basis to view inequality as…
Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Robert Reich examines how a concerted attack on organized labour has pushed the vast majority of American workers into living paycheque-to-paycheque (or worse)…
The Trouble with Relativism
From a comment on a social media post advocating that we stop protesting people with Trump hats: “The trouble with refusing to serve someone because you abhor their views, is…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – George Monbiot discusses the dangers of treating our natural environment solely as something to be priced and commodified. – The Mound of Sound…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joel French discusses the need for Alberta to implement a more thorough and progressive tax system in order to ensure it has…
A Bit More on Free Speech
You’re free to say the earth is flat and say it all day long on a wide variety of media platforms, and even write a book about it if you’ve…
Was the UCP practicing ‘cultural Marxism’ when it fled the Legislature to avoid the ‘Bubble Zone’ debate?
We’re all “cultural Marxists” now, I guess. Consider Jason Kenney and the Legislative caucus of the ephemerally named political entity known as the United Conservative Party. (By which I mean,…