On Identity: Erikson, Freud, and Sartre
I recently listened to a podcast of Dr. Louis Cozolino, a neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, discussing what he would teach if he were training psychotherapists. The first year would be phenomenology:…
Identity
Ideology and Indoctination
We’ve got marches and rallies surfacing, sometimes right outside of schools, with people chanting, “Leave the kids alone” in order to put an end to “gender ideology.” What does this…
Social Identity and Narratives
From Alan Levinoitz: A lot of politics can be explained by ignoring Maslow’s hierarchy and realizing that people care as much about symbolic meaning, a sense of dignity, narratives in…
On Culture Wars
I just finally got around to Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies. It’s a comprehensive book outlining the history and categorization of various groups online that have seeped into real life,…
On Discovering Ourselves Through Choosing Others
Online dating, or, I suppose, regular dating (but I barely remember what that even is anymore) is a fascinating exercise in identity discovery. To take part in the game, we…
Pitting “identity politics” against class struggle is backwards, and the path to self-defeat
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the first things America’s political left would do during the 2016 election post-mortem is to attack minority groups like trans* people,…
Fixing the Cleveland I*****s Racist Team Name
Congratulations, Toronto Blue Jays on another exciting season! Let’s hope that before the Atlanta B****s or Cleveland I*****s come back to Toronto they will have changed their name. And as…
How Far Will Men Go to Keep Their Entitlements?
How can you tell that America is suffering from a vast, intense, rageful male backlash against feminism? How can you tell men are struggling brutally hard to hold onto their…
One Million Vaginas Helps Us With Trump
The wise, inspiring folks at One Million Vaginas have done it again, helping reframe Trump’s attempt to disempower women into an empowerment meme. Feel free to sprinkle these hashtags as…
Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
I so hope you had a wonderful Indigenous Peoples’ Day yesterday! In “America” there is a movement to replace the systemically racist Columbus Day. It’s spreading briskly; soon it may…
East Vancouver Racism
Yesterday morning I took this picture of racist graffiti on a bus shelter ad on Kingsway at Kilarney. “No Muslims” scrawled with no irony when you read the actual ad.…
End Our Slow Motion Genocide!
Genocide can take place in slow motion, just like weapons of mass destruction. When I learned that people were calling land mines “weapons of mass destruction, in slow motion,” it…
Jokers to the Right
It’s time we learn more lessons from Archie Bunker. While the right wing continues to become increasingly clownish, we need to go back to Norman Lear’s classic 1970s sitcom, All…
Fixing Systemic White Supremacy
Yeah, I know. Serious heavy lifting. But YES WE CAN DO IT! At least start. Here’s how. Step 1: Find new, intriguing ways of seeing our entitlements; try this: look.…
On Tuesday, Corporate Media Played You. Did You Catch It?
Which was the most important news story on Tuesday this week? And which news story was overshadowed by corporate media coverage of the other 3? Donald Trump was officially nominated…
Spring: the Season of Sexism and Dress Codes
Over the years we have written about sexist school and sports dress codes. But since it’s spring, we should expect a great deal of attention in the non-progressive media to…
Parlez-Vous Contempt?
Comment? Conservative contempt for democracy, representation, culture, and people not like themselves does not end with Harper or #TheNewHarper. This new francophone minister, the anglophone Squires, not only clings to…
Parlez-Vous Contempt?
Comment? Conservative contempt for democracy, representation, culture, and people not like themselves does not end with Harper or #TheNewHarper. This new francophone minister, the anglophone Squires, not only clings to…
Shaming Chauvinists 101
Hey, Canada. Don’t you just hate it when other countries make us look so 20th century? In the UK, they’re going to publicly shame employers who maintain gender wage disparities.…
Shaming Chauvinists 101
Hey, Canada. Don’t you just hate it when other countries make us look so 20th century? In the UK, they’re going to publicly shame employers who maintain gender wage disparities.…