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Category Archives: Political Science
What I Think Happened with Covid-19
After over a month of lockdown in most American states, people are starting to ask questions about it. Why did this happen? How did it happen? Was it really necessary? Here’s how the situation looks to me. This is not … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology, Science
Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Lockdown, Pandemic, Panic, SARS-CoV-2
4 Comments
Why I Don’t Hug My Chinese Tutor
As regular readers know, I’ve been studying the Chinese language since last spring. I had previously taken a semester of Chinese in college, but it utterly defeated me. So I wanted payback. This time, I would beat it. I was … Continue reading
The Hidden Cause of Our Disagreement
Note: This blog post explains one cause of society’s basic disagreements. It is not intended to denigrate anyone on either side of the argument. It’s obvious which side I favor, but I’ve done my best to be fair. There’s a … Continue reading
Somehow, We’ve Survived
For a couple thousand years, people have been trying to prove that God exists. None of those proofs are much good. They can only convince people who already want to believe in their conclusion. But maybe the best proof of … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society
Tagged Cults, Dogmas, Humanity, Insanity, Madness of crowds, Proof of God, Theodicy
2 Comments
Perfection or Nothing?
The French philosopher Voltaire warned that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Pursuit of “perfect” but impossible goals makes us reject possible goals because they’re imperfect. And we often make things even worse than they were in the … Continue reading
Posted in Human Relations, Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society
Tagged Communism, Human Nature, Leftism, Leftist, Magical thinking, Perfectionism, Podhoretz, Realism, Utopia, Utopianism, Voltaire
2 Comments
Why Is This A Banana?
In today’s media landscape, you can throw a rock in any direction and hit something that’s partisan and biased. Whether you believe that “Trump Is Literally Hitler,” or you call him “the god-emperor,” or you’re somewhere in between, there’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology
Tagged Cognitive evolution, Concepts, Conceptual evolution, Linguistic pragmatism, Universals
2 Comments
Who Gets Veto Power?
A while back, I worked for a tech company where I reported to the company’s CEO. The main thing I learned was never to take a job at a company founded and run by a business-school professor. The other thing … Continue reading
Why Common Sense Is So Uncommon
Why is common sense so uncommon? I’ve been reading Robert Curry’s excellent new book Reclaiming Common Sense. It got me thinking about why I and many other people often lack common sense. For example, in college I was a libertarian. … Continue reading
One Way to Reduce Fake News
Regardless of their political views, most Americans think that “fake news” is a real problem. And it is. Often on purpose. Partisans flood the media with so much disinformation that it’s hard for anyone to know what’s happening. Even the … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society
Tagged Chyrons, CNN, Disinformation, Fake news, Infotainment, Misleading, MSNBC, News Media, Propaganda, Rhetorical question, The New York Times
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How to Get a Healthy Society
In my previous blog post (“What’s Your Choice?”), I said that the main question of morality is not “what’s right or wrong” but “what kind of people we choose to be.” At first glance, that statement seems absurd, bordering on … Continue reading
The Thousand-Year View 