A less important thought on this election: the best arguments for each candidate involve acknowledging that some of the candidate’s promised policies world have catastrophic effects and then arguing (plausibly) that the candidate couldn’t or wouldn’t keep the relevant promises.

These two memes make the same mistake. They assume that there’s some single left-right spectrum along which people (or the country) are moving. There isn’t. What’s happening is that the loonier elements in each of two opposing tribes are becoming more prominent and alienating

Earlier in the term I was posting some argument maps that I use in my intro to philosophy class. I got out of the habit, but I think this map of Kant's argument for for the first formulation of the Categorical Imperative is useful for understanding how his ethics works, so I

Many “midwit” meme posts are just copes by posters who are using what intelligence they have to BS themselves into maintaining beliefs that they know people they look down on can tell are false.

Yes, and this same rot is at the heart of the religions that these movements secularized. The alternative is valuing one’s mind and one’s life; the alternative is self-esteem and taking real thought for the morrow.

The latest chapter from Pouya Nikimand (@metheliving) on the lengths he went to escape from Iran. Reminds me of Ayn Rand's line "I chose to be an American. What did you do, besides having been born here?": open.substack.com/pub/outliving/…

Anyone who cares about life and freedom who isn’t already reading Pouya Nikmand’s substack, should start reading it. You’ll find inspiring and harrowing stories of what real dedication to life looks like, of the evils that stand in its way, and of what means to us overcome them.

Imagine escaping an unfree country to learn that in a free country you are still not free to work, and that you can get by only through the grace of the morally decadent. Then imagine if you still value life in a free country more than anything. Read the latest from Pouya Nikmand: