One of the most effective thought-terminating clichés is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” It is particularly effective because it works on both people who are, let’s say, not extraordinarily intelligent, and on more intelligent people, people who you wouldn’t expect to fall for such simplistic tricks. It is especially effective in hyper-polarized sociocultural […]
I appear to be on a bit of an open-letter spree these days. This one is not one I wanted to write. It isn’t satirical, or particularly funny. And the timing really sucks. But I have this “need to be able to look myself in the face in the mirror in the morning” problem, which […]
OK, this one is for all the professional “sensitivity editors” out there, and for the US Department of Homeland Security, and President Donald Trump, and the European Union censors, and all the other self-appointed Speech Police that have been goose-stepping around dictating what everyone can and can’t say and publish and think all the time […]
Do not adjust your telescreen. This is not a test. It’s a state of emergency! A full-blown national state of emergency! Yes, that’s right, once again, we need to dispense with the rule of law and take a series of emergency measures in order to save “democracy,” or “freedom,” or “to remedy the distress of […]