Umbridge as Enforcer
Everyone is sick and tired of the COVID lock-downs. Not only were we lied to about their duration ("15 days to flatten the curve!"), and about the severity of the…
Speaking the Warpath
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.George Orwell, Politics…
Deputizing the Citizenry
My home state of Washington recently implemented a mandatory mask law. As has become customary, the law is passed with an initial insinuation that it would not be enforced: The…
Political Hypnosis
Hypnosis is generally defined as a "mental state of highly focused concentration, diminished peripheral awareness, and heightened suggestibility." It goes without saying that someone in a hypnotic state is not capable…
On Wearing the Mask
There is one argument against wearing masks that I haven't heard anyone else making: masks are inherently anti-social. Our sixth amendment guarantees us the right to be "confronted with the…
The Tolerance-Error
One of the great moral paradoxes of 20th-century philosophy was the problem of "tolerance," which was most famously articulated by Karl Popper: Less well known (of Plato's paradoxes) is the paradox…
On the Coronavirus
It seems fitting to be writing about the coronavirus after having gone to a concert on Monday, perhaps the last to be permitted for a while in my county. The…
“Post Physique” and the Return of Ethos
I noticed back in 2017 that ethos has been lacking in modern political dialogue: Aristotle held that there were three aspects of rhetoric: Ethos, what is usually translated as personal…
Legislating the Body
In 1990, Congress passed the first Anabolic Steroid Control Act (H.R.4658). This bill defined steroids as: ...any drug or hormonal substance that promotes muscle growth in a manner pharmacologically similar…
Why I Am Supporting Augustus Invictus for President
Given that I voted for Trump in 2016, it may seem odd that I would be voting for someone other than the God-Emperor in 2020. Actually, given my general movement…