The Paradox of Tolerance vis à vis freedom of expression
Just as we can’t effectively fight intolerance with tolerance, we can’t effectively fight bad speech with more speech.
Category Archives: Social Activism
Endorsements for 2023 Boston City Council election
I endorse: Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia, Henry Santana, Liz Breadon, Joel Richards, Enrique Pepén, Benjamin Weber, Tania Fernandes Anderson, and Sharon Durkan.
The easiest way in the world to save lives has been inside you all along
Be an organ donor. Donate blood or platelets. Register as a stem-cell donor. Be a clinical trial subject. Save lives. Be the change you want to see in the world.
If you’re upset about the “Hachette” decision, blame the Internet Archive for overstepping
The Internet Archive couldn’t leave well enough alone, and now we’re all going to pay the price.
“This Modern World” added to comics aggregator
By way of penance for not removing JumpStart from my comics aggregator much sooner, I have added Tom Tomorrow’s This Modern World. It comes out early Tuesday mornings. There’s also a “(1-day delay)” version in case you like to read your comics in the middle of the night and don’t want to miss it. Quoting… Read More »
Copaganda comic strip JumpStart removed from comics aggregator
With its advocacy of “community policing” and “broken windows policing,” JumpStart crosses my line, from a wrong but tolerable portrayal of American policing, to outright copaganda. I will no longer facilitate its dissemination.
Two examples of why the CDC is the Keystone Kops of disease control
I want to give two examples, one medical and one technological, of the kind of buffoonery that the CDC is engaging in that continues to make them untrustworthy as a disease-control organization. Medical buffoonery Here are some things that COVID-19 research and recently collected epidemiological data are telling us at the moment: Here is what… Read More »
Why you should stop circulating that study about COVID in poop from airplanes (a.k.a. please stop screwing up the messaging about COVID safety)
It’s a bad study, it doesn’t prove anything about whether it is or isn’t safe to fly, you should stop circulating it, and you should stop and think about the impact that catastrophizing flying is having on COVID being taken seriously (or not) by the public.
“Archiving Your Tweets at Archive.Org” for Dummies
[UPDATE: As of May 26, 2025, I don’t think the instructions on this page work anymore, because I believe Twitter/X has blocked archive.org from archiving tweets.] I’m all done with Twitter, but I also didn’t want to just delete my account and remove over a decade of content that I created from the internet. I’m… Read More »
Speaking out about “progressive” organizations giving up on COVID
A progressive organization which I have supported philosophically and financially in the past recently sent me an invitation to an in-person holiday party. I wrote back and told them how disappointed I was with their decision to do that and that they had permanently tarnished their reputation in my eyes. They did not respond. A… Read More »