ymeskhout

BIRDS! Let’s say you’re a zoo architect tasked with designing an enclosure for ostriches, and let’s also say that you have no idea what an ostrich is (roll with me here). The potentially six-figure question staring you down is whether to install a ceiling. The dumb solution is to ask...

How some vectors of hatred become taboo, and others get exempt The Missing Discrimination Protractor The barest nub of a definition for the word discriminate has always been simply the neutral ability to discern one thing from another, reflecting its discriminare Latin origin. You “discriminate” when you can distinguish red...

Or "Why you should prioritize attacking your allies before anyone else" Homophones are words that look or sound exactly alike, but convey completely different meanings. It’s how bear can refer to the large forest animal or the act of carrying a burden, how light can be a weight designation or...

A framework for quashing deflection and plausibility mirages The truth is people lie. Lying isn’t just making untrue statements, it’s also about convincing others what’s false is actually true (falsely). It’s bad that lies are untrue, because truth is good. But it’s good that lies are untrue, because their falsity...

I’m going to describe a phenomenon that’s likely very obvious, but nevertheless I think it’s worth documenting because I’ve noticed it more and more. I’ll refer to it as Meme Talking Points, and the first instance I noticed this was based on my conversation on the Ray Epps conspiracy theory...

This post isn’t totally about the culture war topic du jour. Not at first. As with any other topic that soaks up angst like an ultra-absorbent sponge, I wonder how many have lost track of how we arrived here. Why are pronouns? Pronouns have always been meant to serve as...

I know little about Rob Henderson except that he wrote a well-received memoir and that he really really really wants you to remember that he invented the concept of “luxury beliefs”. In his own words, these are: > ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class at very...