Jeff Darcy
Free Speech For Whom?
Marc Andreessen - Netscape founder, vulture capitalist, and the most literally egg-headed person I know of - recently tweeted this.
Besides the obvious problem of trying to poison the well by implying that anyone who disagrees is connected to an anti-free-speech . . .
Posted in: elsewhereonlinephilosophypolitics
April 27, 2022
Political Parallax Error
As you can see, that is Canis Major (Big Dog). It's best known for including Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, but I want you to focus on the two named stars that seem closest - Adhara and Wezen. As it turns out, they're not closest at all. Adhara is actually 4x closer to Sirius, and even more importantly to us, than it . . .
December 01, 2020
Godwin's Constitution
I've been thinking lately about how I react when somebody invokes the US constitution in a discussion. I cringe. I immediately want to leave that discussion. Why? Because, after hundreds of discussions - perhaps thousands since I've been active online for a long time - I have never seen mention of the constitution improve or advance a . . .
Posted in: philosophypolitics
May 10, 2020
Forum Moderation "Do"s and "Don't"s
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a moderator on a pretty active political forum. It was a bit of a chore, but I felt it was worth my time to facilitate such discussions. I also learned a lot about how both moderators and users behave, about what works and what doesn't. In more recent days, I've been involved in more online . . .
April 26, 2020
How to Argue with a Contrarian
a.k.a. Information Warfare 101
In these days of COVID-19, there are many contentious discussions about whether or not to wear masks, whether or not to lift shelter-in-place restrictions, and so on. Usually there's a "consensus" opinion and a "contrarian" position. Whichever will turn out to be right in retrospect, these can often be distinguished by one side having more . . .
Posted in: philosophypolitics
April 20, 2020
United States of Jealousy
While thinking about today's attempted bomb attacks against Soros and Clinton, I hit on what I think is a semi-original interpretation about what Trumpism really is and why it's so dangerous. To get there, I'm going to start with an old quote from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. It might not have originated with him, but he's the one best known for . . .
Posted in: politics
October 24, 2018
Why I Hate The Flag
Before I can talk about the flag, I have to talk about a couple of other things. The first is elitism. It's a term we all hear often enough, but what does it actually mean? Of the various dictionary definitions, "persons of the highest class" is the most relevant here. Emphasis on class. To be in a class means to be separate from - . . .
Posted in: politics
July 08, 2018
