Category Archives: Human Nature

Implications

Posted on Tuesday 1 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Do justices not foresee consequences? Heather Cox Richardson on the big beautiful bill; How JD Vance reveals the administration’s true motivations; cruelty is the thing; Jonathan Chait on Republicans’ “incomprehensibly reckless plan”; Robert Reich on conservatives’ animosity to empathy (never … Continue reading →

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Paleolithic Emotions, Medieval Institutions, and Godlike Technology

Posted on Tuesday 17 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

EO Wilson on the real problem of humanity; Conservatives think you can command things into existence, despite the evidence of the real world; re: Trump’s tariffs on aluminum; With my comments about modern technology and globalism; How the Minnesota killer … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Human Progress, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Paleolithic Emotions, Medieval Institutions, and Godlike Technology

Knowing vs. Believing

Posted on Tuesday 10 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

RFK “retires” his vaccine advisory committee (because he knows better); Robert Reich on how the MAGA Inquisition will destroy American science, and Reich tries to understand why; Robert Reich on Trump’s war against California, and the central struggle of civilization; … Continue reading →

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Feudalism, Suicide, Ignorance, Disease, Conservative DEI

Posted on Tuesday 3 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Quite a round of doom and gloom essays today. This is where we are. The drive toward privatization will lead to feudalism; Max Boot on the suicide of a superpower; Paul Krugman on how we’re no longer a serious country, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Human Nature, Politics | Comments Off on Feudalism, Suicide, Ignorance, Disease, Conservative DEI

MAGA and human nature; How Trump thinks everything is about loyalty to him

Posted on Friday 30 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Reconsidering the definition of MAGA, and how it relates to base human nature; Recalling the David Brooks essay from yesterday; Trump thinks an honest economic forecast is “unpatriotic”; A Christian boy band preaches to public school students, and denies it; … Continue reading →

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Four Years; and Primitive, Atavistic Tendencies

Posted on Thursday 29 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Four years since my heart transplant; David Brooks on loyalty to home vs loyalty to abstractions; human nature; and how Trumpism is an attempt “to reduce us to our most primitive, atavistic tendencies.”; Thus: Trump fired the historians whose job … Continue reading →

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Crime, Hypocrisy, Fraud & Abuse, Doing Your Own Research, Cafeteria Religion, and Christian Presumption

Posted on Saturday 24 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Crime rates are falling; crime is not a national emergency; Why do people think otherwise? Republicans criticize Democrats for what they are doing now; Why do Republicans think there is so much fraud and abuse everywhere? Why “doing your own … Continue reading →

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Taxes and Benefits, Empathy, Genocide

Posted on Thursday 22 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Republicans, predictably, cut taxes for the rich and benefits for the poor. Because the poor deserve their station, apparently (and the rich fund Republicans); Now among Christians empathy is a sin! (Do they actually read their Bibles?); Trump is obsessed … Continue reading →

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Substack as the new Royal Society, vs MAGA waging war on the future

Posted on Wednesday 21 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Will Substack be the Royal Society of the 21st century? While Trump and MAGA wage war on the future; Robert Reich on *why* Trump and his regime want to destroy every institution in America; And my running theme about the … Continue reading →

Posted in authoritarianism, Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Human Nature, Politics, science fiction | Comments Off on Substack as the new Royal Society, vs MAGA waging war on the future

Taker States and Desi Arnaz

Posted on Tuesday 20 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Thomas Edsall on the destructiveness of the Trump presidency; As the US discounts investments in the future, China is taking the lead; How Trump World clings to conspiracy theories; And how Trump folks simply stop enforcing rules they don’t like, … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Politics, TV Sci Fi | Comments Off on Taker States and Desi Arnaz