Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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- Ted Chiang, Carl Sagan, Peter Singer
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- Tribalism and Cooperation
- The Lies that Bind
- Narrative Bias and Control
- Then They Came for the Meteorologists
- Sausalito, and Heartstopper
- Groupthink, Reason, and Conspiracy Thinking
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Meta
Category Archives: Morality
Tribalism and Cooperation
Today’s topics: How tribalism, evolutionary evolved, solved some problems and created others, especially in the modern world; The counter idea of “coöperism”; Current events about Chick-fil-A and Republican condemnation of anti-racism. I talk of politics as manifesting ‘tribalism’ a lot; … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Morality
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The Lies that Bind
How the Christian curriculum ACE lies about science; How some people are happy to submit to tyranny; Wondering if it matters children are lied to about reality, and concluding that it doesn’t, given certain purposes of life; And reflecting again … Continue reading
Today’s Authoritarianism Watch
Items today: Heather Cox Richardson on the transformation of the Republican Party since Reagan, from a party of small government to one bent on enforcing Christian nationalism; How Republicans now argue that juries don’t count (when they lose); FDR’s four … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Morality, Politics, Uncategorized
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The Upside-Down World of Conservative Values
They’re for discrimination against some (gays and lesbians) against discrimination against others (religious conscientious objectors) Their ideas of freedom involve the freedom to discriminate against people they don’t like (even if that infringes on *their* freedom) Their belief in capitalism … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Morality, Personal history
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The Town Hall, and the Core Issue
The political news today is about the “Town Hall” on CNN last night that gave Donald Trump a full hour to spew his usual shtick of lies and insults, before an audience of his fans, and the commentary in the … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Morality, Politics
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Progress, Happiness, Economics, and Morality
Items about the reality of progress and hope that humanity overcomes the effects of climate change; the latest world happiness index in which the US ranks 15th; Robert Reich busting myths about how the wealthy right justify their wealth; and … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Morality, Psychology, Science
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Basic Principles: Passages from Shermer
In the closing pages of Michael Shermer’s new book, he quotes Jonathan Rauch’s list, from his book The Constitution of Knowledge, about social rules for turning disagreement into knowledge. Shermer expands upon them, and for one of them provides a … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Quote at Length, Science
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Red and Blue and Diversity
About a fringe notion to split the US into separate nations of red and blue states; and about the range of human nature and the value of diversity. Haven’t run this item yet; it seemed so fringe, a couple days … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Morality, Politics, Psychology
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Readings by John Scalzi and Paul Krugman; Book Notes; Morality
John Scalzi on writing about politics; Republican performance art; Paul Krugman on Republican intentions over decades against Medicare and Society Security; and notes about books about American myths past and present.
The Moral Arc and Animals, Animal Intelligence, and People Who Don’t Read Books
Just these three topics for today, one focusing on Ray Nayler’s SF novel The Mountain in the Sea.
Posted in Book Notes, Morality
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