Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not

Posted on Saturday 28 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • An undistorted map of the world;
  • Jesse Being on “commonsense”;
  • How morality is circumstantial, e.g. in Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which I just reread this week;
  • Website matters involving drop-down menu bars, here and on sfadb.com;
  • Short items about Christian panic that did not come true; Kari Lake’s ad hominem tactic; how Anderson Cooper fact-checks Pete Hegseth’s claims; and how the slogan “Peace through Strength” was not invented by Trump, despite Karoline Leavitt.
– – –

From X via Facebook: Actual size of countries on the world map, without the Mercator projection distortion.

Alas, there’s no provenance (reliable source) indicated, and I don’t have an X account to read comments there. But this looks about right. The problem with all the Mercator map projections everywhere (even on the backdrop of the Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” news segments!) is that they imply areas to the north and to the south are far larger than they actually are. Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology, reality, Website Issues | Comments Off on Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not

Progress, and the Forces Against It

Posted on Friday 27 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • We have been here before: comparing 1940 to 2025;
  • Steven Novella assesses whether skepticism has made any progress in recent decades;
  • The irony of MAGA being outraged by a Muslim candidate for New York City’s mayor;
  • Conservative presumption and arrogance in RFK Jr.’s new advisory vaccine board;
  • Heather Cox Richardson undermines Pete Hegseth’s claim about “the most complex and secretive military operation in history.”
– – –

This too shall pass.

OnlySky, Katie Malone, 27 Jun 2025: Do not despair, subtitled “For we have walked this path before.”

The darkness of fascism was gathering on the horizon. Politicians rose to prominence by demonizing the alien and the other, spreading fear of imaginary enemies within as they grasped for dictatorial power. Violent, cultish political movements banned books, scorned intellectuals and rejected tolerance, worshipping the leader and promising to restore lost greatness. The rule of law was under siege, and fear stalked the streets. The drums of war beat in the distance.

Some people saw the threat clearly, but many more dismissed it.

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Progress, and the Forces Against It

This Is What Will Be

Posted on Thursday 26 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How right-wing violence has become normalized;
  • How perhaps “totalitarianism” is better word than “authoritarianism” for what is going on;
  • How Republicans trying to roll back same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle, cf. that Stephen Prothero book;
  • A psychiatrist explains how changes in definitions of autism resulted in the apparent increase in autism rates;
  • Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic.”
– – –

Saying violence on the right is “extremist” isn’t correct; violence on the right has become normalized.

NY Times, Jamelle Bouie, 21 Jun 2025: Right-Wing Violence Is Not a Fringe Issue [gift link]

It is simply a fact that the far right has been responsible for most of the political violence committed in the United States since the start of the 21st century, with particular emphasis on the past 10 years of American political life.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on This Is What Will Be

Paths Away From and To Reality

Posted on Wednesday 25 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • “Doing your own research” mostly leads to false conclusions, unless you’ve done your “homework” — i.e. have an education in the subject matter;
  • Example of a claim about Sodom and Gomorrah and an asteroid or comet airburst;
  • How simpletons think they can cut costs to “overhead” without realizing what overhead costs do;
  • A philosophy graduate explains why it’s better to doubt than to know;
  • With thoughts about whether philosophy is useless, as some scientists say, and how religions establish arbitrary certainty, despite the evidence of the real world.
– – –

Variation on another recurring theme of this blog: the world is more complex than most people think; and most people know less than they think they do. And so draw wrong conclusions.

Big Think, Ethan Siegel, 24 Jun 2025: You can’t do your own research without doing your homework first, subtitled “Here in 2025, many of us claim to come to our own conclusions by doing our own research. Here’s why we’re mostly deluding ourselves.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Paths Away From and To Reality

Is Religion Simply a Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game?

Posted on Tuesday 24 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Since it’s obviously not about objective reality.

  • Lance Wallnau says Trump’s strike on Iran is setting the stage for the Antichrist;
  • With thoughts about what humanity is “for”;
  • Trump confuses supercells with sleeper cells;
  • Vox on how Trump’s actions aren’t actually very popular;
  • Trump challenges AOC to a cognitive test — sure, bring it on!
– – –

A follow-up to yesterday’s title item.

Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 23 Jun 2025: Lance Wallnau Says Trump’s Strike On Iran Is Setting The Stage For ‘The Antichrist Emerging’

Continue reading →

Posted in Human Progress, Lunacy, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Is Religion Simply a Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game?

Like Living in Someone Else’s Fantasy Novel

Posted on Monday 23 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Heather Cox Richardson summarizes the past few days and puts events into context;
  • (With asides about having read Fail-Safe and watched the movie, this past week; and a Facebook meme about Emperor Hirohito bombing Pearl Harbor and then expecting peace);
  • Trump’s God-talk;
  • And Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch spelling out why MAGA hopes the Israel/Iran conflict will bring about the End Times.
– – –

First of all, Heather Cox Richardson summarizes the past few days, and puts things in context that at a glance might not have anything to do with one another. But many people have noticed this pattern over the years: Trump diverts attention from a relative failure to something new and outrageous.

Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson: June 22, 2025

Continue reading →

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Locus Awards and Being Busy

Posted on Sunday 22 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Locus Awards; publisher prospects; recent reading.

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It’s a truism that the busier one is, the less time one has to jot notes in one’s journal, or write posts on one’s blog. The past few days have been busy, but the business — busy-ness? — is all over now, so I have time this Sunday afternoon to catch up.

Family from LA arrived on Thursday (with a day’s notice): my partner’s younger son and his wife, expecting their first child in July. Their last trip to the Bay Area to see us and various friends and cousins before the baby comes. Dinners out, lunch with cousins, visits to esoteric coffee shops. They left for home this morning, Sunday, after a trip to Boichik Bagels on 6th St. in Berkeley.

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history, science fiction | Comments Off on Locus Awards and Being Busy

No Shades of Gray

Posted on Friday 20 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump wants national parks to reflect only patriotic history;
  • Trump thinks if you’re not on his side then you “hate America”;
  • Yet another example: Beware “common sense”;
  • Short items: Atheists in prison; Trump officials reverse ICE guidelines, again and again; Brian Karem on how we’ve become a failed nation-state in just 150 days.
– – –

Again: everything, for conservatives, must be reduced to simplistic terms, black and white, good and evil. And America must always have been good. Also: another snitch line!

LA Times, 19 Jun 2025: Trump bans ‘negative’ signage at national parks, asks visitors to report text deemed ‘unpatriotic’

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History, Psychology | Comments Off on No Shades of Gray

Girls and Boys and Evolutionary Psychology

Posted on Thursday 19 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Apparently there’s a worldwide shift in preference for baby girls over baby boys, reversing an age-old bias;
  • The article cited doesn’t explain the evolutionary rationales for these shifting preferences, but I will;
  • And Sophie’s Choice;
  • And it reveals reasons why girls, in their own way, are smarter than boys;
  • And music by Jocelyn Pook.
– – –

Is this real? What would explain it?

Vox, Bryan Walsh, 15 Jun 2025: The stunning reversal of humanity’s oldest bias, subtitled “Everyone wants to be a girl dad now.”

This piece discusses the evidence, which seems legitimate enough, without at all wondering how the bias toward boys arose in the first place, or why it would be changing now. It begins:

Continue reading →

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Police Uniforms and Masks; Humor vs. Anger

Posted on Wednesday 18 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
    • How fake police wear uniforms, and secret police (ICE) wears face masks;
    • Robert Reich on the most regressive bill in history;
    • The lack of conservative humor;
    • Becoming aware of Rebecca Solnit;
    • And short items about how Trump cut the suicide prevention hotline for gay people; how support for Israel, no matter what it does, is justified as “Biblical”; and how “deeply religious” is an alarm bell.
– – –

So last week a man dressed up as a policeman shot several Minnesota Democrats and killed two of them. Meanwhile, ICE goes around nabbing people off the street while wearing no uniforms at all, providing no credentials of being law enforcement, and masking their faces. The situation is getting worse. Trumps fans, not paying close attention, presumably think this is what they voted for.

Slate, Sam Adams, 17 Jun 2025: Does America Have Secret Police Now?, subtitled “Of all the things this Trump term, the rapid normalization of masked law enforcement disturbs me the most.”

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Police Uniforms and Masks; Humor vs. Anger