There Is Nothing Wrong with You

Posted on Tuesday 27 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Malcolm Gladwell on misunderstandings about gun violence;
  • Kevin Kelly’s proposal for a universal national service;
  • A video that explains why homosexuality has evolutionary advantages;
  • Jim Palmer on religion’s biggest lie: sin;
  • A bunch of brief links about Hegseth’s faith advisor, RFK Jr., how the Supreme Court approves every religious privilege, how Trump seems immune from jail, how Trump has failed, how Trump is sowing doubt about the upcoming elections, how the stamp of MAGA is being cruel, how Robert Reich says Trump wants to imprison him, how a MAGA activist thinks Noah’s flood was due to gay sex orgies (!), how a pastor with two wives thinks God approves of him, how Tony Perkins advises voters to vote according to Biblical values, how red states are restricting education to traditional American themes; and how there’s no evidence that voting machines flip votes.
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A lot of things to note today. Let’s focus on the non-fringy ones first.

LA Times, Shelby Hartman, today: Malcolm Gladwell thinks everything you know about gun violence is probably wrong

Gladwell, I think, has a reputation for being a bit superficial, but also for challenging native notions. Let’s see what this piece says. I’m always attracted to counter-intuitive themes.

OK, here’s bullet points at the top:

• In his latest book, Malcolm Gladwell argues that public debate focuses on the wrong measures of gun violence, from mass shootings to assault rifles, while overlooking everyday shootings and handguns.

• He traces how violence is shaped by factors beyond the gun itself, including policing, school practices and gaps in how shootings are counted.

Then,

In his recently released ninth book, “The American Way of Killing,” Gladwell does what he does well. He digs into a topic, in this case gun violence in America, illuminating unexpected causes and prodding at assumptions that perpetuate what he refers to as a gun violence “epidemic.” The premise is that this epidemic can, in large part, be tied to what he calls a “dishonest conversation.”

And here’s the gist:

The majority of middle-class Americans, he says, believe the most consequential threat to their safety is mass shootings when the data shows it’s actually everyday violence on the streets and in homes. Another misunderstanding at the heart of conversations on gun reform is the belief that assault rifles cause a disproportionate number of homicides, when more deaths are attributable to handguns.

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This is probably a good idea, despite issues of coercion.

Kevin Kelly, today: A Proposal for Universal National Service

And it’s an idea that’s been floating around for years. Kelly’s piece opens:

Every young person between the ages of 18 and 21 should provide 2 years of mandatory national service. Accepted service goes beyond military service and includes civilian service like teaching, or construction, or emergency response. Everyone serves. There are no exemptions for wealth or connections, or even handicaps; service would be matched to ability, not waived. This would be good for them, good for their country, and good for the world.

There are several main benefits:

  • This duty partially offsets some of the rights citizens enjoy.
  • Useful societal work is gained that may not be as well served in the marketplace.
  • There is a meaningful mixing of people from diverse backgrounds, helping political unity.
  • Kids get a gap year, in the work space, that makes them better students in higher ed.
  • They may get training, but surely get a sense of service and accomplishment.

I am an American, so I will make this argument primarily in American terms, but examples of this exist in part in other countries of the world.

Part of my attraction to this is personal: the part of my life I regret, though I had no real control of, is that I did not move away from home to go to college. I graduated from high school in the San Fernando Valley and after a summer passed I commuted to UCLA, still living at home. For four years. I never made any friends at UCLA. Going there was essentially an extension of going to high school. I wish I had been able to get out into the world. And that I didn’t, seriously inhibited me in a way that has lasted my entire life.

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Why does homosexuality exist?, ask the naive evolutionists.

Because, essentially, homosexuality is linked with empathy and nonaggression, and so facilitate community survival in which males are otherwise aggressive. (It’s an idea. I have other ideas.)

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Checking in on the loquacious Jim Palmer. This piece goes to one of the earliest realizations many of us have about the functionality and irrationality of religion.

Deconstructionality, Jim Palmer, 23 Oct 2026: You Are Not A Sinner, subtitled “Exposing Religion’s Biggest Lie”

This recalls my comparison of priests to snake-oil salesmen, recalling that Stephen Prothero book: each religion identifies a problem, which it presumes to be able to fix. The problems and fixes are all different; religions are not “all the same.”

Palmer:

There’s nothing wrong with you.

Yes, I realize no one is perfect, we have our good days and bad days, and we’re all a little neurotic here and there. Lemony Snicket said it well:

“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

When I say “there’s nothing wrong with you” what I mean is that at the most fundamental level of what you are, you’re not depraved. Despite the pointing finger of religious condemnation, you are not a sinner. You were not born bad.

One of the greatest lies propagated by religion upon humankind is that being human is a condition to overcome, disease to be cured, blight to be forgiven, and the reason for estrangement from God. Contrary to the pop-Christian “gospel”, you don’t need saved from yourself.

This begins a new series by Palmer: “The Top Most Abused Bible Verses.”

Another very long Palmer post, with issues of translations and interpretations, and much else.

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And then the fringy ones. I’ll try to condense these as much as I can.

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Music this evening:

The three Beck albums. Those three.

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