Climate Change and Conservative Denial

Posted on Sunday 19 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Like any journalist or storyteller or blogger, I am alert for items with thematic connections. Here are two, or three. About climate change and conservative denial.

NY Times, today’s front page, 19 May 2024: Mexico City Has Long Thirsted for Water. The Crisis Is Worsening., subtitled “A system of dams and canals may soon be unable to provide water to one of the world’s largest cities, a confluence of unchecked growth, crumbling infrastructure and a changing climate.”

This is not news; it’s been happening. It’s happening elsewhere, and will keep happening.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Science | Comments Off on Climate Change and Conservative Denial

Rules for Storytelling

Posted on Saturday 18 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Vatican updates rules for identifying miracles;
  • Some conservative Christians, dealing with gender wars and their own kids identifying as gay, are bowing to reality.

If storytelling, more than we realize, drives the human experience — if people understand only through ‘narratives,’ or perceived causes and effects — then it’s significant when rules for storytelling explicitly change. Two items today.

NY Times, 17 May 2024: As Supernatural Claims Spread Online, Vatican Updates Its Rules on Them, subtitled “People have long claimed sightings of the Virgin Mary or bleeding crucifixes, and some endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church have become hugely popular pilgrimage destinations.”

To those of us outside “the” faith, Continue reading →

Posted in Narrative, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Rules for Storytelling

Liberalism and Its Discontents

Posted on Friday 17 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • David Brooks on how authoritarians have momentum, because liberalism doesn’t appeal to people’s needs for a higher metaphysical meaning;
  • Biden and Trump: appearance and reality;
  • Double standards at Fox News about Butker and James;
  • Republicans about Trump: loyalty vs. principles;
  • Yet another Ten Commandments mandate; what is the point?

NY Times, David Brooks, 16 May 2024: The Authoritarians Have the Momentum [gift link]

David Books consistently includes himself among “we liberals” even while espousing a lot of traditionalist notions, especially the need for shared values in a large society. Here he tries to explain that, even though liberalism should be “winning,” it isn’t, for reasons. He opens:

Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Liberalism and Its Discontents

Expressions of Tribal Morality

Posted on Thursday 16 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • NFL player Harrison Butker’s expression of tribal morality, and responses;
  • Mike Johnson wants to boycott Target because of his fear being caught there when the Rapture comes;
  • Moron Jesse Watters; a GOP Rep’s claim of proof, but lack of proof, about Biden at SOTU; No fact checks at the debates; Conservatives claim that every natural disaster supports their positions.

The news today that most relates to the themes of this blog is the commencement speech made by an NFL player named Harrison Butker. It was covered by the Today Show this morning!

CNN, 16 May 2024: Backlash over NFL player Harrison Butker’s commencement speech has reached a new level

His speech was an expression of pure retrograde tribal mentality — women’s ideal roles are house maker and mother; being gay is a “deadly sin”; and so on. His audience apparently cheered, except for a minority, precisely the minority Butker and his ilk would demonize.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Morality | Comments Off on Expressions of Tribal Morality

Keeping Things In Perspective

Posted on Wednesday 15 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How Biden is less unpopular than leaders of other major nations;
  • How 17% of voters blame Biden for the end of Roe (that is, many voters are not paying attention); and how I think many voters select a presidential candidate based on the effects of the previous president;
  • Review of a book that attacks the left with “mockery and sneers,” not argument or ideas;
  • Vice signalling on the right; Fox News on Michael Cohen; childish arguments from a MN creationist; more false Christian Nationalist history;
  • Beck’s “Wave”

NY Times, Paul Krugman, 13 May 2024: Biden’s Approval Is Low, Except Compared With Everyone Else’s [gift link]

Biden is less unpopular than all the other leaders in the Group of 7.

Continue reading →

Posted in History, Music, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Keeping Things In Perspective

Robert Reich on Red vs. Blue

Posted on Tuesday 14 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich on red vs. blue states;
  • Shorter items about the eagerness of Republicans to kill people (not just dogs); MAGA blaming Biden for Red Lobster; Red states anxious to discriminate against LGBTQ students; a pastor who apparently truly thought he could raise his wife from the dead; and how Christians blame Madonna for a flood in Brazil.
  • And a final thought about the potential for humanity to survive.

Here’s Robert Reich, yesterday.

Robert Reich, 13 May 2024: America’s second civil war? It’s already begun, subtitled “If Trump is elected, he’ll make it worse”

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Robert Reich on Red vs. Blue

Stupid Lies

Posted on Monday 13 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump’s stupid lies;
  • How conservatives do not trust people to make their own decisions;
  • Heather Cox Richardson on how we got here;
  • A Republican who boasts about cheating homeless people;
  • On a positive note: Ali Velshi on NPR this morning.

Why do they lie all the time? Because they can get away with it. Their crowds adore it — either they believe the lies, or they admire the audacity of the telling of them.

Joe.My.God, 13 May 2024: Trump Lies That 100,000 Attended His New Jersey Rally

With photos stolen from a Rod Stewart concert in Brazil 30 years ago.

Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Morality, Politics | Comments Off on Stupid Lies

Fundamentalist Simplicity and Autism

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • A fundamentalist preacher who denies that PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, exist;
  • A New Yorker article about how psychiatric labels reinforce behaviors; and how I think autism is a condition, not a disease.

Here’s a short item about a fundamentalist that relates to the following piece from The New Yorker.

Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, 4 May 2024: Lying preacher John MacArthur: “There’s no such thing” as PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, subtitled “The 84-year-old conspiracy theorist told a Christian audience more harmful lies”

Fundamentalist preacher John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in California said during a recent conference that post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other forms of mental illness are essentially hoaxes.

“There’s no such thing,” he said of those conditions.

Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Fundamentalist Simplicity and Autism

A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take

Posted on Saturday 11 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been making notes over the past month for a table of moral polarities, in order to align and summarize some of the concepts and the many news examples I’ve compiled lately. Recall how I’ve mentioned that certain attitudes, especially on the right, seem to go together. Obvious ones like religious fundamentalism and being anti-science and anti-gay, and others not so obvious. So let me set up a little table, a first draft, to start to compile some of these terms and attitudes.

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, Meaning, Morality, Philosophy, Science, science fiction, Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take

Friday 10 May 2024

Posted on Friday 10 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A round of assorted items collected on the web the past few days.

Here’s that item about what universities are for, that I couldn’t find the other day.

The Atlantic, Derek Thompson, 8 May 2024: No One Knows What Universities Are For, subtitled “Bureaucratic bloat has siphoned power away from instructors and researchers.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Morality, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Friday 10 May 2024