Posts by author
Malhar Mali
41 posts
The Death of a Celebrity
I used to think it was vapid when people mourned the death of a celebrity. These days I’m in a little less hurry to judge.
Growing Up Online
In my first few weeks of high school in Australia, I remember a classmate messaging me something inflammatory on MSN Messenger (the equivalent of AOL for Americans). Though I don’t…
The Bowels of Twitter
A friend messaged me out of concern recently. “I think you have to be really careful,” he said, referencing this exploratory piece on the roots of genocide by Bradley Campbell,…
Catching Your Attention
We are drowning in content. There are listicles, videos, books, podcasts, and articles — anything you could imagine and want, of any ideological bent, is easily accessible, courtesy of the…
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
I know a man who deleted his Twitter account out of fear after he read So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. Curious about the book’s contents and what could have prompted such…
The Moral Contamination of Free Speech
We find ourselves living in an age where free speech is considered by many as a concept that only right-wingers care about. “You think free speech is important?” I’m asked.…
A Cartoon to Ease Your Existential Dread
— Some spoilers for Rick and Morty — I first realized how good we are at pushing away the insignificance of our existence while creating a PowerPoint at 2:30 a.m. in…
In Defense of the Google Manifesto
James Damore, the Google employee who wrote the viral Google manifesto, was fired yesterday for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.” From the various reactions I’ve read, you would think Damore wrote the next…
15 Years Later, Why Do We Still Believe in the Blank Slate?
On Twitter, I once saw a cultural anthropologist refer to Steven Pinker’s toenails as “magical” when accosting an evolutionary psychologist who had angered him. Some time later, on another scroll…
My Stealthy Freedom: The Hijab in Iran and in the West
In 1979, after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, more than a hundred thousand woman took to the streets to protest the compulsory veiling that was to be enforced under the…
The Sam Harris Outrage Industry
It started for me (and for many) with the angry words frothing out from above that famous cleft-chin. The one which now resides — at least cinematically — under Batman’s…
No, Tucker Carlson — You’re Wrong
You see it very often now. Some imbecilic professor or student says or writes something beyond the bounds of sanity and the conservative media machine jumps into action. Campus Reform, The…
Skepticism, Salon, and Gender Studies
James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian’s “Conceptual Penis” article in Cogent has split the skeptic community into two broadly opposing factions. Generally, one claims that the hoax does not prove…
On Human Motivation, Ideological Bias, and Groupthink in Academia — An Interview with Clay Routledge
Clay Routledge is interested in how and why humans search for meaning and motivation. A professor of psychology at North Dakota State with over 90 academic articles to his name…
Mumbo Jumbo Has Conquered the World
Post-truth, post-fact, post-reality. You don’t need a lengthy introduction on the state of the world. You just need to take a look around: A man who wavers between imbecile and…
Who Teaches Students That Words Are Violence?
Last week, Ulrich Baer, a vice-provost and a professor of English at New York University, made an astonishing case against free speech in the New York Times. Baer framed the debate as…
