The Right to Die
On 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two Russian warships attacked Snake Island. When the Moskva warship demanded that the crew defending the island surrender…
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Posts by tag
Psychology
24 posts
The Neuroscience of Intellectual Openness
How is it that some people feel energised by the thought of fierce debate and keen to have their beliefs challenged and their minds potentially changed, while others appear unwilling…
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Why A V-Shaped Economic Recovery is Unlikely
In the past month, during which the coronavirus started washing up on our shores, the U.S. has changed in tremendous and abrupt ways. Unemployment offices have been besieged with new filings in recent weeks,…
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The Death of Comedy
Sanitation departments aren’t usually controversial. New York City’s sanitation department’s Twitter account is full of zero-waste tips, charity work, and employees rescuing kittens. What does it take to make a…
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The Case For Culture
I would like people to speak more openly about culture as a causal phenomenon. In addition to citing biological and socio-economic factors to help us make sense of the world,…
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Journalism’s Armchair Psychology
While I’m not sure whether the AP specifically prohibits it, I would like to petition all journalists not to psychologize subjects when they have no evidence for their claims. If…
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Bridging Our Political Divide: Uncivil Agreement by Lilliana Mason. Book Review.
Over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult to talk politics with people we disagree with. These conversations can swiftly become hostile beyond what would reasonably be expected…
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The President Believes In Nothing
If you can’t understand why someone is doing something, look at the consequences of their actions, whatever they might be, and then infer the motivations from their consequences. —Jordan B.…
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Appealing to Hearts and Minds on the Subject of Global Warming
The facts are not enough. We are never going to be able to address global warming effectively if we don’t win the hearts of people, as well as their minds.
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Belief is Not Action: Why Peterson’s Theory of God is Wrong
As a Christian apologist, Jordan Peterson has done much to show the literary and psychological value of Biblical stories and the Judeo-Christian tradition. However, while he avoids metaphysical speculation, he…
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Negativity and the Need for Optimism
Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference.—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny In many ways, the world…
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The Power of Trump Nostalgia
“I’m not sure which is more damning: the emptiness of his happy-talk campaign or the cynicism that it implies,” Democratic nominee Walter Mondale said of President Ronald Reagan seven weeks…
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Jordan Peterson: Philosophically Unorthodox, Psychologically Heterodox, Fundamentally Uncontroversial
It seems that in order to discuss Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson at all, a person must declare her loyalties right away, pronouncing him either a messiah or a devil.…
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Narcissism and the New Politics of Identity
Our political discourse is increasingly dominated by psychological vocabulary. From safe spaces to triggering, public life is made sense of through the application of ideas that originated within psychological thought…
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Political Hubris: The Problem With Failing to Admit When Our Shit Stinks.
It’s human nature to attempt to defend our beliefs to the bitter end, even if that means we struggle to recognize when we or the ones we love have made a mistake. It’s…
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The Water We Swim In: A Need to Look at Causes as Well as Effects.
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the…
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Depression is Horrific but Suicide is not the Answer
This is not an essay I wanted to write, but, after the recent tragic loss of the author and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain to suicide, I now feel compelled to…
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Lipstick, Pussy Power and Toxic Femininity
A harmful myth has been circulating recently which I feel called upon to counteract. Some have called it “toxic femininity.” I’ve seen it expressed, to varying degrees, in Jordan Peterson’s…
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