Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·PinnedWho is Comrade Morlock?For forty years, it looked like H. G. Wells was wrong about humanity being divided into Eloi and Morlocks. Under New Deal economics, the wealth gap was slowly shrinking in the U.S. Then both Wall Street parties adopted neoliberalism and the wealth gap began growing again. …Class7 min read
1 day agoReminder: The polls were right all along. Sanders would have won in 2016.Two days before the 2016 election, I wrote this on my blog: This would’ve been a boring election if the Democratic establishment hadn’t been committed to nominating another neoliberal. In May, Sanders was polling with the general public at 10 points over Trump. That wasn’t a fluke. In the many…Bernie Sanders2 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·3 days agoWhy Race Reductionists Love a White Woman’s Idea that Racism is Power Plus Prejudice and Ignore Malcolm X’sThis was Malcolm X’s definition of racism: “To me the earth’s most explosive and pernicious evil is racism, the inability of God’s creatures to live as One.” — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X Like everyone in his day, he knew that racism is prejudice based on race. That’s…Power4 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·5 days agoWhy Nazis are not Socialists #8: Conservatives Put Hitler in PowerTo answer people with a superficial understanding of history and politics who insist Nazis are socialists, I wrote Seven reasons why Nazis are not Socialists. …Hitler2 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·Jun 17A Black Guy Shouts At Me, and It Brightens My DayI wrote Things I Didn’t Say to a Black Racist Bicyclist after an unusual meeting with a stranger. Today I had such a typical encounter that I’m writing it up to put the previous piece in perspective. …Race1 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·Jun 9Things I Didn’t Say to a Black Racist BicyclistNote: In the comments, a few identitarians suggest I made up this story. I understand why they think it’s odd — I thought it was odd when it happened. If I was going to make up a story about meeting a black racist, I assure you, I would make up…Race2 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·Jun 1On Identitarian Mass Shooters, including Blacks Who Target WhitesI only have one point to add to the observation that “Mass shootings are always acts of violent suicide”: Mass shooters are either universalists or identitarians. The universalists fall into two groups, generalists who blame all of humanity and personalizers who blame people they know, their family or coworkers or…Racism3 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·May 27Not Either/Or—the US Needs Well-Regulated Guns and Better Mental Health CareThere are two subjects I rarely write about because nothing I say will change the minds of the polarized: abortion and gun rights. But the double-punch of the Uvalde targeting of children and the Buffalo targeting of black people has made me take on the gun issue. There’s been no…NRA3 min read
May 25Has Any Writers’ Organization Treated A Writer As Badly As SFWA Treated Mercedes Lackey?It reads like a revenge plot: an old writer comes to one of the most important conventions in her field to be honored for her lifetime of work, and is publicly humiliated without the opportunity to clarify what she meant when she confuses two similar terms. The writer is the…Mercedes Lackey5 min read
Published in A Universalist in an Identitarian Age·May 23Four Versions of Free Speech—Five if You Count the Troll’s VersionI like to think my idea of free speech is the one true version, but I know there are many competing concepts. Here are the most popular four, plus a fifth that has a very tiny but very vocal following: Classic free speech: Censorship by the government (aka public censorship)…Free Speech3 min read
