Rape Jokes, War, and Media
by Justin Wilcox I encountered a CNN article ostensibly on the Daniel Tosh “rape joke” controversy titled “When Rape Jokes Aren’t Funny.” Like all commentary I’ve encountered on this recent incident with Daniel Tosh, it contained no hard facts. It started off with qualifiers such as “according to” and “reportedly,” while acknowledging that all of [...]
Something We Can All Agree On
by Justin Wilcox I’ve been reading lately about a lot of peoples failures. I’ve been reading about failures of banks, the free-market system, and the politicians to fix it. I’ve been reading about failures of the left to exploit these other failures, and failures of our “two party system” represent the “people” and carry out [...]
Never Let Them Take Our Dignity
Dignity. I’ve noticed that many things in American society are geared toward taking away people’s dignity to keep them in line. Want help from a social program these days? That will require jumping through many hoops. Want a job? Be sure to remain cheerful and compliant. Maybe it’s just that I’ve read both Bright-Sided: How [...]
The Union of Capitalism and Democracy
Capitalism and Democracy are not actually compatible civics. They have been staying together, somehow, for all these years, but they should most definitely get divorced and die alone. I think my metaphor has started becoming morbid and not quite fitting. What I mean to say is that Democracy relies on the assumption that the public [...]
Keep the Passion; Don’t Get Worn Down
Passion is deeply important in life. Without a passion for something people lose sight of things. They lose the will to go on, to keep struggling. Generally speaking, I don’t enjoy reality television. Sometimes, however, I do enjoy an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, which is the one in which Chef Gordan Ramsey tries to help [...]
Lame Excuses: Someone Will Always Do the Wrong Thing
What’s wrong with this statement: We can’t make things better because people are basically bad, so things will always be this way. Firstly, it’s lazy. Secondly, why would we not be able to make things better even if man were essentially bad? That might be an argument for the cynical idea that things will always [...]
Leadership Worship
When the enemy attacks in movies, who is the one person the characters can kill to bring down the whole opposition? The leader. Somehow, when the leader goes, it’s all so much pie. Would it really be that easy? Shouldn’t they be able to replace him with the vice president or equivalent? Leadership is both [...]
Who is to Blame When Democracy Fails: Why It’s Not the People.
In recent years, we’ve resorted to trying to make voting cool because we can’t get people out and voting. “Vote or die.” “Rock the Vote.” It’s become a real ad campaign. Everything that people might possibly vote in is compared to a presidential election these days, e.g., “X people voted for American Idol, while only [...]
