Elon is not the only right-leaning member of the online chatterati experiencing a frisson of existential fear as he contemplates “wokeness.” Even here on Medium, the Woke Scare of the Early Twenty-First Century pops up now and then. For example, I engaged a while back with the author of a…

Karl Popper is famous for a number of publications and ideas, but the one that has lodged most firmly in my head over the years is what is called Popper’s Paradox or The Paradox of Tolerance. It goes like this: if a society is so dedicated to tolerance and freedom…

Okay, so the whole world now knows that Elon Musk, King of Impulse Control Issues, tweeted a sleazy tabloid allegation about the attack on Paul Pelosi on Saturday, by a hammer-wielding assailant, in Pelosi’s SF home. …

Couldn't agree more. You'll probably catch some flak for this piece -- but it needs saying. If for no other reason, to ease the heartbreak and disillusionment of young activists who hurl their youthful energies and hopes against The System expecting to make it move -- or even to make…

OK, I’m an old fuddy-duddy, or perhaps a practising peevologist (which is not, by the way, anything to do with urinary specialisation in medicine). I’ve reached an age which entitles me to claim that label. I’m allowed to admit that language is mutable and inevitably changes over time, and yet…

There seems to be a whole lot of argle-bargle going on right now about “trans women in sports,” i.e. whether M-to-F trans people should be allowed to compete in “women’s” sports. On the one side is the passionate advocacy of the trans community that one’s gender self-definition should be officially…

Some People Like Dictators — (click for part 1) As I write, Ukraine is resisting an armed invasion by Russia. Today, Ukraine is the underdog standing up to bullying by a larger, more dangerous country: the little kid getting pushed around by the big kid on the playground. Those of us who are cheering for…

Don’t be shocked or surprised… When vocal, strident antivaxxers die of Covid-19 it often happens that their family immediately deletes their long history of anti-mask, anti-mandate, anti-science memes on Facebook. Sometimes they delete the entire account. People don’t like to remember moments when we or our kin were squarely on the wrong side of history…

In Missouri, far right politicians are proposing a law that would effectively criminalise seeking a legal abortion in another state. In Idaho, far right politicians are proposing a law that would effectively criminalise travel across a state line to obtain medical support for one’s trans child. Whatever one’s position on…