Will Shetterly's Blog, page 56

Actresses put their tongues in my mouth, a memory inspired by the charge against Al Franken

I was an actor in New York City for a year or so. I was awful, but I was young and, though I didn't really believe it at the time, fairly handsome, so I got a few jobs: a supporting role in an off-off-Broadway play, a bit part in a dreadful horror movie, and a few modeling gigs for romance magazines. The first time I was directed to kiss an actress--I am deliberately using the more sexist

Two reasons critics of "social justice warriors" should not refer to "cultural Marxism"

1. To people who have studied the origins of the identitarian left, you'll sound ignorant. 2. To people who have studied the origins of "cultural Marxism", you'll sound like a Nazi. Most left-identitarians are liberals, not socialists, because identitarianism does not fit in Marx's universalist framework. The founders of left identitarianism, Derrick Bell of Critical Race Theory fame and

Three reasons "white supremacy" does not explain Trump's appeal

1. Approximately eight million Obama voters voted for Trump. Did they suddenly become racist? 2. 13 percent of African American men voted for Donald Trump. Did they suddenly become self-hating? 3. Noted at You Are Still Crying Wolf | Slate Star Codex: Trump made gains among blacks. He made gains among Latinos. He made gains among Asians. The only major racial group where he didn’t get a gain

If people should earn their money, why do we let the rich give their children money?

This question is especially nagging at me today because it's official: The Richest 1% Now Own More Than 50% of the World’s Wealth | Fortune. On Facebook, when I asked a similar question, someone said it's not about the children; it's about the right of people to do what they please with their money. But that doesn't answer the question. Either we all deserve to inherit or none of us do. The

This chart shows the flaw in John Scalzi's "lowest difficulty setting" in the US's game of life

Scalzi said something identitarians still cite, that in the game of life, "straight white male" is the "lowest difficulty setting". That's something you can only believe if you ignore class. Serious capitalists have to know the facts, which is why This chart shows that your parents’ income determines your future - MarketWatch is from a business site: The apparent privilege of women is they

Why I'm an agnostic

In second grade, I understood why God approved of Samson burning the fields of the Philistines, but I couldn't understand why he approved of Samson doing that by setting fire to the tails of foxes. That was just mean. Florida's schools were segregated in the early '60s, and Bible-reading was mandatory at the start of the day. I spoke up against both—think of me as the chibi version of the

Occam's Razor vs. the Believer's Hammer

Perhaps because there isn't a single definition of Occam's Razor—a term Occam never used for an idea that may be older than Aristotle—the term gets misused. The principle doesn't imply that the simplest solution is right. It says the simplest solution should be chosen first and tested, and if it proves to be wrong, choose the next simplest and test that. The Razor lets you sort through

The whiteness of Harvey Weinstein

Harvey Weinstein's sex scandal is inspiring a lot of identitarians to comment about white men. So far as I know, none of the "Jews are not white" crowd has tried to correct them. I suspect this is because: 1. Race is often code for class in the US. When some speakers talk about black people, they mean poor people, and when talking about white people, they mean rich people. (The blog Stuff

Sexually abusive men and class: Harvey Weinstein vs Clarence Thomas

Meryl Streep is quoted in “Appalled” By Harvey Weinstein News | Deadline: The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes.  One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was

Why socialists should support Basic Income

Socialists should support Basic Income for the same reason we should support universal health care: though it has nothing to do with socialism, it reduces desperation. Why would socialists oppose Basic Income? Because it shares income rather than wealth, which reduces the economic gap without threatening capitalism. Worse, Basic Income may slow down the march for socialism by ending economic