187. SHOUT OUT TO CHILDLESS CAT PEOPLE - Why I Still Don't Want Kids

September 09, 2024 by DaN McKee in Culture, Elections, Environment, Ethics, Free, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

"In the wake of this summer’s comments from Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, J.D. Vance, about ‘childless cat ladies’ (and as a US citizen who is registered to vote in November and will be voting for Kamala Harris…who actually does have step-children) I thought it might be worth reviewing the sound reasons for my own decision not to have children and defending the decision of others who have done likewise..."

120. TALKING ABOUT MY CONSTITUTION - Why Conversation Is More Important Than Codification

June 06, 2022 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, Communication, Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“The very act of codifying into a constitution the core principles of how your society is to be run is to commit future generations to values that they may not actually hold. It is a normative act, wherein one generation is imposing a set of values in stone on the basis that they believe future generations ought to hold such values. But while human beings remain autonomous agents capable of choosing many different values such an imposition has no guarantee of sticking unless the values are, in fact, actually held by the citizens for whom they are endorsed. This means constitutions are either attempting the impossible and trying to force people into valuing something they don’t value, or they are redundant, as they simply articulate values already held.“

70. TRUMP, UNFORTUNATELY, HAS NOT BEEN SILENCED - Thoughts on Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age

January 18, 2021 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, Censorship, Culture, Education, Elections, Ethics, Free Speech, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“Good ideas grow, bad ideas shrink. As a consequence, good speech gets louder and bad speech soon gets drowned out. Not censorship, but developed understanding and evolution towards better ideas that, at a certain point, recognise certain voices as no longer worthy of being listened to. The fascists, the racists, the sexists, the homophobes, the conspiracy theorists - they have little to offer once we look beyond mere transgression and take the ideas seriously as speech. And so, rightly, they are discarded.“

67. DISPATCHES FROM THE CAVE - Why Being "Realistic" Demands The Impossible

December 07, 2020 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, COVID19, Culture, Economics, Education, Elections, Environment, Epistemology, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, School, Work

“The pandemic has shown just how flimsy “the way things are” actually are. From basic norms of social interaction to entire economic systems, COVID-19 has unwittingly acted as the liberating hand breaking the chains of Plato’s epistemological prisoner and dragging them out of the cave and into the light…This isn’t, however, a post about the coronavirus…“

63. THE VALUE OF PATIENCE - Responses to Waiting

November 09, 2020 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, COVID19, Elections, Epistemology, Meaning, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Time

“It has been a week of waiting.“

60. THE TONE OF OUR OPPRESSION - Truth and Authority Under Trump

October 12, 2020 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, COVID19, Elections, Epistemology, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“The Trump virus found the ultimate weaknesses in organised human life: 1) we have such shaky foundations at the best of times for what constitutes as real “knowledge” that if you repeat an untruth enough times, from enough “sources”, it can seem just as “true” as any legitimate truth; and 2) that the notion of external authority on which our political systems are based is entirely illusory. As any criminal can tell you: that there are laws against doing certain things impose no actual limitation on doing that which is against the law. Criminals, by definition, break laws all the time. And the only differences between those who break laws who we call “criminals” and those who break laws that we don’t, are either that they have been caught or that we don’t really enforce the law.“

55. THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA) NEEDS BIDEN TO WIN THE 2020 ELECTION: A Student in the UK Weighs in on the Ethics of American Voting

September 07, 2020 by DaN McKee in COVID19, Economics, Ethics, History, Militarisation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Student Writing, Elections

“since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the US has gone from perceived leader of the free world and centre of cooperation to a nation which continues to pull out of global organisations which ensure global security, health and sustainability, hence damaging the capability of all nations to respond to aggressive nations, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic“