In America, (a) there are 10 billion livestock animals and about 330 million humans, which is to say that (b) almost all Americans who are alive at this moment (>97% of the population) will soon be brutally killed so that members of the dominant human class (<3% of the population) can make meals of their…

I've never been particularly thoughtful or knowledgeable about what's called "alienation" in Marxian circles, but I've been teaching Philosophy of Work this term, and in the course of that I've been reading a bit and thinking about this topic. I take it that people in the Marxian tradition generally say that alienation is important, widespread,…

You can correctly say of an undocumented person that she is not a legal citizen, i.e., isn't considered a citizen by the US government, doesn't have a US passport, isn't allowed to vote, can't run for political office (or most political offices, anyway), might be deported, etc. But most undocumented people are citizens, I think, despite…

Consider: The forever view: Each moment of your life is, was, and always will be happening locally, at its particular time and place. This view has long been a comfort to me. I feel it is a somewhat satisfying substitute for afterlife, though far less satisfying than hope of heavenly life after death would be,…

Certain weird statements recently made by Donald Trump have created renewed interest in the scenario where America metastasizes: Each of the world's countries become states of the USA, one by one, until finally the whole world is under a world-encompassing government that is either continuous with or a descendent of the current American federal government.…

I'm a fan of the idea that we have moral obligations to ourselves, for two main reasons: Feelings of guilt: I feel guilty when I let myself down, and I feel guilty when I let others down. The feelings do not seem dramatically different to me. And in general, when I let someone down and…

According to a view I'm attracted to, we should think there are precisely two realms of reality: the natural world and morality. We can learn about the truths of the natural world with scientific methods, but that's not the case for moral truths. Morality is entirely separate from the natural world, and for that reason,…

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim is informed by the Tralfamadorians that their flying-saucer crews had identified no fewer than seven sexes on Earth, each essential to reproduction. … Billy couldn’t possibly imagine what five of those seven sexes had to do with the making of a baby, since they were sexually active only in the fourth…

There are muckety-mucks, and then there are regular people. Muckety-mucks are the ones with a lot of influence, visibility, perceived authority, etc. Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was recently assassinated, is an example of a muckety-muck. I am an example of a regular person. Most or all of the people who might read these…

We do not treat all speech equally. We have classes of privileged speakers who enjoy special tolerances, protections, and advantages. That's as it should be. It's good that journalists and only journalists are allowed into the White House briefing room. It's good that the money in your town's Local Arts Fund goes to support artists…