Recent Blog Posts
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Totally not sexist
Some of my best friends are women! Inspirations: http://the-toast.net/2014/09/11/father-daughters-think-treat-women-like-daughters/ http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2014/09/im-right-youre-wrong-and-shes-a-feminist-detractor/
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Rat Queen Dee
Dee in conversation with her mother I’m in the market for new comics– but let’s note that to me, all comics are basically new. I have read and loved Maus 1 and 2 by Art Spiegelman and Alan Moore’s Top 10 series, but that’s pretty much it. In thinking about what to start reading I came…
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Good Arguing: the low-hanging fruit
So I’ve talked in the last few posts about making good arguments by addressing the substance of your opponent’s position rather than attacking irrelevancies. I described the practice of strawmanning, which is constructing an inferior version of the argument you’re trying to demolish because it’s easier, and how that shouldn’t be mistaken for actually defeating…
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Good Arguing: How to steelman (and why it’s hard)
In the last couple of posts I’ve been exploring different ways in which it’s possible to make bad arguments against someone’s position by ignoring the substance of their argument in favor of some distraction from it or distortion of it, even a completely fictional version of it. The tactic of constructing an inaccurate version of…
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Don’t do this either
Okay, so we’ve pretty well covered how not to talk to and about people you disagree with, right? It can be summed up pretty easily by asking yourself the following question: Does this thing I’m writing/saying/drawing/etc. actually address the substance of what the person I’m talking about is saying/writing/drawing/etc.? Or does it attack irrelevancies? Because…
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It should go without saying
Yesterday Ophelia Benson and Richard Dawkins both published, on their respective blogs, a brief joint statement on how atheists should disagree. It’s really unfortunate that such a thing should be necessary, but encouraging that it happened. The statement condemns bullying and harassment generally, and then goes on to cite specific examples of such: In other…