Judith Butler’s The Force of Nonviolence advocates for pacifism but neglects much of the tradition’s philosophy and feminist theory. Is it possible to merge Butler’s insights with a serious concern for how nonviolent politics can be effective? Protesters blocking traffic are accused of violence; a privatized health care system that leads Black, brown, and poor people to early […]
Deluded, with reason
Extraordinary beliefs don’t arise in a vacuum. They take root in minds confronted by unusual and traumatic experiences Given the social function of beliefs, it’s little surprise that delusions usually contain social themes. Might delusion then be a problem of social affiliation, rather than a purely cognitive issue? Bell’s team make just this claim, proposing […]
Keeping society together
If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers, and scientists are keeping society together. Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant […]
The Women Making Conspiracy Theories Beautiful
How the domestic aesthetics of Instagram repackage QAnon for the masses When I showed some of these Instagram accounts to Sophie Bishop, a lecturer in digital humanities at King’s College London, she identified in all of them a “very recognizable,” feminine-coded aesthetic. “It’s aspirational, and then it’s also authentic enough to allow for relatability,” she […]
What pro wrestling can teach us about the quest for truth
Fans love it when backstage reality seeps into the show. But if there’s too much about backstage machinations, they switch off Plato’s Allegory of the Cave paints a vivid picture of the relationship between humans and the reality we inhabit. We are prisoners in a cave, forced to look at shadows on the wall that appear […]