There is a ballot question in my state this November about whether gun regulations passed in 2024 should remain in place. There have been spirited interactions on the Nextdoor app, as you might imagine. Much of the disagreement is focused on the obvious dangers of guns (that the US has some of the highest gunContinue reading “Gun Rights and the Constitution”
Category Archives: Politics
Immigration and/in Democracy
We are living in a particularly anti-immigration moment in the US. The Trump administration and many right-wing Republicans depict immigrants as dangerous criminals who must be contained and deported from the country. As most of us are aware by now, neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security makes any distinction in practice between documentedContinue reading “Immigration and/in Democracy”
Susan Faludi on Masculinity and Violence
The Cornell rape case has put male violence and predatory behavior in the spotlight yet again. The details of the case are beyond horrific, as anyone who has read even a little about it knows; I will not rehash those details here. But when put in company with the rise of the manosphere and theContinue reading “Susan Faludi on Masculinity and Violence”
Why Critics of “Gender Ideology” Are Wrong
There is a lot to say about the current anti-trans sentiment and policy/legal shifts in the US. I will focus here on what critics call gender ideology, which they claim denies the reality of biological sex as binary and unchangeable, substituting for it a made-up concept of gender identity. On this view, trans people areContinue reading “Why Critics of “Gender Ideology” Are Wrong”
Arendt, Violence, Power, and ICE
Reports from observers on the ground and from news agencies have documented appalling violence committed by ICE in Minneapolis since agents arrived there in late December 2025, targeting both suspected undocumented immigrants and US citizens alike. What is going on here? I want to explore this moment through Hannah Arendt’s analysis of political violence asContinue reading “Arendt, Violence, Power, and ICE”
Trump, Harris, and Nietzschean Ressentiment
It’s easy to dismiss Donald Trump as unhinged after his recent performance in the presidential debate between him and Kamala Harris. Too easy, perhaps: immigrants are eating people’s pets? Babies are being executed by pro-abortionists. Jeez. I think, though, that there’s a method to Trump’s madness, and I think Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of ressentiment canContinue reading “Trump, Harris, and Nietzschean Ressentiment”
On the Importance of Equality
We’re living in a strange moment, when the basic ideals of freedom and equality upon which the US was founded are under attack from a conservative, influential, and vocal minority. This minority is doing its best to institute laws that disenfranchise people of color; deny students access to books and courses of study that challengeContinue reading “On the Importance of Equality”
On Love
Valentine’s Day is all about romantic love, which we tend to think of as having little if anything to do with politics—it’s about a relationship between 2 people, after all. We get a very different view, though, if we consider love through the lenses of Socrates in Plato’s Symposium and in Audre Lorde’s “The UsesContinue reading “On Love”
On Abortion and Biopolitics
Well, it’s happened: Roe V. Wade has been overturned. 15 states have abortion bans ready to go into effect, with many making no exception for rape or incest (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html ); others have enacted restrictions that in practice will pretty much ban the practice (many restrict abortion to before 6 weeks of pregnancy, when most peopleContinue reading “On Abortion and Biopolitics”
On Legislating Sexuality, Gender, and Race(ism): Hannah Arendt and the Loss of Plurality
There are many possible responses to the myriad attempts to legislate gender, sexuality, and race across the country, including: Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” bill (https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis) Texas’s prosecution of gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse (https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/22/texas-transgender-teenagers-medical-care/) Numerous states’ attempts to ban the teaching of what has come to be called Critical Race TheoryContinue reading “On Legislating Sexuality, Gender, and Race(ism): Hannah Arendt and the Loss of Plurality”
