February 29, 2024

If your enemies can make you stoop to their level, then you really weren’t that far above them to begin with.

February 21, 2024

Why does conquest or colonialism turn people against entire demographic groups (“Whites”; “Muslims”; “Jews”)? Why never against the more relevant groups, like “governments” or “imperial forces”?

February 18, 2024

What does the term “great outdoors” evoke for you? It’s likely a daytime scene you’re imagining. A clear, sunny day. Why do you think that is?

February 10, 2024

Your every quirk, predilection, and personality trait doesn’t need to be brought under the brand of some niche “community”; it’s ok to be an individual. It’s wonderful, actually.

February 6, 2024

You don’t have to know the true answer to a question to recognize when you’re being sold a false one.

February 1, 2024

It’s immoral to treat others—no matter how “privileged” we deem them—in ways that we would consider a violation of our “rights” if the tables were turned.

January 23, 2024

If you feel entitled to dictate who can go where (even if it’s not on your property) because your ancestors founded the country, then you lose the moral argument for disclaiming responsibility for the slavery, genocide, and mass expulsions perpetrated by the same ancestors.

January 17, 2024

Ask not what your friend can do for you. Ask what you can do for your friend (with all due respect to JFK for tweaking his famous quote).

January 14, 2024

If you and I, without deception or coercion, make an agreement that we both find beneficial, it’s inherently a “fair trade” even if my choice is constrained by burdens that yours isn’t. The existence of the burdens—unless you inflicted them on me—doesn’t turn our mutual, consensual transaction into “exploitation.”

January 11, 2024

Don’t be quick to replace the time-tested with the experimental. New isn’t necessarily better. But also, just because something has always been a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the only—or the best—way. If so, nothing could EVER get better. Each case needs to be assessed in its own right.

January 8, 2024

I once caught a mistake in a piece I wrote—a very common misuse of a word. Somehow, what bothered me most was not simply that I made an error, but that I made a common error. Does that make me elitist?

January 5, 2024

Collective ancestral claims, group “identity” based credit or blame for historical events, ethnic rivalry–it’s all quite silly. Most people can’t even trace their lineage more than 3-4 generations.

January 3, 2024

History is complex. Instead of worrying about “cultural appropriation” take the good ideas of the past, reject the bad, and treat each other as individuals.

December 31, 2023

Mourning the passage of time is not the same as regret. The former is inevitable. The latter is not.

December 30, 2023

National borders are artificial. Human migration is natural. But once you arrive at a new place, it’s neither natural nor fair to expect the existing locals to drop everything to meet your needs and demands. We must all try to live by our own efforts, in peace with others.

December 28, 2023

An illness or disability is not a moral failing to be ashamed of. It’s also not an “identity” or something to be proud of. It’s just an illness, something to cure if possible, or manage, if not.

December 22, 2023

Our allegiance should always be to the truth and the principles we claim to hold, not to any demographic or ideological tribe. Otherwise, sooner or later, circumstances will compel us to hypocrisy and tortured logic.

December 20, 2023

To live in peace, you must leave others in peace.

December 18, 2023

Why are we “proud” of our heritages? If there’s something special about one’s culture—wouldn’t the appropriate response be gratitude, instead of pride? It’s a blessing, not an achievement, to be born into good company.

December 15, 2023

People often preamble moral pronouncements with “We must all agree.” Well, that’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it? If you’re saying we ALL MUST do something, you’re rendering the “agree” part utterly meaningless.

December 13, 2023

When we think about historical figures—whether we lionize or condemn them—we often imagine them with complete certitude in their ideals. This is a mistake. People in the past were not cartoon heroes or villains. They were nuanced, ambivalent, given to deception and political maneuvering. They were just people.

December 11, 2023

They say liberalism inevitably leads to its own downfall, because it values tolerance, and thus, is easily duped into “tolerating” hostile forces that destroy it. But why? Tolerance doesn’t have to imply a self-canceling relativism. Vigorous defense of liberalism—against illiberal forces—is possible, as long as we remain committed to reason and empirical truth.

December 9, 2023

We should always act honorably, even when dealing with those who don’t. It’s not because we owe it to them, but because we owe it to ourselves. Because that’s what being honorable means.

November 2, 2023

Anyone who thinks that past atrocities “could never happen in our time”—just remember, when history repeats itself, it first camouflages itself as something slightly different, so you don’t see it coming unless you’re vigilant. Be vigilant.

September 10, 2023

Science is a system of rationally acquiring knowledge. It is tested and improved by criticism and skeptical scrutiny. Blindly “believing the science” as dictated by established authorities is antithetical to science.

September 7, 2023

Skepticism is essential to rationality. But remember, dogged resistance to empirical evidence is not skepticism. It’s just obduracy and/or paranoia.

September 2, 2023

Someone asked Mark Twain “Who is superior, man or woman?” Twain responded, “which man and which woman?” He was, as usual, absolutely right.

August 31, 2023

Being “Cuckoo” for birds, we like to say “photograph two birds with one click” (not “kill two birds with one stone”). BUT we’d never impose this quirk on others. Trying to strip language of all “violence” is silly and pretentious. Animals don’t care what we say!

August 29, 2023

What appears to be cruelty is often just weakness.

August 18, 2023

Whenever you think something is a “human right”—ask yourself: does it require someone else’s labor? If yes, then it’s only a “human right” to pursue it and acquire it consensually (and in exchange for payment, if the other party requires it). You do NOT have a right to receive it from someone by force.

August 15, 2023

Happy Independence Day, India!

August 5, 2023

A spark of inspiration is not creativity. It’s the beginning of creativity. Inspiration is the spring from which the river of creativity flows, with time, with persistence, with the relentless discipline of following an often arduous course.

July 31, 2023:

Public policy debates often assume “one size fits all” solutions—whereby actions are either mandated or forbidden. In reality, the best results come from everyone being free to make their own choices.

May 22, 2023:

Some activists see all of life through the prism of their grievance, always “discovering” some hidden or even unconscious (yet culpable) malevolence behind every action or non-action. These activists don’t want solutions. They want careers in the problem.

May 11, 2023:

If you point out a flaw in someone’s statement and they clarify it in a way that removes the flaw, you should accept it, absent a specific and consequential reason to believe that they are lying. We are not experts on what someone else “really” means to say.

May 5, 2023:

Many “basic” tasks we blithely delegate to machines—like arithmetic—were once considered acts of the conscious intellect. Did people feel a mix of awe and dread at the dawn of the adding machine? Was it the “artificial intelligence” of its day?

May 2, 2023:

The human capacity for evil is no justification for authoritarian social control. After all, if you can’t trust people with freedom over their own lives, how can you possibly trust a few of them with power over others?

April 30, 2023:

But for accident of birth, we have no relationship to our nations and therefore no rational basis for taking pride in them. But does it mean all patriotism is artificial and/or valueless? Isn’t there something to be cherished in a shared sense of history and community (as long it doesn’t slip into xenophobia or jingoism)?

April 26, 2023:

Tolerance of others doesn’t mean you can’t criticize their choices. It just means you can’t forcibly keep them from making those choices. You can try persuasion (or maybe even derision or condemnation) but if those tactics fail, you must live and let live.

April 25, 2023:

It’s been said that we have colonialism to thank for cultural cross-pollination and the global human civilization. Nonsense. Why wouldn’t trade, diplomacy, and travel achieve the same? History is messy. We can love the good without trying to whitewash the bad.

April 24, 2023:

Humans will never agree on everything. And that’s a good thing. Homogeneity is boring.

April 23, 2023:

Not conquerors, aristocrats, or revolutionaries, but ordinary humans – surviving, solving problems, raising clever kids, trading ideas, starting projects that someone else will finish – are the real engines of human civilization.

April 22, 2023:

If you really think about history, almost every wrong thing that happened was because someone was deprived of freedom and self ownership, NOT because someone else was allowed to have “too much” of it.

April 21, 2023:

Being “principled” doesn’t mean having rigid convictions about a list of things you like. It means having integrity. It means having sincere and consistent values that sometimes lead to things you don’t necessarily like. It also means having the intellectual honesty to be persuadable without being fickle.

April 20, 2023:

Free speech is more important than curbing “misinformation” because only in the open light of day can we see the truth.