Posts by arossp@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AXlNWKLz0ggnEVBcUC by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-07-16T20:21:44Z
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“Begs the question” does not mean “raises the question,” and while I don’t expect *everyone* to know that, I do expect people who write for a living to be aware of the distinction. (Yes, I ran across another professional journalist who embarrassingly used the incorrect phrase.)
(DIR) Post #AY86fTgdWEMBGU0VrE by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-07-27T14:29:20Z
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Arguably nothing is more important for an ethical life than “having admirable people as friends, companions, a colleagues.” I wrote about what this idea, from ancient Indian philosophy, tells us about how to live a good life—and why we must distance ourselves from unethical people, even when it’s challenging to do so. https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/surround-yourself-with-those-who
(DIR) Post #AYnfnkx3YvacNtPkvo by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-16T20:45:02Z
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People keep posting some version of "Trump is the only president to have been indicated!" But lots of them should've been! So the fact that he's the only one says bad stuff about him, but also says bad stuff about our history of not holding the powerful accountable for criminal acts and abuses of their power. (Both of Trump's predecessors should be in prison for war crimes, for example.)
(DIR) Post #AYpkOOGzdCjItbNpxo by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-17T20:45:34Z
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Why do so many of the far-right, culturally reactionary types always seem miserable in a cosmopolitan, dynamic, and free society? Because social conservatism just is a form of suffering—one grounded in ignorance of, or a refusal to accept, the basic nature of our world and ourselves. https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/social-conservatism-is-suffering
(DIR) Post #AZ4cB2vhmzuyfpx2Jc by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-24T19:55:04Z
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This is representative of a pretty common atheist rebuttal of religious faith but, as an atheist who sees value in making the case for secularism, it's one I wish they'd drop, because it's not actually that helpful. A 🧵 on why:
(DIR) Post #AZ4cB3qmMnZVWqecHA by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-24T19:55:19Z
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The unstated, and perhaps unconscious, move in the "I don't believe in your god just like you don't believe in Zeus" rejoinder is interpreting "What's it like to be an atheist?" as "What is it like to not believe in a particular god?" when, instead, the actual question being asked is "What is it like to not believe in *any* god?" In other words, the atheist here is effectively substituting a question about *qualitative* difference for one about *quantitative* difference. /2
(DIR) Post #AZ4cB4jN5pEyGACDMu by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-24T19:55:40Z
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The religious worldview is one of a universe created and guided by a divine being or beings. It is one where the supernatural is an omnipresent fact about reality, and not a mere contingent fact, but *the* fact central to the very nature of existence. Further, it's the fact that provides not only an explanation to reality, but gives everything within it meaning, as well. /3
(DIR) Post #AZ4cB5X07IwIk5Pqj2 by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-08-24T19:55:53Z
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Thus, responding "What's it like to not believe in Zeus?" to "What's it like to be an atheist?" isn't analogous to responding "What's it like to not watch hockey?" when asked "What's it like to not watch football?" Rather, it's as if you answered "What is it like to not believe the universe has purpose and meaning?" with a flip "What's it like to not believe in unicorns?" It not only fails to answer the question, but evinces an unhelpful dismissiveness of the underlying concern. /end
(DIR) Post #AZKycsRFhBAxlUk2yW by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-09-01T22:18:04Z
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Was reminded of how one time on Twitter I casually remarked that polygraphs are total pseudoscience and don't actually work, and my mentions got flooded by angry representatives of the polygraph lobby, which I didn't know existed, but in retrospect it was obvious one would exist and patrol the internet looking for people dismissing the myth their clients' income depends on.
(DIR) Post #AZMOIhCaYSQX5esdrU by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-09-02T14:40:15Z
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If your religious beliefs lead you into bigotry, the proper response isn't to demand that others respect and accommodate your bigotry as religiously derived, but instead to recognize that something is wrong with your religious beliefs and change them. https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/the-religious-prejudice-trilemma
(DIR) Post #AZva4gOoCi0OCmD0OO by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-09-19T01:45:03Z
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I have a new essay, called "Politics for Good People," beginning the project of building a coherent whole out of the last year or so of my writings on politics and political ethics. https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/politics-for-good-people
(DIR) Post #AZveZutCmMo5wJZjHM by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-09-19T15:19:30Z
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@john Nothing I’ve written precludes the conclusion that the state might never be appropriately used. In other words, my framework is entirely compatible with anarchism—though that's not the focus of this essay.
(DIR) Post #Ab9w1NhCFojQBifBVw by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-10-25T21:20:17Z
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We can make a lot more sense of contemporary American politics if we disentangle three meanings of "conservative" and also conceptually distinguish conservatism from the right. My new essay today: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/three-kinds-of-conservatives
(DIR) Post #Ad2lhnovns6jwKXHpg by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-12-21T17:57:11Z
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With Substack's risible response to calls to remove Nazis, I'd like to accelerate my move off the platform, preferably to #WordPress. But I'm not sure how to reproduce my setup and subscriber model there, and so would live advice from the community. I publish both essays and podcast episodes, and subscribers get early access to both. Is there a way to do this within Wordpress that doesn't involve posting each essay and podcast twice, but instead unlocking and email them at a specified date?
(DIR) Post #Ad2lhpug1TtMQjEu48 by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-12-21T18:10:47Z
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Here's a bit more about how I have Substack set up, and so what I'm looking to reproduce on #WordPress. At Substack, I publish everything as supporter-only, but then use their “unlock” feature to set a date at which the essay or episode becomes public. This automatically sends a second email to all my free subscribers. I see how to send posts and podcasts just to paying members. But is there a way to do this automated unlocking and notification to free subscribers?
(DIR) Post #AdHUeuMP2fGeqnzDXc by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-12-28T21:33:50Z
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I've long hosted my essays and podcast on #Substack. But when Substack's management announced they wanted to run a Nazi bar, I started work on migrating. The domain still needs to update, and I have some format tweaking left to do on old essays and podcast episode pages, but otherwise the migration is complete. Check it out, sign up for my free newsletter, listen to ReImagining Liberty. And soon I'll get to delete the old Substack altogether. https://aaronrosspowellcom.wpcomstaging.com/
(DIR) Post #AdHVFqwkhH1Oygba88 by arossp@mastodon.social
2023-12-28T21:53:46Z
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@gmcgath Okay. Be well.
(DIR) Post #AkIhIN5FiCNQQjdas4 by arossp@mastodon.social
2024-07-25T18:03:52Z
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I'm running an #UnknownArmies #TTRPG campaign, and was looking at my #DeltaGreen books as I was thinking about what I'd run next. And I was struck by how uninterested I've become in the existential hopelessness of the latter's setting. Unknown Armies is dark and grimy and has plenty of bad people doing bad things, but its core is quite human and hopeful. There was a time I loved the cosmic nihilism of Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, but, for a lot of reasons, I now very much bounce off of it.
(DIR) Post #AkJ6jpda9i4ff1szhY by arossp@mastodon.social
2024-07-26T01:34:23Z
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@lextenebris Yes, definitely, you can run them in a more hopeful way. But you'll be pushing against the material as written. Delta Green is pretty clear that the agents' jobs are ultimately hopeless and that Delta Green is destined to fail. The published scenarios and campaigns are relentlessly grim. And the Mythos, and cosmic horror by its nature, don't leave much room for hope. That's just not their jam.
(DIR) Post #AkJ8ldLt0GXi2tb01w by arossp@mastodon.social
2024-07-26T01:37:02Z
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@lextenebris I like that UA (and it was intentional on John Tynes's part) presents a distinct alternative. The Cthulhu Mythos is "Humans ultimately don't matter and are insignificant." UA is "Humans are the only thing that matters and are the most important thing in the universe." This doesn't make UA *better* in an objective sense than CoC/DG. I've just noticed that my perspective has shifted such that I'm much more drawn to that human-centric world building and themes.