Gerrymandering
For those who don’t know, gerrymandering is the practice of creating electoral districts that are inherently unfair. A relatively recent piece of breaking news has been the recent push to entrench gerrymandering in Texas. Under the new proposed maps, Texas Republicans could gain up to five seats in the House, and these new maps are heavily supported by the Trump administration, for obvious reasons. Texas Democrats went so far as to flee the state to prevent the legislature from meeting a quorum.
Identity Politics is Dead
For those unfamiliar, identity politics has been the default method of leftist organizing for as long as I can remember. The idea originally entered the public discourse in a 1974 manifesto by the black feminist activists of the Combahee River Collective. The idea is relatively straightforward. Every person is a collection of different identities. For example, some of my identities might be as a white, heterosexual man with ADD. Every single identity you have changes the experiences you have in
America's Cultural Problem
America has a massive cultural problem. I’m not going to bloviate at length about how and why, but somehow, as a society, we have concluded that wealth is the only thing that matters. To be perfectly clear, I am not going to argue that wealth and profit are immoral. I’m not a communist. I understand that for most people, the most realistic way to improve their circumstances is to earn more money. I firmly believe you should be compensated fairly for the work that you do. The problem is that gre
Walmart and Liberty
I live in a fairly rural area. Unfortunately, this means that unless I want to drive for an hour, I am forced to make a significant amount of my purchases at the most despicable of big box stores, Walmart. As I was walking through those highly esteemed aisles, I saw some employees setting up some event merchandise for the 4th of July. One of those items was a set of big plastic letters that spelled out “LIBERTY.” I had to stop for a moment, because that might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever se
The Philosophy of Education
Introduction Education is a difficult topic to approach due to its sheer complexity. Decisions on educational policy have the power to profoundly alter the economy and society. Learning is universally understood to be a good thing. It is how people pass knowledge to future generations. However, learning is only a small part of education. An education system is also responsible for instilling values; it is impossible to be genuinely value-neutral. Sometimes, the use of education to instill valu
On the Margins
This essay is not intended to offend but may do so. A small group of people work behind the scenes and fundamentally alter the course of society. Right now, you’re probably wondering which insane conspiracy theory I’m about to promote. But this isn’t the Illuminati or Reptilian shapeshifters controlling our government. It’s a well-known but poorly understood part of the internet called 4chan, which is incredibly influential. And instead of some sinister plan for world domination, much of what 4