Wednesday’s insurrection should have been a surprise to exactly no one. Division and outright rage have been reaching a boiling point for several years now, and we’ve watched Trump fervently stir the pot since Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election. Much of the provocation from the President, and the rallying of his insurgents, took place before our very eyes on social media. Which begs the increasingly urgent question — what role and responsibility does social media have in today’s world?
Currently the FTC and 46 US States, the District of Columbia and Guam are suing Facebook for…
The US election results (or lack thereof) have been the shock heard round the world, and it isn’t just the protests, pre-mature claims of victory, and accusations of fraud that have people unsettled — it’s the closeness of the race. A landslide win was projected for Biden by many, but the narrow margins by which states are being won and lost make clear just how divided the nation truly is. We are being forced to face the question that has been murmured reluctantly in the shadows for a few years now: is America on the precipice of a civil war?
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional nor an expert on transgender issues. I am no more qualified to have or express an opinion on these topics than any of the other thousands of people weighing in and throwing stones.
In all honesty I had not been following the recent controversy surrounding JK Rowling all that closely. Primarily this was because I don’t believe we should control or be controlled by the opinions of others, and secondly because I don’t believe that we should value the opinions of celebrities to the degree that we do. However, I did finally read…
I came into this strange season of pandemic and isolation at the tail end of what has already been the strangest and most difficult time of my life, making it a bit like the final quarter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland… are all of the oddities encountered at that stage in the story really that odd anymore?
You see, we’re in the midst of a home renovation. My husband and I bought an old historic house and what was at first scheduled to be a four month renovation has just stretched into its second year. It goes without saying that…
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that, in order for an individual to be motivated to achieve higher needs, their lower needs must be met first. That is to say that if a person does not have their most basic needs being met (food, water, air, sleep), they are not going to be concerning themselves much with higher needs, such as friends or status. It is hard to argue with the truth of this premise — after all if you were having trouble breathing, an idea such as being popular would become remarkably trivial.
The next level above these physiological needs…
Growing up in a literalist Christian church, I was taught from a young age that people are born inherently sinful. Man is born with a sinful nature which makes him deserving of hell, hence the need for a redeeming savior who bore the punishment for us. This concept may not seem all too radical on its face (at least if you’re accustomed to religion), but it gets a little disturbing when you start peeling back the layers.
The idea that man is inherently sinful led to me being taught by our pastor’s wife at the age of seven that babies…
As a writer, conceiving a new idea can be much like deciding to conceive a child. Starry-eyed and full of anticipation, you dream about how beautiful and perfect this story will be. You imagine with romanticism the late nights of sitting up tending to it, picturesque, a labor of love. You think about how everyone will “oo” and “ah” over it, how amazing it is, and you’ll be so proud.
Then you put pen to paper, the idea is born, and it’s nothing like you thought it would be. You realize you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re way…
It’s a beautiful thing to watch human beings give one another encouragement, but somewhere along the way “You can do it!” has started to feel almost like an admonition — “You can do it, so why aren’t you?”
If you browse Pinterest you will find that everything that needs to be done in life has been boiled down to such simple steps that “anyone can do it.” Quick tips for cleaning or working out are often advertised as “fitting into any schedule.” …
During the 2016 Primaries, when I expressed my support for a particular candidate, I was told to do my research. The woman I was speaking with didn’t ask why I supported this candidate, but automatically assumed that the only possible explanation could be ignorance, and that as soon as I did my research there was no way I would support this candidate anymore. I have seen people, when presented with a litany of evidence in support of their opponent’s claim, dismiss the evidence with those same three little words — do your research.
“Do your research” has become the most…
If you’ve spent any amount of time online outside of reading this article, then you probably already know that the Internet is a hotbed for debate. And by debate I mean name-calling, hate speech, and every other flavor of verbal abuse. Godwin’s Law asserts that any online discussion that goes on long enough will eventually lead to comparisons to Nazis or Hitler. Online instigators that make a hobby of goading online commenters into petty arguments have even been deemed their own moniker of “trollers” or “trolls,” fittingly conjuring up images of ugly troublemakers who live under bridges.
