The antifa and BLM protests over the last several years were overwhelmingly peaceful. Nonetheless, right-wing media were able to convince tens of millions of Americans that antifa and BLM are violent, radical movements. Right wing media exaggerated the few instances of violence that did occur, and many of those incidents were the result of provocations […]
Justice
Robert Wright’s Nonzero and the growth of cooperative complexity
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, is an ambitious book, with a title that one might deem grandiose. But the author, Robert Wright, crafts a satisfying, readable tour de force that synthesizes human history, anthropology, game theory, biology, and ethics. The book first explores the evolution of human societies towards larger and more complex social […]
Review of Martin Nowak's Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed
How can cooperation emerge in a world of selfish individuals ruled by a Darwinian competition for survival? This is the question that Martin Nowak, Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard University, discusses in Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Nowak and his collaborators have published a series of […]
It's our action now
It’s up to us, we the people, if we want to save life on earth and build a better world for all. The 1% cannot and will not save us. They are afflicted with the deadly greed disease. The two major parties will not save us, the police and military will not save us; they […]
Stop putting up with our ridiculous health care providers!
A facebook friend posted a Washington Post article 50 hospitals charge uninsured more than 10 times cost of care, study finds. A discussion ensued. Bret Benson told this story: I had a $3,600 bill after going to the emergency room for a gash in my head over and above what my insurance covered. Devon told […]
Painless executions are easy but immoral
I oppose capital punishment. But it surprises me that states are struggling to find ways to execute people painlessly. There are two easy ways to kill people painlessly. The first is carbon monoxide. People often die in their beds from carbon monoxide poisoning (due to improper ventilation of a heater, for example). They feel drowsy […]
Ending the War on Drugs: a talk with Inspire Seattle
InspireSeattle invites YOU to join us at our Social Forum: Saturday, April 25th at 6:30PM. Main discussion topic for this evening: Ending the War on Drugs For four decades the US has fueled its policy of a “war on drugs” with over a trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies. More than 39 million arrests […]