Here’s wikipedia on cultural appropriation:Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture. It is distinguished from an equal cultural exchange due to an imbalance of power, often as a byproduct of colonialism and oppression.Cultural appropriation is a hot…
In the midst of all the gender and sexual and political fights of our day one tactic I see on all sides that’s infuriates me is the reference to Nature to justify one’s position about how we humans should conduct ourselves.Nature is everything and nothing. Nature is…
"And believe it or not, Deadpool 2 is a family film. True story. And every big family film starts... with a vicious murder. Bambi, The Lion King, Saw 7." --Deadpool, Deadpool 2Postmodernism is a central topic around these parts. Understanding postmodernism is key to understanding our current moment. Postmodernism is,…
The Spectre of NationalismThis was a Tweet from Richard Dawkins on March 30th, 2019:National pride has evil consequences. Prefer pride in humanity. German pride gave us Hitler, American pride gave us Trump, British pride gave us Brexit. If you must have pride, be proud that Homo sapiens could produce…
Every day brings another in a barrage of pieces critiquing the (mostly online) left-wing social activist culture. Things like safe spaces, trigger warnings, call outs are in for heavy attack.The main line of attack is to source them in some way as the inevitable result of flaws in the…
The Red Pill. Everyone remembers Morpheus offering Neo the choice of the red pill which will “show him how far this rabbit hole goes.” Only as it turns out later in the films it doesn’t quite work out that way.This misremembering would simply be an interesting cinematic footnote…
[Note to the Reader: This piece is going to be very multi-layered. It’s a very complex argument with multiple pieces. It’s also something I’m stretching into mentally. It’s by no means a fully worked out thesis. So please consider it in that exploratory light.]In this…
In this piece I want to explore a couple of recent dystopias that have come out that I think are a major distraction from the real dystopia conversation we should be having (i.e. the one we’re living under). One is the recent HBO film adaptation of the novel…