I have a series of posts called StuFLaW that release concurrently with my normal posts, an acronym for Stuff From Last Week designed to make it really hard to press the shift key at the correct time while typing it. StuFLaW will contain topics from the previous week that are really more suited to a quick paragraph or a few than an entire blog post, but I was thinking about them and wanted to include them. There's no regular schedule for StuFLaW, but it will happen whenever it's necessary.
So hi. I meant to do this StuFLaW last week, but I was in New York and was being rushed. Sorry. The companion post on Condorcet Minimax is here.
1. I've been writing a story* about a sentient Russian doll named Natalia. I had the idea a while ago, and I haven't been writing as much as I should. Therefore, I'm serializing it on the blog. The prologue is out today, and I'll publish chapters weekly until I finish the story.
2. While I don't have anything unique to say, the current border situation is abhorrent. To help, I suggest that, as this article states, you donate to an organization like Border Angels or Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
3. I recently got a Pete Buttigieg shirt. If you're in the market for either shirts or Buttigieg bling, it's a very comfortable shirt.
4. I watched this video about masculinism. I kept thinking about MCMMMM, though.
What I learned was that there are a few legitimate places where men have it worse off. For example, of all the people that die on the job, 93% are male. Most commonly, they are truck drivers. The masculinist movement at large, though, contains a lot of somewhat flawed statistics. It's hard to deny that men have it better in our current society. However, masculinism and feminism actually have a lot in common. For example, they would both support the Equal Rights Amendment. And it's a bit sad that they are reluctant to join forces.
5. Before I say this, I had an argument with myself over whether it was appropriate to put this on my blog. It's about two very heated political issues, and when I've brought it up in casual conversation, people have often reacted strongly.
So I decided that I'd post it, with the following caveat: if it makes you angry, or if you feel it's an unfair characterization of issues, then just stop reading it and watch Studio C. Here goes:
Loosely speaking, the Democratic party supports abortion rights but not gun rights. The Republican party supports gun rights but not abortion rights. However, it's kind of weird that different parties support different sides. (In no way is it wrong for a person to support different sides, it's just interesting to me that the party platforms do.) The arguments for and against abortion and guns, for instance, are remarkably similar:
Pro: This is a basic human right that is protected by a major statute.** It's ridiculous that anyone would try to infringe on this, since it is somewhat harmless*** and in fact very important to many people's lifestyles.
Con: This threatens a large number of human lives and it's crazy that anyone would try to downplay this. Permitting this to happen has already had catastrophic consequences and we hold it against our values.****
Thanks for reading what I wrote. Remember to check out my other content.
–beautifulthorns
*It has multiple chapters, making it longer than a short story, but it has like three chapters, making it shorter than a novella. Don't know what to call it.
**Roe v. Wade and the Second Amendment.
***Depending on the situation and how you value fetus lives, abortion can save lives or be neutral instead of endangering them. And most gun owners don't commit homicides.
****In the case of abortion, these values are often religious. In the case of guns, they're generally presented as common sense.