A lot of my recent pieces have been rather brief (end note: it went longer than expected), mostly because I am heavily procrastinating writing university assessments that I could fairly easily complete in a solid day of work – but alas I’m an idiot rationalising writing about entirely unrelated topics by keeping it short. Here I’m bouncing off a few different conversations, online and real life, I’ve had about minorities – specifically queer people – being represented in media. Suffice to say there is nothing wrong with it, and you think there is then it isn’t them who are the problem.
Continue reading “A Brief Rant on Minorities in Media”Category: Religion
A Brief Note on the Claim of “Godlessness” After US Shootings
I am sure most people have seen the new regarding the school shooting in Nashville a few days ago. As usual, the calls for action on gun control have been met with fierce resistance and repeated cries to not “politicise” the, very preventable, death of children. That silence is itself a policy choice, but that’s not what sparked fury in the aftermath for me. I stumbled across a sick accusation – that these deaths, preventable mass shootings, this time (again) involving children – that it was “removing God” that causes these events, that they are “under God’s wrath”. Let me just put this bluntly.
If these events are the wrath of your god, your god is a monster.
If your god is capable of preventing it, yet allows these events to occur, your god is a monster.
If your god is incapable of preventing it, then your god is not worth the name.
The disingenuous “thoughts and prayers” mantra is damning enough. But if you are going to blame the ills of the world on your perceived slight of your god, you are a deluded, disgusting wretch.
And you deserve the monster you created.
But humanity doesn’t.
My 2022 Reading List – Part 2
This is part 2 of my 2022 reading list – part 1 can be found here. It is here the focus of my reading (for the most part) was on Australian foreign policy and Indigenous politics as they were some of the units I took at university in first semester. Again, it is in the order that I finished reading them, so there are some odd jumps as I read multiple books at once.
Continue reading “My 2022 Reading List – Part 2”My 2022 Reading List – Part 1
It’s that time of year again where I make note of how little I have written, but at least I’ve made up for it by reading more. Particularly, reading books on topics to ensure that what I did write (mostly university essays) was as polished as possible – and given my grades, for the most part, were good this year, it paid off. So like previous years (linked below), here is the first part of my 2022 reading list. As usual, it is in the order that I completed reading them – so enjoy the jumps between topics.
Continue reading “My 2022 Reading List – Part 1”On Accepting the Consensus View of Science
19/07/2022
I had someone reach out to me recently under the pretext of asking a few questions about science and given they perceived me, from my online posts, to be intelligent. Putting aside the fact my scientific knowledge is more that of a keen hobbyist, it pretty quickly became clear the person in question wasn’t just asking questions they were confused about – they were on a personal crusade against what they believed was a conspiracy from the top, and they didn’t get how I, someone “against the grain” so to speak, could accept the lies we had apparently been fed. This is my rather rambling thoughts on the matter.
Continue reading “On Accepting the Consensus View of Science”Conservatism As a Disposition and a Conservative Anarchism
28/01/2022
There is much debate about whether conservatism is a fully fledged ideology or merely disposition, a way of looking at the world that looks to the past to inform the present and carefully guide the future. This is the argument, always presented as a question in textbooks or other material on conservatism but is never answered, and it is adopted by conservatives themselves to justify or explain their positions on political, cultural and social arenas. I think there is merit to the disposition argument, but more often than not it is used as a shield against genuine criticism.
Continue reading “Conservatism As a Disposition and a Conservative Anarchism”2021 Reading List (Part 3)
This is part 3 of my 2021 reading list, following on from parts 1 and 2, and the final one reaching a total of thirty books for the year. Given that last year I only read twelve, I would call that quite an improvement, and I somehow doubt I’ll read quite as many in the coming year, fingers crossed. Part 1 was fairly good, part 2 was hit and miss, but the last ten books I read this year were all great reads that I’d recommend, for the most part. Enjoy!
Continue reading “2021 Reading List (Part 3)”2021 Reading List (Part 2)
14/12/2021
This is part 2 of my reading list for this year, continuing in order of when they were read following part 1 HERE.
Continue reading “2021 Reading List (Part 2)”On George Orwell
08/05/2021
George Orwell is a name everyone learns, at least in the West as far as I know, during school. Animal Farm and 1984 are the two books written by him that we are told to read and write some analysis of. They are both antitotalitarian works, with Animal Farm being based on the Russian Revolution and led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and 1984 being a scary predictor of surveillance. And that’s about it. That’s all I learned about him in school. Of course, there’s much more, and not all of it is good.
The Twitter hellscape was quick to mob me on that.
Continue reading “On George Orwell”Sydney Morning Herald Protects Morrison, Swipes at Labor
02/05/2021
Annika Smethurst recently wrote an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald entitled “Religion is at the heart of the PM”. What it is, essentially, is an attempt to paint Morrison as a genuine and good guy at heart (despite his “many faults”), while deflecting certain criticisms by throwing them at the Australian Labor Party, making them and their supporters seem hypocritical and antagonistic. In some ways, perhaps, but as someone who says to hell with both factions of the capitalist hegemony, lets throw in a little balance and blunt truths.
Continue reading “Sydney Morning Herald Protects Morrison, Swipes at Labor”
Anarchist Rising 