What grinds my gears

Remember that time, something like ten-or-so years ago, when American far-leftists, starting from university students, were strongly instructed to snap their fingers instead of clapping in order to show approval? Because, apparently, hand clapping is "triggering" while, apparently, finger-snapping is not. Up until it actually was. Unsurprisingly some years later far-leftists were forbidden from finger-snapping and were instructed to use "jazz hands" instead (although you could still see the stupid finger-snapping thing being used even several years after that.) That was, of course, by far not the only such incident of behavioral control among the American far left (and, obviously, spread to many other western countries like a cancer.) There are tons and tons of examples. "You can't do this", "you have to do this", "you can't use these words", "you have to use these words", etc. etc. Even more than physical behavior the

Some people, especially many American conservatives, claim that "the United States is not a democracy, it's a constitutional republic." The problem with that statement is that it's essentially a category error. That's because "democracy" is an umbrella term that covers a variety of governmental systems, and "constitutional republic" is a slightly narrower term that's one of those systems. In other words, the United States is a constitutional republic and a democracy, because a constitutional republic is a form of democracy. Saying that "the US is not a democracy, it's a constitutional republic" is like saying "cheddar is not food, it's a cheese". Cheddar is both a food and a cheese, because cheeses are food. The confusion that most of these people have is that they think that "democracy" is a synonym for "direct democracy", in other words, a form of government where every single law and sta

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about a gaming-related forum I have actively participated in for several years now, and how there are some other participants there who really love to virtue-signal about their pronouns and their "trans" status. It sometimes becomes so obnoxious that I felt the need to write a bit more about it. There are at least three or four people there who openly identify themselves as " lesbian trans-women ". In other words, completely normal men who are attracted to women, but who get kicks and adulation by claiming that they are "lesbian trans-women". Mind you, those people, and other "lesbian" and "trans" people in that real-time discussion forum, are the only ones who I have ever seen, during my several years there, talk about their personal lives to this level of detail. I literally do not know the marital or relationship status of any other person in that forum, nor do I know anything at all about their

Candace Owens, who is a rather notorious black woman who is an American conservative activist, said in a recent interview that if she were a man running a company, she would not hire a single woman. Her argument for this is that hiring women comes with an enormous amount of sociopolitical drawbacks and baggage, and no benefits to compensate for them. More particularly, when men interact with each other for example at a workplace, they can be pretty chill and relaxed with each other. In general men don't really need to fear "insulting" other men by simply casually talking with them and interacting with them, even making comments that go beyond pure professional topics related to their work. However, when men interact with women at the workplace they always need to be walking on eggshells, especially at certain places: They need to always be extremely careful about what they say and do, and even then it might not even help, no matter how careful they are. Even a very simple

A quite big YouTuber who goes by the nickname "Nikocado Avocado" has been quite controversial over the years, mostly caused by his self-destructive behavior, with some of his fans defending him while others have criticized him for said behavior, how he is ruining his own life and giving a bad example to others. Many years ago he was a very skinny and healthy-looking guy doing random YouTube videos, who one day tried making a so-called "mukbang" video, which is a video were the author just eats an enormous amount of (usually very unhealthy) food. To his surprise that video got millions of views, way more than the vast majority of his other videos. So he did it again, and again, and again... And you can guess where it went: He became addicted, both to food and to making these videos. Over the years his weight doubled, if not even tripled, and he started suffering from all kinds of conditions due to his weight and his overeating. And, unsurprisingly, once you get addic

A friend of mine told a story about when he was in grade school, in a conversation about learning to play instruments, and music teaching in primary school. A girl in the same school had brought an accordion to music class, because her father played one and she thought it would be a nice way to learn and participate. And this wasn't some kind of toy accordion. It was the real deal, a full-on expensive instrument. Because the accordion was so heavy and cumbersome to carry, she kept it stored in the music classroom. You might guess where this is going. One day it turned out that someone had vandalized the instrument, poking holes all over it with a pen. Not only was she devastated, it was also a quite expensive instrument, so it wasn't a small deal. This caused a huge ruckus in the school, but the culprit was never found nor came forward. The sad thing about these things is that while we find such things infuriating and sad, most of us don't find it surprising. Vandalism, des

Imagine that you are, let's say, the treasurer of a large corporation, and you start embezzling some of the company's money into your own pockets, which is of course highly illegal. Now imagine that you get caught doing it, but you get away with your crime by simply quitting your position in that company. That's it. You quit, and you get away with your crime. Neither the company itself nor the government will pursue further. You don't get put on trial, you don't get any conviction. At most, perhaps some individual person could try to sue you, but it's up to them. Or imagine if you are a nurse in a large hospital, and you start giving poison to patients under your care, and when you are find out, you just quit your position and get away with it: No lawsuits, no trials, no punishment. Both the hospital and the government would stop doing anything about your crime at the moment you quit, and simply and purely because you quit. Would that make any kind of sense? Obv