DISCLAIMER: While the USA is not the focus of this piece, it is not to suggest that we are ignorant of, or in any way attempting to justify-by-comparison, the history of its founding upon the backs of generationally enslaved Africans and amidst the systemic genocide of the native civilizations its national crimes, like the nuclear …
Tag: animal cruelty
On Karmic Justice
The word Karma seems to have become very much a part of the common language. Non-Hindus and non-Buddhists tend to use it in the negative sense, of someone getting what is coming to them. Essentially, there appear to be three interpretations. The original religious one, regarding consequences from past lives the casual common-use bastardization of …
Sam Harris on Israel: An Ancient Tribalism in the Modern Day
The once excellent atheist/anti-theist moral philosopher Sam Harris, who had previously written intelligibly regarding threats from Islamist ideologies has, in recent years, lamentably exposed himself as quite tribalistic and hypocritical in his opposition to theocratic nationalism. Imagining himself a proponent of secular, liberal democracy and Universal Rights (and unquestionably believing himself to be just that) …
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Lifting Up: Mental Illness and Neuro-divergence (Pt. 2)
I can whole heartedly say that I am healthier and happier now than I ever was when I was “free.” Not because being in prison is good, but because losing everything and then choosing to live left me with only one way to go: Up. Before, I always hid my mental illness, shied from the …
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Happiness Now: The Reality of Positive Perception
Who has more control over your own mind than you? No one. Therefore, is it not only logical to choose to be Happy? I am not talking about willful ignorance, I am talking about which emotion we should make our default state. One is not a "realist" if they only acknowledge, and fixate upon, the …
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Israel and Palestine (Tyranny of the Minority): Part Two
Israelis and Palestinians are national identities; Jews and Arabs are ethnic identities; Judaism and Islam are religious identities. Two of these can coexist but not three. By the founding principles of both religions, unequivocal domination and/or total genocide of the outgroup is a divine mandate. Hebrew scripture: Joshua 11:8-23 “And the Lord delivered them into …
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Principle of Charity: Benefit of the Doubt
The Principle of Charity is a cognitive decision to discard the cowardness of cynicism and embrace a more compassionate mode of thought. Put simply, it is a consciously charitable interpretation of another's motives (unless proven otherwise, and without compromising one's physical safety). Instead of assuming the worst about people, offering them the benefit of the …
Principle of Equality: The Benefit of Fairness
Speciests, like sexists, racists, and all other tribalist bigots, violate the Principle of Equal Consideration when they allow the most trivial desires of their own group to override the greatest interests of other beings. Whether political, national, religious, or any other in-group ideology, Tribalism is the worst, most primitive impulse that we have. It is …
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Plant-based Prisons (An Open Letter)
Hello Ethical Comrades, I have been struggling to live my vegan lifestyle while incarcerated since my arrest for a horrific accident back in 2017. For two and a half years, while I was in county jail, and the most conservative court in the State was taking its time deciding my fate, I subsisted on under-cooked …
Spectrum of Consciousness
Sentience or “Consciousness” exists upon a Spectrum. Throughout the course of life and everyday, a being may move Up or Down that continuum. Raw feral instinct in the lower end, deep thought in the middle center, and, what the Buddhists call “Great Compassion,” at the higher end of the spectrum. Human beings exists upon a …
Enchained Empirical Ethicist 