politics

“Trial by Internet” and the Presumption of Innocence

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Professional Academy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

Only a couple of weeks ago, I noted on this blog (in “Philosophy’s Gatekeepers”) that it had been 190 days since the last major breaking-news story about sexual harassment or assault in professional Philosophy. That was a noteworthy fact, And then, last Friday, the Thomas Pogge story broke. I’ll just direct readers to the news coverage…

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We Need A #WeNeedToTalk App

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson RMWMTMBM Archive, Uncategorized 0 Comments
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Lone Wolves, Together: On Trump’s Curious Farrago

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Like many people, I’ve found myself referring to “Trump supporters” in the last several weeks as a conceptually coherent, identifiable category of voters/citizens and, correspondingly, referring to the things “they” do as the actions of that collective. And every single time, I feel the words slipping, grinding, and catching, as if the very transmission system…

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Adulting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

As a general rule, I’m not a fan of the contemporary obsession with gerunding (#seewhatIdidthere), i.e., turning words that were perfectly fine being nouns, perfectly fine accepting the assistance of helping verbs to make sense of some phenomenon, into stand-alone verbs themselves. My allergy to this practice is, for the most part, a consequence of countless, maddening…

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Fumbles

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 0 Comments

I got behind a bit on this #BloggingEveryDayFebruary project, so I’m playing catch up right now.  If I’m being completely honest, I knew this would happen at some point during the month. Blogging every day is hard. It doesn’t take a lot of time to write a post each day, but it takes a lot…

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Horror

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Film, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I do not enjoy horror films. Not even a little bit. They genuinely terrify me. I hate them, I won’t voluntarily go to them, and no amount of cajoling or ridicule will change my mind about that. Now, I should note here at the start that I don’t believe that ghosts or spirits or devils…

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Forgetting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

I dedicate a significant amount of time in my courses to thinking with students about our “digital selves” and our “digital lives.” Most students– most people, for that matter– tend to think of the aggregate data that constitute their digital selves (social media profiles, Google searches, Netflix or Amazon preferences, banking transactions, medical records, online…

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Anonymity

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Digital Humanities, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

What difference does a signature make? I’ll assume that the phenomenon of trolling is one familiar to most of us on the interwebs, a phenomenon that is, in turns, infuriating, exasperating, unpleasant, and often genuinely hostile and threatening. There’s much to abhor about trolls– their pettiness and vitriol, their disregard for basic conversational decorum, their…

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Torture

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Torture 0 Comments

Several years ago, a friend and colleague of mine invited me to come speak to his class about torture. The class was a writing seminar organized around the theme of “citizenship” and my colleague was feeling (understandably) frustrated because, in his words, he “just didn’t feel like [he] had the tools or the knowledge to…

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Handy Guide to Tone-Policing

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I won’t even bother with summarizing or linking to the most recent debacle in the Philosophy blogosphere.  Instead, I’ll just note that, commensurate with the rest of the nation, the discipline of Philosophy has a real problem determining between when one ought and ought not “tone-police.” I’ve said my peace (here) before about tone-policing and/or…

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