Someone shares an article with an unnerving headline on Facebook, but you don’t have the energy to investigate. A colleague spreads coronavirus misinformation during a meeting, but you decide it’s not worth it to try to correct them. A relative calls wanting to talk about a complex political issue, but…

Last week, the Supreme Court heard its first case addressing religious freedom and LGBTQ civil rights with Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member of the Court. The case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, concerns whether Philadelphia can require organizations it partners with to accept same-sex couples as foster parents. …

Reliability is a quality that comes in degrees. For example, a bus that always arrives exactly on time is highly reliable. A bus that often but not always arrives on time is somewhat reliable. A bus that rarely arrives on time is unreliable. People living in areas with public transit…

In her book Fascism: A Warning, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recounts that: “Mussolini observed that in seeking to accumulate power it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken — feather by feather — so each squawk is heard apart from every…

As I write this, a story is spreading through Twitter and Reddit that there are three people in an ED because they drank bleach in responses to Trump’s galling press conference in which he suggested that injecting disinfectant may be a way to treat COVID-19. I have good news and…

Many people are suddenly finding themselves with extra unanticipated time at home because of COVID-19. There are lots of valuable ways one could choose to spend the time: cooking, calling loved ones, writing Medium posts about books, etc. One common suggestion has been to read more. If you find yourself…

When I first started studying philosophy, I created a Word document where I could collect quotes from texts I was reading that I found particularly meaningful. Almost a decade later, I’m still adding to that document. One of the unanticipated joys of keeping such a document is that it lets…

Most of the demagogues in developed countries around the world are sorites authoritarians. We need to understand this form of political erosion if we’re going to be able to stop it. Here’s an example of a sorites paradox: Take a million grains of sand and put them into a pile…

This weekend, there is going to be a “straight pride” parade in Boston. In hosting this event, the parade organizers show us that they don’t understand what LGBTQ Pride is really about. A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were walking through the mall holding hands. Two men walked…