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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Neurobiology

mercredi 7 décembre 2016 à 01:00

Some neurobiological support for the maxim not to go to bed angry.

Right-wing "political correctness"

mercredi 7 décembre 2016 à 01:00

Right-wing bullies stretch the term "political correctness" to present any disapproval as mere narrowminded ideology.

The pressures criticized as "political correctness" do exist. The term "trigger warnings" is used by people who ask for them, even demand them. "Microaggressions" and "cultural appropriation" derive from schools of thought that use them for actions that they disapprove of. They are meant to criticize acts seen as mistreatment of those who are weak or hurt.

I agree with them on some issues, but on some points I think they go too far. For instance, telling people to say "black" instead of "negro" (which was not a pejorative word), then to say "African-American" instead of "black", then to say "people of color" instead of "African-American", led me to decline to follow them. ("Of color" is so clumsy that using it strikes me as conspicuous subservience.) I stuck with "blacks". (Then I learned Spanish, in which they are called "los negros", which means "the blacks".) I feel vindicated now that blacks have come around to using the term "black" again.

What right-wingers have done is apply the label of "political correctness" to any disapproval of anything — even substantive condemnation of a nasty actions.

Trump uses this distortion (see examples in the first article) when he bullies the weak, to imply that disapproval of bullying is mere "political correctness".

Psilocybin for treating depression

mercredi 7 décembre 2016 à 01:00

Psilocybin has been effective for treating depression.

UK military on global heating

mercredi 7 décembre 2016 à 01:00

[Global heating] will stir 'unimaginable' refugee crisis, says [UK] military.

Castro

mercredi 7 décembre 2016 à 01:00

Castro sent troops to Africa to fight colonial regimes, and sent doctors to countries when the US ignored them.