Nowhere in my comments is the suggestion that their action was “justified.” Nor did I say it was proper or smart or acceptable. I said calling them greedy is both inaccurate and cruel in light of the fact that they are grieving. Being sympathetic to their plight doesn’t mean that I approve of their actions.…

Structural engineers have estimated that it’ll cost upward of $16 billion with an additional $1.5 billion in annual staffing/maintenance costs. If we quadrupled tariffs on exports to Mexico, it could arguably cover the cost, but it’s ignoring the fact that we import more from Mexico than we export. In 2015 our goods…

The most conservative estimates for building a 1,993-mile wall are upward of $16 billion with an additional $1.5 billion in annual staffing/maintenance costs. In 2015, our goods trade deficit with Mexico was -$58 billion. I’m not an economist, but I can’t imagine there’s a world in which heavy tariffs would cover the…

This deeply offends me and I’m not sure why.

That’s fair. It’s possible that some of the hesitation to call porn consumption an actual addiction is because of anti-porn moralizing. I think some people have an easier time being sympathetic to, say, gamblers because it means vilifying predatory casinos and bookies, whereas the popular stereotype of a porn addict…

This. ISIS has admittedly been willing to play the long game on certain matters, but they can’t transform a higher-ranking official or commander into some sort of sleeper agent because most were previously members of Hussein’s military (meaning we have files on them), held at Camp Bucca or Abu Ghraib (meaning we have…

I don’t personally have an opinion or stake in this, but there’s a lot of argument about whether porn constitutes an actual addiction. When you’re addicted to a substance, EEGs will show that you respond with an intense emotional reaction to images/mentions of the thing you’re addicted to, e.g., if a heroin addict was…

This. A friend once argued that shows like Law and Order: SUV are empowering because they (usually) depict justice for victims of sexual violence. But the focus is almost never on the actual trauma victim and his/her struggles. By ending most episodes with vindication in a courtroom (and corralling images of sexual…

Uh, I mean, I don’t speak for all feminists and can’t actively police what they do. Personally, I don’t think it’s okay that anyone is mocking Nicki in the same way that I don’t think it’s cool to mock Taylor. I’m not some Swift stan. She’s fairly irrelevant to my point.

Except it is done. All the time. By people who aren’t daunted by intellectual laziness or unhealthy xenophobia.

Oh, you darling idiot. You seem to think that simply because you’ve never bothered to learn about a culture other than your own that it’s actually impossible to do. It’s not. Signed, one of those mythical experts.

As I’ve said elsewhere on this thread, I absolutely agree that the company isn’t liable. They can (and arguably should) pursue every legal avenue to protect themselves against false claims, even if the optics make me queasy. I wasn’t defending the claimants on the grounds that filing a lawsuit is the “proper”…

Saying it doesn’t make it true. The US has some of the strictest immigration policies in the developed world. It isn’t foolish or myopic to dismiss the risks of resettling Syrian refugees because those risks are microscopically tiny. Your xenophobic fears are simply unnecessary.

His poll numbers were rising incrementally while he was waffling on immigration. Republicans who were unsure about him have actually looked at his flip-flopping as indication that he’ll listen to the advice of credible experts and will ultimately make smart policy choices (?!?). Hopefully, this return to stricter,…

We have no idea “where they come from”? Really? We don’t know where those “people coming in from Syria” come from?

Exactly! I was thoroughly horrified. Like, 1) we really need to talk about your reading comprehension skills, and 2) please stop romanticizing pedophilia and emotional abuse.

That’s certainly a valid argument against plastic surgery, and it would be wonderful if our society as a whole didn’t champion an impossible ideal, but explicitly shaming other women—regardless of whether they are celebrities—isn’t the way to promote body positivity.

I absolutely agree that the company isn’t liable. As I’ve said elsewhere, they can (and arguably should) pursue every legal avenue to protect themselves against false claims, even if the optics make me queasy. I wasn’t defending the claimants on the grounds that filing a lawsuit is the “proper” response; it isn’t. But…

This is only tangentially related, but I had to recently explain to a friend that Lolita is not a love story. Like, no. Just no.

I have this issue with Selena Gomez. Anytime a guy says he finds her attractive, I have to stop myself from thinking, okay, cool, you’re a closeted pedophile. She’s obviously an adult, not an infant, and she probably has a perfectly active and healthy sex life. But still.