You’re right that the specific circumstance will never come up but that doesn’t mean the discussion and responses don’t have value. It’s basically a modification of the trolley problem.

It’s not about choosing something innocent and defenseless over a morally ambiguous person. If you need to, make it a baby vs. a…

You’ve just stated that familiarity with an animal justifies letting an unfamiliar human being die to save it. This is exactly the kind of thing that concerns me. You can say a pet is a special case but is that any more justified than someone saying they value their religious tenets or favorite sports team more than a…

...what sane person doesn’t think our society is flawed? Hell, that may be the one thing that EVERYONE agrees on!

I’ve been very troubled by the trend in recent years to value animal lives over human ones. I’m not saying we should tolerate animal cruelty or neglect but it’s hard for me to see the underlying impulse for her actions as “empathy” given the ease with which she can ignore human suffering.

I’ve been asking myself a…

When she posts pictures of herself holding a live chicken and giving diet advice, it’s hard not to apply the “influencer” label. Maybe there are sexist associations but the label accurately describes someone who presents and promotes on online persona. She isn’t using her account to promote her business and charity…

Some of the wealthiest members of the Master Race, everyone!

I also find it funny that they’re so concerned about their property yet they’re too cheap to buy a fence.

Many of the examples this week gesture vaguely in the direction of racial dynamics but the real humor is meant to be found in the transgressive shock of a character “cluelessly” doing something offensive. As a fan of Community, 30 Rock, and Kimmy Schmidt, my kneejerk reaction was annoyance but it didn’t take much…

Based on the roads around me, our local populace is 40% construction workers, lumberjacks, and ranchers who do a great job keeping the beds of their trucks so squeaky clean that you can’t tell they’ve hauled anything in there a car couldn’t handle.

Of course they may need the ground clearance as I live in the overgrown…

South of Canada?

You just described the South.

That’s been the story of America since before independence. All the plantation owners in the states and Caribbean islands got away with passing laws that gave them huge advantages over poor whites. They still had their support because they let them shit on black people and told stories about how the slaves would rise…

I feel like the default response to these people should be:
“If you can dodge a wrench, you can wear a mask!”
“What?”

What really struck me was the, “No one respects us anymore. So if you see a cop say thank you because we need to hear it.”

These are people who are so used to automatic deference and performative “praise” that even the idea that she may not be getting that special treatment anymore is “too much.” No acknowledgment that…

My point is that JK Rowling is someone who appears reasonable at first glance but she pushes the bathroom rape conspiracies as hard as anyone.

The only difference is she starts the claims with, “Having talked to many concerned females and other rape survivors like myself and my trans friends, I think their concerns…

I guarantee that a large number (if not all) police departments are now dens where cops bitch about the protests and work each other into a frenzy sharing every rumor they heard from their mother-in-law who heard it from her hairdresser, etc. They are amplifying the hell out of each others’ victimhood and still lack…

These things are more tied together than we like to acknowledge. It’s not a coincidence that most of the bigotry sits comfortably under the same roof. The difference between the first group and the second is the first believes their truths to be self-evident whereas the second recognizes that they need to craft…

It’s not more likely to work. All they will do is provide an example for the “All Lives Matter” crowd to point to and scream, “See, if you behaved more like them you wouldn’t get shot! Pull up your pants!”

Yeah, don’t put Lego bricks in there! You might shatter your hammer!

In a weird way this better shows how police are out of control than the George Floyd video. Chauvin kneeling on his neck was so egregious that many cops were able to distance themselves by claiming that it’s against their policies.

Eh, just tell them it’s to catch angry black people doing crime and the Fox News crowd will throw their money at the problem. Buy an ad on Tucker Carlson’s show. I hear they’re getting cheaper.