- June 6, 2016
David Burress
Bigotry’s standard self-defense is now a preemptive red herring: accusing bigotry’s opponents of intolerance. The earliest version was the “free speech” defense–“to criticize me is to deprive me of my free speech” (namely, the freedom to call people hateful names). Later came the “political correctness” defense—“if you criticize me you are merely following a liberal ...
- May 31, 2016
David Burress
“Social engineering:” public policies incentivizing human behavior with the goal of improving the general welfare. (We’ve recently seen Kansas Speaker of the house speak out against this kind of thing.)
“Law and order:” public policies incentivizing human behavior with the goal of getting demagogues reelected.
“Marketing:” public action incentivizing human behavior with the goal of maximizing monopoly ...
- May 31, 2016
David Burress
National accreditation of police:
The police will never reform until we:
— develop national standards for all aspects of policing
— set up accreditation programs for all policing units
— withhold federal aid from unaccredited units.
- May 27, 2016
David Burress
The radical right loves many things, including:
–bullying designated scapegoats such as gays and transexuals and school children
–repressing sexuality
–skirting the delicious edges of open hypocrisy
–raising divisive issues to change the subject from their own fiscal incompetence
–grandstanding on feckless issues to whip up their irrational mob of supporters
–beating up on black folks indirectly, or not so indirectly ...