Parental Entitlement

When two people (for example friends or family members) choose to spend their free time together, it is generally a mutual decision, and both parties are expected to enjoy this social interaction. Nobody is expected to spend their free time with some person whose company they do not enjoy. If said person is an adult, that is.

When said person is a child, some parents will want to turn every person around them into their free babysitters, and they will try to dump their kid on any random person of their choice. And when somebody says that, no, some private event or some privately owned real estate is going to stay child free, then parents complain about accessibility and imagine that they are getting discriminated. [Read more…]

Children and Responsibility

When a person enables the creation of a new helpless yet sentient living being, they should be responsible for taking care of this creature and ensuring its wellbeing. Be it a puppy, a pet rabbit or a human baby. But the question is who exactly ought to be held responsible for children—their biological parents or the society that forces people to give birth against their will? [Read more…]

The Supposed Virtue of Hard Work

Even since childhood, I have been indoctrinated that being hardworking is a virtue. Since I didn’t grow up in a religious household, I wasn’t exactly told that sloth is a sin. Nonetheless, people kept reminding me that being lazy is very bad. Yet they failed to explain why exactly it is bad for people to take things easy and enjoy life. Nor could they prove that I would benefit from all my hard work.

What’s up with all this indoctrination? Why other members of the society even care whether I am lazy or hardworking? [Read more…]

Charity

From my perspective, many American customs, values, and cultural expectations are weird. American attitudes towards charity are among those cultural quirks that have made me raise an eyebrow on plenty of occasions when I observed some odd behavior or attitude for the first time. Giving spare income to charity is probably the best thing a person can do with their extra money. But the customs about how people request help and assist those in need can be rather odd. [Read more…]

Non-leaky labs and overly leaky mouths

The idea that COVID-19 leaked from a lab is extremely unlikely, and there is zero evidence to support it. It was a conspiracy theory last year, and, since we have no new evidence suggesting that there could have been a leaky lab causing problems, it still remains a conspiracy theory. Of course, there might be new discoveries someday in the future, but for now we should abstain from promoting ideas that are not supported by any evidence. [Read more…]

Euthanasia

Some terminally ill people experience excruciating pain for prolonged periods of time before they die of natural causes. Thus I strongly believe that euthanasia must be legal and accessible for people who need it. Torturing sick people for no good reason is cruel and inhumane. [Read more…]

Transphobes and their Dating Preferences

Each person who is interested in dating and sex could write long lists of various traits that are either deal breakers or make a potential date more attractive. Most people only want to date people who fall within a specific age range. Some people won’t date conservative Christians. Some people won’t date those who are not a conservative Christian. There are people who won’t date a smoker or, vice versa, a person who dislikes tobacco smoke. Some people only date those who are interested in marriage and children. Other people look for casual sex. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. People can have all kinds of quirks about what they find sexy or physically attractive. A person can like big boobs or small boobs or they can strongly dislike breast implants. Or they can like breast implants. A person can have preferences about a potential date’s body weight, muscle mass, height, hairstyle, etc. For example, I find certain voices sexier than others. And if a potential date has beautiful hands, I’ll really like that (yes, I’m an artist; the stereotype that artists pay attention to people’s hands is true about me).

If I asked out some person and they refused with the explanation “you are not my type,” then that would be understandable. Nobody owes sex to anybody else, and people are free to choose whom they want to date. If a person was filling out their profile in a dating website and wrote information about their likes and dislikes, then that would be reasonable.

What is less reasonable are people who feel an irresistible urge to loudly proclaim “I wouldn’t date a person with characteristic X” out of context in situations where this information is utterly irrelevant. [Read more…]