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…]

Insidious Sexism

Everyday sexism. The small things in life. When I complain about such “minor” incidents, people tend to accuse me of nitpicking and making a fuss about nothing. But they are frequent, they happen all the time, again and again, day after day, and together they create a deeply sexist environment that enforces upon people outdated patriarchal gender roles. [Read more…]

Planning Fallacy: The Hidden Depths of Weeds

The planning fallacy is a phenomenon in which predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed. People commonly fall prey to this fallacy, so it would be advisable to start working on projects early. Then again, my own experience is that I tend to work more efficiently and focus on a task much better when I know that I have little time left and I cannot drag on some job. Thus for me starting some project way too early is counterproductive. The solution is then to plan my schedule so that I have enough time to comfortably finish some job but without having too much spare time, because the latter would unconsciously prevent me from working efficiently. [Read more…]

Different Responses to a Global Pandemic

Some countries have dealt with COVID-19 much better than others. With quarantine, social distancing, and good healthcare it is possible to significantly reduce the number of dead people. Politicians and the healthcare system can make a huge difference. Some countries have done a pretty good job. Others (hint: the USA) have been absolutely terrible. I believe that at this point it is possible for me to argue that the USA has the worst politicians and the worst healthcare system among all the developed countries. [Read more…]

Childfree Bingo

mandatory parenthood breeder childfree by choice bingo

 

Here is a graphic I just made. Here’s how it works. This is similar to the “Breeder Bingo” you might have already seen online, the difference is that I don’t really want to use the word “breeder” due to some people perceiving this word as condescending. Anyway, here you have some of the usual phrases childfree people hear over and over again from those who insist upon mandatory parenthood. As they say the dumb things to you, you cover the blocks on your card until you have Bingo! [Read more…]

The Harm Principle and its Limitations

How should a society decide which actions ought to be criminalized? Personally, I’m a proponent of the harm principle. John Stuart Mill articulated this principle in On Liberty, where he argued that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals. Self-harm cannot be criminalized. “Crimes” without victims cannot exist. The fact that many people consider some action disgusting cannot be a sufficient reason for criminalizing it. So far so good. But how do we determine what constitutes harm for other people? And what about all those cases where there is only minor harm? At which point do we decide that the harm for other people is significant enough to warrant outlawing some action? [Read more…]