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Showing posts from October, 2016

Jeff Lowder Video

Jeff Lowder has an interesting video on Christian Apologetics, for enthusiasts! Go here :

Chakrabarti, private schools, and hypocrisy

It is not necessarily hypocrisy to argue against allowing X (e.g. private/selective schooling) whilst nevertheless buying X for your kids. E.g. if air was privatised and sold, I'd fight that tooth and nail, while buying it for my kids . Nothing hypocritical about that. There are important goods Chakrabarti cannot have for all kids while private schools are in place (such as a level playing field when it comes to careers in journalism, the civil service, etc.etc.). So Chakrabarti argue s against private schools. However, for her not to buy private schooling for her own kids may, under the present system that does allow and encourage private schools, be to significantly disadvantage them. In which case it may be morally permissable for Chakrabarti to buy private schooling for her kids if she can afford it, notwithstanding her moral objection to private schooling. This is not rocket science. I don't understand why so many fail to grasp the point. It's is i

Results of twitter poll on self-censorship - which, ironically, I ended up self-censoring

I have a long-standing interest in freedom of speech, and in particular the way in which people will tend to self-censor for fear of being accused of some form of bigotry. I'm particularly concerned, for example, that the accusation of Islamophobia is being used to try to shame and silence critics of Islam. I'm similarly concerned that the accusation of antisemitism is being used to try to shame and silence critics of Israel. Here is something I wrote on that subject. I thought I would do a not-very-scientific twitter poll to see whether people felt they were self-censoring due to fear of being accused of bigotry.  I asked the following 'yes' 'no' questions: 1. Have you ever self-censored yr views on Islam for fear of being accused of Islamophobia? 2. Have you ever self-censored your views on LGBT issues for fear of being accused of bigotry? 3. Have you ever self-censored your views on Israel for fear of being accused of antisemitism? 4.