Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In reply to Michael Brazier. To continue in the same skeptical vein as your comment, I don’t suppose we are fully certain that Hitler was responsible for the Holocaust, never having put him on trial in a court of law, and not having received from…

In reply to mlyoung57. I agree. This might be a slightly nitpicking disagreement about the meaning of “insult.” I had narrowed its meaning to exclude speech acts of the kind you’re referring to. A calling-out is not an insult in my book; it’s a critici…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. A more accurate paraphrase would be “We don’t actually know that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was done on the orders of the government of Saudi Arabia, and until we do know that we’re not going to punish Sa…

In reply to Michael Brazier. I have no strong views on energy policy, and no great sympathy for environmentalism, but I don’t see how Biden’s supposed reduction of oil production explains very much. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/202…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. This is a fascinating topic. If insulting is cashed out in terms of intent to demean, what you say seems right (or at least very plausible). But is this always the intent? I suspect that there is a broader kind of ill-intent …

Well, what did you expect? After Biden’s done everything in his power to reduce oil production in North America, how can he not beg the Saudis to save him? It’s not as if he can kick the Greens out of his administration, admit he was wrong …