Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

[…] ← Workflow for Doomsday: Russia, the US, and Ukraine […] LikeLike

I realize that my last post, on Ukraine, might have struck some readers as wordy and tedious. So here’s the short version, which simply summarizes the long version. If you find it too terse, read the long version. Either we are willing and able to mount a full-scale military defense of Ukraine against a Russian…

In reply to David Potts. Re. “ You keep emphasizing [that Judge Krot] threatened to throw Chowdhury in jail. You say she really meant it, but I cannot see what basis you have to know that. Since it would be ridiculous to throw someone in jail over weed…

Irfan; For the typical person, the distinction between (1) and (2) is significant, and I agree that for the typical person that an example of (1) would deserve nothing worse than a rebuke / reprimand. The problem is that, in real life, (1) often leads …

Malinowski on Ukraine: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/01/tom-malinowski-congress-russia-ukraine It would be as if somebody put a loaded gun to your head and then blamed you for stoking tensions by complaining about it. When the Israelis pointed …

In reply to Michael Brazier. When I said, “I hope you will…” what I really meant was: “I hope you will realize that I’m joking about the rationality of the men and women who govern us, because I actually find their irrationality so hard to fathom and p…

Given the absolute hash that “the men and women who govern this great nation” made of withdrawing from Afghanistan, a policy for which they actually had general support from the people (before they did it), why would you suppose that they h…

I do workflow for health care organizations. Here is my proposed workflow for US policy on Ukraine. Either we are willing and able (militarily) to defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion, or not. It may be cheating for me to treat “willing and able” as a conjunction rather than as a disjunction, but sometimes, it’s…