Japan’s rising right-wing nationalism – I recently discovered Vox’s youtube channel, which was especially informative on foreign policy and politics. (Although, I know so little about foreign politics that they don’t have to be that good to teach me something new.) This video is about right-wing nationalists in Japan, whom I immediately hate. They’re the equivalent of neo-nazis, and the rising sun flags are like confederate flags.
On a somewhat related note, why aren’t more people talking about Mindanao (southern Philippines)? The military clashed with a terrorist group in the city of Marawi, and president Duterte declared martial law in all of Mindanao. This is very troubling for a number of reasons.
Confusing Intelligence with Goodness – Sara talks about the tendency in American culture to strongly associate intelligence with goodness, and observes that this is not true in Chinese literature.
There have been some attempts in social justice spaces to stop using the word “stupid” because it’s ableist. But the more I think about it, the more I think this is the wrong approach. Tabooing a bunch of common words is difficult, and doesn’t address the root problem. It’s the whole cultural association between cognitive ability and goodness. BTW, yes I am aware that “stupid” is used in the title of a link in this linkspam, and no I will not comment on that further.