Freedom is the Only Way

It's sad that so many people want our governments to restrict freedom, to put a ban on things they don't like to see. It's totally misguided.

These are just a few reasons why freedom is so important:

The Adaptive Politics Manifesto

I am a Proud 'Liberaltarian'

Revisiting Citizen Initiated Referenda

Non-Judgmentalism, Miley Cyrus and Springbreakers

Recently, one of my readers expressed concern that they found several of my posts in 2013 a bit 'judgmental'. Specifically, those were posts on Miley Cyrus and the movie Springbreakers. Let me provide my answer to that accusation here.

My criticism of Miley was not about judging anyone, or their actions. It was about a 'clash of values'. I'm more than happy to respect a friend choosing to dress and act like Miley did. But Miley was not just doing those things in 2013, she was doing interviews, expressing ideas and viewpoints. In other words, she was not just having fun, she was promoting a particular cultural worldview, a culture that was against my own values. Therefore, I had to say something about it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have values at all, right? It's the same as taking a stance against someone promoting racism or homophobia to me, and just as important. In fact, recently I wrote an opinion piece on the difference between judging someone and standing up for your values, you can read it here if you are interested.

Regarding my criticism of Springbreakers, it was some of Selena Gomez's comments regarding the filming that made me think about the possibility of popular culture making women do things they are not entirely comfortable with, something I think would be important to address. Or maybe I was overly sensitive. But either way, it wasn't meant to be a critique of the way people dressed in the film at all.

Am I A Feminist?

After some of my recent posts, some people have asked me this question: are you a feminist?

I usually don't like labels. However, to answer this question, I think I'll have to use some. You see, there are two main types of feminism: liberal feminism and radical feminism. As with all things liberal vs radical, I support all of liberal feminism but none of radical feminism.

Liberal feminism, as with all things liberal, is about removing inequalities that are clearly identified in the system, for example unequal education opportunities for women or unequal pay for women for the same job. These inequalities are objective, and are clearly unfair. Fortunately, the work of liberal feminism is over in the West, but we always have to keep the cause up for the sake of women living outside the West.

Radical feminism, on the other hand, is all about a perceived structure to society that disfavours women and must be changed, even when there are no clearly identified inequalities. In radical feminism, people and society are analysed by looking at who has more 'privilege'. Trouble is, this is highly subjective. Thus radical feminism is a subjective ideology. I personally have a particular problem with subjective ideologies - that thing called 'conservatism' that I ran away from was just such an ideology. Conservatism is always able to justify itself, even without looking at objective results, which is often the misery of other people. Radical feminism, for me, carries the same worries. Therefore, it is something I just cannot support.

I'm sure radical feminists are well intentioned. But so are conservatives. And it doesn't mean they aren't wrong. Social engineering, especially when working with anything other than objective evidence, is dangerous.

Hilary Duff: Best Comeback Ever?

Music comebacks make us excited, but some comebacks are better than others, right?



Anyway, I think you would agree that it is a great comeback.