Jojo

Jojo

How does America end?

America will not last forever, and I'm honestly worried about it surviving the next half-decade. The current administration is just the latest round of rot that has eaten away at America's core. The rot is the religious-level fascination with hyper-capitalism that is so common among the ruling class. For decades

A letter to my younger self

Hi John, it's me, you. I'm older, wiser and all that shit. Oh yeah, I say swears now. You'll figure that out in college. So, this isn't a letter to tell you which stocks to buy or lottery numbers to bet on. I know I promised that if I got

How to be friends with a transgender person

I've been "out" for about 6 months now, and I've had the opportunity to meet lots of people as my new self. Everyone I have met in person has been nominally supportive and kind, for which I am very grateful. I'm writing this because a good number of people in

Deconstructing Nazi Arguments Against Immigration

(Cover image source credit Robster16) The title? Hell yes it's inflammatory. America has flirted with fascism several times in the past. The Red Scare, the Sedition Act of 1918, and now. You might say, "yeah, but those Trump supporters were a minority." Yes, so were the nazis. So, without further

What the fuck is even happening right now: an analysis

I'm writing this for a number of reasons, none of which are to persuade anyone to switch sides. I do, however, want everyone to have a better understanding of what they're disagreeing with. Political discourse these days seems to be mostly nut-picking and piling on outrage against "enemies." I would

Fighting Fascism

The Nazis didn't need a majority to take control of Germany. They didn't win a majority of the votes in any election. They won through fear and complacency. They roamed the streets, and the people did nothing. They vandalized Jewish businesses, and the police did nothing. Fascism isn't like other

An optimistic outlook on climate change

So, I know I promised optimism, but let's get the bad news out of the way. The climate is warming, and it will continue to do so in an exponential fashion. The window in which we could have done something to slow or reverse climate change closed years ago. Now,

What are the rules of responsible discourse?

This is a troubling political time, and now more than ever it's important that political messaging is clear and free of hyperbole. After 8 years of Republican hysteria about Obama, I'm seeing some of the same trends starting to come out of the Democratic base. This makes me nervous. There

The Lesser Evil

At this point, I think two things have become clear. Donald Trump's agenda is exactly what he said on the campaign trail, contrary to what many of his fringe supporters claimed. Also, Hillary Clinton's appeal was limited at best. I'd like to extend an olive branch to those who voted

Intervention

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the problem with military intervention. The USA has many examples of "humanitarian" intervention in just the last half-century, from Kosovo to Somalia on the lower end of scale to Iraq and Vietnam on the upper end. We're also blamed for the