More thoughts on HBO’s docuseries “The Anarchists” — Welcome back for part two of my two-part dive into the new HBO docuseries “The Anarchists.” In part one I asked why the anarcho-capitalism practiced by the anarchists of Acapulco was so suffused with New Age spirituality and other forms of pseudo-scientific woo. As promised, this article is going to…

Not everyone complaining about “divisiveness” is doing so in good faith —

Thoughts on HBO’s documentary series, “The Anarchists” — I’ve always been interested in unusual subcultures that nevertheless reveal a universal truth about the human condition. HBO’s new documentary series The Anarchists certainly delivers on that front. In fact, one article isn’t enough to really do the series justice, so I’m going to split it into two. My next…

How language dupes us into believing illogical things — Time travel is one of the most common tropes in science fiction. It’s also utterly impossible. If it’s not glaringly obvious why time travel is impossible, that’s only because we’re bewitched by a quirk in our language. …

On the joys of “hand and brain” — In his book Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, philosopher Peter-Godfrey Smith discusses a fascinating difference between human and cephalopod intelligence. In humans, the vast majority of our neurons are located in our brain. From that control center, we actively manage the most precise…

If you want to change the world, it absolutely is your job — We live in a democratic republic. We elect our leaders based on the policies they promise to champion in office. But to get a leader elected, you have to build a coalition behind them. You have to convince people that voting a certain way is in their best interests. How…

It sounds diabolically clever, but it gets human psychology all wrong — Back in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, many schools around the country ran charity drives to raise money for the victims. Students at one high school in Pennsylvania had what seemed at first to be a genius idea: During the pledge week, the school would play Hanson’s “MMMBop”…

I can’t believe I have to explain this to an adult — At a recent interfaith breakfast, NYC mayor Eric Adams made an insanely stupid comment about school prayer and gun violence. “When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” he said. It gets worse, Mr. Mayor. Do you know what else? One hundred percent of people who confuse…

The rank hypocrisy of the GOP’s anti-ESG crusade — Remember 2010, when conservatives told us that corporate campaign contributions were “speech” protected by the First Amendment? The Right loved the idea of money as speech back then. And what wasn’t to love? For years, whenever corporations “spoke,” they tended to speak in favor of low taxes and deregulation. What…