Verbal violence

"Violence" can have many modifiers, like physical; "physical violence" is not a tautology. Can words be violent? I'd argue yes. Here's a bit of why

Problems with “stupid”

Stupid. A word I have used so many times for many years. It's easy, simple, versatile and vitriolic if you want it to be. Dismissive and gratifying. But these are also things that can be wrong with it. It's a hard habit to shake, but I think it's worth trying, or at the very least …

Offended by swearing? Get better priorities

Swearing, cursing, profanity, whatever you want to call it. [Post contains swearing, obviously] Understatement: there's a lot of bad stuff here on planet Earth. Enough for a lifetime of sadness, worry, anger, fear and all the negative feelings. So many inhumane things that people do to each other and this bit of shared space. So …

Friendships and frameworks

Prompted to imagine aspects of social/prejudice phenomena as constellations by a podcast, here are a few quick ideas and why I think it matters

On gender-neutral language

Despite being a relatively small issue, this one's important to me. Hopefully I'll explain why and what you can do to address it too. An (imperfect) example that fellow nerds will be very familiar with is: To boldly go where no-one has gone before You'll recognise that as part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation opening …