What transgender politics may reveal when they go to eleven

At the beginning of the year Now, a Toronto weekly, published “Love your body” (photographs are NSFW): a series of portraits and short interviews focused on the “body positivity movement”. I stumbled upon it yesterday, following a link on social media (I didn’t even know the outlet Now).

“NOW created the Love Your Body issue four years ago […] to counter the onslaught of body-shaming headlines every January. ‘Lose weight! Diet! New year, new you!’ They’re as pathetic as they are predictable. By featuring dozens of inspiring Torontonians willing to bare all and tell their stories of transformation, reclamation and acceptance, we hoped to shift the discussion from self-criticism to self-love.”

One of the people featured this year is William Lavinia (again, explicit photograph), a “performer and model” whose breasts were surgically removed (two big scars are clearly visible), is on hormone treatment, and keeps a vagina that “isn’t going anywhere”. Lavinia poses naked for Now, full frontal, and declares to have a body that is “beyond the binary”.

Hace unos días, el grupo de Altruismo Efectivo de Madrid celebró una reunión —que llamamos estratégica— en un aula de la Facultad de Matemáticas de la Universidad Complutense (el lugar no podía ser más significativo). Fue la segunda quedada del grupo, con su composición actual, en esta nueva etapa. Somos apenas una decena de personas (de momento), pero todas interesadas en racionalidad y en causas altruistas basadas en evidencias. Y especialmente, todas ilusionadas por tener un impacto positivo y por promocionar estas ideas en Madrid y en otros lugares de España.

Queremos atraer la atención hacia iniciativas ambiciosas, que están olvidadas de la opinión pública, y para las que hay posibilidades de éxito; y maximizar el impacto positivo.

¿Qué es el Altruismo Efectivo?​

Pocas personas que estén leyendo esto discutirán que las causas que llamamos «altruistas» son —casi por definición— laudables. Seguramente, muchos de nosotros arrastramos una vaga sensación de que somos afortunados por la posición que tenemos en el mundo, y de que podríamos hacer mucho más por mejorar nuestro entorno y el futuro.

On the difficulties of fruitful conversations about feminism

The other day I was having a drink with friends. At a certain point during our lighthearted conversation, I started to sense that The Topic was approaching, lurking unavoidably behind an innocent-looking comment or two: gender issues, sex-based discrimination, feminism.

The more I read and reflect (and worry) about those issues, the more reluctant I grow to engage with these topics in casual settings. I have three reasons for that.

«Desde el principio se sabía que el famoso derecho a decidir era un hábil eufemismo con el fin de enmascarar el inexistente, en condiciones de países democráticos, derecho de autodeterminación de “los pueblos”.»

I am not by principle opposed to Catalonia splitting from Spain and becoming an independent state. I consider myself a classical liberal, believe in individual rights above all, and see modern states solely as guarantors of those individual rights. I strive to get rid of all remnants of tribal instincts within me: nationalism, patriotism, chauvinism, inherited guilt, collective pride, irrational attachments, groupthink. Because of that, I can’t feel proud —nor ashamed — to be a Spaniard.

I suspect that there is an honest and coherent case to be made for Catalan secession. Many of us who love politics, economics and reason would be thrilled to engage in a debate about those ideas. Unfortunately, that is not what we are getting from the separatists in Catalonia on a daily basis. What we have heard on TV during the last decade or two, from elected officials in Catalonia, is embarrassing demagoguery, circular logic, regionalist hatred based on the worst of stereotypes, historical lies and conspicuous attempts at deviating public attention from their own corruption scandals and budget cuts and from social issues in Catalonia (immigration and unemployment, among others).

Cancamusas, banalización, narcisismo y vendehumos

Una de mis tareas recurrentes en Remember The Milk se llama «check events for next week» y es un recordatorio semanal: cada viernes, al acabar la jornada, intento echar un vistazo a algunos de los conciertos, exposiciones, charlas, meetups, talleres, etc. que están anunciados en Madrid o alrededores para la semana siguiente. Lo hago ojeando varias URLs y fuentes RSS de una pequeña lista que mantengo: desde la agenda de la Fundación Ramón Areces hasta el RSS de escepticos.es, pasando por los grupos de meetup.com en Madrid y las actividades del Instituto Juan de Mariana.

Ayer, entre los títulos y descripciones que leí por encima, encontré —una semana más— un par de entradas dignas de facepalm y de vergüenza profesional ajena. Si eres asiduo o cómplice en círculos de emprendedurismo, start-ups, software, tecnología y cosas así, probablemente estés acostumbrado a estas cosas y no te sorprenda mucho lo que voy a compartir. Si es tu caso, hoy te propongo que leas los anuncios de estas dos charlas con la mente limpia y un espíritu crítico.

One major issue common to all democratic variants (to which autocracies are immune), is that elected officials have strong incentives to be short-sighted in their proposals and actions — to maximise perceived short-term gains at the expense of long-term progress. That is because they focus on re-election and the popularity of their parties and allies in the near future, instead of the common good in the long run.

One way to fix that would be deferring rewards for elected officials: holding a significant chunk of their salaries, bonuses and pensions for a period of time, and releasing that only if their administration is deemed “successful” with the benefit of hindsight, or releasing part of those funds in proportion to their “performance” while in office.

or, why Soylent is A Good Thing

Humans evolved mainly to be active during daytime and to rest and sleep when it’s dark — the duration of those “days” and “nights” being fixed in ecuatorial Africa long ago. The natural thing for us, humans of the 21st century, would be to go to bed around sunset, and get up when the sun rises.

However, not all humans can do that, all the time. Someone has to watch museums, factories and streets at night. A&E needs to be staffed. Someone has to work in the wee hours to bake the bread you eat for breakfast. People live in high latitudes, where nights are very short in the summer and very long in the winter. People travel and have a hard time adapting their sleep cycle to a new time zone.