Voting as Grading/Politics Round Up

Me, voting early!

With the seemingly-interminable 2016 US Presidential election (hopefully) terminating in just a few days on Tuesday, November 8, I thought I’d get in one more political post that includes one last point and some meta-blogging in the form of a round up of some of the political posts that have appeared on this blog in the last year and a half.

Voting as Grading Papers: An Analogy

Let’s say you're a teacher, and you get two papers.  

Donald’s paper is written in red 14-point triple spaced comic sans, follows none of the directions of the assignment, consists almost entirely of bigoted rants, incorrectly cites mainly conspiracy theory or white supremacist websites, includes a footnote in which he brags about sexual assault, and contains numerous spelling and grammatical errors.  

Hillary’s paper follows all the directions of the assignment, consists mostly of rational arguments – some of which you agree with, some of which you do not, contains a few strained metaphors and lame jokes to make it seem more relatable, cites all sources although it puts a few important things in the footnotes, and contains a few minor spelling and grammatical errors.  

Which paper do you grade more highly?  That’s who you should vote for.

Examined Worlds Politics Round-Up

The annoying thing about politics is that everyone thinks they’re right.  Including me.  Still, I try to be less annoying by not insisting that you agree that I’m right.  I honestly think the world would be a better place if we were more aware of our fallibility.  But of course I could be wrong.

Anyway, here's some of what I think about this election and politics more generally.  Agree or disagree as you will.

• "American Voters and the Fate of Us All: Eight Reasons to Vote with Objections and Replies" (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POST HERE!  In my opinion, anyway).
• "Buddhas and Presidential Candidates: Conventional and Ultimate Truth in Politics"
• "I Like Hillary Clinton"
• "Does Relativism Make Us Dumber and Nastier?" (with special reference to politics)
• "Dreaming, Principles, and Cooperation: Science Fiction, Philosophy, and Politics (Part One)"
• "Dreaming, Principles, and Cooperation: Science Fiction, Philosophy, and Politics (Part Two)"
• "The Last Gasps of Reactionary Bigotry?" (With discussion of Donald Trump)
• "Science Fictional Meditations on the Value of Diversity"
• "The Superheroization of American Politics: Sanders, Trump, and the Cult of Personality"
• "Has Political Correctness Run Amok?  Does It Exist?"
• "Skeptical Therapy for the US Presidential Primary Season"
• "MLK, Social Justice, and Science Fiction"
• "Is the Believing Feeling Good for Us?: Part Two -- The Self, Dogmatism, and Donald Trump"  (See also Part One)
• "The Atomic Theory of Human Nature -- Why (Most) Libertarians are Wrong"

So there you have it.  This will probably be my last post before the election.  After next week I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled full program of science fiction and philosophy nerdery.

To my fellow Americans: I hope you will vote.  Or don't (but really you should).  Let's not fuck this up, America!

To the rest of the world: On behalf of my country, I'm really sorry about the mess.  Let's all direct our wishes for the best to the Force or whatever gods, spirits, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, inter-dimensional entities, or extraterrestrial civilizations that may be listening.

May we all live long and prosper.