Steve Campbell

I'm really sorry. I live in a town that is not bike friendly. It has few lanes and there are drivers who run red lights all the time. There was a place I frequent and one of the workers said they put the bike rack in just for me. I didn't like that reasoning. The rack should be for everyone.

That is awesome, Stephen! I'm very glad to hear it.

Live updates: Trump, in warning to Russia, says nuclear submarines will be sent to ‘appropriate regions’ Get the latest news on President Donald Trump’s second term and the Republican-led Congress.

He receives data he doesn't like and how does he respond? By lashing out and firing people. Another competent expert gone. This is what authoritarians do.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

That's a good point. It strikes me as a rather juvenile approach to life, but so much of Trumpism is like that.

I'm not sure how to change the culture for the better. I think the left could start with media, where they've been outplayed handily the last few years.

Was watching @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @jbf1755.bsky.social for a few minutes and their comments got me to thinking about the responsibilities of citizenship, comparisons to other countries, and the typical response of the Trumpian right.

YouTube video by Feli from Germany American CULTURE SHOCKS in Germany! | Feli from Germany

2. A famous influencer polled American tourists in Germany who said they were surprised how many Germans were active and on bikes (instead of in their cars), and also open to conversations instead of being hooked on their phones. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSMR...

I'd argue these two are related.

Let me highlight a couple of trends I've seen in my feeds today:

1. Global civil society organizations have placed the U.S. on a watchlist and ranked us alongside Turkey, Kenya, and El Salvador. Is this making America "great"?

YouTube video by Ireland AM Rosie O'Donnell on life in Ireland, Trump, and why she left the U.S.

Rosie O'Donnell talks about her move to Ireland due to Trump's authoritarianism. The Irish have welcomed her and she seems to be having a good time. And of course, solid critiques of Trump's America.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFj...

Ask yourself, is this imagined conversation:

1. An abolitionist talking to a pro-slavery planter in 1850 Alabama?

2. A climate activist speaking to a fossil fuel apologist in 2025?

Take your pick, they both work. Interesting how some ideas remain constant amid vastly different circumstances.

hey, I haven't seen your name in a while. I'm not super online, or at least I try not to be.

How are you doing? What's new?

I remember Twitter in its heyday. There were some very interesting debates and interactions.

Hulk Hogan. I laughed at some dumb movie he was in when I was 8 yo. Now our politics has become Hoganized--image, fake masculinity, shallow performance, manufactured drama, "real Americans," and suing media orgs into bankruptcy, etc. It appeals to people who didn't ever move beyond 8 years old.

You have achieved quite a bit and I hope you and your family and friends are proud of those achievements! I know I am.

YouTube video by WTA Venus Williams vs. Peyton Stearns | 2025 Washington Round 1 | Match Highlights

Earlier today Venus Williams played and won a match at a pro tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. She is forty-five years old. I was a ball kid for one of her earliest matches at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland. That match was almost THIRTY YEARS AGO! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSOI...

Arroyo Burro beach.

Spectacular view of the Santa Barbara Channel and Santa Cruz Island from the Cold Spring Trail near Montecito. More of these coming.

I read your post and tbh I struggled to see its connection to mine. Sometimes I need someone to connect the dots, haha.

So I posed the question to ChatGPT and here's what it said.

Seems reasonable but let me know.

I see this assumption in *many* primary sources. If this assumption that "everything happens for a reason" is wrapped up with so many other ideas we'd characterize as discreditable, shouldn't we not say it anymore?

Can you find the primary sources in American history of those who supported imperialism, the "civilizational" project, and who also advanced racism and the arrogant notion that native inhabitants of the Philippines were not "ready" for self-government in the year 1900?

Is that really how we should form our beliefs in life's most important questions? Other questions...what is the Venn Diagram between people who utter this phrase and support for Trump? Who supported January 6 or QAnon?

Getting through life is hard and I wonder if people just believe this not because it is empirically proven but because it comforts them, which raises the question, would you profess something to be absolutely true merely because you *want* to believe it and it makes you comfortable?

An interventionist god who cares about the mundane details of your life and who has everything mapped out according to a plan that is far too complex for us to conceive?

I hold out the less than 1% chance of the existence of a deity or deities, however you define the term, but to believe with certainty that an omniscient deity not only exists but deliberately makes bad things happen to you in order to challenge you and that everything will be okay in the end?

Other questions I have. I'm struck by how *certain* people are of something that is fundamentally unknowable and extremely unlikely.

But if you're an educator like me, don't you have the impulse to encourage people to think more deeply about this? Don't you want to say "Really? Do you *really* believe that? Would you say this to a Sandy Hook victim? A Holocaust survivor? A family member of a flood victim in Kerr County, Texas?"

I didn't grow up in the South or Midwest where I'd imagine this phrase is more common. I know people mean well when they say it. It's like how people in the South I know call me "sir," haha, which always prompts a double-take from me.

Say what you will about Thomas Jefferson, there is obviously lots to critique, but I do like what he said on religion. Same with Voltaire, Paine, Hume, Nietzsche, Locke, etc.

There are things I want to say to the Jehovah's Witnesses and other proselytizers who knock on my door but I can almost never summon the courage because I often don't want to hurt people's feelings.