Steve Zara

Because of the shape of the Gulf of Mexico I suggest the rest of the world rename it “Trump’s Arse”.

I’m autistic, and I haven’t yet gone Nazi. Autism is not an excuse for being a total shit. F*ck off Elon.

ICE is planning immigration raids starting Tuesday. Please amplify.

I was shocked and disappointed that SNL invited a racist back as host. How could they ignore such dangerous bigotry? Oh, wait a minute. It was Dave Chappelle, a transphobe. That’s OK then. Transphobia - The Acceptable Bigotry.

I see that the Democrats in the US have decided to use their usual strategy against extremism and tyranny - chat about it a lot on video and online, because yet another blog post or interview has been so effective in the past..

I have lost all respect for news media. I’m glad you are here as a sane voice.

So many people confuse the right to free expression with access to an audience. Unless Facebook has a “right to reply” to the same audience who received a claim, it needs independent fact checking.

My goodness he’s small.

You meet a lot of nerds via Monkey Cage and they all seem extremely decent and intelligent (at least so far!)

I have written to my MP asking for a broader review of trans child policy.

The way science and policy should work is to find a consensus of experts, not to base things on one report that doesn’t have wide backing. That’s bad policy and (contrary to what Richard Dawkins says) bad science. /2

I tired of so many people basic policy on trans children on the Cass report. The report has been rejected by psychologists and other medical professionals and medical and rights organisations all around the world. The best that can be said of it is that it’s controversial. /1

I’m just intolerant. I can’t watch Carr after finding out about the Peterson interview.

I’m in the U.K. I have watched the Democrats move left on social issues like LGBTQ rights and on energy policy and international issues. Just because they don’t support the policies your support (which are good policies) doesn’t mean they are moving to the right.

Yeah, but… so many don’t get a chance to discover the wider world because of limited education and Fox News being their information source. We need to somehow get information past their filters.

Donald Trump at a mass in Notre Dame? I hope he went to confession first. (I’m an ex Catholic. I know about such things)

Bashar al-Assad’s biggest mistake? Not going on Joe Rogan.

I’m sober and British, but I’d love to join.

The British experience with Brexit is that those who support a disastrous policy take a very long time to realise they made a mistake, if they ever do.

Never again can anyone say that in America no-one is above the law.

Hi!

I have degrees in Biology and biochemistry. I know the underlying chemical and physical mechanisms of life. I also have followed the works of Patricia Churchland and Daniel Dennett (to name just a couple)

But life isn’t emergent - it’s standard chemistry - there’s nothing truly distinct about it, and consciousness is as much a biological function as a heartbeat. The concept of emergent levels is deeply misleading in my view.

That doesn’t change my assumption. Also, consciousness isn’t emergent - it’s not some side effect. It’s an evolved brain function.

The most “we are in the future” thing for me is the ability to say to my phone “turn the volume down a bit” when I’m falling asleep listening to audiobooks. That’s the way technology should work.

I definitely think that’s part of it.

A vital test for the reality of any explanation of consciousness is - how does this affect brain cells? For us to have a belief about consciousness that is justified the truth of that belief has to affect our brains so as to help create the belief.

Until recently the thought of pensions scared me because it reminded me I was getting older. Now less than 6 months to go and I’m like “pensions - yay!”

Being autistic, I tend to get obsessive about things and I frequently misunderstand what has been said. I welcome civilised correction of my mistakes. If I ask what you mean it’s an honest question.