A believer in building a better world via dialectic with the aim towards the moral arc. Community Engagement Coordinator @AtheistsLiberty

San Diego, CA
Joined October 2011
Mars Cheung retweeted
Good question. A big reason we do this is to show American audiences how bad things can get without freedom of speech. It’s especially jarring when it’s Britain, America’s mother country, from which we borrowed, and alongside which we developed, so much of the small-l liberal tradition. Britain now arrests thousands of people a year for speech-related offenses, yet the issue receives remarkably poor coverage there. When I bring it up with Brits, too often the response is, “Well, they’re bad people. Who cares?” My mother is British, and the UK and EU’s approach to social problems reminds me of her habit of declaring uncomfortable subjects off-limits at the dinner table. You’ll be shocked to learn that this did not make the problems go away. That same refusal to confront reality is helping fuel the unrest we’re seeing on the European continent, and it will lead to further instability and increasingly draconian measures. Yet European censorship is defended with astonishing arrogance, as though keeping people ignorant of what their fellow citizens actually think is obviously for their own good.
Replying to @glukianoff
Why even cover free speech issues in Britain? They clearly don't have freedom of speech, tho they are good at pretending they do.
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I’d say the barbarians are WITHIN the gate at this point. Doesn’t help that we have the lunatic fringes of both parties making a rational narrative impossible to put out.
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Sign up now! You can watch the conference from your laptop and learn how to and why we should defend the west...
🛡️Defend the West Conference🛡️ WHEN: 1/13/2027 WHERE: Online Over 300 people have registered so far. Speakers include: @DavidM_Friedman @sapinker @SRCHicks @yaronbrook @alananewhouse @johanknorberg @DeirdreMcClosk @michaelshermer @ToKTeacher @jasoncrawford Nadine Strossen Save your spot (link below)
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When adults lead American students on walk outs to protest ICE, the war against Hamas, or in support of the Iranian regime please know that they are being primed to carry out the same types of riots we see happening in western Europe. Our schools are being turned into recruiting grounds, turning students into child soldiers.
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Mars Cheung retweeted
“we will pay any price….to assure the success and survival of liberty.” Is this still true? Do we prize liberty or do we prize power and purse? No more clear test than the choice between Ukraine and Russia. Abandon Ukraine and we abandon liberty. Eventually even our own.
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Perfectly said @sapinker I made a similar point in one of my SciAm columns, "Alvy's Error": Woody Allen's character in Annie Hall, Alvy Singer, in a flashback to childhood refuses to do his homework because he found out the universe is expanding. His exasperated mother upbraids the youth, “What has the universe got to do with it?! You’re here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding!” Call it Alvy’s Error: assessing the purpose of something at the wrong level of analysis. The level at which we should assess our actions is the human time scale of days, weeks, months, and years—our four-score ± 10 lifespan—not the billions of years of the cosmic calendar. William Lane Craig made this error in arguing that if this worldview is correct then godless Nazi murderers got away with torturing Jews. Shelly Kagan nailed him in their debate: “This strikes me as an outrageous thing to suggest. It doesn’t really matter? Surely it matters to the torture victims whether they’re being tortured. It doesn’t require that this make some cosmic difference to the eternal significance of the universe for it to matter whether a human being is tortured. It matters to them, it matters to their family, and it matters to us.”
The fact that the universe doesn’t care about you doesn’t mean that other humans don’t care about you, or that we don’t have to care about other humans. That is, there is a purpose, there is a meaning: that is, to make people as well off as possible, to increase flourishing, to increase knowledge and life and health and freedom and safety. These are really, really meaningful. At least, I think they are. I don’t see anything wrong with them. I don’t think that that should leave you empty. And the fact that we live in a cold universe—that is, the laws of physics, the laws of biology, the behavior of viruses and bacteria and parasites and fungi—they don’t care about you. I’m sorry, they don’t care about you. And the sooner you realize that, the more you’ll be able to attend to the things that really do matter. @HumanProgress
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Your kids can have the vacations, the amusement parks, the pictures, all of it… But when they grow up, the bigger question is: what did it FEEL like to be around you? Did they feel safe? Did they feel heard? Did they actually enjoy being with you? I do not just want my kids to call me when life is on fire. I want them to call me because they still like talking to their dad. You are not just raising a child. You are building a relationship with the adult they are becoming.
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Watch Eli Steele’s new documentary film White Guilt, about the work of his legendary father Shelby Steele: manofsteele.substack.com/p/m…
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Friends, I present my latest adventure: The Thinkable Review. I am once again at the helm of a magazine and I think it'll be fun. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE! To support me and for your own enjoyment. It'll be lit. 🔥 Link in next tweet or find it on S U B S T A C K.
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Mars Cheung retweeted
What about the guy who started the slaughter?
And so the slaughter continues … Time for Zelensky to go
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Mars Cheung retweeted
"Had America not changed, I would have become a revolutionary. I would have taken up arms... The cruel irony is that today I'm more oppressed by white goodwill than I am by white racism." -- Shelby Steele Watch us with @michaelshermer on his great podcast. youtube.com/watch?v=mjFdG3tF…
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Just a reminder: Trump said he'd end the war in a day. Instead he attacks the leader of a country fighting against the country that invaded it. I guess when he said "end the war," he meant getting Ukraine to unconditionally surrender.
This might as well have been written by Putin and probably was. Trump is owned by Russia and we desperately need to find out how and why. This post is deranged and insane and includes one lie after another non-stop. He is a deeply sick man who cannot stop being Putin’s whore.
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Mars Cheung retweeted
And when people put God above human rights, equality, science, and the Constitution, everything else suffers. We’ve seen what happens when religion takes priority over people. That’s why secular government matters.
When God is put first, everything else takes its proper place.
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execution for blasphemy is barbaric, like slavery is barbaric. the world convinced islamic civilization to de jure ban slavery in the 20th century. it's our duty to make muslims abandon killing people for offending their religion in the 21st century
HAF strongly opposes the death sentence imposed on Anojan Sivarasa, a 24-year-old Hindu and Sri Lankan national facing execution in Saudi Arabia over a social media comment deemed blasphemous. As HAF has long emphasized in its advocacy, blasphemy laws threaten religious freedom and have been used to justify unjust imprisonment and extrajudicial violence. No one should face execution for an expression of opinion, particularly in a case where the reported comment was deleted and an apology was issued. Protecting religious freedom means safeguarding the right of people of all faiths—and those of no faith—to express themselves without fear of state-sanctioned or extrajudicial violence. Blasphemy laws undermine these fundamental freedoms and deepen divisions between communities rather than foster mutual respect. HAF calls on Saudi authorities to overturn Sivarasa’s death sentence and ensure that his fundamental rights are protected. We urge the international community to continue pressing for the global repeal of blasphemy laws and for the protection of freedom of expression and conscience for all Respect for religious beliefs cannot be secured through fear, coercion, or the threat of death. amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…
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Mars Cheung retweeted
I can’t believe that next week, my book finally comes out! Here’s what the great Matti Friedman had to say about it. “Casey Babb, one of the most clear-eyed and brave analysts of the darkness threatening to engulf Canada and the West, offers a heartfelt tour of the present dangers —and a way forward for anyone conscious of the necessity of Israel and Zionism. A disturbing and necessary book.”
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Mars Cheung retweeted
We could also demand that Russia stop attacking Ukraine? Crazy idea. I know.
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Oh yes, Zelensky. Not Putin. Zelensky.
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Mars Cheung retweeted
Estonia! A streaming order just came in from Estonia. People from 17 countries so far have bought "White Guilt." They include Australia, Japan, Hungary, Germany, Israel, and so on. When I released "What Killed Michael Brown?" people from other countries outside of USA and the UK wanted to buy the film but couldn't. This time around, I made it possible to stream it directly from my website, and I'm glad to see the reach of the film.
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White Guilt My convo with Eli and Shelby Steele on a pervasive problem in which white guilt not only does not help blacks, it makes matters worse, is demeaning, and even racist. And some blacks use it for power and money. Their film is fabulous. skeptic.com/michael-shermer-…
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"I’m not preparing these kids for the world I wish existed. I’m preparing them for the world they actually have to live in." Sounds like common sense.
Teaching girls how to protect themselves is NOT the same as blaming them for what somebody else does. I can teach boys to respect boundaries and still teach girls to trust their instincts, speak up, move, leave, and get help. Both matter. I’m not preparing these kids for the world I wish existed. I’m preparing them for the world they actually have to live in.
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