The Digger

  The New Normal: “Covert Moral Enhancement” for “coronavirus defectors” Academic article suggests putting psycho-active drugs in the water supply to make people “co-operative” Kit Knightly F our days ago the Conversation – an  “independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community”  –  published an article  headlined: ‘Morality pills’ may be the US’s best shot at ending the coronavirus pandemic, according to one ethicist The article’s author is Parker Crutchfield, an Associate Professor of Medical Ethics, Humanities and Law at Western Michigan University, and his argument can be broken down into four key points: Wearing masks and social distancing are good for public health People who refuse to follow these rules are “defectors” who need to be “morally enhanced” This moral enhancement can be achieved with medication to make people more “empathetic” and “co-operative” This medication should be compulsory and/or administered secre...

For the moment, it seems, the Democratic Party’s actual anointed candidate for president is Senator Harris (CA), due to the obvious disability of her running mate. But such a boldfaced shuck-and-jive has never been tried before in a national election. Do you suppose the DNC honchos really believe they’re putting one over on the voters? It remains to be seen whether this hustle will withstand the moilings and toilings of next week’s national convention — itself shaping up to be a massively peculiar event conducted by texts, emails, phone calls, Zoom meet-ups, smoke signals, and perhaps rioting here and there to emphasize the party’s dedication to the violent overthrow of cultural norms. The real action may spool out this pre-convention weekend as all concerned grok the awful prospect of Joe Biden fumbling and stammering through an acceptance speech, confounded by the voice in his earpiece vying with the text rolling on the teleprompter. Poor Joe will come off for what he really is in th...

  Racial categories are reactionary One of the most banal and vulgar ways to think about humanity is to classify by ‘race’ BY  RALPH LEONARD In the midst of the “racial reckoning” that has defined America since the brutal murder of George Floyd, American media institutions are revising their style guides. One after another, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and even Fox News have decided to capitalise the ‘b’ in the word ‘Black’, when used to refer to African-Americans. According to the NYT’s  announcement , it’s because they believe this “best conveys elements of shared history and identity, and reflects our goal to be respectful of all the people and communities we cover.” However, some outlets such as  The Washington Post , CNN and Fox News have also decided, in an act of racial grammatical reciprocity, to capitalise ‘White’. The justification is that both ‘Black’ and ‘White’ denot...

Published on  August 13, 2020 Ordeal by Title IX written by  Robert Frodeman I I missed the call. But the fact that it had been made on a Saturday morning—September 29th, 2018—was cause for concern. Why was the dean, who never phoned me, calling on a weekend? When I rang back his voice was tense. He informed me that he was removing me from my classes “effective immediately.” I was told to expect an email informing me of this decision. I was no longer allowed on campus. Nor was I permitted to contact any member of the faculty, staff, or students, “on pain of termination.” No reason was given for any of this. Nor was I given a chance to defend myself. Twelve days earlier I had received a letter from the University stating that I was the subject of a Title IX investigation. The letter said that an inquiry had been opened in June, prompted by an anonymous complaint concerning two departments on campus, one of which was mine. That inquiry uncovered an allegation that I had sexually...