Robin McKenna
@rbnmckenna86
Philosopher, academic, back here because the alternatives are worse. Some kind of epistemologist, but don't ask me what "epistemic" means 🏴
Have you tried just not believing things
The idea that God exists is incredible, but so is the idea that God does not exist, and that this vast reality just happens to be, and happens to be such as to permit us to be here pondering our existence. There's no escaping believing things that seem incredible -- absurd, even.
Can any ethics experts weigh in on whether it is good or bad to starve children and then shoot at the people who try to get food?
My politics can also be reduced to employing the tools of human redundancy to create an unconvincing facsimile of past humanisms. x.com/kangminjlee/st…
My politics is whatever this is
The right has always had a pronounced anti-intellectual streak In The Meaning of Conservatism Roger Scruton applauded "unthinking people" who accept the burdens life imposes on them without complaint. They want a society of subjects who uncritically defer to their "superiors."
Why does MAGA hate education?
You're right to point that out. ChatGPT does use that construction a lot. And the fact you noticed it? That's not just perceptive, it's ground-breaking
chatgpt is always writing shit like "It's not just huge — it's 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲."
Give 16 year olds the vote, remove it from comedians
At 16 I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog. 16 year olds are legally defined in UK law as children. But hey, when the country (and in fact the entire world) is going to Hell in a handcart, giving children the vote is the least of our worries right now.
Sad that gen z have apparently lost the ability to echolocate using sonar the way we did growing up
I hate the "mob mentality" — so different from the collective righteous anger that emerges organically from my own community of like-minded souls.
I'm teaching a class on Philosophy and Social Change in september. It will look at different theories of and responses to social change: conservative, liberal, radical. But I'm really struggling for readings that are (a) accessible (b) high quality. Any suggestions?
I'm not being a reply guy, I'm enacting the "I, thou" structure of authentic human communication
Votes for 16-year-olds is a terrible idea. When I was young I didn't know anything about energy policy or the tax system. Now, as a grown man, I have vague second-hand prejudices about them.
Very grateful to @jennfrey for writing this. It rings very unpleasantly true to me. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…
All I want is for England to look like this again
All I want is for England to look like this again.
Would pay good money to be in the room with Starmer and McSweeney when the first poll of 16-year-olds’ voting intentions comes out and it’s a straight 50-50 split between Reform and Corbyn’s party
Making fun of conspiracy theories and theorists also makes dumb people feel smart
Conspiracy theories make dumb people feel smart
The invention of identity is both a tragic and a universal story, writes @JSMilbank thecritic.co.uk/trapped-in-an-…
found out my brother chooses to watch 7 minute videos explaining the entire plot of a movie instead of the movie itself because it allows his day to be more efficient and productive and im so ?????? mother is raising a psychopath !