Solomon's Cairn

In the odd moments I peek out of my bubble and into the battlefield of the Culture War, I find myself fascinated by the turns of phrase, standard arguments and stylistic choices common to each army. Then the shells come flying my way and I jump back in the trench. But between those moments, I wonder at those cultural tics. Birds on a wire in Cataluña One such phrase, which I primarily see used by Blue forces, is, 'my truth.' Besides being in the title of an upbeat 2004 single and a 2020 sexual abuse documentary, it's fairly common to hear as an affirmation, especially in the context of 'living my truth', or as an exhortation to 'speak your truth.' It looks to have been given a boost in 2018 by  Oprah , although it's much older, and Google Ngram tells me that we're at a local maximum for its use in texts, so I can say with some confidence that the phrase is in the ascendant.  It took me a little while to notice I had an emotional reaction to the phra...

Over the course of the pandemic, I've been slowly convincing my parents to adopt rigorous epistemological standards, mostly around speech, but also with betting. Just this week, my mother and I made a weight loss bet, precommitting to pay $25 to our least favorite politicians if we fail to meet prescribed goals. It's a slow process, and I record this anecdote to demonstrate.  A scant few minutes ago, my father commented on the lost reputation of pandemic-period darlings, namely Andrew Cuomo and Anthony Fauci.  Dad: I guarantee that Fauci is going to lose his position in the next twelve months. Me (ears perking up at the sound of a 1.0 probability ): You guarantee? Dad (knowing how this conversation goes): I have a 99% certainty that Fauci will be fired or leave his position in the next twelve months. Me: What position? Dad: Whatever the hell position it is. Me: Alright, let's bet, 1:99 odds.  Dad: What? No! Me: You said you were 99% sure, so you should be willing to bet t...