Guinness Book of Warmongering

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My son left a 2015 Guinness Book of World Records lying around. It’s largely a mix of athletic feats, extravagant spending, freakish body conditions and diseases, and people who do dumb stuff in order to get into the book. It also features two sections focused on mass-murder. One celebrates the technology used to kill people. In that section, the United States is featured almost exclusively. The other section looks more at the wars, killing, and dying. In that section, the United read more

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What's the Truth Hidden by the "Super Predators" Lie?

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The desire to punish for the joy of punishing, for revenge, or for racist or sadistic domination has always had certain difficulties hiding behind the pretense of punishing for protection from danger. Creating fear of (young, black, male) “super predators” was a propaganda tactic for politicians like Hillary Clinton that bore some similarity to the efforts by politicians like Hillary Clinton to create fear of Iraqi weapons that didn’t exist. The latter was meant to hide U.S. read more

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The Catholic Church is Now More Advanced Than U.S. Philosophy Departments

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It ought to be with considerable embarrassment that I say this, as an atheist who thinks religion does far more harm than good, and that it does so not only through the pretense that death isn’t real but first and foremost through the promotion of blind obedience to supposedly infallible authority. Yet, I don’t feel any sort of group loyalty or opposition to the parties involved here, and I’m actually entirely thrilled to recognize the good news that the Catholic Church has now read more

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The Habit of Thought That Made U.S. #1 in Prisons and Wars

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By David Swanson, American Herald Tribune
Remarks prepared for April 12 event in Baltimore.

I’m going to start with a few brief opening remarks about what I think is the habit of thought that has made the United States #1 in the world in prisons and wars. And then I’ll be glad to try to answer as many questions as you think of. These remarks will be published online at American Herald Tribune.

No matter how long I debunk and refute and mock and condemn arguments for wars, I continue over read more

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Why Do Ethics Classes Fantasize About Murder So Much?

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At a post-screening discussion where I questioned the director of Eye in the Sky about the disconnect between his drone-kill movie and reality, he launched into a bunch of thought-experiment stuff of the sort I’ve tried to avoid since finishing my master’s in philosophy. Mostly I’ve avoided hanging out with torture supporters.

If this were a philosophy paper I would now tell you that I am going to show that consequentialism is the most useful ethical framework. Then I would show read more

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Ten Revealing War Lies

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By David Swanson, TeleSUR

Remarks prepared for event in Washington, D.C., on April 11, 2016.

Let’s look at ten revealing moments in the history of lying about wars to see what they tell us, and then I’ll be glad to try to answer any questions I can. These remarks will be published at TeleSUR.

I’ll say the most about the first items on this list, and less as I move toward #10.

1. On January 31, 2003, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met in the read more

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