Social Issues

A Rebuttal to Hate

If this world has taught me anything, it’s that things don’t always unfold the way we expect. And hate doesn’t go away, even when we think it’s been beat and buried. The year I was born was the same year that the AIDS epidemic began in North America, a health crisis for which there was …

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Warriors in the Storm

Fate whispers to the warrior, “You can not withstand the storm.”The warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.” —Jake Remington To call life the storm would be tempting but not quite right. It is the world that is the storm; the thing we struggle to navigate; the situations and environments that try us, and break …

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This new year, be humble.

If there’s one new year’s resolution we all need to make, it’s to be more humble. We need to listen more, and speak less. See the strength in modesty. And renounce our egos—or try to. Because the world depends on it. Most of our problems today are driven by what lies opposite to humility: egotism, …

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Contemplations on Social Media

What’s in a like? Not much, really—another toggle from 0 and 1; an electronic stamp of approval, existing nowhere real and barely contemplated. It is reactionary. Visible, yes, but hardly tangible. Constructed. Created. Imaginary. But it feels good. And sometimes it even matters. This week, in my Psych Café series at UBC (in which my …

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Disabling Trumpism: Target the Followers, Not their Leader

Narcissism, egotism, aggression, dishonesty, far-right extremism, xenophobia, and white nationalism—all elements of the growing sociocultural phenomenon known as Trumpism—are on the rise around the world, affecting citizens and politicians alike, and compromising our efforts to promote and uphold the common good. This is how to stop it… What follows is a slightly revised, late-night train …

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The World Will End in Apathy & Entitlement (Or, Our Killer is Narcissism)

Rising sea levels, ocean acidification, deforestation, ecological collapse—should our time on Earth end early, these are just a few of the ways in which catastrophe will unfold, given current trends. But these things are not our real killers… From a psychological perspective, it would be wise to consider the human qualities underlying the environmental changes …

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