blog | Crommunist

0 Another victory of evidence over ‘common sense’ in Canada

October 4, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog

There are few terms so intellectually offensive to me as ‘common sense‘. Every time someone invokes ‘common sense’ in an argument, I immediately stop listening to them. What they invariably mean is “I have no evidence to support my position, so I will substitute what I think is obvious”. The problem is that there is very little that is ‘common’ between people with different perspectives, and it very rarely makes any kind of ‘sense’. If you have an argument built from logical first principles, I will be happy to hear it; however, if it’s just based on your own particular handful of prejudices, please don’t waste my time.

It’s incredibly gratifying to see that even in this day and age where ‘common sense’ has become a mantra in our political and social life, we still see examples where evidence and reason win out…

Please read the rest of this post over at FreeThought Blogs

0 Rationing, policy, and woo

October 4, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog

I am a passionate believer in publicly-provided health care. Despite the narrative that seems to be fairly widespread among the Americans I speak to, public health care delivery is a much better model than for-profit care. Like any human system, it has its flaws that should be examined and improved upon. However, as both a method of caring for sick people and a method of controlling health care costs, public systems are the way to go.

The ‘dirty’ little ‘secret’ of health care is that demand will always outstrip supply. There are a nearly-infinite number of things that could qualify as ‘health care’, and we want all of them. As a result, we have to find where the limits are – where we are comfortable saying “if you want this, you’re on your own”. In the fights over health care reform in the U.S., this process got a dirty name for itself: rationing. Sounds scary, right? Your grandma needs a hip replacement, and some government fat-cat comes in and says “nope, sorry, all you are covered for is euthanasia!” Grandma gets wheeled into the back room against her will, and is put down like a stray dog. THANKS, OBAMA!…

Please read the rest of this post over at FreeThought Blogs

28 Mixed feelings about my new home – a follow-up

October 3, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta · critical thinking · race · racism

I was reading over this morning’s post and I realized there’s one last thing that I’m not looking forward to, and it deserves it own post. Readers who have followed me here from the old blog will have heard me discuss this issue a million times, but new readers may not have thought about it.

I am not all black people.

I realize this statement is so obvious as to be nearly ridiculous, but I will explain what I mean. My experience has been that people are really shy when it comes to discussing race, regardless of their background. This is understandable – racism has left a psychological scar on our society for generations and is an ongoing source of strife. When someone is willing to talk about it, people are uncomfortable at first. Once the initial reluctance wears off, people then launch into a long list of questions that they didn’t realize they’d always had.

I’m sure you are familiar with this phenomenon if you are the only atheist in your social circle. Making your faithlessness plain to your friends shocked them a bit at first, but eventually you had to start fielding questions. Some of them were out of genuine, benign curiosity (“so are you at least spiritual?”), while others were a bit more hostile (“so what, you think I’m just a piece of soulless meat?”). If you were the only atheist they knew, you started getting confessions about how they had doubts, or attempts to proselytize to draw you back in, or unsolicited opinions about how much they hate Richard Dawkins, or whatever. You became the one-stop shop for questions about atheism.

In the same way, the first person to poke their head out and talk about the taboo of race gets that kind of attention. … Continue Reading

7 GIVE ME YOUR MONEYS

October 3, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta

Hello readers.

Look to the right of your screen. Now back here. Now back to the right. What do you see? It’s a DonorsChoose widget, where you can donate money to a worthy cause.

Look back to me. What’s in my hand? It’s educational opportunities for children. Look again – the opportunities are in the humanities.

I’m on a blog.

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29 Mixed feelings about my new home

October 3, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta · crommunism · hate · race · racism

I started this blog less than 2 years ago, partially in a misguided attempt to impress a girl (how could that possibly have failed to work?), but also because I had some encouragement from friends who liked the kinds of topics I would talk about in periodic Facebook notes. I had also just moved and had started a new chapter in my life – I thought it was worthwhile to write some things down. In that short time my writings have attracted a small but loyal following, and I’ve been lucky enough to place them on a variety of platforms aside from my lowly former home at WordPress. Most recently, this includes a regular gig here at FreeThoughtBlogs.

When I was first invited to write here, I was delirious with happiness. Who would have thought that a pup like me would get a chance to run with the big dogs? How amazing it would be to get a big of splashover traffic from Pharyngula or from Dispatches? What a great chance for me to rub shoulders with people who I’d previously only been able to quietly admire from afar! And hey, maybe I’ll get a couple of bucks out of the deal too! Because I’m not an idiot, I said yes almost immediately.

But as the date for the launch grew closer and closer, I began to feel my anxiety grow. Blogging is not a game for the thin-skinned, to be sure. When you put your ideas out into the world, provided you actually care about your ideas, opening them up to the scrutiny of anyone who happens to pass by is a pretty daunting prospect. Imagine literally living in a glass house, where every move you make could be scrutinized by your neighbours or just people strolling down the street – people who feel entitled to spraypaint their opinions of you on your walls. Now, if you live out in the boondocks (as I have up until now), this kind of exposure might not be a big deal. After all, it’s the same few people passing by, and they’ve seen your man-boobs before – whatevs. Now I was being offered a similarly-transparent accommodation, but this time in a bustling metropolis.

Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some of the thoughts that have been cropping up in the ol’ noodle over the past few weeks. … Continue Reading

0 Mixed feelings about my new home – a followup

October 3, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog

I am not all black people.

Please read the rest of this post over at FreeThought Blogs

0 Mixed feelings about my new home

October 3, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog

Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some of the thoughts that have been cropping up in the ol’ noodle over the past few weeks…

Please read the rest of this post over at FreeThought Blogs

2 Exciting news

October 1, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog

So I’ve been keeping a secret from you for a few months now, because I didn’t want to talk it up for fear that it would go away. However, as of this morning, I can report that it is, indeed, a real thing:

The Crommunist Manifesto has moved to FreeThoughtBlogs

Let’s back up a bit.

In early July, I received an e-mail from Ed Brayton, author of the very popular ‘Dispatches from the Culture Wars‘ blog. In it, he told me that he had thrown in with one of my favourite bloggers, PZ Myers from Pharyngula. Following some negotiations with the publisher of Scienceblogs, PZ and Ed had decided to start a hub for atheist bloggers. My name had come up in some meetings, and so I was being invited to join in.

Well, dear readers, I’m not an idiot, so I said yes. Ed told me that they were rolling out blogs on a staggered basis over the next few months, so I sat back and waited patiently. Earlier this week, I received the notification that the wait was over. I am being invited into the fold of FTB.

What does this mean for Crommunist?

Basically, to use a sports metaphor, this is like being scouted to play for the minor league affiliate of a major sports franchise in your rookie season. I have not been in the blogging game for very long, so to be invited to hang my shingle alongside veterans like PZ, Ed, and Greta Christina, as well as up-and-comers like Jen McCreight, Jason Thibeault and Stephanie Zvan… it’s a big deal for me. If I put in a few good seasons, there is a chance that I will have the opportunity to play in the majors – a guest column in a newspaper, the opportunity to attend conferences as a lecturer, maybe even a book deal somewhere down the road. While I don’t have any specific ambitions toward these things, I’ve learned that one should always be open to the opportunity should it arise.

Obviously, as someone who shares his personal insights, I am interested in disseminating them to as large an audience as possible. Having a spot at FTB will contribute to that a great deal. I have picked up a few new blogs since they went live at FTB, and I have my fingers crossed that I will similarly reap the benefits of being on the same page as the big guys. That being said, I have fought for every reader I have up until now, and I know that if I put out an inferior product I will lose readers quickly.

What does this mean for readers?

There will, sadly, be some slight changes to how you access this material. This URL will remain in existence, for a while at least. I will, however, not be putting up full posts on the site anymore. Instead, I’ll post ‘teasers’ and a link to the full-length article. I would like to concentrate traffic there, simply because it makes my blogging management twice as simple. I’d also prefer that you comment there rather than here. As always, I will respond to e-mails as quickly as I can.

If you follow me from an RSS reader, you’ll have to update your settings, or simply rely on the teasers and links to direct you.

As I alluded to above, the content and quality you’re used to will not change, or will improve. The fact that people are reading this stuff is a major motivator for me to do better, and more readers = more better. I solemnly refuse to forget those of you who were here when I was just a guy with a website. Besides, now you can burnish your hipster cred: “I read Crommunist before he sold out”.

I hope you’ll see this as exciting and positive, because that is certainly how I feel about the change. See you at the new site!

XOXO

Crommunist

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25 Welcome to the Crommunist Manifesto

October 1, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog · Blogmeta

Hello everyone. Words really cannot express how flattered and excited I am to be included with some of my favourite bloggers here at FreeThoughtBlogs. This is a problem, because as a blogger, it’s sort of my job to express things in words. Despite this disappointing shortcoming on my part, I am overwhelmingly grateful to have you cast your eyes on this humble page. You probably have questions, and I will do my best to anticipate and answer them.

Who the hell are you?

I go by the handle ‘Crommunist’, not as a poorly-veiled allusion to any particular political philosophy (besides the one of my own devising), but because my last name (Cromwell) was shorted in youth to ‘Crommie’. When a friend astutely pointed out how this made me sound like ‘Commie’, I seized upon the opportunity to re-brand myself online as Crommunist. I am a health services researcher living and working in Vancouver, Canada. When I am not working, I am also a part-time musician and member of the Vancouver branch of the Centre for Inquiry.

What makes you think you deserve to be here?

I’ve been blogging steadily since March, 2010, but my intermittant blog career stretches back nearly a decade. The Manifesto originally began as an opportunity to clarify some thoughts and ongoing questions that I’d been having with issues I felt were important, and quickly morphed into a platform for me to discuss issues of race, religion, politics, law, sex, and a whole host of other topics. Since my humble beginnings, I’ve had my skeptical activity and arguments featured on Pharyngula, been a guest feature on Friendly Atheist and Skeptic Money, as well as anti-racist blog Racialicious. I’m also a regular author on Canadian Atheist.

The FTB powers that be first extended me an invitation back in July to contribute here. I have been a fly on the wall of many of the blogs here at the FTB collective both before and after launch, but I strongly suspect that I had a patron who lobbied for my inclusion. I will not name who I suspect this party to be, but I will say that I will make it my business not to disappoint her/him.

Why should I read/what are your qualifications?

I have been derided on the occasions where my work has been featured outside of my personal site as an ‘unqualified blogger’. I will be the first to admit (in fact, I had admitted long before I received any such attention) that my academic qualifications are modest and ancillary to most of my blog topics. I am aware that this makes my work completely unpalatable to the upper crust of those who read blogs. If you are one of those, I apologize for being a person who has ideas without the credentials to back up such conceit. If you are someone who is able to evaluate ideas based on their content and not their speaker, then I invite your critical eye.

As for why you should read this blog, the main bread and butter of the Crommunist Manifesto has to do with race, racism, and race issues. While I cannot claim a degree in these topics, I have spent a lifetime agonizing over these realities and what they’ve meant for me personally. I would never dream of claiming that my personal experience can be abstracted to every black person on the planet (in fact it’s probably fairly atypical). However, while there are lots of blogs about race, and lots of blogs about skepticism, I seem to have tapped in to a small niche crossover market where there isn’t a lot of representation. If you are interested in discussions of how race, like religion, shapes the world in which we live – often in ways we don’t discern right away – this might be a place worth spending some time.

Why is race worth talking about? Isn’t it all socially constructed anyway?

If theology has taught us anything (and that’s a big ‘if’), it’s that something does not have to be real (in an empirical sense) to exert major influence, or do major harm. However, a few people simply embracing the fact that the emperor is naked does not negate the thousands more that gape at his resplendent finery. I want us, as a community of freethinkers, as a society, as a species, to apply the principles of skepticism to the topic of race. We should note the effect it has, while pointing out as loudly and often as possible that we are labouring under a falsehood – that people can be meaningfully sorted by superficial physical characteristics. Waiting for racism to go away on its own is not an option. Well, not a good one, anyway.

One thing that I’ve learned from reading Blag Hag is that there is a world of similarities between feminist thought and anti-racist thought. Many of the issues are transferrable, and align quite well with the humanist principles that most freethinkers espouse. If you think that feminism and the treatment of women are within the scope and compass of FreeThoughtBlogs, then I’m sure you’ll have no trouble accepting the need for discussing anti-racism. If you don’t think these issues are important, then please stick around and allow me to try and change your mind.

Why not blog about your scientific background?

I do occasionally dip my pen in the ink of the stuff of my day job. I try to do this sparingly, mostly because I would like to do my best to stave off the equation of my online persona with my professional identity. I do not work as a professional blogger, I do not blog at work, and my opinions as expressed here are in no way affiliated with my employer. However, I chose to devote my time to studying the equitable and affordable delivery of health care for a reason – and it sure weren’t the big paycheque. I am passionately interested in health care, so I will occasionally discuss those issues if I feel they’re relevant.

I am sure there are more questions, and I am happy to answer as many of them as I can (although many of them may be answered in my helpful FAQ). Please feel free to drop a comment on this, or any other post. Until then, I bid you welcome, and hope that you will keep on reading.

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0 Movie Friday: Movin’ on up

September 30, 2011
by Crommunist
· blog · Uncategorized

So I couldn’t find a version of this video with the actual music, but this is close enough. I have exciting news, and today’s video is a big clue about what it is. For those of you who can’t guess (or haven’t already), stay tuned for a special Saturday post explaining what’s been going on, and what’s in store for your immediate future.

I want to take this moment, seeing as I don’t have much else that is relevant to say, to thank you all for being loyal readers. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have anyone read this stuff, let alone the number of you who comment, and e-mail, and Facebook, and quietly lurk in the background. You make me want to be better at this every time I put pen to paper (to borrow an aphorism for which there is no electronic equivalent yet – ‘fingers to keys’ makes me sound like a David Firth character).

Nothing more to say, so here is a hilarious video of a kid who reminds me of me at that age:

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