Maybe the real answer is that different paths work for different people. Some advance through persistence, others through natural ability, others through collaboration or knowing their limits. The world needs all of it, not just one template for success.
Stubbornness can actually be a problem, it can mean rigidity, refusing feedback, or ego that won’t quit even when quitting is the right call. Sometimes the most mature thing is knowing when to pivot, rest, or walk away. Not everything worth doing requires suffering through it.
I hear the spirit of this, but I think we might be swapping one requirement (talent) for another (stubbornness). What about people who are gentle, adaptive, or wise enough to know when to let go? What about those dealing with burnout, chronic illness, or circumstances that make grinding impossible?
Shoes That Fit Distribution Day at David Crocket Elementary School in Phoenix, AZ. We gave shoes to 446 students today. We had DJ Shammy Dee spinning KPop Demon Hunters which the kids knew word for word. A fun and meaningful day was had by all! Thank you to our incredible volunteers!
It’s a tough balance between holding people accountable for harmful speech and inadvertently giving that speech a bigger platform. Sometimes silence lets harm continue unchecked, sometimes exposure spreads it further.
Good point about the calculation test for harm. On highlighting extreme views, I think there’s value in exposing Kirk’s rhetoric to show its real impact on LGBTQ+ people, but the risk is amplifying his message to new audiences who might embrace it.
Who gets to make those calculations? What prevents that same logic from being turned against voices we value?
Once we start calculating the value of human lives, weighing Kirk’s potential future contributions against the harm his rhetoric caused, we’re on a slope that leads to justifying assassination based on our predictions about someone’s worth.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. You’re absolutely right that I didn’t fully address the “missed” value in Singer’s calculus, and that’s an important oversight. But don’t you think that’s exactly the problem with utilitarian reasoning when applied to murder?
I watched Charlie Kirk get shot yesterday online and felt nauseous, not because I mourned him, but because murder is wrong even when his death benefits the LGBTQ+ community. Wrestling with political violence and moral consistency. #philsky #charliekirk
themoralityof.substack.com/p/the-morali...
Reporting from Phoenix, AZ, I’m here leading events with Shoes That Fit. This organization gives athletic shoes to kids in need. Nordstrom is on a mission to raise 1.7 million dollars and distribute 50k pairs of shoes to kids in need. #fashion #shoes #philanthropy www.shoesthatfit.org/nordstrom/
In solitude we discover who we are; in community we learn who we might become.
Belonging is the art of being seen completely and choosing to stay anyway.
Home is not a place we find but a feeling we create in the spaces between understanding and being understood.
True intimacy lies not in knowing everything about someone, but in being comfortable with the mysteries they choose to keep.
The daily act of choosing visibility over safety is a form of quiet heroism rarely acknowledged. #lgbtq
In the space between who we were taught to be and who we are, entire worlds of possibility are born. #lgbtq #philsky
The profound loneliness of carrying joy that others cannot see or celebrate carves depths in the soul unknown to others.
#lgbtq
To deny another’s authentic existence is to diminish the very fabric of human possibility itself.
The courage to be oneself is the foundation upon which all other freedoms are built.
The measure of a society’s wisdom lies not in its uniformity, but in how tenderly it protects its most vulnerable truths.
Thank you for putting this into words. It’s something more of us (especially cis people like me) need to sit with.
What you said about the casual conversations, those half-acceptances that people toss around when they think no one trans is listening, that hits. It’s like watching the door crack open, but knowing you’re still not safe to walk through it.
I really feel this. Visibility is powerful, but it comes at a personal cost, and that cost is rarely acknowledged. It’s hard knowing that just existing can change someone’s opinion, while also knowing it’s not your job to educate or be someone’s “turning point.”
That’s the highest compliment, thank you! If it lingers, it’s alive. And maybe that’s where morality lives too: not in the answers, but in the questions we can’t shake.
Totally agree. The Cogito centers the self so completely that it risks erasing the other. Morality can’t live there long. It needs a world beyond the self to mean anything.
Thank you for your insights!
I love this statement! Thank you for your kind words.
So morals come from many places: the body, the tribe, the home, the nation. Some we inherit. Some we learn. Some we question. Some we outgrow.
They evolve as we evolve.
But they all start with a simple question:
What kind of world do I want to live in?
Family reflects culture. What’s moral in one home may be immoral in another. In one country, duty to elders is sacred. In another, independence is praised. These differences are cultural relativism in action.
But not all morals are built-in. Many come from family. We absorb rules before we understand them. If we’re taught that obedience is good, we internalize it. If we’re taught rebellion, we learn that, too.
