You have likely heard of the Satanic Temple, even if you don’t know that you have. The group was founded in 2012. It was conceptualized as a result of President George W. Bush’s initiative to fund all religious groups. Its founders, Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves, wanted to create a group that would meet all the …

The Tree of Life synagogue shooting tragically interrupted a Saturday service, when the synagogue was most crowded. The killer intentionally sought out Jewish victims, since he believed that they were committing genocide against his people. Eleven people died during the shooting, and the community has been forever scarred. While the killer may have succeeded in his goal to kill people, his attempt to destroy the community, to sew discord, and to spread hate failed spectacularly. 

The psychology of mass killers is complicated. In brief, however, they get to a point where they think that humanity––or certain kinds of humanity––is a cancer upon the earth. They are filled with so much hate for the world that they wish only to kill everyone, including themselves. They would be happy with nothing short of total genocide, against either a specific group or every person on earth. These are fundamentally broken people, damaged by years of hatred, isolation, and mental illness.

Killers who focus on race, like this killer, hope to make a measurable impact for their cause. They hope to spread their message and to inspire others to do the same kind of damage, or they just want to kill enough people to vent their rage. It’s not logical, it won’t work, and it’s horrific. But they’re not logical, so they don’t consider the latter issues. 

At times like these, it’s natural that we should wonder what we can do in the future to prevent these kinds of tragedies. There are a number of things, of course. Voting to fund mental health care, reaching out to people in our lives that we know might need to hear our voices, or going out of our way to be nice to strangers who look like they’re having a bad day. Maybe these take too much work for you. Maybe you’d rather just click a few buttons. 

If so, take a lesson from Pittsburgh’s Muslim community. They have effectively demonstrated a great way to disincentivize these killers: they created a fundraising campaign for the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. They managed to raise enough money to cover the funeral costs of the victims, who need to be buried quickly due to Jewish funeral traditions. 

So, the next time some tragedy like this happens, you should continue to be active in whatever ways you wish. But consider also showing financial support to victims and their families. Do so loudly and proudly. Get your local media involved. As Mr. Rogers said, in every tragedy you can look for the helpers. Let’s drown out the voice of killers with the voice of helpers. Let’s show them that their actions are not only useless, but they’re going to do the opposite of what they want. 

Sleepless in Seattle is one of my favorite films of all time. The writing is so tight. Think of the apple peeling, for example. Annie peels an apple in one long strand with a knife, and later we find out that Sam’s deceased wife used to do the same thing. It was one of his favorite details about her, in fact. That little moment sealed the connection between Sam’s lost love and his new love, and that’s where the movie’s romantic atmosphere comes from. But that moment––and others, such as the countless missed connections between the two protagonists––is precisely the reason the movie misrepresents love.

Consider this: we never see Sam in love with a living woman, nor do we see him in a romantic relationship with a woman. We only see him in a foil relationship with his fawning girlfriend, and  he’s obviously not that her into since he drops her like a bad habit the moment he meets Annie. For that matter, we never see Annie in love and in a romantic relationship with the same person. She is in a “romantic” relationship with her fiancé, technically, but she’s obviously not in love with him. Instead, she’s in love with Sam. So the whole movie is about the potential for romantic love, not necessarily its fruition.

That’s an important point, because as this video (and this New York Times opinion piece) argue, “romance,” especially as it’s portrayed in movies like Sleepless in Seattle, is a trap. Again, consider how Sleepless in Seattle Ends. It ends with a visual representation of the fairytale trope, “And they lived happily ever after.” You never see the details of “happily ever after” because there’s no such thing as happily ever after when it comes to marriage. Marriage is hard because living in close proximity to literally any human is hard. Exposing your intimacies, which you do when you live with someone, is hard. You’re going to hate them sometimes, and they’re going to hate you. 

Because they don’t show that reality, romantic movies give us a false hope that we can meet the perfect person. And so we exercise extreme discernment and fret over meeting the right person. We go to weddings and hear speeches about how perfect the couple is––we don’t hear the reality, that even their relationship (gasp!) took work and will be, at some point, miserable for both of them. 

This video doesn’t argue that you should avoid marriage or that marriage is worthless. Quite the opposite, in fact. It argues that you’re going to marry the wrong person, but that’s ok. Take a look.

Halloween is on a work night this year, meaning instead of partying most of us will be at home. That doesn’t mean you can’t get in the Halloween spirit. If you’re in the mood to be freaked out of your wits but don’t want to go the usual zombie, axe murderer, or ghost route, then we have a suggestion: The Fall. 

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Or so the old saying goes. That does not only apply to people, but also to companies or even ideas. 

Fifteen years ago, Facebook was brand new. Only people at certain private schools could access it, and access was basically limited to inter-school communication. Eventually, Facebook opened access to all schools. The private schools created groups (visible only to people within their own school) with names like “Keep public schools off Facebook!” The groups didn’t work, because eventually Facebook opened to high schoolers. And then it opened to everyone. I deleted my own account when my grandmother joined. No offense to Grandma, but she had a lot of free time and an endless amount of spam to share. 

In 1641, René Descartes published Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes was worried about a question that might sound familiar to those of us living in 2018: How can we trust reality? At the time, Europeans believed that demons were active in the world, and that they were seeking to undermine the faithful. One of the ways that they led good people to do bad things was by tricking them. In demonological treatises, authors argued that demons had the ability to deceive humans into believing anything. If demons could convince you to believe anything, then how could you trust reality? That’s how Descartes begins his Meditations. His conclusion is now infamous, and you know it even if you don’t recognize his name: cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. You can’t doubt existence if you’re being fooled, in other words. Unfortunately, the world has gotten a little more complicated in the centuries since Descartes. We now live in the post-truth world. The best way to understand the post-truth world is through professional wrestling. Take a look.

Deep fake technology sounds like something out of science fiction. Essentially, deep fake technology uses computer software to make one person look like another. By using the same kinds of digital effects moviemakers use, deep fakers are able to capture footage of an actor doing an impression of, say, Barack Obama, and then make it look as though Obama himself is saying the actor’s words. If that does not terrify you, think about it this way. Deep fake technology enables someone to make any person say or do anything on film. Before you watch the video, think about some of the implications of this technology. 

When a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of protestors in Charlottesville, South Carolina, President Donald Trump said that there was “blame on both sides” rather than denounce racism or white supremacy. For this, he was widely criticized. 

This past weekend, there was a tragic shooting in Pittsburgh. Eleven people were killed, and they were specifically targeted because they were Jewish. The shooting lasted for an hour, during which congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue fled, hid, and hoped. Police charged into the building while gunfire was still raging. It ended when the shooter, wounded, crawled to the police and surrendered. He told them that he wanted all Jews to die because they were committing a genocide against his people. 

President Donald Trump made a statement following the shooting. In his statement, Trump denounced anti-semitism. It was a far cry from his speech last year––at least at first blush. But for the leaders of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, it was not enough. They are demanding that Trump denounce all white nationalism. 

“Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted,” the group wrote. “You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”

This is an impressive move on the part of the city’s Jewish leaders. First, it is selfless. They have refused to let this tragedy turn their community inwards, to separate themselves from the world around them. Instead, they have put this shooting into the context of a wider narrative, one in which white nationalism leads to a variety of problems, not just shootings.

The leaders’ statement is also impressive because they could have been happy with what Trump said, since he specifically mentioned anti-semitism. They could have taken that an let it be. Why didn’t they? One possibility is that Trump’s quick claim of anti-Semitism was a political move. The Republican party is allying itself with Israel over and above the Democrats, and Trump’s courtship of evangelical voters requires him to be overtly pro-Israel. Rather than let Trump get away with political platitudes, they chose to refocus the narrative towards what they see the issue is: white nationalism justifying a variety of xenophobic ideologies and, in this case, horrific violence. 

The International Space Station is, arguably, the most impressive human achievement in the past few decades. This video is a thirty-minute walkthrough of the International Space Station, especially including the living modules, the scientific equipment, and the minutia of daily life there. You’ll learn how the astronauts eat, drink, sleep, and how they spend their days working and staving off boredom. If you’re not into that, then you’ll definitely enjoy the views from up there.

Straight-ticket voters using voting machines used in Texas’s most populous counties are experiencing something strange. They try to vote straight ticket, either Democrat or Republican, but notice that votes in some elections––especially the controversial and contested open Senate seat––switch. 

We all love beautiful things. But we don’t often think about why we like beautiful things. This Kurzgesagt video––like most of them do––argues that evolutionary biology explains why we like beautiful things. Essentially, we find symmetry beautiful, for example. And in nature, symmetry means that things are orderly. Symmetrical trees and bushes and animals mean that they’re healthy and as they should be. A symmetrical face, which people often consider beautiful, implies that the person is healthy and therefore a good choice as a baby-making partner. 

If you’ve read anything about the Bay Area in the past few months, you’ve read that they have a major homeless problem and a major trash problem. It’s not just San Francisco that’s suffering. San Jose is also having problems. So the city is working with Goodwill to hire homeless people and clean up trash in forty hotspots around the city. The program is designed to change the narrative about homeless people, who are often blamed for trash on the streets. It also aims to help them get back on their feet, especially since some are trying but just can’t make it work.