© 2003–2021 by Teed Rockwell I wrote this text during my twenty years teaching Critical Thinking in the California State University system. …

A Logical Analysis — Johnny Silvercloud once asked me to do a logical analysis of one of his essays, similar to the analysis I did of arguments between Argumentative Penguin and Marley K. Mr. Silvercloud later wrote that I should have included some reference to his essay on impact vs. intent in my essay…

Celebrating Four Decades of Romantic Love — I've always found buying gifts to be a challenge, for reasons I discuss here. So three years ago I wrote my wife a sonnet, and have written one for her each year so far. I spent several days listening to famous actors reading Shakespeare’s sonnets, and quickly realized that my…

For your Consideration — Dear Mr. Mays, I have read more of your Medium essays than I can count. My voice recognition app even correctly spelled your name when I was dictating this. …

Not all Prejudice is Bigotry — Introduction: “How can a privileged white guy say anything important or accurate about Black experience?” My writing about racial issues is just a form of literary criticism. I study what lots of different black writers say, and try to see some patterns in it. I draw the line at people like Candace Owens, whom I think is just saying what she thinks white people want…

But it’s a very different thing — One of the most fruitless online exchanges, on Medium and elsewhere, usually goes something like this. 1) Author says a sentence of the form “all white people are X”. 2) Commenter accuses Author of “reverse racism“, thinking she has successfully played a game of “gotcha“ 3) Author says snidely “don’t…

A response to the Celtic Chameleon. — This is my response to a recent The Celtic Chameleon post titled Opposite Sex “Friendships”, Lying to Ourselves, and Tricia’s Ghastly Boyfriend. Like all of her posts it is funny, clever, and perceptive, full of good arguments and good stories. You will probably enjoy reading her post more than mine…

A fruitful dialogue about an honest disagreement — Laura Quainoo recently wrote an essay titled “7 reasons why calling our ancestors slaves is just flat out wrong.” One of these seven reasons was “There’s no difference between a slave and a {N-word} What follows is my response to this claim, which lead to a dialogue on this topic…