Dr DaN McKee

@authenticdmckee.bsky.social

754 Followers 566 Following

Philosophy teacher and writer. Author of ANARCHIST ATHEIST PUNK ROCK TEACHER and AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY: AN ETHICAL JUSTIFICATION OF ANARCHISM. Punk musician - Strangely Shaped by Fathers https://linktr.ee/authenticdmckee

Isn’t it funny how long we wait For so very little Shouting out our words loudly into the dark Sharing ourselves into the void Hoping for an echo back To at least acknowledge all the effort Put into making a sound?
Bad Religion’s All Ages record laying atop a record player.
A foot wearing a sock with the message “fuck racism” repeated on it.
Three people staring up at fireworks over some trees above a snowy street.
Me, asleep on a sofa in Sweden.
Nick Candy, Elon Musk and Nigel Farage at Mar-a-Lago with a vile picture of Donald Trump behind them.
Screenshot from a phone of The Complete Sherlock Holmes read by Stephen Fry playing on Audible. End Credits are playing. The final twelve seconds.
A cat by a fireplace looking up at a brightly lit Christmas tree. The fire is on and a stocking hangs from the mantelpiece. In the background a nutcracker version of the professional wrestler, Sting, watches calmly on.
Idles playing Birmingham. Idles in big letters behind the stage. A smoky scene but shadowy band members are silhouetted from the stage while a crowd looks on.
Spotify listing of my top 5 bands: 1. Green Day; 2. Bad Religion; 3. Foo Fighters; 4. Idles; 5. Nofx
Christmas tree and some devoured Italian food pots and pans and drinks on a table by a window.
A grey and white cat with no eyes looking absolutely beautiful.
A picture of car screen showing Green Day’s Armitage Shanks playing from their Insomniac album.
Copies of Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher under a Christmas tree.
A book - The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne - and a Starbucks coffee at an indistinct service station.
All of which is to say, Trump and his team have learned the most essential lessons of Trump’s favorite art form. If you don’t understand wrestling, you’ll never understand Trump.
A grey and white cat sits on a yellow pillow on an oat coloured sofa.
I certainly think some people may think I profit in some way from this website. I don’t. In fact, it costs me money as I pay for the domain and the site each month from Squarespace, and have intentionally not opted for commercial sponsorship or advertising spots. It also costs me time, as I’m producing a new post once a week to ensure there is something new to read every Monday if outside submissions don’t come in (and even when they do, there is usually a delay due to drafts and edits taking a bit of time, so most weeks its essential to have a back up). I literally benefit in no way from the success of this site other than it contributing to student enjoyment of philosophy as a discipline. Hopefully that keeps them wanting to study the subject, which, in my own school, may benefit me by maintaining A-level numbers, but that benefit is not solely available to me - it is a benefit to every philosophy teacher in the country. And the students themselves will benefit too, as if a blog like this makes them enjoy philosophy then there is something wonderful in their lives that they enjoy: philosophy!
Front cover of Green Day’s Insomniac album, depicting a Winston Smith collage of juxtaposed images.
By selecting Linda McMahon, Donald Trump is showing that he could not care less about our students’ futures. Rather than working to strengthen public schools, expand learning opportunities for students, and support educators, McMahon’s only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools, where 90% of students – and 95% of students with disabilities – learn, and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.
Blind grey and white cat in the foreground, sitting on a sofa. In the background I’m sat, sleeping.