262. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER - On Not Wanting To Win

January 19, 2026 by DaN McKee in Culture, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed

“Winning is important to people only because capitalism has made it so. Winning is a means, in our rigged and unfair system, for some of our intentionally limited resources or opportunities to be granted to the victor(s). Winning means access to prizes previously forbidden or inaccessible. But it’s important to acknowledge that prizes are a social construct made meaningful only because of their manufactured scarceness or the inequalities we’ve chosen to allow in the distribution of the resources from which the prize comes.“

261. ABNORMAL NORMS - On Philosophy’s Futility In Our Continuing Decline

January 12, 2026 by DaN McKee in History, New Year, Truth, Philosophy Unleashed, Culture, War, Ethics, Militarisation, Communication

“To say there are things of philosophical interest about Donald Trump’s unilateral kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and takeover of the country’s economic resources by force, is to, perhaps, show the failings of philosophy.”

260. CHRISTMAS SHOPPING - In Defence of Chainstores

December 15, 2025 by DaN McKee in Christmas, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Gifts, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Pop Culture, Punk

“This is not a defence of capitalism, nor a defence of the current order, but it is a defence of the notion that perhaps the proliferation of corporate chain-stores everywhere, which once made me mourn the quirky individuality of the independent high street, is not necessarily a bad thing.“

259. WHY IS THERE SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING? - My Social Media Avoidance Project

December 08, 2025 by DaN McKee in Art, Christmas, Culture, Improv, Media, Music, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Punk, Social Media

“Why is there something rather than nothing?” Because the desire to make something can make us redefine the original “nothing” and see new potential in it we were previously blind to.

256 - TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER - Or How To Burst A Bubble

November 17, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Environment, History, Philosophy, Perception, Philosophy Unleashed, Travel

“It’s always worth paying attention when you get your insular little bubbles popped. “

224. LIP SERVICE - On the Difficulty of Transforming What is Entrenched

October 23, 2025 by DaN McKee in Black History Month, Culture, Education, EDI, History, Identity, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Racism

“As Audre Lorde so famously put it: “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Yet schools, as reproducers of the dominant culture of any given society by design, are the very definition of “the master’s house” and it is they which are giving students their useless tools. “

222. JUSTIFYING FREEDOM - On Assuming Rights We Might Not Have

October 06, 2025 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Censorship, Culture, Education, Ethics, Free Speech, Free, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

"Freedom is not as self-evident as these young people seem to think it is, and an appeal to individual freedom is not the knock-down killer argument they seem to think that it is. In a world where are freedoms are routinely curtailed, often for very good collective reasons, the argument that X can’t be allowed because it will take away some freedom or another is simply insufficient."

221. FROM DESPAIR TO WHERE? - Has Philosophy Failed Us?

September 29, 2025 by DaN McKee in History, Culture, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Authentic Democracy, Social Media, Politics

“The comfort of thinking it can’t happen here is the surest sign that it is already near. Right on your doorstep, right on your street. Amazing how well we can walk in our sleep”

219. CULTURAL COLLAPSE - What Happens When We Lose All Context?

September 15, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Epistemology, History, Meaning, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture

“We are adrift and discombobulated. Deeply so. “

218. FLAGS - Against Lamppost Patriotism

September 08, 2025 by DaN McKee in Immigration, Politics, History, Identity, Culture, Philosophy Unleashed, Philosophy, Free Speech, Communication, Racism, Meaning

“Once we did have a symbol of the country that used to make me proud:

hotels welcoming those seeking asylum from persecution with open arms.

Now the hotels are being shut down by angry mobs

and all we have in their place are cheap flags tied from lampposts

wilting damply in the rain. “

215. IT’S OK TO END THINGS - On Saying No Under Capitalism

June 09, 2025 by DaN McKee in Punk, Obligation, Work, Culture, Philosophy Unleashed, Economics, Free, Philosophy, Justice, Art

““I’d prefer not to” - the catchphrase of Melville’s scrivener, Bartleby, is a slogan of privilege. And yet it shouldn’t be. “It’s ok to end things”. And yet for many under capitalism, ending some things are impossible.”

213. IS GOOD CONTEXTUAL WHEN IT COMES TO ART? - Aesthetics and Geography

May 19, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Meaning, Perception, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Art

“This conclusion doesn’t intend to demean our ideas of what we find good or bad in art. Rather it intends to expand our definition. Recognise that the thing we have written off before might only be written off because it was the wrong time or place to receive it. That everything can be given a second chance, or a third, or even a fourth if you are open to seeing what it is that others seem to appreciate but which you cannot, yet, seem to access.“

212. A WASTE OF TIME? - How Ought We Spend Our Days?

May 12, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Free, Meaning, Movies, Music, Obligation, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Punk, Television, Time, Work

“the older I get, the more I am coming to realise that everything we do could be perceived as both a potential waste of time, or as precisely what time is there for: to fill it. The assumption that there is an objective “ought” about what we should do with our days is the mistake. “

210. HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? - Radical Intentions Within the Seemingly Mundane

April 07, 2025 by DaN McKee in Anarchism, Authentic Democracy, Communication, Culture, Education, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, School

“I have long been inspired by the teaching philosophies of bell hooks, and a core element to her ideas about both teaching to transgress and teaching community, is to “genuinely value everyone’s presence” in the classroom. to “have interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognising one another’s presence.““

206. THE IDIOTS ARE TAKING OVER - Is Culture Getting More Stupid?

March 10, 2025 by DaN McKee in Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Education, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Teaching

“We teachers are complicit in any increased “dumbness” our culture is showing because we are often the ones dumbing things down for the next generation.“

205. SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: A Philosophy for Life

February 24, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, History, Improv, Media, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Television

“This month marks the 50th anniversary of long-running (fifty years!) American sketch comedy TV show, Saturday Night Live. To celebrate, I thought it worth taking a look at the philosophical life lessons its fifty year success story can teach us.“

204. START THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE - Time to Name Trump For What He Is

February 10, 2025 by DaN McKee in Culture, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics

“humanity routinely ignores the evidence of their eyes to make the common, everyday, standard oppressions and violences that are going on to people other than themselves ‘inconceivable’“

202. PROGRESSING EVER BACKWARDS - Why This World and Not Another?

January 27, 2025 by DaN McKee in Authentic Democracy, Culture, Elections, History, Media, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Truth

“Trump is a symptom, not the sickness itself. There are other possible worlds where his overt peddling of misinformation and self-evident unfitness for office were immediate disqualifiers for an informed voting public. Where his allusions to Nazism and explicit fascistic authoritarianism were repulsive to us instead of something which won him votes. Where the intention disrupting of democratic institutions and surrounding himself with an oligarchy of tech billionaires rang alarm bells instead of raised cheers of support. That we do not live in one of those worlds should be the thing we ask the most questions about.“

201. THE FORBIDDEN BEAT - Should I Stop Listening to Marilyn Manson?

January 20, 2025 by DaN McKee in Censorship, Communication, Culture, Economics, Media, Music, Movies, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Pop Culture, Punishment

“Manson always was a symptom and not a cause of the social sickness he personified. Watching the documentary this week simply reminded me that the world which created him continues to fail to confront the true causes of its sickness, and points the finger at individuals we can demonise instead of looking in the mirror and asking why such demons continue to exist.“

200. WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES? - Ethical Digital Hygiene

January 13, 2025 by DaN McKee in Communication, Culture, Ethics, Mental Health, Philosophy, Philosophy Unleashed, Politics, Social Media, Technology

“why do I get news headlines sent to my phone?“