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Ethical Dogs

Ethical Dogs

  • Societal Ethics
  • Cultural Norms
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Ethical Dogs
Ethical Dogs
  • The Second Life of a Mistake: On Public Apologies, Digital Permanence, and Whether We Ever Really Forgive Online
    Digital & Media Ethics

    The Second Life of a Mistake: On Public Apologies, Digital Permanence, and Whether We Ever Really Forgive Online

    BySelene Hermes July 12, 2026

    We built a forgiveness machine that cannot forgive. An exploration of public apologies in the digital age — why the ritual always fails, what the archive does to our capacity for forgiveness, and whether we ever really move on from a mistake made online.

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  • A passenger looking out through a train window, lost in thought
    Cultural Norms

    Strangers on a Train: The Curious Ethics of Confiding in Someone You’ll Never See Again

    BySelene Hermes July 5, 2026

    We confess our deepest selves to people we will never see again, while the people who know us best get a sanitized version. There is an ethics to that asymmetry.

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  • The Handshake Is Dead: What Touchless Greetings Tell Us About Trust in a Fragmented Age
    Cultural Norms

    The Handshake Is Dead: What Touchless Greetings Tell Us About Trust in a Fragmented Age

    BySelene Hermes July 5, 2026

    The handshake has been the default greeting in Western cultures for centuries. Now it is in clear decline — and what replaces it tells us more about trust, community, and social fragmentation than any pandemic-era hygiene protocol ever could.

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  • The Right to Resentment: On the Moral Logic of Holding a Grudge
    Societal Ethics

    The Right to Resentment: On the Moral Logic of Holding a Grudge

    BySelene Hermes June 28, 2026

    I have been holding a grudge for three years now. People tell me to let it go. But what if the pressure to forgive is itself a kind of moral problem?

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  • Digital & Media Ethics | Societal Ethics

    The Mars Delusion, the One-Way Pledge, and the Moons We Haven’t Named

    BySelene Hermes June 22, 2026

    NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this 360-degree view from within Gediz Vallis channel on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS What We Talk About When We Talk About Mars There is a version of the Martian future that Silicon Valley sells you in keynote presentations. Red deserts turned green. Glass domes with parks and schools. A second home for…

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  • The Price of a Clean Conscience: On Moral Licensing and the Ethics of Feeling Good About Yourself
    Societal Ethics

    The Price of a Clean Conscience: On Moral Licensing and the Ethics of Feeling Good About Yourself

    BySelene Hermes June 21, 2026

    Doing something good feels good. That feeling might be the problem. Moral licensing is the hidden psychological mechanism that turns virtue into permission, shaping everything from who gets hired to how we treat the planet.

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  • The Ghost in the Machine: On the Human Labor We Pretend Doesn’t Exist
    Digital & Media Ethics

    The Ghost in the Machine: On the Human Labor We Pretend Doesn’t Exist

    BySelene Hermes June 14, 2026

    Every AI interface hides the people inside it. Millions of workers perform the invisible labor that makes machine learning look like magic. Here is what happens when you look past the curtain.

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  • Riding With the Pack: Why Joining a Motorcycle Club Is Safer Than Riding Alone
    Subculture Ethics

    Riding With the Pack: Why Joining a Motorcycle Club Is Safer Than Riding Alone

    ByJoker June 7, 2026June 7, 2026

    There is a romantic image of the lone rider on the open road. But the evidence is clear: riding with an organized motorcycle club is safer than riding alone, and safer than riding with an unorganized group. Here is why the pack protects its own.

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  • The Right to Look Away: On Moral Attention, Burnout, and When It’s Okay to Not Care
    Societal Ethics

    The Right to Look Away: On Moral Attention, Burnout, and When It’s Okay to Not Care

    BySelene Hermes June 7, 2026June 7, 2026

    I spent a month last year trying to keep up. Every morning I would wake up, open my phone, and try to absorb everything that had happened while I was asleep. A humanitarian crisis in one country. A political scandal in another. A school shooting. A climate report. An AI development that might change everything….

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  • The Moral Logic of Rebellion: What Countercultures Teach Us About Ethics
    Counterculture Dynamics

    The Moral Logic of Rebellion: What Countercultures Teach Us About Ethics

    BySelene Hermes June 4, 2026June 7, 2026

    Every counterculture is, at its core, an ethical project. From the beatniks to the punks to the burner community, these movements are not just rejecting mainstream culture — they are building alternative moral systems.

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  • Societal Ethics
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  • About Us — Ethical Dogs: Clear Thinking on Culture’s Edge
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