"maybe they have a point" is a pathway only to more state violence
Derek Nystrom
@dereknystrom.bsky.social
Indolence capable of energies. I teach and write about various things, mostly stuff on screens. McGill, English. He/him.
I'm going to try and be as polite as possible about this: this isn't a purity test, this is a "will you defend a minority group when the government is working hard to murder them" question, and acting like it's a wedge issue rather than the entire game is a failure of empathy and historical vision.
kmcm@kmcm.bsky.social · last wk.Republicans milk this wedge issue in order to win. They keep winning bc they know their opposition has purity tests that align perfectly w a divide & conquer strategy. Ken Paxton could be the Senate vote that ends US democracy, but we couldn’t back Talarico because he doesn’t check every box.
Finally got a chance to watch Maren Ade's brilliant *Everyone Else*, and jesus, there just isn't another filmmaker like her. Her characters are breathtakingly alive, doing things that completely surprise you yet make total sense on reflection.
Just taught my first class of the academic year, and I don't know why I was nervous beforehand: it's just like riding a bike! In that I sweat a ton and feel completely exhausted afterwards.
Really, if you want to stir shit up and know what you’re doing, the move would be to call it Lake Quebec
I am no fan of Carney (who largely governs as a centre-right neoliberal), but jesus f*cking christ it is not the job of the Canadian PM to stop the US from shooting itself in the dick.
Post a perfect album from the 2000s (2000-2009) [Note: I know this outs me as a cliché--sad indie dad--and I don't care]
Dr ShinyGoth@ghostingdani.bsky.social · 4w agopost a perfect album from the 2000s (2000-2009).
Post45 CFP Alert: Super excited to announce this special issue, edited by Michelle N. Huang and Carlos Alonso Nugent. If you've ever thought that our periodization (or ASAP's!) needed fixing, now is your chance. submissions.post45.org/journal/CFP/...
Why45? (or Why68?) | Post45 Journal Submissions
submissions.post45.org
I don’t begrudge them moving on to other things, but I am going to miss this podcast immensely.
David_j_roth@davidjroth.bsky.social · 4w agoI tried not to be too mawkish in the blog or the episode, but this is the second-to-last ep of The Distraction and I have had some sentimental feelings about it. Mostly I am very grateful to have gotten to do stuff this dumb and call it work for so many years. BUT [1/2] defector.com/the-sun-is-s...
Andrew Baker was also a “token black professor” at Bates College. But his perspective on the events Tyler Austin Harper recounts in his Atlantic cover story is very different. Read Baker’s side of the story online today. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/racism-and...
Racism and labor at Bates: the other side of the story
Andrew Baker responds to Tyler Austin Harper
newsletter.thedriftmag.com
Not to beat up on Douthat even more, but I'll just say: it has never, in all of post-war American history, been more crystal clear exactly who your enemy should be. Never. If it's not obvious to you, you are morally & intellectually defective.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · last mo.In dishonor of Ross Douthat's last NYT column, I'm breaking my self-imposed ban on reading him—smug bad faith, whiny victimization, and steadfast refusal to let evidence affect opinion—and will screenshot and comment. This is the column if you want to read it yourself (I don't recommend it). 1/x
This is turning into a "Don't Make Me Tap the Sign" post for me, but... Hüsker Dü, in the space of just 15 months, released -- Zen Arcade (July 1984) (also, a double album!) -- New Day Rising (January 1985) -- Flip Your Wig (September 1985)
Mia Murphy 🏳️⚧️@miamurphy.com · 2mo agoWhat's the best three album run from a band? (the correct answer is Moving Pictures, Signals, and Grace Under Pressure by Rush, but I'm excited to learn second place)
One of the great things about 80s Hollywood movies is that many of them have a scene where one character eats sushi and another character loses their mind--"holy shit, what is that, dude? Is that even food?"--and the viewer is supposed to agree with the guy losing his shit.
The Boy with the Arab Strap is better than If You’re Feeling Sinister.
very hot you make nice and fat@lighter.bsky.social · 2mo agoPost your hottest music take. Mine is New Order is better than Joy Division.
I know I'm late to this show, but I have been catching up on Legends, and damn the needle drops are just impeccable.
Musk calls for the assassination of a reporter who embarrassed him with basic questions
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo agoThere is simply no ambiguity in what Elon Musk is arguing and endorsing here.
My college-aged daughter was having trouble assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, and I was able to diagnose where she had put one piece in backwards, which meant I had to partially disassemble it and then put it back together correctly, and is there any greater pleasure for a middle-aged dad?
I try not to overdo this bit but ... my man is begging for it. Let's go.
PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · 2mo agoMiller: "It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent Antifa demonstrations not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one looks normal. They're all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism." #cdnpoli
Great piece by the always great @rtraister.bsky.social, especially this part nymag.com/intelligence...
Worth keeping in mind that Haaland looks like a giant on a football pitch, but at 6'5", he is almost a foot shorter than Victor Wembanyama. Haaland is actually the same height as Dylan Harper.
I cannot help but imagine a staffer trying—and failing—to explain the Streisand effect in the meeting before these subpoenas were issued.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2mo agoThe Trump administration issued subpoenas to New York Times journalists who wrote about the new Air Force One, an escalation of pressure on the media.
The most reliable thing in the world is that if you hear two stories about a guy behaving physically abusively toward women, there are five more you haven’t heard yet. People have patterns.
This is well worth reading all the way through.
Evan Urquhart@evanurquhart.bsky.social · 3mo agoIt's not appropriate for cis people to say that trans people are too alarmed, or that certain trans writers are irresponsibly causing trans people to think the sky is falling. I want to take some time in this 🧵 to write personally about how my skies have fallen.
You've collectivized your last animal
Corey Rayburn Yung@coreyryung.bsky.social · 3mo agoYou've crowded your last house
Enjoy this article from a Minnesota newspaper in 1882 noting that Scandinavians love their home countries so much that it will take them generations to assimilate into America. www.loc.gov/resource/sn8...
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo agoTom Emmer: "Minnesotans are so afraid that you're gonna call us a racist, you're gonna call us an Islamophobe. You know what? I'm done being even the least bit careful. Somalis don't assimilate. And if they don't assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from."
"Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." - Ben Franklin on Emmers' German ancestors
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo agoTom Emmer: "Minnesotans are so afraid that you're gonna call us a racist, you're gonna call us an Islamophobe. You know what? I'm done being even the least bit careful. Somalis don't assimilate. And if they don't assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from."