Strong words from Dr Seuss here.

The burden is always on us lefties to welcome them, debate them, compromise with them, find middle ground, and generally make them comfortable. It’s totally one directional. No one is calling for Truth Social to make any room for us.

Its embarrassing how many grown ass adults live in these fantasies where people work for some nonsense like the artificial cultures oligarchs manufacture over survival.

i’m never gonna be able to fire a cruise missile yet the question of using my tax dollars for them has never been up for debate

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 3d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

Ok that’s a worry: he’s learned a second simile. Before this he would have said Pirro ‘folded like a dog.’

Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · 2d ago

President Trump says US Attorney Jeanine Pirro ‘folded like an umbrella’ in bid to drop Reflecting Pool vandalism charges

Really good piece. It's struck me that the one group I've not seen up in arms about this is librarians, accustomed as they are to weeding collections. Pat's navigated a route between the fact that pulping is a normal part of the publishing cycle and that there are issues with this specific pulping

Patrick Stokes@patrickstokes.com · 3d ago

Me in ArtsHub on destructive scanning for AI training. We probably need to avoid fetishising books, and warehouses full of Max Walker memoirs and WordPerfect For Dummies aren't the Library of Alexandria. But even for non-rare books, destroying them *purely to maintain legal cover* is just perverse.

Me in ArtsHub on destructive scanning for AI training. We probably need to avoid fetishising books, and warehouses full of Max Walker memoirs and WordPerfect For Dummies aren't the Library of Alexandria. But even for non-rare books, destroying them *purely to maintain legal cover* is just perverse.

AI companies are destroying old and rare books: who can stop them?

AI companies are now bulk buying and destroying old books – this is a very bad idea.

artshub.com.au

So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.

Spraying Pam the Bird onto potholes so council fix them

‘Methier version of Drew Pavlou’ is the sickest burn I have ever laid eyes on

Not sure why this is news, it's called a lunch break

This is the correct take on agapanthus, the melamine benchtop of the plant world (if melamine was also invasive)

Andy McKay@korimakoecology.bsky.social · 7d ago

Incredible stuff from Avalon Nursery.

You never see a comedy described as 'reverent'.

Once had to read 'The Courage To Be Disliked' for a radio slot. I did not have the courage to say on air how much I disliked it.

Josh Taylor@joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7d ago

The new premier's reading pile from last year, posted without comment.

TikTok has incredible moderation team. Our InfoWars video about Multiple Horse Theory — the idea that there are many horses in the world and not just one — has been fully deemed misinformation and lost the formal appeals process. Confirmed by Larry Ellison: There is only one horse on Earth.

*Trojan historian watching as the Achaeans break down the gates* Wow, my civilization is undergoing a complex transformation from a heavily centralized and stratified administrative society to a more socially-fragmented modality of living in which material culture is dispersed amidst smaller sites.

enjoying imagining the discussion among editors in which they determined if this ought to be pluralized as Spider-Mans, Spider-Men, or Spiders-Man

as a society we are well past due in establishing No Content Zones where making shit for tiktok is explicitly forbidden

Hemant Mehta@friendlyatheist.com · last wk.

Evangelist Whitney Lynn says she preaches on planes because she loves “a captive audience.” She's not alone. It's becoming a trend. If spreading your message requires listeners who can't escape, maybe it's not as compelling as you think. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/christian-...

he's Bert and Tim Finn's lovechild

He looks like Evil Bert Newton

Leroy@leroylynch.bsky.social · last wk.

Ben Carroll elected Victoria's next premier by caucus, after Sonya Kilkenny withdrew her nomination. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07... #springst

When you have an alternative to Ben Carroll, take the alternative to Ben Carroll.

Hanson uses the phrase "I'm sick of..." every second or third sentence, and that appeals to people for whom that's their default response too. And as Trump has shown, "I hate the things/people you hate" is more than enough to get you elected, more than once.

Peter Anderson@zerogeewhiz.bsky.social · last wk.

“Hanson’s personality, not policies, is driving One Nation support.” So it’s even worse than we thought.

Picture the scene: a desert island, survivors have turned to cannibalism, the sociologist picks the short straw: “But, but, you can’t, I collect data!…”

Why is it an insult to call some place a “one-horse town?” They’re doing okay. They’ve got a horse

We got Nietzsche. Go collect some data on how many weird teenagers have posters of Durkheim or Simmel on their bedroom walls.

Tim Gill@timgill924.bsky.social · last wk.

Let’s be honest. If Philosophy hasn’t been ‘liquidated’, Sociology will not be. For all the criticisms, at least Sociologists collect data. Meanwhile the Philosophy people just make things up out of thin air. Just whatever they want. Doesn’t matter.

This stings a little until you recall that one of the things those Philosophy people just made up was Sociology.

Tim Gill@timgill924.bsky.social · last wk.

Let’s be honest. If Philosophy hasn’t been ‘liquidated’, Sociology will not be. For all the criticisms, at least Sociologists collect data. Meanwhile the Philosophy people just make things up out of thin air. Just whatever they want. Doesn’t matter.

< @patrickstokes.com symbol shines on the clouds above Gotham>

Liam Hogan@liamhogan.id.au · last wk.

It is a profound error to think all opinions are worthy of respect. That’s a shitty liberalism: yes, human beings have inherent dignity, but it also respects their dignity to say, that’s fucking stupid, you’re wrong, shut up shut up shut up.