I think people are wrong when they say Musk's conscience is getting to him, and I think they're wrong when they say he's too sociopathic to care. The one thing Elon Musk gives a shit about is other people's opinion of him. Remember: he needed a wellness check after the Chappelle incident.

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · last mo.

Elon now claims he was saving lives by ending USAID

The bizarre Democratic leadership crashout was always coming. You can't spend decades only listening to a bunch of overpaid consultants, wealthy donors, and imaginary swing-voting centrists from Massapequa and then act shocked and appalled when actual voters don't show up for you.

Some people are saying Twitter c. 2015-2018, but imo, it was better earlier than that. 2010-2013 was an incredible time. Zero monetization strategy, just vibes. Every tweet 160 characters or less. Then Gamergate crawled out of a subreddit like a sewer demon and the whole thing never recovered.

JD (by way of Blacksky)@jdot.blacksky.team · 2mo ago

Can I ask y’all a genuine question? In all your life online, what’s the greatest social media you’ve ever used?

I say this as someone who enjoys reading and writing sex scenes: too many authors treat them as an obligation to meet reader expectations rather than an opportunity to deepen characterization and romantic conflict. When a sex scene is doing its job, you should learn something about these people.

Jenny Hamilton@readingtheend.bsky.social · 3mo ago

screaming this line into the void: "Entirely too many writers—and a fair amount of readers—think that all you need is two-finger prep, a 'good girl' and a 'you take me so well' and you’re all set."

ICYMI, I wrote a little thing about how the crafting of sex scenes in genre romance has taken a major hit in recent years. #romancelandia romancing-the-stoned.beehiiv.com/p/no-f-ck-is...

No F*ck is an Island

A treatise on the degradation of sexytimes in romance

romancing-the-stoned.beehiiv.com

lmao

I read this decision start to finish and I can't decide which was my favourite part: "you can't copyright hot boys", or "YOU CAN'T COPYRIGHT THE STATE OF ALASKA."

Sarah Fackrell@design-law.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"A ... federal judge has dismissed a writer's lawsuit accusing a bestselling fiction author of stealing her romance-fantasy book drafts to create the popular 'Crave' series, issuing a lengthy opinion finding tropes of the genre —such as 'hot, sexy, dangerous boys'— are not protected by copyright."

The opening paragraph of this article is INCREDIBLE.

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 5mo ago

SCOOP— Trump wants a 24k gold coin w/ his face on it for America 250, but an official at a late February coin advisory committee meeting called it something only done by "nations ruled by kings or dictators." After NYT reported the criticism, US Mint yanked online vid of the meeting w/o explanation.

I think you can get decent reactionary art. The problem is that these people are such catastrophically embarrassing losers that they've spent the last decade having public meltdowns over gas stoves, the Cracker Barrel logo, & whether the green M&M used to be fuckable. They're joyless hall monitors.

onion person@junlper.beer · 6mo ago

the primary reason rightwingers will never control culture is because everything they do is hinged upon it being a reaction to the broader culture. the TPUSA half time event would not exist without it being a representation of their grievences

OG Twitter people remember when this guy was so liked that if you posted even the mildest criticism about him, you were flooded with days of harrassment, and now look at this whiny little piss baby.

Charlie Warzel@cwarzel.bsky.social · 6mo ago

presented without comment

And what gets me is that these same journalists still write like we should give any of their opinions deference at all. "Sure, I was wrong for TEN YEARS, but democrats should..." man, fuck you.

"Damn, maybe we should be soft on the people who have lived in this delusion for TEN YEARS and are just discovering Trump is a fascist" If other people want to have grace, go with my blessing, but I especially will not forgive or forget the journalists who smugly told people we were fear-mongering.

I have vivid memories of 2015 and people telling me "trump can't win" and then when he won, telling me, "The supreme court is fine" and then telling me "roe v wade" is fine, and framing people like me as hysterical, so these people can actually eat shit and put in the work if they're sorry.

Henry Mance@henrymance.ft.com · 6mo ago

Bluesky idea: if people who didn't agree with you change their opinions so that they do agree with you, why not be happy that you are making progress - rather than complaining that they are "only just catching up"?

It's deeply, deeply fucked up to see a Dem leader so ineffective and disconnected from reality that people have to stand in the cold, begging him to convince his own party to stop bankrolling masked nazis murdering civilians in broad daylight.

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 6mo ago

There are about 100 protesters outside Schumer’s building in the middle of the blizzard urging him to whip Dem votes against any more ICE/CBP funding.

When It Happens, the most insufferable people alive are going to tell us all what terrible people we are for celebrating, so I want us all to practice the various ways we will tell them, from the bottom of our hearts, to eat shit.

God, we're going to have to endure this peace prize shit every year, aren't we

I would N E V E R (!!) encourage you to spread the link: icelist.is which has been curated by state. I am simply leaving it here for you all. For Research purposes.

There are some days I wake up and see shit like this and feel deeply, deeply resentful of all the people who are responsible for putting this nonsense in front of my eyeballs daily. We are not even a year into this presidency, and it feels like I've aged a decade.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7mo ago

Rep. Randy Fine on his bill to make Greenland the 51st state: "We need to make sure we assert our dominance over the Western Hemisphere ... the last thing we need is Greenland to become another Venezuela where we have huge problems we have to deal with in the future."

I'm interested to know how many Gen-Xers joined ICE once they got rid of the upper age limit. Because I'll bet it's a decent number.

Drew Engelhardt@amengel.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Some interesting stuff in the cross-tabs.

THE MIRRORING IN HEATED RIVALRY, PEOPLE edit by: __coldties on X

The reactions to the ending of Heated Rivalry is why capital-R Romance people will fight and die on the hill of the Happily Ever After/Happily For Now ending. That ending is load-bearing. It's earned. It's the soothing hug after the story took a bat to your emotions.

So I am going to say something about romance as a genre. A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>. This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.

The thing about Bari Weiss is that she has the unshakeable confidence of someone who has never once been the smartest person in any room she's entered, but has also never noticed.

I am going to watch this freaking show just to write a think piece countering stuff like the original post. The NHL as a league is a bigot's wet dream. They banned players from using pride tape. They have no out players. The fan base and players are overwhelmingly white, straight, cis. +

Elizabeth May/Katrina Kendrick@elizabethmay.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The culture in Heated Rivalry is not about the culture *at large*. It's the homophobic culture of hockey, specifically. The NHL is STILL the only major men’s league with no out gay players. Brock McGillis, who came out after retirement, has said this show was too real for him.

The culture in Heated Rivalry is not about the culture *at large*. It's the homophobic culture of hockey, specifically. The NHL is STILL the only major men’s league with no out gay players. Brock McGillis, who came out after retirement, has said this show was too real for him.

Dr. Jim Downs@jimdowns.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I wrote about how HEATED RIVALRY popularity is tied to an outdated narrative framework—and why that matters. slate.com/life/2025/12...

good morning, I have noticed that some of the critical responses to the Crave show Heated Rivalry have been, let's say, incomplete sex scenes are craft! goddammit!

Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition - Reading the End

Heated Rivalry, AKA the gay hockey show, has been getting a lot of buzz for its explicit(-ish) sex scenes, and a lot of that buzz has been coming from viewers and critics whose experience with the rom...

readingtheend.com

I can only come to one conclusion: a very horny romance show that is not actually about hockey broke a lot of critics' brains.

I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.

Love when people write a whole philosophical treatise that boils down to "give me your work for free or you're basically a cop"

Cara N. Delaney 💖💜💙@caradelaney.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Just saw someone claim that authors who want to be paid for their work are "class traitors" because we "only let the wealthy" read our books, and I think I need to go into the woods to scream into the night for a bit. It's $5, not your first-born child! I need that $5 for health insurance!