Cheap but durable cell phones enable people to derange themselves on social media. Must RTVRN to the era of the Palm Treo.
This BTW is why the boots theory comes out of fantasy fiction. Fantasy authors often tend to see modernity and its trappings as kind inherently corrupt or fallen.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 5h agoYeah in some ways this is a debate over whether the material bounty of modern economies is something to celebrate. If you’re of the view that goods should be masterfully engineered, hand-made, last a lifetime, and cost a fortune, the idea that industrial consumerism is a poverty trap is appealing.
I think that because specious arguments about biological differences have been employed so much to deny women opportunities there is a tendency to reflexively argue against them even in the small minority of cases (like elite athletics) when there really are significant differences.
I watched Benjamin Harrison's inauguration on this TV.
Aaron van Dorn@aaronvandorn.bsky.social · yesterdayA 25" Emerson TV in 1887 cost the 2026 equivalent of $1,258.
A lot of fantasy authors are fantasy authors because they have a kind of nostalgia for simpler times so they see modernity and mass capitalism as kind of inherently corrupt. Tolkien also villainized industry. That doesn't make them bad people but also doesn't make their views on economics credible.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · yesterdayYeah, for days people have been citing “boots theory” at me and I want to shout DO YOU REALIZE THIS IS A RANDOM IDEA TOSSED OUT BY A FANTASY WRITER AND MAY NOT ACCURATELY DESCRIBE REALITY
ChatGPT: you’re right you’re so much smarter than him. He’s so schlubby and you’re so suave. Columbo will never catch you.
You could take Johnston's whole post and just add (laudatory) to the end of it.
One drum I keep beating is that the Trumpification of the Republican Party is irreversible. Even after he's gone it will be exclusively cranks, charlatans, and malevolent antisocial goons. "It was always like that"-it wasn't! It's gotten steadily, measurably worse, and he was the nail in the coffin
Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d agoNew, from me: It is fine to disagree with aspects of the pandemic response. But what we saw at Fauci's hearing was something different: a show trial where cranks tried to threaten and shift blame to an public servant. Here is why this is bad for all of us.🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/watching-t...
First Philly gets Lebron and now another L for Steph
Jordan Grimes@cafedujord.bsky.social · 5d agoYIMBYs, a new moment of triumph is upon us! Atherton, the Silicon Valley enclave that prohibits all but single-family homes, one of the most exclusionary towns in the country, has just received its first multifamily housing project (ever!) under @scottwiener.bsky.social’s SB79!
I looked it up and it turns out Stalin was a Communist, he even ran the Communist party in one of the biggest Communist countries
Biden really was this unpopular (more actually at times) and I don't think that his unpopularity really was covered aggressively.
A great AppleTV show that no one knows about? Unpossible!
@sonnybunch.bsky.social · 5d agoApple TV's 'Sugar' stars Colin Farrell as a detective in a Los Angeles-based neo-noir with a dash of sci-fi. I really dig it; it is, in some ways, a show about how the culture we consume shapes who we are. I talked to showrunner Sam Catlin about that and much more. www.thebulwark.com/p/sugar-exam...
There was a famous reddit post where some guy's Taiwanese girlfriend didn't understand why Gandalf didn't beat Pippin. www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comme...
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Saying AIPAC "bought" the election you ran in when what actually happened was their candidate came in third while a different Jewish person beat you is gutter antisemitism. Don't let "reformed" chuds anywhere near power or influence.
What would you consider to be a law likely to pass muster? The consent questions around revenge porn laws don't seem to be applicable since you aren't distributing a private image but modifying a public image to look different? It's not clear to me that even a very narrow law would survive under 1/
I have never seen someone so flummoxed by the concept of needing to drink gasoline to live, lmao.
Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social · last wk.Politics aside, do people believe federal government gas stations with deeply discounted prices are a good POLICY idea? What are they intended to accomplish, in your view? What problem do they solve? www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/b...
You will never convince these people that there is not a fat Kroger Monopoly Man with a monocle sitting on a giant pile of cash from their grocery purchase.
All the Fauci stuff is a modern day version of the POW/MIA stuff after Vietnam - a way to try to rewrite the history of a huge failure of conservative ideology to be instead a story about how liberals and foreigners stabbed us in the back.
The problem is that we have polls for the fall and while they suggest a favorable environment overall they're on average only good, not great. Not enough to win the senate and with gerrymandering the house isn't certain. Swing voters are unhappy with Trump but low on the Dems too.
Micah@rincewind.run · 7d agothis is basically an unheard of number and if it relates at all to voting intention in november the GOP is staring the apocalypse in the face
I like the Dark Knight films but I don't really think of that guy as Batman.Nolan's protagonists often don't have much agency and act a bit as audience surrogates experiencing events out of their control. And that's not really Batman. The Nolan Batman is at also at all times outsmarted by everyone.
Let me ask you a sincere question. Does the government make its own pencils? Computers? Office supplies? Cars? Phones? Does the army grow its own food?If it's a straightforward matter to simply take over an endeavor and do it more cheaply without profit motive why isn't the govt doing these things?
the government is usually not our default policy response. Actually running food provision is a very challenging task. Why should it be the solution here?
The government addresses all sorts of other need gaps without seizing the means of production. We provide people with income assistance instead of making all their stuff directly. SNAP is generally regarded as one of the most effective programs for good insecurity. Direct provision by the 1/2