Mezentine
@mezentine.bsky.social
Chicago-based. Bikes. Books. Photography. Lot of politics.
THE SECRET IS THAT THE PEOPLE ABSOLUTELY FUCKING CRAVE CAR-FREE SPACES TO SPEND EVEN AN HOUR OF THEIR OTHERWISE COMPLETELY CAR-DOMINATED LIVES
Swimmer Tyrone@sbunny.bsky.social · 21h agoThese fests have gotten so popular which is kinda bizarre to me because it’s just the same artists at everyone and then selling the same food that you would eat any other day but 70% more expensive lol
Lanterns Finale Recap: In Brightest Day Is this the best superhero show? Pretty handily. It’s also one of the best things on TV right now, period, with some of the most wrenching, introspective drama you’re likely to find. A pretty stunning adaptation. www.vulture.com/article/lant...
Lanterns Season-Finale Recap: In Brightest Day
An emotional finale full of deep introspection and difficult truths caps off a strong entry into the superhero TV canon.
vulture.com
If there’s something that really worries me it’s that the kind of political movement that can achieve anything, left or right wing, may ultimately need to be totalizing in a way I find alienating.
Katherine Alejandra Cross@quinnae.com · yesterdayIn some sense, mass parties were one attempt to solve this problem, with the entire political spectrum getting in on the act in one form or another. But, tragically, the most successful were the authoritarians, whose mass parties were the *most* totalising.
The final battle of The Iron Giant gave me nightmares as a kid.
Sleeping Village Reviews@sleepingvillage.bsky.social · yesterdayIn honor of scary media month: what is the first piece of media you remember truly frightening you as a child?
A big moment for me was seeing people (mostly educated!) who didn't know who Amber Heard was suddenly villainizing her in the group chat. Propaganda works and our online infrastructure is set up to elevate grievance and hate.
Werner Herzog's Bear@jasontebbe.bsky.social · yesterdayA broken public sphere where people get their news and worldviews from the online world is a permanent advantage for the far right. We can see this globally.
A good fresh Star Trek take on those fake isekai title jokes
Happening now in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview: A few hundred people are out protesting right-wing provocateur Jake Lang and his attempted "crusader march" on the local Palestine Fest going on nearby. Police in riot gear just formed a line, with Lang's group behind them.
DYLAN: "Zoe. I'm at the field hospital. It's... not looking good." ZOE: "Shit. Is there anyone alive?" DYLAN: "There's someone here, at the front desk." ZOE: "And the staff?" DYLAN: "One doctor. He's okay. Just distressed." ZOE: "And the civilians?" DYLAN: "Only one. A woman on a bed. She's crying."
I don't think I've made this point on this platform before it's no coincidence IMO that so much fash faux nostalgia AI slop is indistinguishable from the most gonzo dystopian "what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war, this is the sixth Reich" parodies, IE:
new wolfenstein looks like shit
Unfortunately pro-cop Democrats like Alexi Giannoulias are using this as a campaign talking point by only connecting Flock to ICE, leaving the door open for them to replace Flock with different invasive surveillance technology
Mother Jones@motherjones.com · 2d agoAmericans are increasingly aware of the surveillance systems used by almost 80 percent of police departments to trace vehicles and drivers without a warrant—and they are pissed.
Waymo is not a last-mile solution, nor a transit solution. And most certainly should not benefit from any of the transit funding we won in fighting for NITA. It is a car-centric proposal that offers no real systems change, shares all the same geometry, capacity, and environmental ills of cars.
Watching Death Becomes Her for the first time and this is way more of an homage to classic Universal monster stuff than I was expecting.
Great chance to post my all-time favorite headline
Nick Pettigrew@nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 8mo agoI'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
Prison abolition is a specific and very materialist critique rooted in two big assertions: that incarceration is socially destructive (in concrete and measurable ways) and that the prison system does not provide the societal benefits that it purports to. Neither of those is relevant here!
Okay I need some of you to stop talking about prison abolition until you understand what the carceral system actually is and how it works.
Two completely different issues that by no means are contradictory. Prisons are institutional. Public shaming is social. We do not get to control people feelings. And reform by no means should require putting someone back to the position they held before. Especially as a media figure.
If you want some spooky shopping vibes, head to the Mariano's on Elston where the power is totally out
A once in a lifetime cosmic event will take place today: for exactly 2 minutes, the names Bilbao (Portugal) and Bilbo (the Hobbit, Lotr) will switch places everywhere. Take this into account, keep your guard up.
that reaction here — the way this guy is *emotionally real* to you but the story of what he did is otherwise just some abstracta, no matter your princples on justice for sexual assault in the general sense — is exactly the reason you should worry about a known rapist having a parasocial following
“Restorative justice” is a set of processes meant to be applied in the context of the harm done and involving all of the relevant parties. I don’t think it’s some panacea, or that anyone has really worked it out thoroughly, but it’s also just not a toolkit that’s available in this situation.
Alex P. 👹@saddestrobots.bsky.social · 2d agothe up-in-your-feelings handwringing takes talking about "restorative justice" — i'm talking full articles, not just social media posts — are, i think, proof positive that the parasocial cachet of niche media personalities is a real thing
the up-in-your-feelings handwringing takes talking about "restorative justice" — i'm talking full articles, not just social media posts — are, i think, proof positive that the parasocial cachet of niche media personalities is a real thing
Alex P. 👹@saddestrobots.bsky.social · 3d agoshould having committed rape preclude you from being a video essayist? the answer is "yes" in direct proportion to how many people are willing to get really parasocial towards a video essayist i'm not being flippant here, parasocial support is the exact thing that makes this position dangerous