"If you live long enough, time can become a weapon." - Gaal Dornick, Foundation S3e1
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
@shengokai.blacksky.app
Martial artist, motorcyclist, pragmatist, comics philosopher, queer phenomenologist. Assistant Prof @CSUN. Japanese philosophy, race, gender, disability, tech/AI. Inquiries: johnathan.flowers@csun.edu IRON LORD. Rider of the mind shaitan. He/Him/His 🏳️🌈
🚨 BREAKING We are supporting a legal challenge to the Code of Practice. And we need your help. Join us in fighting back 👇
We’re supporting a legal challenge against the code of practice | Good Law Project
The government’s transphobic statutory guidance is now up and running – we’re fighting back
goodlaw.social
Listen, if they can adapt Foundation, they sure as FUCK can adapt the Xeelee Cycle. I want my Nightfighters and Splines and gravity lasers and The Raft and The Ring. I want to see humanity firing stars like bullets. Apple TV, you know what to do.
It seems I am about a season behind on the sexy Lee Pace in Space show, Foundation, so I'm gonna start that up.
no progress, please, anything helps, literally any amount
Peanut@peanutium.bsky.social · 19h agoNo progress, anything helps, we need groceries soon! 0/300 Groceries 0/250 CA Loan 0/140 Electric Bill 0/20 Gas cash.app/$DragonAField venmo.com/u/Caeli-Field www.paypal.me/caelifield #mutualaid #HelpFolksLive2026 #transmutualaid #Disabilitymutualaid
Finished Pluribus. What should i watch next?
BBC breakfast talking about this and it's all fun and games and not SpaceX being wildly irresponsible with their equipment.
Sky News@news.sky.com · 12h agoSpaceX latest: Abandoned rocket about to slam into moon at high speed
Happy defeat day to Haley Stevens. I am sure the Dems, the pundit class, and the right will be absolutely normal about this outcome.
Alright, y’all time for the last episode of Pluribus.
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)@shengokai.blacksky.app · 2d agoOkay, I'm watching Pluribus. THESE FUCKING NERDS. YOU DON'T JUST WHIP UP A BATCH OF SOME UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL FROM A SIGNAL YOU INTERCEPTED FROM SPACE. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING.
um wth everybody i know on here has a monthly pass for the struggle bus
New York Magazine@nymag.com · 21h agoOn social media, a broad consensus is that you can’t admit to struggle — at least not while you’re struggling. Doing so represents a failure so profound it’s almost existential. How did it become mandatory to demonstrate perpetual growth and progress online?
Tbh, this kind of friction happens when we practice new skills or try to get better at something. It happens when we seek out challenges to our acquired skills or when we "test" ourselves in the world. The friction and its overcoming are valued in these moments.
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)@shengokai.blacksky.app · yesterdayI would call it a "good friction," or a "willful friction," or a "voluntary friction" because it's a friction we willingly adopt and not everyone wants that degree of friction or resistance from the world. That friction is gone when the hive mind tries to anticipate her needs and just fill them.
The real question is what kind of Fae powers would I get after being Isekai'd by the Fae.
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)@shengokai.blacksky.app · yesterdayReader, it's true. I have read enough romantasy to know if you get isekai'd by the fae, you're going to have to duel some porcelain skinned motherfucker who may or may not have wings and long flowing locks. I don't make the rules.
Me: I accept... Wait, my cat. I'm bringing my cat. The Fae: Uh... okay? The bargain is struck! Me: Good! So, let's cut out the intrigue and get to the part where I need to duel someone. The Fae: What the fuck... Me: I've read enough romantasy to know that's what's going to happen here.
Courtney Milan@courtneymilan.com · 2d agoThe Fae: so we’re going to take you away from here and— Me: I accept! The Fae: and you won’t remember anything and you will not return for a century— Me: I ACCEPT HARDER
It's amazing. Matthew is a lawyer, their argument is well-reasoned and measured, asking why the death penalty is applied to those who lack power, rather than to people who cause massive, irreparable harm. But it's always easier to pretend a challenging premise is a call to violence, huh, bluesky.
Rieve Alavaix@rieve.bsky.social · 2d agoMatthew Cortland has been suspended from bsky for, you guessed it, bullshit reasons. Bsky continues to protect the rich from getting their feelings hurt while consistently banning those who advocate for the marginalized and vulnerable. Follow Matthew on Patreon or ShouldntNeedToBeALawyer.com
The most complicated, or nuanced, word I used was "inimical." This is a college level word meaning "hostile" or "unfriendly to," and the meaning can be gathered from the context of the post. Aside from that, I'm not sure how what you've said is at all relevant. Or how my language creates bubbles.
FormerGregSamsa@formergregsamsa.bsky.social · 2d agoI know you’re trying to be helpful, but dude—and I mean this in a way that is relevant—use less nuanced words. We’re trying to avoid the bubble thing, not blow more of them.
Back on my Pluribus bullshit. Follow along here.
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)@shengokai.blacksky.app · 2d agoOkay, I'm watching Pluribus. THESE FUCKING NERDS. YOU DON'T JUST WHIP UP A BATCH OF SOME UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL FROM A SIGNAL YOU INTERCEPTED FROM SPACE. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING.
Okay, so. From a structural level, BlueSky is inimical to the kind of digital environment that enables most right wing users to thrive. For all my issues with its deployment, composable moderation and the granular settings of BlueSky allow folks to literally shut down assholes without engaging.
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
I can't let a trans girl compete against my daughter in sports because a scholarship is the only way we can afford college. Hey, perhaps we have identified the real problem. College is not affordable. Not that your daughter is competing on the volleyball team with somebody who is more skilled.
Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 2d agothe obsession with trans women in sports is, apart from the abject bigotry, a symptom of how we take amateur sports participation way too seriously in this country.
Department of Education will no longer track the bullying of trans & non-binary kids The lack of data collection will leave harm to the children left unreported. www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/08/depa...
Department of Education will no longer track the bullying of trans & non-binary kids - LGBTQ Nation
The lack of data collection will leave harm to the children left unreported.
lgbtqnation.com
* democratic socialist mayors are putting public safety first democrats are poised to begin internally discussing approaches to considering where public safety might someday rank
Democrats@democrats.org · 2d agoHUGE: Under Mayor Mamdani, New York City just recorded its safest first 7 months of a year in history—and its safest July ever. In July: Major crime dropped 13% Murder dropped 32% Robberies dropped 15% Vehicle thefts dropped 25% Democratic mayors are putting public safety first.
That's actually part of the problem. The unwillingness to name names about who is doing what, where, and how in academia limits our ability to talk about some structural issues and the people who maintain them. Part of this is because many academics think implication in = attack on, which... Yeah.
Ben Wurgaft@benwurgaft.bsky.social · 2d agoI mean, we're going to have to start naming names as the conversation continues, and that's so much less socially comfortable than trying to limn this via social theory.
John Dewey's "Human Nature and Conduct," Richard Shusterman's "Somaesthetics" and "Body Consciousness," Sara Ahmed's "Phenomenology of Whiteness" and "Queer Phenomenology,." My chapter "Pragmatist Social Ontology of Identity" is also a start.
Explicitly Anti-Vaxx@bellamyj.blacksky.app · 2d ago@shengokai.blacksky.app I've seen you mention habit and values more than once (usually when discussing Dewey, I think). Do you have recommended reading intersecting the two?
Every time someone says this like Mastodon is any better about this, I whip out this gem:
The Whiteness of Mastodon
A conversation with Dr. Johnathan Flowers about Elon Musk's changes at Twitter and the dynamics on Mastodon, the decentralized alternative.
techpolicy.press
@bachlvrdwb.bsky.social · 2d agoWell. Guess it is back to...Mastodon? I won't stick around for yet another nazi invasion any more than I did with Twitter
"why can't we find any senior devs to hire" because you fired all the entry level people 5 years ago gerald
There is no version of yourself you could become that would satisfy the people who hate you. So you might as well be who you are.
Unbelievable Klaes Ashford
Alt: Klaes Ashford, Beltalowda, shaking his head and saying "unbelievable." this is the poster's response to the nonsense coming out of this motherfucker's mouth.
static.klipy.com
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
Hot take: I like Pluribus better than Severance.