it’s just so deeply unamerican

Dom Ervolina@dominicervolina.com · 7d ago

Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted this video of the Oval Office and it somehow looks even more embarrassing than I realized

I’ve been thinking a lot about the thoughtlessness of AI writing. One of the many things that makes Melville’s prose so dazzling is the EXTEME rigor of the way he surprises, deepens and extends his metaphors and cultural touchstones. AI simply can’t, and not for the same reason that most of us can’t

Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social · 5d ago

Such a good passage.

I’ve lived in England three years and I’m fairly sure the locals are messing with me. I ask someone where they live and it’s “Fartwick” or “Bunion St Giles” or “Twatham”. And I just smile and nod as if I believe “Tooting” is a real place.

But a rabidly anti-intellectual culture wherein asking about whether a proposed means is the best way to achieve social ends is... well it would destroy socialism, utterly. In fact I think the failure of previous socialist states are not unrelated to developing this exact culture.

going all-in on essentialism taints your essence, a thing that does not otherwise exist

holy fucking shit

Joe Stieb@joestieb.bsky.social · 2w ago

Yeah, this is what Hitler believed. Like this is very literally what Nazis believed.

Reminds me of how we talk about the GOP. Like they’re a fact of nature, of course they’re going to do evil shit, nothing to do about that. So we all argue about how to respond to them while ignoring the dipshit elephant in the room.

jesse يسّى ישי@tov.bsky.social · last wk.

It’s funny, in the 21st century, to pretend that exercising self determination could be a legitimate casus belli. Like, the whole discussion tends to accept Beijing’s coercion as a given, the thing everyone else needs to work around, rather than the root of the problem.

Friend who’s still on the nazi site asked me if Bluesky had heard of Haley Stevens:

the virgin “my country is ontologically evil” vs. the chad “my country is good to the extent that it does good things and bad to the extent that it does bad things”

jesse يسّى ישי@tov.bsky.social · 2w ago

“Helping people is bad because it might make them like us” can they even hear themselves?

🎉

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 2w ago

hey guys new policy: if you come into my mentions to make incredibly insulting comments about me or my intelligence or worth as a person, good chance I’m blocking you

learn to look at your more conservative-sounding family members and friends and learn to say "Wow, that's amazingly fucked up"

Just stop saying “average”, people! There’s always a way to say it that leaves you less vulnerable to being misunderstood.

jesse يسّى ישי@tov.bsky.social · 2w ago

As a matter of avoiding confusion, we should probably just retire the word.

DeMoCRaTiC cEnTraLiSM

open all borders. stop having them be closed 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@dov.bsky.social · 2w ago

i saw someone with "DSA *hammer and sickle emoji*" in their profile description and i just want to ask what do you people think the fucking D stands for

and another thing: im not mad. please dont put in @inthesetimes.com that i got mad.

Good idea!

Peter@peterc3k.bsky.social · 2w ago

At this point "Newsome" is at least a mute on sight, if not block.

“I never would and never will criticize [the greatest mass murderer in history]” is a thing to say

please could any of y’all tell me what this uglyass drawing means

⚔️𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖔𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖆𝖘𝖍⚔️@ubergreen.northsky.social · 3w ago

doin’ a little trollin’ (I’m planning to go visit Marx’s grave this weekend if the weather is nice.)

jesse يسّى ישי@tov.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Capital” is not a coherent class with common interests. Weird myth, not sure how it got started. (Landowners, on the other hand…)

there is a way for him to restore his honor

“Skepticism” implies that ICE’s statements on the matter might have some probative value. I think either ignoring them—or assuming they’re lying about everything—will get you closer to the truth, faster.

Philip Bump@pbump.com · 3w ago

An apparent ICE-related shooting in Maine is a good time to remember to treat the agency's initial claims with skepticism rather than credulity.

View from my window

Brush fire on the tracks near Stratford Station in East London

America's constant grappling with our troubled past (and present) is akin to someone posting a link to a major newspaper article and saying "why is no one reporting on this?"

Trump: It's not working! Why don't they love the fair? How do I make the crowds cheer? Oracle of DC: If you test your strength against the heat with a very long speech, the nation will celebrate harder than they ever have. They will party in the streets. No one will ever forget the night.

If It Happened at the President’s Castroesque speech in 107° heat, I would not complain.

> But I believe that returning after a suspension carries with it an implicit promise that I won’t post that, or something like it, again. I won’t make that promise, so I won’t return to Bluesky. I don’t think it carries that promise at all. You take your penalty and you get back in the game.

🐓🐓🐓

Took my shoes to the shoeshine guy and he said they need inpatient care.

Cleanup time

voted for Brad Lander and only Brad Lander (there’s nothing else on my ballot)