Remain In Hell Without Despair
@daphnelawless.com
What you're saying now is what you would be saying in 1933.
Accurate analysis is not despair.
A renaissance woman trying to start a renaissance www.daphnelawless.com
at the same username on mastodon.social
Accurate analysis is not despair.
A renaissance woman trying to start a renaissance www.daphnelawless.com
at the same username on mastodon.social
Pinned
A thread of some of my Greatest Hits in political writing.
Left intelligensia in this country, too.
You guys know it. They're not horny handed sons of toil. They're the smart kids from the upper reaches of the media-professional classes, who have enough "habitus" to fit in in academia or make a fancy podcast, but insecure enough to pose as proles
You guys know it. They're not horny handed sons of toil. They're the smart kids from the upper reaches of the media-professional classes, who have enough "habitus" to fit in in academia or make a fancy podcast, but insecure enough to pose as proles
Left media is usually run by a particular type of person. This may be why they fall all over people like Platner and are sketchy about others —just speaking from a completely non-expert stance. Left intelligentsia in the US seems drawn from a narrow swathe off society and I simply don’t know why.
November 11, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Left intelligensia in this country, too.
You guys know it. They're not horny handed sons of toil. They're the smart kids from the upper reaches of the media-professional classes, who have enough "habitus" to fit in in academia or make a fancy podcast, but insecure enough to pose as proles
You guys know it. They're not horny handed sons of toil. They're the smart kids from the upper reaches of the media-professional classes, who have enough "habitus" to fit in in academia or make a fancy podcast, but insecure enough to pose as proles
"James Bond 007" is a code name, like The Phantom. Sean Connery plays a different character than Daniel Craig. I thought we all knew this.
November 11, 2025 at 6:49 PM
"James Bond 007" is a code name, like The Phantom. Sean Connery plays a different character than Daniel Craig. I thought we all knew this.
This is like Noel Coward's definition of a gentleman as someone who can play the accordion but doesn't
Middle class is being able to afford a massive TV but not having a massive TV.
November 11, 2025 at 1:14 AM
This is like Noel Coward's definition of a gentleman as someone who can play the accordion but doesn't
TIL that _Footrot Flats_ was a major influence on the hilarious fantasy-porn-comedy webcomic _Oglaf_, and I, uh... well, Murray Ball may well have approved
My latest at @comicsjournal.bsky.social: I talked to @oglaf.bsky.social! Not the character, but rather, the people who create it.
They don't do many interviews, so this was a real treat. They're funny people! Turns out they're not super private, just...really bad at PR?
www.tcj.com/talking-ogla...
They don't do many interviews, so this was a real treat. They're funny people! Turns out they're not super private, just...really bad at PR?
www.tcj.com/talking-ogla...
Talking Oglaf with Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne: 'We'd stay up all night drawing stuff to make each other laugh' - The Comics Journal
Other than some time off every year for Christmas, Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne have delivered a new Oglaf comic, skewering fantasy tropes with absolutely not safe for work humor, every week since 2008...
www.tcj.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:40 AM
TIL that _Footrot Flats_ was a major influence on the hilarious fantasy-porn-comedy webcomic _Oglaf_, and I, uh... well, Murray Ball may well have approved
This thing just popped up on my Facebook memories
November 10, 2025 at 9:55 PM
This thing just popped up on my Facebook memories
I regret to inform the libs here that large parts of the socialist Left were enthusiastic about Trump 2.0 because "FINALLY we'll get the big break from the Dems and the foundation of a Socialist/Labor party on its own ballot line!" The same people demanded that Mamdani formally break with the Dems
"We can't reform the Dems, we need a new party" is the political equivalent of "we can't fix climate change on earth, we need to colonize Mars" in that however hard the former is, the latter is *way* harder
and you'll just need the D voter base so you wind up with the Schmemocrats, anyway
and you'll just need the D voter base so you wind up with the Schmemocrats, anyway
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
I regret to inform the libs here that large parts of the socialist Left were enthusiastic about Trump 2.0 because "FINALLY we'll get the big break from the Dems and the foundation of a Socialist/Labor party on its own ballot line!" The same people demanded that Mamdani formally break with the Dems
This is like that Monty Python sketch about the News For Parrots. "No parrots were involved in a five-car motorway accident near Bolton today. And now the News For Lemurs. No lemurs were involved in a five-car motorway accident near Bolton today..."
November 10, 2025 at 6:18 PM
This is like that Monty Python sketch about the News For Parrots. "No parrots were involved in a five-car motorway accident near Bolton today. And now the News For Lemurs. No lemurs were involved in a five-car motorway accident near Bolton today..."
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
I should write the argument up properly somewhere, but I think this is fundamentally wrong. A decisive fraction of the capitalist class does oppose addressing the climate crisis, but *not* because it would be bad for profits. If anything, a green New Deal type program would raise aggregate profits.
Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
November 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I should write the argument up properly somewhere, but I think this is fundamentally wrong. A decisive fraction of the capitalist class does oppose addressing the climate crisis, but *not* because it would be bad for profits. If anything, a green New Deal type program would raise aggregate profits.
Does this make sense, US politics nerds? That the big election win on Tuesday is precisely what is provoking the Vichy caucus of Senate Dems to cave?!?
That's why they're caving. A large contingent of Dem old guard built influence from the ability to "run herd" on the more progressive members. Keep them from running ahead of public opinion. But public opinion is running ahead of them. Have to sabotage the opportunity or they might end up sidelined
November 9, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Does this make sense, US politics nerds? That the big election win on Tuesday is precisely what is provoking the Vichy caucus of Senate Dems to cave?!?
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
Dear NZ: fight civil asset forfeiture with everything you have in you. Love, the US
A concorning snippet, here:
"That campaign will receive $5.9 million from the Proceeds of Crime Fund - money taken from criminals - and the Government wants to make it faster for police use the proceeds of crime laws to seize assets from drug dealers."
www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
"That campaign will receive $5.9 million from the Proceeds of Crime Fund - money taken from criminals - and the Government wants to make it faster for police use the proceeds of crime laws to seize assets from drug dealers."
www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
The Post
www.thepost.co.nz
November 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Dear NZ: fight civil asset forfeiture with everything you have in you. Love, the US
On the subject of the DDR - 36 years today since Gunther Schabowski fucked up and the Wall opened. Epic folk-punk song on the subject. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6u...
November 9, 2025 at 8:52 PM
On the subject of the DDR - 36 years today since Gunther Schabowski fucked up and the Wall opened. Epic folk-punk song on the subject. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6u...
LOL, maybe this is how "goth" fashion got associated with the aristocracy
In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy talks about how she hopes not to die because her aunt and uncle can't afford to go into mourning. Black Victorian-era mourning clothes were expensive and one was expected to wear them for a full year.
November 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
LOL, maybe this is how "goth" fashion got associated with the aristocracy
Honestly, I don't think this is it. I think that for at lot of the Left - and get this, a lot of the populist Right too - "prosperity" is not the horizon. It's *security*, or even what the Church of the SubGenius might call Slack. The right not to have to worry about anything.
At some point, there's an ideological claim that basically material prosperity is impossible, and no plausible economic circumstances will be anything good.
Reducing spending on a major category of household good that no one can avoid by EIGHTY PERCENT is a huge advancement in material prosperity. But the left, which is theoretically focused on material prosperity, has trained itself to see any reference to growing prosperity as a rhetorical trick
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Honestly, I don't think this is it. I think that for at lot of the Left - and get this, a lot of the populist Right too - "prosperity" is not the horizon. It's *security*, or even what the Church of the SubGenius might call Slack. The right not to have to worry about anything.
Politics
is downstream from
culture.
Culture
is downstream from
material reality.
is downstream from
culture.
Culture
is downstream from
material reality.
November 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Politics
is downstream from
culture.
Culture
is downstream from
material reality.
is downstream from
culture.
Culture
is downstream from
material reality.
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
People talk about Homer Simpson’s one job and house but in s03e11 “Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk” when Marge thinks they’ve made $5,200 from Homer’s nuclear plant equity, she tells Lisa “We'll have a savings account. We've never had one. Kids, I think everything is going to be okay from now on.”
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 AM
People talk about Homer Simpson’s one job and house but in s03e11 “Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk” when Marge thinks they’ve made $5,200 from Homer’s nuclear plant equity, she tells Lisa “We'll have a savings account. We've never had one. Kids, I think everything is going to be okay from now on.”
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
the virgin Assad getting shit on in Fortnite vs the chad al-Sharaa hooping with CENTCOM
- #Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa & Foreign Minister @AsaadHShaibani playing basketball with @CENTCOM Commander Admiral Cooper & @CJTFOIR Commander BG Kevin Lambert.
November 8, 2025 at 11:46 PM
the virgin Assad getting shit on in Fortnite vs the chad al-Sharaa hooping with CENTCOM
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
"social media was a painful but necessary step toward radicalizing liberals against concentrated wealth because it revealed just how broken wealthy elites are"
(if we're lucky)
(if we're lucky)
The ability to convince capital markets to hand you a trillion dollars on the strength of obvious bullshit paired with the inability to get a single human to sincerely and spontaneously say they love you is some real punishment of the gods shit.
Elon has never experienced this and neither have his biggest fans but now they can create these visuals with the help of a computermachine
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
"social media was a painful but necessary step toward radicalizing liberals against concentrated wealth because it revealed just how broken wealthy elites are"
(if we're lucky)
(if we're lucky)
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
ladies and gentlemen, Bill Kristol is now arguing for a massive wealth redistribution because he sees the current capitalist system as heading toward social chaos
“The current state of American capitalism isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t deserve to be sustained. And the best way to avoid an American version of “eat the rich” is to fix the current “let them eat cake” distortion of capitalism into which we’ve fallen.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/let-them-e...
www.thebulwark.com/p/let-them-e...
Let Them Eat AI-Generated Cake
Elon Musk and the coming twilight of the elites.
www.thebulwark.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:51 PM
ladies and gentlemen, Bill Kristol is now arguing for a massive wealth redistribution because he sees the current capitalist system as heading toward social chaos
Gender is a performance and I'm Van Der Graaf Generator's "Man-Erg"
Gender is a performance and I'm Suicide's "23 Minutes in Brussels"
Gender is a performance and I'm Fields of the Nephilim's 'Moonchild'.
November 8, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Gender is a performance and I'm Van Der Graaf Generator's "Man-Erg"
Aleister Crowley was a talented poet, a weird pervert, and great fun at parties, and it's hilarious that two bunches of lunatics took his GREAT BEAST 666 routine seriously - one as a fan club, one as a moral panic
November 8, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Aleister Crowley was a talented poet, a weird pervert, and great fun at parties, and it's hilarious that two bunches of lunatics took his GREAT BEAST 666 routine seriously - one as a fan club, one as a moral panic
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
There’s a young southern woman on tt doing an experiment: calling churches & asking if they can help her get baby formula, saying she can’t afford it. Of the 30+ she’s called, nearly every church has said no. The ones who said yes were:
Black Baptist Churches
A Mosque
A small Appalachian church
Black Baptist Churches
A Mosque
A small Appalachian church
November 8, 2025 at 11:07 AM
There’s a young southern woman on tt doing an experiment: calling churches & asking if they can help her get baby formula, saying she can’t afford it. Of the 30+ she’s called, nearly every church has said no. The ones who said yes were:
Black Baptist Churches
A Mosque
A small Appalachian church
Black Baptist Churches
A Mosque
A small Appalachian church
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
i also think that frankly /too many of you/ think that US hegemony and aid to Ukraine (and all rightful causes) are synonyms, whether you think that's a good or a bad thing
November 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
i also think that frankly /too many of you/ think that US hegemony and aid to Ukraine (and all rightful causes) are synonyms, whether you think that's a good or a bad thing
Reposted by Remain In Hell Without Despair
Rosalind Franklin died at 37 of ovarian cancer attributed to radiation exposure from the methods she & her assistant used to photograph a cross-section of the DNA double helix.
Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!
Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Rosalind Franklin died at 37 of ovarian cancer attributed to radiation exposure from the methods she & her assistant used to photograph a cross-section of the DNA double helix.
Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!
Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!