Patrick Fessenbecker
@pfessenbecker.bsky.social
Teaching writing and ethics to engineers, writing a book on George Eliot.
Pinned
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
A little odd to call this piece reassuring, but it is—
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
A little odd to call this piece reassuring, but it is—
Maybe also worth saying that "shutting down the government to protect health care" is a good PR strategy, but "shutting down the government to end the filibuster" is a terrible one.
Something I’ve realized over the course of the last forty eight hours was the only concession even possibly in play was the end of the filibuster, which is worth a lot but won’t solve any problems immediately.
November 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Maybe also worth saying that "shutting down the government to protect health care" is a good PR strategy, but "shutting down the government to end the filibuster" is a terrible one.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
Brilliant point.
I was saying this on The Argument live show: Dems saw "I'd Take Some Mean Tweets and $2 Gas Right Now!" bumper stickers for four years and said: Okay, motherfuckers, we can not care about scandals too.
I was saying this on The Argument live show: Dems saw "I'd Take Some Mean Tweets and $2 Gas Right Now!" bumper stickers for four years and said: Okay, motherfuckers, we can not care about scandals too.
November 5, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Brilliant point.
I was saying this on The Argument live show: Dems saw "I'd Take Some Mean Tweets and $2 Gas Right Now!" bumper stickers for four years and said: Okay, motherfuckers, we can not care about scandals too.
I was saying this on The Argument live show: Dems saw "I'd Take Some Mean Tweets and $2 Gas Right Now!" bumper stickers for four years and said: Okay, motherfuckers, we can not care about scandals too.
Periodic reminder that the degree "electrical engineering" did not exist when Thomas Edison called himself an "electrical engineer"
yet somehow we never bother to put that in scare quotes.
yet somehow we never bother to put that in scare quotes.
It is worth saying that putting “Africana studies” in scare quotes as if it’s a ridiculous concept is not a political argument. It’s just racism. “Africa is not worthy of a major” is the implication. Yeah dude you’re just racist. (From Gerard Baker at the WSJ today)
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
November 4, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Periodic reminder that the degree "electrical engineering" did not exist when Thomas Edison called himself an "electrical engineer"
yet somehow we never bother to put that in scare quotes.
yet somehow we never bother to put that in scare quotes.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
November 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
November 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
Okay this labeler is incredible
November 2, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Okay this labeler is incredible
For my Bobby costume, may daughter made me a Huntr/x tshirt
November 2, 2025 at 12:56 AM
For my Bobby costume, may daughter made me a Huntr/x tshirt
Can i say something without everyone getting mad at me
October 31, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Can i say something without everyone getting mad at me
Never change, University of Chicago humanities faculty: who would you even be without the irrational confidence that humanities PhDs will all work out well in the end for the recipients?
October 31, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Never change, University of Chicago humanities faculty: who would you even be without the irrational confidence that humanities PhDs will all work out well in the end for the recipients?
what the fuck is this
October 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
what the fuck is this
Huh, I might be here for the theory that all this is counterrevolution to the Arab Spring.
There’s a discrete far-right shift that began in the mid-to-late 2000s and has rapidly intensified ever since, both in the US and worldwide. It is the proximate cause of ongoing democratic collapse and it’s not clearly rooted in US historical anything.
Nonsense. At best, the US started sliding towards authoritarianism 25 years ago. But actually that tendency was always present (Nixon, McArthur, segregation, etc). No well-established parliamentary democracy has collapsed as dramatically as the US in the last year.
October 31, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Huh, I might be here for the theory that all this is counterrevolution to the Arab Spring.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
Thesis: dumpling
Antithesis: taco
Synthesis: chimichanga
Antithesis: taco
Synthesis: chimichanga
October 29, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Thesis: dumpling
Antithesis: taco
Synthesis: chimichanga
Antithesis: taco
Synthesis: chimichanga
"the relationship between the signifier and the signified may perhaps by surpassed, or at any rate best expressed, by the tense dialectic between the dumpling and the taco, each of which contain the other by containing a stuffing in each concrete instance."
Me entering my Derridean phase
Me entering my Derridean phase
October 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"the relationship between the signifier and the signified may perhaps by surpassed, or at any rate best expressed, by the tense dialectic between the dumpling and the taco, each of which contain the other by containing a stuffing in each concrete instance."
Me entering my Derridean phase
Me entering my Derridean phase
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
We should not be having a debate about Nazi symbolism tattooed on the potentially top ticket Democrat in Maine. The fact we are even willing to entertain it shows desperation within the Party, not dedication, and how far we have fallen from rational thought.
October 29, 2025 at 4:41 AM
We should not be having a debate about Nazi symbolism tattooed on the potentially top ticket Democrat in Maine. The fact we are even willing to entertain it shows desperation within the Party, not dedication, and how far we have fallen from rational thought.
let‘s call this remake:
Fat acid heat wrap
Fat acid heat wrap
Every culture loves:
- creamy sauce
- pickles
- stew
-flatbread
If they don't have their own version, they steal the hell out of someone else's
- creamy sauce
- pickles
- stew
-flatbread
If they don't have their own version, they steal the hell out of someone else's
October 29, 2025 at 2:11 PM
let‘s call this remake:
Fat acid heat wrap
Fat acid heat wrap
true poasters know the grief of giving up on a post because the autocorrect is just too annoying.
October 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
true poasters know the grief of giving up on a post because the autocorrect is just too annoying.
look a lot of people are dunking on this, but maybe Elon just hasn’t gotten to the end yet and realized that Denethor is actually a bad guy, Gondor’s courage is brittle, and real strength is sustained by communal compassion, selflessness, and vegetables.
this is an overtly fascist narrative - even the misreading of myth & literature is on brand
October 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
look a lot of people are dunking on this, but maybe Elon just hasn’t gotten to the end yet and realized that Denethor is actually a bad guy, Gondor’s courage is brittle, and real strength is sustained by communal compassion, selflessness, and vegetables.
I kinda think a self-helpy ethos is part of the problem with the Democratic Party’s understanding of itself: every problem has to be translated into an issue I can solve by taking responsibility for myself.
I feel like people are saying, "The problem you're identifying can't be correct, because there isn't a clear solution to it."
October 29, 2025 at 12:45 AM
I kinda think a self-helpy ethos is part of the problem with the Democratic Party’s understanding of itself: every problem has to be translated into an issue I can solve by taking responsibility for myself.
I don’t know what You’re talking about, I saw *many* no kings protestors with “give me drug price negotiation or give me death“ banners.
i'm fine with a deeper focus on economic issues over social issues but man does plank 2 give the game away
October 28, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I don’t know what You’re talking about, I saw *many* no kings protestors with “give me drug price negotiation or give me death“ banners.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
New Soft Pink Truth music by yours truly! Behold the video for "Time Inside the Violet", directed by hourglass animator Matthew Murray Sullivan and panic attack collagist Vicki Bennett (People Like Us). New album on @thrilljockey.bsky.social comes out Jan 30th!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEt...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEt...
The Soft Pink Truth - Time Inside the Violet (official music video)
YouTube video by Thrill Jockey Records
www.youtube.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:56 PM
New Soft Pink Truth music by yours truly! Behold the video for "Time Inside the Violet", directed by hourglass animator Matthew Murray Sullivan and panic attack collagist Vicki Bennett (People Like Us). New album on @thrilljockey.bsky.social comes out Jan 30th!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEt...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEt...
It is such a crystallization and indictment of contemporary criticism that someone would see Winnie the Pooh and think "ah, what a subtle portrayal of autism" and not, you know, joy at being alive.
October 23, 2025 at 9:26 AM
It is such a crystallization and indictment of contemporary criticism that someone would see Winnie the Pooh and think "ah, what a subtle portrayal of autism" and not, you know, joy at being alive.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
Being Vacuously Edgy Is Cringe Now is the best thing that could happen to us politically
October 20, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Being Vacuously Edgy Is Cringe Now is the best thing that could happen to us politically