Roy Tsao
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roytsao.bsky.social
Roy Tsao
@roytsao.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.1K following 1.7K posts
Teaching political theory/philosophy etc at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Shax & co. at BC/CUNY. bird stalker. tweet tweet. 🏳️‍🌈
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roytsao.bsky.social
Roy Tsao @roytsao.bsky.social · Nov 10
fyi you can just say tweet if you want
roytsao.bsky.social
The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘emergency situation’ in which we live is actually the rule. We must arrive at a concept of history which corresponds to this. For then it will become clear that the task before us is the introduction of a real state of emergency…
November 10, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
andycraig.bsky.social
One predictable downside of making it "no this is only about ACA, our only demand" is that does get harder to defend as time goes on and the shutdown pain stacks up. The line for giving up on that, taking its loss as the lesser evil, is much lower than "we're not funding this fascist police state."
November 10, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
kjephd.bsky.social
Really looking forward to the Trump government getting back up and running again, seeing what exciting things they'll be able to get to now
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 AM
roytsao.bsky.social
never been prouder of my fellow new yorkers
November 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
roytsao.bsky.social
we won
November 5, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
kjephd.bsky.social
MR MAYOR
Dead sexy picture of Zohran Mamdani seated in a wooden chair looking thoughtfully at the viewer
November 5, 2025 at 2:22 AM
roytsao.bsky.social
so, I just randomly came upon Curtis Sliwa standing on a corner giving a speech to four people (& a camera). obviously i stopped to listen and nod along encouragingly.

(dude’s not going anywhere. we got this)
October 1, 2025 at 7:58 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
logging off now. maybe also throwing my phone into the ocean, who’s to say
September 12, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
roytsao.bsky.social
last lines from a thing I wrote back in April, just published in Ethics, Policy & Environment. Nominally in response to a paper (from last year) on wildlife conservation ethics, but mostly channeling my rage at *all this*

“What is to be Done?”
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GVXJW...
I come back to the question with which I began: who are *we*, in this impasse, and what are we responsible for, in the circumstances? The present U.S. government isn't *us*, and it isn't ours. We can no more rely on the inertial force of decades-old statutes than we can count on past presidents' executive actions. Our endorsement of the government's policies isn't sought, and it's idle to remonstrate. If the ethical duties that weigh in Odenbaugh's analysis have any practical hold on us at all, they converge on a different set of practical questions. How are we to overcome the impotence to which we've been reduced? What will it take to build and to mobilize the power to displace our opponents? I don't claim to know how that might be done, or if it's even possible. But it seems pretty clear that it would be unrealistic to hope for any good whatever to come of political action confined to the scope of what had seemed feasible, in previous years. And if that's true of our situation now, I can't help but wonder if this might have been true all along.
September 9, 2025 at 4:56 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
hey look I wrote a thing that just got published
roytsao.bsky.social Roy Tsao @roytsao.bsky.social · Sep 9
last lines from a thing I wrote back in April, just published in Ethics, Policy & Environment. Nominally in response to a paper (from last year) on wildlife conservation ethics, but mostly channeling my rage at *all this*

“What is to be Done?”
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GVXJW...
I come back to the question with which I began: who are *we*, in this impasse, and what are we responsible for, in the circumstances? The present U.S. government isn't *us*, and it isn't ours. We can no more rely on the inertial force of decades-old statutes than we can count on past presidents' executive actions. Our endorsement of the government's policies isn't sought, and it's idle to remonstrate. If the ethical duties that weigh in Odenbaugh's analysis have any practical hold on us at all, they converge on a different set of practical questions. How are we to overcome the impotence to which we've been reduced? What will it take to build and to mobilize the power to displace our opponents? I don't claim to know how that might be done, or if it's even possible. But it seems pretty clear that it would be unrealistic to hope for any good whatever to come of political action confined to the scope of what had seemed feasible, in previous years. And if that's true of our situation now, I can't help but wonder if this might have been true all along.
September 9, 2025 at 10:45 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
last lines from a thing I wrote back in April, just published in Ethics, Policy & Environment. Nominally in response to a paper (from last year) on wildlife conservation ethics, but mostly channeling my rage at *all this*

“What is to be Done?”
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GVXJW...
I come back to the question with which I began: who are *we*, in this impasse, and what are we responsible for, in the circumstances? The present U.S. government isn't *us*, and it isn't ours. We can no more rely on the inertial force of decades-old statutes than we can count on past presidents' executive actions. Our endorsement of the government's policies isn't sought, and it's idle to remonstrate. If the ethical duties that weigh in Odenbaugh's analysis have any practical hold on us at all, they converge on a different set of practical questions. How are we to overcome the impotence to which we've been reduced? What will it take to build and to mobilize the power to displace our opponents? I don't claim to know how that might be done, or if it's even possible. But it seems pretty clear that it would be unrealistic to hope for any good whatever to come of political action confined to the scope of what had seemed feasible, in previous years. And if that's true of our situation now, I can't help but wonder if this might have been true all along.
September 9, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
roytsao.bsky.social
“it goes against our president’s laws.” what a country this is
September 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
stevenklein.bsky.social
The big authoritarian creepiness of this is the students absolute certainty it is illegal for the professor to teach gender theory because the president said so
petersagal.bsky.social Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · Sep 9
A professor at Texas A&M taught… something related to gender that offended a student, who secretly filmed herself objecting. That video is picked up by TX legislators, who demand her firing, and now the dean and dept head have been fired.

www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...
A&M Dean removed following student complaints over curriculum
The Department of Justice has also acknowledged the situation and said it would be investigating.
www.kbtx.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:35 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
I think about this every day
calebcrain.bsky.social Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · Aug 17
President Mamdani will fix it.
September 1, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
calebcrain.bsky.social
Just a reminder that if the sovereign can't keep your life from being nasty, brutal, and short, the deal is off.
August 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
roytsao.bsky.social
checks out
NYTimes screenshot (8/26/25): “….Mr Trump echoed his long-held belief that criminals commit crimes because they do not fear the consequences”
August 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
just came here to say that i love this movie so much. “Listers”- these guys are awesome and hilarious

m.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...
LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching
YouTube video by owen reiser
m.youtube.com
August 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
Eastern Wood-Pewee

photographed in Central Park (New York), 5-19-25
A small grey and white bird, called an eastern wood-pewee, perched on a twig.
May 23, 2025 at 10:54 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
what my marriage is like
An exchange of text messages: "Hiya, I would like to see a peewee documentary tonight. It airs at 8pm so l would like to eat dinner earlier. Its like old school fixed time tv not on demand! We have salad and quiche ---- wait- it's about a bird? ----- Herman Paul Reubens -----oh. oh well-----
May 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher
Photographed on 1-5-25 in Garabito, Costa Rica

Posting this today for no particular reason, beyond general good feelings this week about unusually long-tailed Tyrannus flycatchers
A demure-looking scissor-tailed flycatcher, perched on a wire. Dainty peach-and-gray colored bird with a long, split tail hanging downward, creating the overall impression of a ballerina, legs crossed, at the barre.
May 23, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
roytsao.bsky.social
Here's another look at that forked-tailed flycatcher. check out that tail, huh?
Fork-tailed flycatcher (same bird as in quoted tweet). Photographed by Roy Tsao on Randalls Island (New York, NY) on May 27, 2025
May 23, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
roytsao.bsky.social
the thing about this story is that nobody under the age of 45 or so could possibly understand how a phone call from *Time Magazine* would be, like, the coolest thing that could possibly happen when you're at your philosophy professor's office hours.
May 22, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Roy Tsao
roytsao.bsky.social
In college, I once went to Prof. MacIntyre's office hours... The phone rang. He took the call, listened, then said curtly to phone, 'I'm sorry, I can't help you now, I'm busy." He put down the receiver, snorted.
"That was Time Magazine. They want to know what's wrong with morality in America today."
May 22, 2025 at 10:09 PM
roytsao.bsky.social
Here's another look at that forked-tailed flycatcher. check out that tail, huh?
Fork-tailed flycatcher (same bird as in quoted tweet). Photographed by Roy Tsao on Randalls Island (New York, NY) on May 27, 2025
May 23, 2025 at 12:54 AM
roytsao.bsky.social
Fork-Tailed Flycatcher
Randalls Island (New York County)
May 22, 2025

This is the first-ever recorded fork-tailed flycatcher in NY county (= borough of Manhattan)...No, I'm not the hero who found it. But I did at least get to see it, close. Lifer!

Species #242 on my New York county list
A fork-tailed flycatcher- a robin-sized bird with a black head, white breast, and broad, deeply-forked tail- perched on a stem in a tall meadow. Photographed by Roy Tsao at Randalls Island (New York, NY), on 5-22-25
May 23, 2025 at 12:01 AM