Alexander Zanate
@snapgracklepop.bsky.social
Call me Max. Loud bird that likes to keep a level head. Home means Nevada. Left-liberal? Intactivist. Atheist. #ActuallyAutistic
🇺🇸🏳️🌈🐦⬛ He/him Late-20s
🇺🇸🏳️🌈🐦⬛ He/him Late-20s
If I had to make an indulgent choice on who I would like most in the 2028 primary it would probably be Warnock but I agree that at this stage a governor seems the most likely.
February 18, 2026 at 11:07 PM
If I had to make an indulgent choice on who I would like most in the 2028 primary it would probably be Warnock but I agree that at this stage a governor seems the most likely.
Religion can't have zero impact on people's behavior and the state of play is that it cumulatively has more homophobic/misogynist/bodily violating/etc organs than not, the thing that makes it not possible to dismiss outright is that the gaps afforded to the bad organs are also afforded to the good.
February 18, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Religion can't have zero impact on people's behavior and the state of play is that it cumulatively has more homophobic/misogynist/bodily violating/etc organs than not, the thing that makes it not possible to dismiss outright is that the gaps afforded to the bad organs are also afforded to the good.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
Probably better to start making that non-religious identity look like “theocrats are my enemy and everyone can be an ally there” instead of “anyone religious is my enemy.”
February 18, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Probably better to start making that non-religious identity look like “theocrats are my enemy and everyone can be an ally there” instead of “anyone religious is my enemy.”
I agree with this completely. An interesting implication of this is that it's probably possible to activate a non-religious person's identity as such aspirationally too and I think eventually we will start seeing some politicians try to do that as demos shift.
It won't look like that Beshear post.
It won't look like that Beshear post.
It’s actually good to try to activate people’s religious identities, which they’ll continue to hold whether we do this or not, for good. The other option is to make people who would otherwise agree with us into enemies for going to church. That way lies loss to fascism forever.
February 18, 2026 at 5:48 PM
I agree with this completely. An interesting implication of this is that it's probably possible to activate a non-religious person's identity as such aspirationally too and I think eventually we will start seeing some politicians try to do that as demos shift.
It won't look like that Beshear post.
It won't look like that Beshear post.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
It’s actually good to try to activate people’s religious identities, which they’ll continue to hold whether we do this or not, for good. The other option is to make people who would otherwise agree with us into enemies for going to church. That way lies loss to fascism forever.
February 18, 2026 at 5:38 PM
It’s actually good to try to activate people’s religious identities, which they’ll continue to hold whether we do this or not, for good. The other option is to make people who would otherwise agree with us into enemies for going to church. That way lies loss to fascism forever.
Also, the states are different. I can recognize that Nevada is not Kentucky is not Utah. Beyond just demographics religious people in all three states tend to have different postures.
That post about Gov Beshear is obvs gross, essentialist, etc. It's more interesting as a sort of dark mirror. Given the US demographic shifts eventually some politicians will start attempting to appeal more directly to non-religious people, but it very much won't look like that post.
February 18, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Also, the states are different. I can recognize that Nevada is not Kentucky is not Utah. Beyond just demographics religious people in all three states tend to have different postures.
That post about Gov Beshear is obvs gross, essentialist, etc. It's more interesting as a sort of dark mirror. Given the US demographic shifts eventually some politicians will start attempting to appeal more directly to non-religious people, but it very much won't look like that post.
February 18, 2026 at 5:22 PM
That post about Gov Beshear is obvs gross, essentialist, etc. It's more interesting as a sort of dark mirror. Given the US demographic shifts eventually some politicians will start attempting to appeal more directly to non-religious people, but it very much won't look like that post.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
Welcome to Conclave 2056. Here are the favourites:
-Cardinal Theodore Hertz, Germany (Moderate)
-Cardinal Mtembe Bola, Nigeria (Conservative)
-Cardinal Tian-VeritasAGI, AI Microstate Formerly Known as Macau (Anti-Samsara)
-Cardinal Barron Tiberius Vance, United States (Mar-a-Lago Sedevacantist)
-Cardinal Theodore Hertz, Germany (Moderate)
-Cardinal Mtembe Bola, Nigeria (Conservative)
-Cardinal Tian-VeritasAGI, AI Microstate Formerly Known as Macau (Anti-Samsara)
-Cardinal Barron Tiberius Vance, United States (Mar-a-Lago Sedevacantist)
Perhaps we could litigate the 2056 conclave next.
February 18, 2026 at 4:08 AM
Welcome to Conclave 2056. Here are the favourites:
-Cardinal Theodore Hertz, Germany (Moderate)
-Cardinal Mtembe Bola, Nigeria (Conservative)
-Cardinal Tian-VeritasAGI, AI Microstate Formerly Known as Macau (Anti-Samsara)
-Cardinal Barron Tiberius Vance, United States (Mar-a-Lago Sedevacantist)
-Cardinal Theodore Hertz, Germany (Moderate)
-Cardinal Mtembe Bola, Nigeria (Conservative)
-Cardinal Tian-VeritasAGI, AI Microstate Formerly Known as Macau (Anti-Samsara)
-Cardinal Barron Tiberius Vance, United States (Mar-a-Lago Sedevacantist)
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
I am not v interested in continuing the “the Democrats will betray us on #$ISSUE the moment they get into power” B/S because a. There’s no way to falsify it and b. It’s fundamentally rooted in a nihilistic doomerism that nobody believes anything, we’re all gonna get betrayed, nothing matters anyways
February 18, 2026 at 3:21 AM
I am not v interested in continuing the “the Democrats will betray us on #$ISSUE the moment they get into power” B/S because a. There’s no way to falsify it and b. It’s fundamentally rooted in a nihilistic doomerism that nobody believes anything, we’re all gonna get betrayed, nothing matters anyways
Perhaps we could litigate the 2056 conclave next.
February 18, 2026 at 3:40 AM
Perhaps we could litigate the 2056 conclave next.
I don't think that Newsom can actually withstand the entropy of not being in office for ~a year and a half between midterms and the primary.
February 18, 2026 at 3:17 AM
I don't think that Newsom can actually withstand the entropy of not being in office for ~a year and a half between midterms and the primary.
Obviously my personal political bugaboos are based in consent but they doesn't mean I'll accept every dimension of it. "It violates consent to share screenshots of posts," is nonsense. You're making public posts, if you want a bunch of people to fawn over you privately you want a Facebook or cult.
February 18, 2026 at 3:02 AM
Obviously my personal political bugaboos are based in consent but they doesn't mean I'll accept every dimension of it. "It violates consent to share screenshots of posts," is nonsense. You're making public posts, if you want a bunch of people to fawn over you privately you want a Facebook or cult.
I've seen some cases made that this is why Prey 2017 vanished despite its decent quality. Pretty good, not earth shattering, but also nothing really wrong with it so there's very little to talk about.
I think it was Yahtzee who said this?
I think it was Yahtzee who said this?
I've nomentioned this before, but a friend had a hypothesis that to get lots of engagement it was important that a game have flaws and gaps. People arguing the rules, house-ruling it, "fixing" it, as opposed to a game that Just Works.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
You can deliberately create an incomplete game and rely on the group's adherence to the promise of the game to finish it for you (don't do this).
February 17, 2026 at 12:48 AM
I've seen some cases made that this is why Prey 2017 vanished despite its decent quality. Pretty good, not earth shattering, but also nothing really wrong with it so there's very little to talk about.
I think it was Yahtzee who said this?
I think it was Yahtzee who said this?
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
I've nomentioned this before, but a friend had a hypothesis that to get lots of engagement it was important that a game have flaws and gaps. People arguing the rules, house-ruling it, "fixing" it, as opposed to a game that Just Works.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
You can deliberately create an incomplete game and rely on the group's adherence to the promise of the game to finish it for you (don't do this).
February 16, 2026 at 7:02 PM
I've nomentioned this before, but a friend had a hypothesis that to get lots of engagement it was important that a game have flaws and gaps. People arguing the rules, house-ruling it, "fixing" it, as opposed to a game that Just Works.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
It's notably cynical and yet it sticks in my brain for a reason.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
You want to be able to have fresh restaurant food on demand at cheap prices? This is how you make that happens—by building a fuckton of silly little delivery robots that anyone can rent the services of for a tiny fee.
February 16, 2026 at 9:11 PM
You want to be able to have fresh restaurant food on demand at cheap prices? This is how you make that happens—by building a fuckton of silly little delivery robots that anyone can rent the services of for a tiny fee.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
This is purely destructive Luddism. This robot is taking away an annoying menial task from humans and stupid busybodies are trying to sabotage it because they’re mad at chatbots and tech companies.
And then they’ll probably moan about how the evil capitalists are making burrito taxis expensive.
And then they’ll probably moan about how the evil capitalists are making burrito taxis expensive.
February 16, 2026 at 9:10 PM
This is purely destructive Luddism. This robot is taking away an annoying menial task from humans and stupid busybodies are trying to sabotage it because they’re mad at chatbots and tech companies.
And then they’ll probably moan about how the evil capitalists are making burrito taxis expensive.
And then they’ll probably moan about how the evil capitalists are making burrito taxis expensive.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
Go out and celebrate President’s Day as intended: Get a new mattress.
February 16, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Go out and celebrate President’s Day as intended: Get a new mattress.
I've seen very few online leftists/communists even talk about planned economies and while I was in those circles most weren't even aware of the distinction they just assumed the economy after the revolution would run on wishful thinking. The exception was tankies but only some of them.
this is probably a conservative opinion on here but basically markets are great, and you should intervene on them mostly with taxes and subsidies, occasionally by trustbusting
It's kind of funny how Hayek's (mostly correct) argument against central planning because concentrating that much economic power in one place inevitably lead to totalitarian behavior is also a pretty strong argument against like, extreme concentrations of wealth and market power
February 16, 2026 at 9:21 PM
I've seen very few online leftists/communists even talk about planned economies and while I was in those circles most weren't even aware of the distinction they just assumed the economy after the revolution would run on wishful thinking. The exception was tankies but only some of them.
If we're indexing this more to Roman times I still think things are more fuzzy than people act/think like but it's a much more fair comparison.
Okay so I agree that neopagans can sometimes be a little weird about heritage and lineage and stuff but if we're going to before the Assyrian empire then nothing existed, Zoroastrianism hasn't even solidified yet let anything resembling Abrahamic religion outside a few loose stories.
February 16, 2026 at 9:14 PM
If we're indexing this more to Roman times I still think things are more fuzzy than people act/think like but it's a much more fair comparison.
Okay so I agree that neopagans can sometimes be a little weird about heritage and lineage and stuff but if we're going to before the Assyrian empire then nothing existed, Zoroastrianism hasn't even solidified yet let anything resembling Abrahamic religion outside a few loose stories.
February 16, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Okay so I agree that neopagans can sometimes be a little weird about heritage and lineage and stuff but if we're going to before the Assyrian empire then nothing existed, Zoroastrianism hasn't even solidified yet let anything resembling Abrahamic religion outside a few loose stories.
It's about two weeks until my gender affirming surgery consult and the stress is already getting to me. The possibility space is just so wide, being offered a solution and then told I'm unable to pay for it, just being told no, or yes to only a half measure! Unbearable!
February 15, 2026 at 5:22 PM
It's about two weeks until my gender affirming surgery consult and the stress is already getting to me. The possibility space is just so wide, being offered a solution and then told I'm unable to pay for it, just being told no, or yes to only a half measure! Unbearable!
JB Pritzker's Wikipedia page absolutely has been edited with the intention of preparing for a presidential run.
February 14, 2026 at 6:29 PM
JB Pritzker's Wikipedia page absolutely has been edited with the intention of preparing for a presidential run.
Interesting, so I thought that I needed to file an appeal to see an out-of-network doc with a PPO at all, but the OON rates are if I see them without an appeal. If I file an appeal then I get an in-network rate for that procedure alone. This is a much better value prospect than I thought.
February 14, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Interesting, so I thought that I needed to file an appeal to see an out-of-network doc with a PPO at all, but the OON rates are if I see them without an appeal. If I file an appeal then I get an in-network rate for that procedure alone. This is a much better value prospect than I thought.
Reposted by Alexander Zanate
No one, absolutely no one, rushed to fill the niche left by Trump and Musk and Rubio murdering USAID, and that should tell us a lot about other governments.
February 14, 2026 at 3:55 AM
No one, absolutely no one, rushed to fill the niche left by Trump and Musk and Rubio murdering USAID, and that should tell us a lot about other governments.