Tripping the Light Fantastick
@ttlfb.bsky.social
"Com, and trip it as it falls
O, the light fantastick balls"
🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 🇵🇸
Cyborg. Doctorate in either a social science or the humanities, depending on who you ask.
O, the light fantastick balls"
🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 🇵🇸
Cyborg. Doctorate in either a social science or the humanities, depending on who you ask.
Pinned
"humans can do this" "LLMs can't do that" some of you have never meditated upon "neti, neti" to attain jñāna and it shows
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
It may be more dramatic
December 31, 2025 at 3:44 PM
It may be more dramatic
One of my least favorite genres of post is “2025 was a horrible year. Our friends and neighbors were deported, healthcare was destroyed, and the descent into fascism long predicted made manifest. But I released a book!”
December 31, 2025 at 2:34 PM
One of my least favorite genres of post is “2025 was a horrible year. Our friends and neighbors were deported, healthcare was destroyed, and the descent into fascism long predicted made manifest. But I released a book!”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
You have a daily journaling resolution to better be in touch with your emotional health. I have a daily journaling resolution so I have clear alibis for every day of the year. We are not the same.
December 31, 2025 at 1:22 PM
You have a daily journaling resolution to better be in touch with your emotional health. I have a daily journaling resolution so I have clear alibis for every day of the year. We are not the same.
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
people mock the excesses of 2010s SJ activism without acknowledging they were basically right about everything
oh you didn’t like the implicit, subtextual racism of 21st century liberalism? got it: we’ll make the subtext into text
December 31, 2025 at 12:37 AM
people mock the excesses of 2010s SJ activism without acknowledging they were basically right about everything
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
they literally did
there was no finding authorizing covert action against Venezuela in the Biden Administration, and then the Trump Administration signed one this spring
there was no finding authorizing covert action against Venezuela in the Biden Administration, and then the Trump Administration signed one this spring
They still aren’t because apparently that was CIA, and you can bet those guys didn’t suddenly arrive on January 20.
December 30, 2025 at 6:45 PM
they literally did
there was no finding authorizing covert action against Venezuela in the Biden Administration, and then the Trump Administration signed one this spring
there was no finding authorizing covert action against Venezuela in the Biden Administration, and then the Trump Administration signed one this spring
Oh so we might not have to worry about him running again in 2028
Trump on the ballroom: "It's bigger than I told you. It's, you know -- after realizing we're gonna do the inauguration in that building, it's got all bulletproof glass, it's got all drone, they call it drone-free roof. It's dronessss -- won't touch it. It's a big beautiful safe building."
December 30, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Oh so we might not have to worry about him running again in 2028
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
having a crush is so stupid dawg what do you mean i'm thinking about how their laugh sounds
December 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
having a crush is so stupid dawg what do you mean i'm thinking about how their laugh sounds
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
My Doktorvater at UChicago (may his memory be for a blessing) was convinced this was because the demands of academia now select for people who can do highly specialized work to fill niche gaps in publications, rather than the kind of broadly humanistic reading that was once the expectation.
a lot of academics simply aren't intellectuals (in the sense that this word has carried since the 1890s in Europe, shaped by the humanities and to a lesser degree the social sciences) and their fields aren't set up around corresponding expectations.
December 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
My Doktorvater at UChicago (may his memory be for a blessing) was convinced this was because the demands of academia now select for people who can do highly specialized work to fill niche gaps in publications, rather than the kind of broadly humanistic reading that was once the expectation.
I literally never even know when an Avatar movie is coming out until it has already made eleventy bajillion dollars
December 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
I literally never even know when an Avatar movie is coming out until it has already made eleventy bajillion dollars
And of course that’s what is already happening.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
If the past is any prologue, Bari will find a way to cast herself as the victim here, perniciously reframing running interference for an authoritarian president - spiking a segment critical of his concentration camps- as an act of brave truth-telling amidst attacks by the woke mob
CNN’s @brianstelter.bsky.social reports that some CBS News employees are now threatening to quit
December 22, 2025 at 12:52 PM
And of course that’s what is already happening.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
People comparing smoking in public to LLMs existing, I’m sorry but you’re fucking insane
I lived thru the end of public smoking. Early in my career I presented to city councils who were smoking, in front of audiences who were smoking.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
It’s crazy that people used to be able to just smoke cigarettes wherever they wanted
December 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
People comparing smoking in public to LLMs existing, I’m sorry but you’re fucking insane
Had an intensely weird dream that there was a new Superman movie out and that the plot of it revolved around “Raingirl”, a little girl who could control the rain
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
December 20, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Had an intensely weird dream that there was a new Superman movie out and that the plot of it revolved around “Raingirl”, a little girl who could control the rain
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
trying to imagine picking two people whose opinions about religion I value less than steven pinkerton and ross douchehat
December 20, 2025 at 2:44 AM
trying to imagine picking two people whose opinions about religion I value less than steven pinkerton and ross douchehat
I read through Mein Kampf as an edgy teenager and thought “this guy fuckin sucks”
December 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I read through Mein Kampf as an edgy teenager and thought “this guy fuckin sucks”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
You're mad because you expect a "software update" to make things work better. You will only be free when you understand this to be an illusion and accept the fact that software is suffering
December 19, 2025 at 2:27 PM
You're mad because you expect a "software update" to make things work better. You will only be free when you understand this to be an illusion and accept the fact that software is suffering
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
Anyway, liberalism and socialism are not enemies, and to the extent that you insist that they are, you are clinging to Ego. You have failed to apprehend the true meaning of "Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form." I will now give you a firm thwack with the keisaku.
December 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Anyway, liberalism and socialism are not enemies, and to the extent that you insist that they are, you are clinging to Ego. You have failed to apprehend the true meaning of "Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form." I will now give you a firm thwack with the keisaku.
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
December 18, 2025 at 9:01 PM
NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
Trusty old “Trans people are the elite”
Dr Oz: "The creation of a penis costs on average in America $150,000 per child ... if you add testicles, that's extra"
December 18, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Trusty old “Trans people are the elite”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
The Bundy occupation at Malheur in early 2016 (and the lack of consequences they faced for it) was a sign of what was to come. Right wing white anti-government vigilantes cast as “patriots.”
NEW: Tina Peters is rejecting a J6er's call to storm a Colorado prison and free her.
Peters is distancing herself from the jailbreak scheme and violent actions after allies and her attorney talked about using force or violence to free her and punish those keeping her in prison.
Peters is distancing herself from the jailbreak scheme and violent actions after allies and her attorney talked about using force or violence to free her and punish those keeping her in prison.
December 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
The Bundy occupation at Malheur in early 2016 (and the lack of consequences they faced for it) was a sign of what was to come. Right wing white anti-government vigilantes cast as “patriots.”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
December 15, 2025 at 7:26 PM
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
Wikipedia says this is one of the contributions of the 1968 book Sound Pattern of English: “context-sensitive rules transform the underlying form of a sequence of words into the final phonetic form that is uttered by the speaker.”
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
Hockett’s dissertation (which he wrote in 1939 as a 23 year old before getting distracted by serving his country in WW2) contains ORDERED GENERATIVE, TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES that produce an infinite number of surface representations from an abstract underlying base
December 13, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Wikipedia says this is one of the contributions of the 1968 book Sound Pattern of English: “context-sensitive rules transform the underlying form of a sequence of words into the final phonetic form that is uttered by the speaker.”
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
He has been erroneously credited with contributing transformational rules to linguistic theory by people who have not read enough Bloomfieldian structuralism to see that THEY HAD BEEN DOING THAT FOR THIRTY YEARS
Noam Chomsky made it very clear that he was a scumbag when he denied the Khmer Rouge genocide back in the 1970s: if you’ve been trying to deny the obvious about him ever since, well, that’s on you.
Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.
December 13, 2025 at 3:52 AM
He has been erroneously credited with contributing transformational rules to linguistic theory by people who have not read enough Bloomfieldian structuralism to see that THEY HAD BEEN DOING THAT FOR THIRTY YEARS
This is a plot point in my homebrew fantasy setting
the sun went down and the baby (18 months) looked out the window and started yelling “MOON? WHERE MOON? GUYS! NO MOON?”
December 13, 2025 at 3:41 AM
This is a plot point in my homebrew fantasy setting
The power went out for a few moments partway through the Sex and the City movie and i thought the women around me were going to burn the building down
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
December 13, 2025 at 12:09 AM
The power went out for a few moments partway through the Sex and the City movie and i thought the women around me were going to burn the building down
All you had to do to find out Chomsky was an asshole would be to ask a non-generativist linguist tbqh
Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.
December 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
All you had to do to find out Chomsky was an asshole would be to ask a non-generativist linguist tbqh