“I want the guy with a settlement named after him in the White House because at least it will make Democrats in Congress mad” is maybe an indication that one isn’t actually all that concerned with the plight of the Palestinians.

the actual work of NY punditry for most of the columnists (JB and a few others honorable exceptions) is in maintaining the social connections that got them the job in the first place, which not only leaves no time for actual learning but in fact mandates *against* a socially unpopular truth

Shorter Keats:

Though it verges upon the perverse,
Beauty's better than Truth, which is worse.
Modern poets can't do
All the things the Greeks knew,
'Cos we've taken an urn for the verse.

Similar to abortion, it's exasperating seeing "democrats and republicans are the same" when every map of state policy outcomes looks like this - policies so reactionary only federal law holds them at a lower bound in GOP trifecta states and reasonable center-left policies in Dem trifecta states

We're already at a point in a lot of cities where the cops essentially refuse to enforce traffic laws inside cities. Part of that is a work slowdown but also that cops think it's absurd to punish "good people" (suburban commuters) in the name of making "bad people" (cyclists, pedestrians) safe

Just returned from the terminally online doomer leftist convention (on discord). It was so beautiful. Hundreds of group chats joining hands to chant "a better world isn't possible" before dissolving into internecine fights about which better world wasn't possible

i need to find some way to gently explain to my mom that just because she’s retired doesn’t mean I am

oof

Tao Yuanming, "The Final Homecoming" (歸盡):

"I was gathering chrysanthemums by the eastern fence when she walked through the gate with a complexion like suet and legs so long you half-expected to see a fox tail between them. I wasn't in the mood for visitors, but she had a jug of spring homebrew."

I have very little patience for doomerism in general, which I tend to think is an embarrassment to every ape that ever threw a rock at a bear to protect the tribe. We are social creatures and the work never ends. Doomerism is a selfish concept that aims to destroy solidarity, and thus it is my enemy

Bosses are working extra hard to make people think the policies that have lead to a tight labor market and rising wages are not in fact doing that because they are desperate to stop them before workers seize more of the pie.

You don't need to add your own lies in to give them a hand

imho upper middle class status anxiety about no longer being able to hire cheap help or treat restaurant servers like shit does seem to be at least a little bit of a factor in why people are so mad at the current economy bsky.app/profile/grud...

your pride will always attempt to undermine and overwrite the other facets of your brain; a clean conscience and acceptance that you’re often wrong at first is the best defense against propaganda

francis e. dec was the first rationalist

And - lots of people who couldn't be bothered to care about Mariupol or gave you a million "bu-bu-but Azov!'s are going to ask for your solidarity on preventing the same in Gaza. Giving that solidarity is the right thing to do.

(Visser Three voice)

<Oh no, not again.>