tom bombadil
authw8.bsky.social
tom bombadil
@authw8.bsky.social
if the bartender hitting me with a shovel is wrong, i don't want to be right.

tomthought.substack.com
medieval historians
March 28, 2025 at 6:54 PM
ouch
March 12, 2025 at 4:32 AM
yep. long walls are really most useful when your main concern is surveillance. it's tough for large numbers of enemies to get across a wall without you noticing it. but northern italy was densely populated heartland. the sheer population density works as a surveillance net
March 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
it wouldn't have really addressed any security concerns. long walls can't also be heavily manned, so they're best-suited for preventing small raids or surprise attacks. makes more sense out on a remote border, not the heartland
March 9, 2025 at 8:30 AM
(of course if you're a leftist who believes that leftist strategies are effective, the liberal approach probably feels like sabotage and psychological warfare, not assistance)
March 5, 2025 at 1:17 PM
but fundamentally, offering harsh but honest criticism is a form of aid and assistance. center-left writers are comfortable helping leftists because they share a lot of values. they don't want to critique the right because the last thing they want is for the right to fix its problems
March 5, 2025 at 1:15 PM
whereas the left seems to basically agree with me on values but deeply misunderstands what sort of actions are likely to bring about a better world. this is why the left feels movable in a way the right doesn't
March 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
i think the reason the left is so often the target of criticism is because their actions feel poorly aligned with their goals. the right has goals i disagree with, but seems to pursue them with some measure of effectiveness (though i also i don't really want to help them succeed)
March 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
that should also keep your body heat from melting the ice cream, good tip
March 3, 2025 at 3:53 PM
it was the wisdom luke needed in that moment though
March 1, 2025 at 9:58 PM
nope. they didn't outsource their thinking to the US state dept, they outsourced their thinking to their resist lib parents (still adding the negation sign though of course)
March 1, 2025 at 2:50 PM
the golden path:

- taiwan beefs up its military

- china attacks anyway

- bogs down and can't get anywhere

- dems win the presidency

- US starts supplying taiwan with weapons

- taiwan's battle-hardened war machine rolls across china

- china is now a western-friendly liberal democracy
March 1, 2025 at 1:29 PM
we erased turing from history by:

- naming the turing test after him

- naming the turing machine after him

- making a hollywood movie about his life and awarding it an oscar
February 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
i like to imagine his political views as a sort of high-dimensional solid. then the current political situation is an intersecting hyperplane. his posting is the intersection of those two high-dimensional objects, one of which is constantly moving around and changing
February 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
my history textbook from like 2006 covered 9/11 in the final chapter lol. we didn't get there in class though
February 27, 2025 at 1:31 PM
this is wildly ridiculous and unfair towards EAs, who have done some incredibly important work. musk is not EA nor would EAs want him
February 26, 2025 at 12:45 PM
pop any chips under the broiler for a min or two
February 22, 2025 at 4:55 AM
discontinuous
February 21, 2025 at 2:41 AM