Brian Newhouse
@bgnewhouse.bsky.social
S/M cowboy. Prairie progressive. Liberal landlord. All sorts of things that shouldn't live together but do in me. He/him.
Reading this post and the thread following it makes me realize that nothing except the hardest left-wing politics is acceptable in art or life any more. Because we are virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale.
just watched the first episode of Girls and got so viscerally angry at the 2012 innocence of it all, I had to turn the TV off. like they have no idea who Pete Hegseth is.
September 8, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reading this post and the thread following it makes me realize that nothing except the hardest left-wing politics is acceptable in art or life any more. Because we are virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale.
Why is a lightsaber better than a six-shooter?
September 8, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Why is a lightsaber better than a six-shooter?
You don't need political ideology to be a good person any more than you need religion.
September 3, 2025 at 4:07 PM
You don't need political ideology to be a good person any more than you need religion.
This is the most truly outrageous thing the Trump administration is doing. Sure, it's bad enough that ICE is running roughshod over our city streets harassing anyone who looks like an immigrant, but you expect that from a dictatorship. This, however, isn't even competent...
Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions.
They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
The Transportation Department on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects, the latest attack by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind industry.
https://to.pbs.org/45HtATc
https://to.pbs.org/45HtATc
August 30, 2025 at 6:42 AM
This is the most truly outrageous thing the Trump administration is doing. Sure, it's bad enough that ICE is running roughshod over our city streets harassing anyone who looks like an immigrant, but you expect that from a dictatorship. This, however, isn't even competent...
The chief problem I have as a gay man these days is fitting in. Any eccentricity I express is deeply problematical. The very language I use to defend it--the idea that I can go out on my own and determine my own actions and judgments with nothing but my conscience to guide me--is suspect.🧵
August 26, 2025 at 11:03 AM
The chief problem I have as a gay man these days is fitting in. Any eccentricity I express is deeply problematical. The very language I use to defend it--the idea that I can go out on my own and determine my own actions and judgments with nothing but my conscience to guide me--is suspect.🧵
Is there any point to art (or literature or music) other than to comment on the burning political issues of the day?
August 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Is there any point to art (or literature or music) other than to comment on the burning political issues of the day?
Is there anything in American higher education in the humanities nowadays that cannot be reduced to the disciples of Theodor Adorno vs. the disciples of Leo Strauss? Do we have to live with the remains of the intellectual struggles of the Weimar Republic dominating American culture?
August 19, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Is there anything in American higher education in the humanities nowadays that cannot be reduced to the disciples of Theodor Adorno vs. the disciples of Leo Strauss? Do we have to live with the remains of the intellectual struggles of the Weimar Republic dominating American culture?
Is it acceptable for a gay man to like westerns? (And no, Lonesome Cowboys doesn't count.)
August 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Is it acceptable for a gay man to like westerns? (And no, Lonesome Cowboys doesn't count.)
Are there any openly gay men in America who take a serious interest in politics besides Andrew Sullivan? If so, who and where are they?
August 18, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Are there any openly gay men in America who take a serious interest in politics besides Andrew Sullivan? If so, who and where are they?
Between the leftists insisting on diversity at the expense of everything else, the rightists insisting on Trump uber alles, and the poptimists insisting that only smash hits with lots of publicity are worthy of attention, contemporary American culture has become one hell of a bore.
August 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Between the leftists insisting on diversity at the expense of everything else, the rightists insisting on Trump uber alles, and the poptimists insisting that only smash hits with lots of publicity are worthy of attention, contemporary American culture has become one hell of a bore.
This is true of everything in right-wing domestic policy. They haven't moved beyond 1980, because that was the time of their greatest successes and they want to recapture them.
There is something strangely fascinating about the fact that right-wing mental model of major US cities has not changed in a half century despite the fact that those cities have basically the opposite set of problems from those they had back then.
August 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
This is true of everything in right-wing domestic policy. They haven't moved beyond 1980, because that was the time of their greatest successes and they want to recapture them.
"Quality" is subjective. The only truly objective means of deciding whether a work of art is worth bothering with is the identity of its creator. Therefore, we should only bother with works of art which are appropriate to our identity and which have a demonstrable positive political impact.
August 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM
"Quality" is subjective. The only truly objective means of deciding whether a work of art is worth bothering with is the identity of its creator. Therefore, we should only bother with works of art which are appropriate to our identity and which have a demonstrable positive political impact.
The main function of social media like X and Bluesky in current society is to represent public opinion at its most dogmatic and judgmental. It is the contemporary manifestation of Mrs. Grundy:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Gru...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Gru...
Mrs Grundy - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
August 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The main function of social media like X and Bluesky in current society is to represent public opinion at its most dogmatic and judgmental. It is the contemporary manifestation of Mrs. Grundy:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Gru...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Gru...
As an anti-Trumpist GWM, am I allowed to enjoy westerns, or appreciate cowboys of any kind?
August 10, 2025 at 1:29 PM
As an anti-Trumpist GWM, am I allowed to enjoy westerns, or appreciate cowboys of any kind?
Unpopular opinion: People cannot and should not be reduced to their race, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.
August 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Unpopular opinion: People cannot and should not be reduced to their race, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.
What I'm finding problematic is the assumption that only people with the right politics are capable of being good people.
August 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
What I'm finding problematic is the assumption that only people with the right politics are capable of being good people.
I am a gay white male with an appetite for art and entertainment that's problematic. How do I get rid of this appetite and only like things that are unproblematic? And what qualifies as unproblematic that I am allowed to enjoy?
August 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I am a gay white male with an appetite for art and entertainment that's problematic. How do I get rid of this appetite and only like things that are unproblematic? And what qualifies as unproblematic that I am allowed to enjoy?
Cowboys are not intellectually, culturally or politically respectable. Prove me wrong.
August 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Cowboys are not intellectually, culturally or politically respectable. Prove me wrong.
Now that Trump is in power and worse than anyone could have anticipated, that seems to mean that any objections one might have to the "excesses" of the woke left are irrelevant at best and at worst evil, and that we must take even what seemed to be their excesses as gospel truth in solidarity...🧵
August 1, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Now that Trump is in power and worse than anyone could have anticipated, that seems to mean that any objections one might have to the "excesses" of the woke left are irrelevant at best and at worst evil, and that we must take even what seemed to be their excesses as gospel truth in solidarity...🧵
The other thing that infuriates me about current discourse on culture is the notion that only young people create culture and those over 50 or 40 or 30 are irrelevant. I mean, what are us older people supposed to do for culture? No wonder Fox News became so popular among the old...
July 30, 2025 at 5:59 PM
The other thing that infuriates me about current discourse on culture is the notion that only young people create culture and those over 50 or 40 or 30 are irrelevant. I mean, what are us older people supposed to do for culture? No wonder Fox News became so popular among the old...
Is topical political humor really the best possible basis for a culture? Are there things to laugh about other than current politics? It seems these days that we have nothing else except superhero/comic-book stuff.
July 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Is topical political humor really the best possible basis for a culture? Are there things to laugh about other than current politics? It seems these days that we have nothing else except superhero/comic-book stuff.
I'm not satisfied with the way we talk about politics. It's all about passing moral judgments on policies, political commentators and politicians. But there has to be more to political life than passing judgments; otherwise there's no difference between criticizing politics and criticizing art.
July 28, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I'm not satisfied with the way we talk about politics. It's all about passing moral judgments on policies, political commentators and politicians. But there has to be more to political life than passing judgments; otherwise there's no difference between criticizing politics and criticizing art.
As a gay man, I don't get it. If we are not to date or consider having sex with a man because we are physically attracted to him, how then do we decide who to date or to have sex with in order not to be racist or looksist?
July 26, 2025 at 12:15 PM
As a gay man, I don't get it. If we are not to date or consider having sex with a man because we are physically attracted to him, how then do we decide who to date or to have sex with in order not to be racist or looksist?
I choose novels to read if the story sounds interesting or the style appealing, rather than according to the identity or political convictions of the author. What's wrong with that? #booksky
July 24, 2025 at 11:19 AM
I choose novels to read if the story sounds interesting or the style appealing, rather than according to the identity or political convictions of the author. What's wrong with that? #booksky
Surely Superman isn't the only film being released this year, whether in theaters is via streaming. So why is it the only one anyone talks about anywhere?
July 18, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Surely Superman isn't the only film being released this year, whether in theaters is via streaming. So why is it the only one anyone talks about anywhere?