Cosmo Houck
@cosmohouck.bsky.social
Aspice ut aspiciar | PhD in Political Science | Decipimur specie recti
https://cosmohouck.micro.blog/ | https://boxd.it/v6m1
https://cosmohouck.micro.blog/ | https://boxd.it/v6m1
A lot of Linklater movies in the conversation for me, but it’s Before Sunrise
like I can see an argument for something like Before Sunrise, with its incredible dialogue, or the balancing of so many different storylines a-temporally while deconstructing the genre in Pulp Fiction, or whatever! maybe it's the tight and nearly dialogue free Under the Skin.
August 13, 2025 at 2:21 AM
A lot of Linklater movies in the conversation for me, but it’s Before Sunrise
Cormac McCarthy
Here’s a question: who is the artist with politics you disagree strongly with, whose politics *do* (in your view) influence their art, that you still think is talented and whose work you enjoy?
August 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Cormac McCarthy
Agree with all of this! I rewatched The Insider a few months ago and have been reflecting upon it a lot, and trying to puzzle out what is a kind of slow degradation of our institutions and what is specific to the current moment. It’s a good movie, and it has aged well.
We are seven months in, and the speed with which vital civic institutions are capitulating to authoritarian demands we once would have regarded as inconceivable in an established liberal democracy is jawdropping. I hadn't thought I was polyannaish about America, but it's really stunning.
July 25, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Agree with all of this! I rewatched The Insider a few months ago and have been reflecting upon it a lot, and trying to puzzle out what is a kind of slow degradation of our institutions and what is specific to the current moment. It’s a good movie, and it has aged well.
TMS is on a short list of the best books I read in grad school
You read Wealth of Nations and you think, wow, Adam Smith — what a writer! Really lives up to the hype, huh. And then you read Theory of Moral Sentiments (or excerpts of it) and you realize he is one of the seers of liberal modernity.
Gonna say it: Reading “Wealth of Nations,” and it’s an incredibly lucid piece of economic writing! You can absolutely see how Adam Smith wrecked everybody’s shit.
July 23, 2025 at 3:45 AM
TMS is on a short list of the best books I read in grad school
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
You read Wealth of Nations and you think, wow, Adam Smith — what a writer! Really lives up to the hype, huh. And then you read Theory of Moral Sentiments (or excerpts of it) and you realize he is one of the seers of liberal modernity.
Gonna say it: Reading “Wealth of Nations,” and it’s an incredibly lucid piece of economic writing! You can absolutely see how Adam Smith wrecked everybody’s shit.
July 23, 2025 at 3:44 AM
You read Wealth of Nations and you think, wow, Adam Smith — what a writer! Really lives up to the hype, huh. And then you read Theory of Moral Sentiments (or excerpts of it) and you realize he is one of the seers of liberal modernity.
Women may not want Hugh Jackman *as Wolverine* but many women certainly want Hugh Jackman! He’s a handsome man! And he’s got an accent. Like c’mon.
This isn’t the female gaze. This is the male gaze. It’s men who are obsessed with the physicality of other men. Women, in the main, would much rather see a man who looks like he’d make himself a stack of buttered toast and let you steal a slice
![Screenshot:
No room for wokeness!
@Wokenessisevil
Notice how no one, not a single soul, has ever complained about the female gaze in entertainment.
[photos show Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Alan Ritchson (Reacher) with ripped muscles]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:icsm7hd2dok5lxddyrig4gbt/bafkreieqpfyocgnmbjxooiqmg34hpxbxzfjhywfjaej45xdlkmo2j4k3pu@jpeg)
July 20, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Women may not want Hugh Jackman *as Wolverine* but many women certainly want Hugh Jackman! He’s a handsome man! And he’s got an accent. Like c’mon.
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
"It is precisely because liberalism cannot take sides that liberals must. Liberalism defends individuals, and it depends upon them." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-n...
Liberalism Needs Liberals
It is precisely because liberalism cannot take sides that liberals must.
www.liberalcurrents.com
July 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
"It is precisely because liberalism cannot take sides that liberals must. Liberalism defends individuals, and it depends upon them." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-n...
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
current hegemonic versions of the humanities and the sciences both think that their thing means morality is obsolete, politically suspect and/or dangerous. that's where things can really start to go wrong. on the humanities side, this is very much a product of specifically lefty politicization.
I joke but the problem with joining together the "two cultures' is that grandiose dreams of pushing humanity to extremes (humanities) plus the technical knowledge and capital to execute them is trouble
July 6, 2025 at 4:40 PM
current hegemonic versions of the humanities and the sciences both think that their thing means morality is obsolete, politically suspect and/or dangerous. that's where things can really start to go wrong. on the humanities side, this is very much a product of specifically lefty politicization.
Before Sunset is a stand-in for the trilogy. Limited myself to 1 per direction. Honorable mentions:
No Country
Everybody Wants Some!!
The Raid
Dunkirk
Primer
Leviathan
Sunshine
Paprika
The Fall
Memories of Murder
The Social Network
Spirited Away
In Bruges
The Departed
Marie Antoinette
Adaptation
No Country
Everybody Wants Some!!
The Raid
Dunkirk
Primer
Leviathan
Sunshine
Paprika
The Fall
Memories of Murder
The Social Network
Spirited Away
In Bruges
The Departed
Marie Antoinette
Adaptation
June 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Before Sunset is a stand-in for the trilogy. Limited myself to 1 per direction. Honorable mentions:
No Country
Everybody Wants Some!!
The Raid
Dunkirk
Primer
Leviathan
Sunshine
Paprika
The Fall
Memories of Murder
The Social Network
Spirited Away
In Bruges
The Departed
Marie Antoinette
Adaptation
No Country
Everybody Wants Some!!
The Raid
Dunkirk
Primer
Leviathan
Sunshine
Paprika
The Fall
Memories of Murder
The Social Network
Spirited Away
In Bruges
The Departed
Marie Antoinette
Adaptation
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
THE BELL JAR
HARD ❌
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York
EASY ✅
That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs
HARD ❌
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York
EASY ✅
That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs
November 17, 2024 at 3:03 PM
THE BELL JAR
HARD ❌
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York
EASY ✅
That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs
HARD ❌
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York
EASY ✅
That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs
Critiques of LLMs that I read on this website need to, among other things, grapple with the fact that I got DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B running on my 2022 Mac Studio in 30 minutes.
It’s not a technology that is limited to huge companies, nor one that uses an enormous amount of energy.
It’s not a technology that is limited to huge companies, nor one that uses an enormous amount of energy.
June 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Critiques of LLMs that I read on this website need to, among other things, grapple with the fact that I got DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B running on my 2022 Mac Studio in 30 minutes.
It’s not a technology that is limited to huge companies, nor one that uses an enormous amount of energy.
It’s not a technology that is limited to huge companies, nor one that uses an enormous amount of energy.
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
"civility" understood properly is not about good manners/decorum but really the management of conflict in a space you have to share with other people
I'm not a fan of the entire concept of "civility", but in practice its rejection is used to justify to go to the throat over minor disagreements / display of weakness by overall aligned folks
May 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM
"civility" understood properly is not about good manners/decorum but really the management of conflict in a space you have to share with other people
what is up with this?
May 20, 2025 at 12:41 PM
what is up with this?
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
every moral panic about communication tech since ancient Greek freakouts over the invention of writing has been correct in some important way
May 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
every moral panic about communication tech since ancient Greek freakouts over the invention of writing has been correct in some important way
good time (as it always is) to watch The Insider
BREAKING: "60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens stepping down from the show due to concerns about journalistic independence
"60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens resigns amid Trump lawsuit
Owens' exit comes as CBS' parent Paramount considers settling a $20 billion lawsuit from President Trump over a segment on the show.
www.axios.com
April 23, 2025 at 5:33 AM
good time (as it always is) to watch The Insider
Reposted by Cosmo Houck
Peter Thiel: I must make it my life’s work to perpetuate the cycle of mimetic rivalry in accordance with René Girard’s prophetic book “Don’t Perpetuate the Cycle of Mimetic Rivalry.”
February 25, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Peter Thiel: I must make it my life’s work to perpetuate the cycle of mimetic rivalry in accordance with René Girard’s prophetic book “Don’t Perpetuate the Cycle of Mimetic Rivalry.”
I liked this piece by danwphilosophy.bsky.social a lot, but also had a few things I wanted to add. It's been a while since I've blogged, hopefully it's cogent. www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/is-the-int...
January 13, 2025 at 3:43 AM
I liked this piece by danwphilosophy.bsky.social a lot, but also had a few things I wanted to add. It's been a while since I've blogged, hopefully it's cogent. www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/is-the-int...
The Internet is an Entertainment Machine: https://cosmohouck.micro.blog/2025/01/12/the-internet-is-an-entertainment.html
January 13, 2025 at 3:36 AM
The Internet is an Entertainment Machine: https://cosmohouck.micro.blog/2025/01/12/the-internet-is-an-entertainment.html
