Nicholas Troester
@ntroeste.bsky.social
Once and future gentleman of leisure
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
Thinking of the late James C. Scott today.
February 3, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Thinking of the late James C. Scott today.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
![I would like to march in protests too, but I can’t because I have arthritis in my knees. So I want my words to do my marching for me.
Like everybody else, I am an inhabitant of this planet; and I am a member of many other smaller communities too. I am an American citizen, for example. I was made a citizen from birth retroactively by the US government after World War II when babies born to US servicemen and German women were declared citizens from birth. My German mother came with me to the US as an immigrant without English when I was four years old and had no English either. Now I am a philosopher and a Christian -- a Catholic, actually. I identify as a woman. And so on.
I grieve the overwhelming evil that is impossible to ignore in every one of these communities. The sight of the suffering of desperate people trying to be immigrants to the US is unbearable. The inhumanity of separating their children from them, the viciousness of incarcerating small children alone, is unspeakable. And the cruelty we see on the daily news obscures but cannot hide the accelerating harm we are doing to the earth.
The people who should take the lead in governing us are vile, and so many of those who vote relish the vileness. That group includes some prominent Christians. Christians are meant to be salt and light for the world; their lives are meant to help other people taste and see the goodness of God. These people make the God they worship seem so hateful.
And so, like many other people, I mourn. But my mourning is without despondency, without the inward collapse of despair.
The baseness of injustice highlights the majesty of justice, whose power to call to people cannot be defeated by evil. The cruelty of those who rule, their indifference to the cry of the poor, illuminates by contrast the splendor of goodness and love. The growing dread at the increasing destruction of the planet testifies to its beauty. There would be less distress over [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36n7wd7gg4tapamnog4zyyc6/bafkreidvwdsfwtac2b4gftp3oxwgfvwfeaxob6gmngpvu76rilfomtt7nm@jpeg)
January 27, 2026 at 8:38 PM
I was an HR business partner for a few years for some smart software engineers. Pretty much uniformly good people, too. I cannot really overemphasize how little “can code good” implies about knowledge or intelligence in any field other than coding good.
A sentence from hell:
“people in SF are putting multi-agent claudeswarms in charge of their lives, consulting chatbots before every decision, wireheading to a degree only sci-fi writers dared to imagine.”
“people in SF are putting multi-agent claudeswarms in charge of their lives, consulting chatbots before every decision, wireheading to a degree only sci-fi writers dared to imagine.”
January 26, 2026 at 7:49 PM
I was an HR business partner for a few years for some smart software engineers. Pretty much uniformly good people, too. I cannot really overemphasize how little “can code good” implies about knowledge or intelligence in any field other than coding good.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
this mlk quote is why some states didn’t officially recognize mlk day until like 2000
January 19, 2026 at 4:53 PM
this mlk quote is why some states didn’t officially recognize mlk day until like 2000
Against all my better instincts, I am attempting to do some political theory again. Writing, editing, revising. We will push this baby bird out of the nest no later than next week.
January 16, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Against all my better instincts, I am attempting to do some political theory again. Writing, editing, revising. We will push this baby bird out of the nest no later than next week.
The Chippewa and the Tittabawassee, hence our city’s beloved Tridge.
My favorite Twitter prompt was "RT this with your home river," so reskeet this with your home river.
Mine is the Patuxent.
Mine is the Patuxent.
January 12, 2026 at 10:11 PM
The Chippewa and the Tittabawassee, hence our city’s beloved Tridge.
I saw that list of hit songs from 30 years ago. I bring to you a difficult truth to accept, but truth it is: almost all of those songs are bad.
January 5, 2026 at 7:03 PM
I saw that list of hit songs from 30 years ago. I bring to you a difficult truth to accept, but truth it is: almost all of those songs are bad.
… it might once again be timely for me, the guy who wrote a dissertation in defense of humanitarian intervention, to explain why I have turned mostly against it.
January 4, 2026 at 10:52 PM
… it might once again be timely for me, the guy who wrote a dissertation in defense of humanitarian intervention, to explain why I have turned mostly against it.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
It’s giving “why doesn’t Cordelia lie to me like her sisters, I’m gonna destroy a kingdom about it.”
December 16, 2025 at 11:47 PM
It’s giving “why doesn’t Cordelia lie to me like her sisters, I’m gonna destroy a kingdom about it.”
I took a bunch of classes in literature and art history in college just because I wanted to, and all I got for my trouble was a rich inner life and an appreciation of the beautiful things human beings can do.
December 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I took a bunch of classes in literature and art history in college just because I wanted to, and all I got for my trouble was a rich inner life and an appreciation of the beautiful things human beings can do.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
@stephenkb.bsky.social In case you haven't read share.google/X6Iay6FStehf...
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim
Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.
share.google
December 4, 2025 at 9:40 AM
@stephenkb.bsky.social In case you haven't read share.google/X6Iay6FStehf...
Academia rewards good scholarship, not good people, and it sometimes shows. But I delight that the absolute best person I knew in grad school went straight to Princeton and has never left.
December 1, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Academia rewards good scholarship, not good people, and it sometimes shows. But I delight that the absolute best person I knew in grad school went straight to Princeton and has never left.
In grad school, I had a professor tell me (correctly, in my experience) that there’s a C paper hiding in every undergraduate essay, it’s just a question of how hard you have to look to find it. And, well…
Turning Point at OU posted this girl's essay in full and man is it rough
November 30, 2025 at 10:21 PM
In grad school, I had a professor tell me (correctly, in my experience) that there’s a C paper hiding in every undergraduate essay, it’s just a question of how hard you have to look to find it. And, well…
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
What is your FOOD most take?
wait shit
go leave the room and come back in, fuck
wait shit
go leave the room and come back in, fuck
November 26, 2025 at 12:57 AM
What is your FOOD most take?
wait shit
go leave the room and come back in, fuck
wait shit
go leave the room and come back in, fuck
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
Fuck ICE.
November 16, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Fuck ICE.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
Woke 2 is gonna hit like Earl Thomas
November 5, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Woke 2 is gonna hit like Earl Thomas
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
Fellow bitter southerners,
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia all elected Democratic Governors. Georgia in 2020 wasn’t a fluke. South Carolina, Florida, Texas, All y’all of the y’allternative persuasion. Keep being loud. Keep getting into good trouble. Protect black folks and trans people. Vote
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia all elected Democratic Governors. Georgia in 2020 wasn’t a fluke. South Carolina, Florida, Texas, All y’all of the y’allternative persuasion. Keep being loud. Keep getting into good trouble. Protect black folks and trans people. Vote
November 5, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Fellow bitter southerners,
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia all elected Democratic Governors. Georgia in 2020 wasn’t a fluke. South Carolina, Florida, Texas, All y’all of the y’allternative persuasion. Keep being loud. Keep getting into good trouble. Protect black folks and trans people. Vote
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia all elected Democratic Governors. Georgia in 2020 wasn’t a fluke. South Carolina, Florida, Texas, All y’all of the y’allternative persuasion. Keep being loud. Keep getting into good trouble. Protect black folks and trans people. Vote
“Are you just, like, casually reading Beowulf?!” —out here handing out candy to trick or treaters and making friends
October 31, 2025 at 10:31 PM
“Are you just, like, casually reading Beowulf?!” —out here handing out candy to trick or treaters and making friends
Pretty sure the final version of my dissertation has an “[insert citation here]” that no one noticed.
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 31, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Pretty sure the final version of my dissertation has an “[insert citation here]” that no one noticed.
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
Shablicky-blows
October 24, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Shablicky-blows
I was very good at debate in high school, but unlike a lot of people who were good at debate, I recognized this as a serious moral failing I needed to suppress.
September 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
I was very good at debate in high school, but unlike a lot of people who were good at debate, I recognized this as a serious moral failing I needed to suppress.
Because people are talking about that one problematic internet white dude, I was reminded of another, who masqueraded as a reformed womanizer and feminist whose shtick was “if you are a white heterosexual man, people are correct to be suspicious of you, bc other dudes have already ruined it for you”
August 6, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Because people are talking about that one problematic internet white dude, I was reminded of another, who masqueraded as a reformed womanizer and feminist whose shtick was “if you are a white heterosexual man, people are correct to be suspicious of you, bc other dudes have already ruined it for you”
God help me, some thoughts on the way to a blog post: I am a very boring middle-age cis white man with moderate to left political opinions. Since I was 16, the vast majority of my friends have been women; I have had periods where all my friends are women and none men, never the reverse.
August 1, 2025 at 6:17 PM
God help me, some thoughts on the way to a blog post: I am a very boring middle-age cis white man with moderate to left political opinions. Since I was 16, the vast majority of my friends have been women; I have had periods where all my friends are women and none men, never the reverse.
<whispers very quietly> I occasionally allow my kids to get away with lies I know to be lies because it’s a skill they need to learn eventually.
(I also sometimes remind them I know they are lying, they’re not that good at it yet.)
(I also sometimes remind them I know they are lying, they’re not that good at it yet.)
I feel like an important part of being a kid is learning how to lie to authority figures effectively, and while this does help teach certain life lessons early and often, it seems to be counterproductive to other goals.
“Inside the heel of the shoe, a small insert can be lifted to reveal the compartment. Then, parents can track the location of their child — or, at least their child’s shoes.”
July 31, 2025 at 6:14 PM
<whispers very quietly> I occasionally allow my kids to get away with lies I know to be lies because it’s a skill they need to learn eventually.
(I also sometimes remind them I know they are lying, they’re not that good at it yet.)
(I also sometimes remind them I know they are lying, they’re not that good at it yet.)
Reposted by Nicholas Troester
My coauthors @lesja.bsky.social @karenguzzo.bsky.social & I have a new piece in @theconversation.com , which offers insights into why most demographers do NOT think there is a current fertility crisis and the panic about population decline is unwarranted.
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theconversation.com/fears-that-f...
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theconversation.com/fears-that-f...
Fears that falling birth rates in US could lead to population collapse are based on faulty assumptions
While the changes in population structure that accompany low birth rates are real, the impact of these changes has been dramatically overstated.
theconversation.com
July 29, 2025 at 3:43 PM
My coauthors @lesja.bsky.social @karenguzzo.bsky.social & I have a new piece in @theconversation.com , which offers insights into why most demographers do NOT think there is a current fertility crisis and the panic about population decline is unwarranted.
1/
theconversation.com/fears-that-f...
1/
theconversation.com/fears-that-f...