Peter Berard
@roughchuckles.bsky.social
The best poster on facebook (former)
I review a solid historical review of the Clinton administration. Not pretty! open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
MAR 2025.6.17 - A Fabulous Failure
and other nicknames for the author
open.substack.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I review a solid historical review of the Clinton administration. Not pretty! open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
One of my lawyer friends said Padilla should swear out a complaint for assault and battery on the goons- locally, where Trump couldn’t pardon them. I’d like to see that happen, if nothing else to see the response.
June 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
One of my lawyer friends said Padilla should swear out a complaint for assault and battery on the goons- locally, where Trump couldn’t pardon them. I’d like to see that happen, if nothing else to see the response.
I read Moshfegh’s “Eileen” a while after reading and disliking “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” Why? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
MAR 2025.06.12 - Eileen
Come on!
open.substack.com
June 12, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I read Moshfegh’s “Eileen” a while after reading and disliking “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” Why? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
I wrote a review of the Strugatskys “Hard to Be a God” - what prime directive dilemmas looked like from the eastern bloc? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
MAR 2025.06.04 - Hard to Be a God
…is it?
open.substack.com
June 4, 2025 at 4:05 PM
I wrote a review of the Strugatskys “Hard to Be a God” - what prime directive dilemmas looked like from the eastern bloc? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
I keep forgetting to post on this site!
Here's one- those polls saying 80 percent of Gen Z'rs would marry a chatbot? Whatever else is wrong with the studies... who the fuck, in their twenties, wouldn't say "yes" to some survey dork asking them that, because it's funny?
Here's one- those polls saying 80 percent of Gen Z'rs would marry a chatbot? Whatever else is wrong with the studies... who the fuck, in their twenties, wouldn't say "yes" to some survey dork asking them that, because it's funny?
May 16, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I keep forgetting to post on this site!
Here's one- those polls saying 80 percent of Gen Z'rs would marry a chatbot? Whatever else is wrong with the studies... who the fuck, in their twenties, wouldn't say "yes" to some survey dork asking them that, because it's funny?
Here's one- those polls saying 80 percent of Gen Z'rs would marry a chatbot? Whatever else is wrong with the studies... who the fuck, in their twenties, wouldn't say "yes" to some survey dork asking them that, because it's funny?
www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...
I thought this article was pretty good. I look forward to "The New Literalism" first becoming a useful discussion starter, then a meaningless shibboleth/term of abuse, then a reappropriated positive self-descriptor by/for people who shouldn't use language.
I thought this article was pretty good. I look forward to "The New Literalism" first becoming a useful discussion starter, then a meaningless shibboleth/term of abuse, then a reappropriated positive self-descriptor by/for people who shouldn't use language.
The New Literalism Plaguing Today’s Biggest Movies
Buzzy films from “Anora” to “The Substance” are undone by a relentless signposting of meaning and intent.
www.newyorker.com
May 8, 2025 at 3:14 PM
www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...
I thought this article was pretty good. I look forward to "The New Literalism" first becoming a useful discussion starter, then a meaningless shibboleth/term of abuse, then a reappropriated positive self-descriptor by/for people who shouldn't use language.
I thought this article was pretty good. I look forward to "The New Literalism" first becoming a useful discussion starter, then a meaningless shibboleth/term of abuse, then a reappropriated positive self-descriptor by/for people who shouldn't use language.
Reposted by Peter Berard
UPDATE: A ticket-holder tells me that the Curtis Yarvin/Passage Press event is being held at the Harvard Faculty Club's Dining Hall on 20 Quincy Street, at 7PM tonight! See you there?
May 5, 2025 at 2:40 PM
UPDATE: A ticket-holder tells me that the Curtis Yarvin/Passage Press event is being held at the Harvard Faculty Club's Dining Hall on 20 Quincy Street, at 7PM tonight! See you there?
Reposted by Peter Berard
A horrible story but god bless this woman so accurately reading the ICE goons for filth here
April 29, 2025 at 3:17 PM
A horrible story but god bless this woman so accurately reading the ICE goons for filth here
I have a newsletter! In this issue, I wrote about how that article about elite group chats illustrates a central dynamic of the most mysterious historical period of all: the recent past. open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
Give it a read! Share it around?
Give it a read! Share it around?
How Elite Group Chats Became Our Problem
Or, the map of our woes
open.substack.com
April 29, 2025 at 12:25 AM
I have a newsletter! In this issue, I wrote about how that article about elite group chats illustrates a central dynamic of the most mysterious historical period of all: the recent past. open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
Give it a read! Share it around?
Give it a read! Share it around?
An outstanding article about a huge fucking mess prospect.org/justice/2025...
Runaway Tren
How a Colorado slumlord’s psyop turned into a brand-new ‘forever war’ on Venezuela
prospect.org
April 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM
An outstanding article about a huge fucking mess prospect.org/justice/2025...
Reposted by Peter Berard
I knew this wealthy girl who told everyone she worked “in tech” and was “part of a rapidly growing startup” but actually she had no job and spent 10 hours a day moderating a Buffy the vampire message board and everyone treated her like a computer wiz. That’s basically Marc Andreessen if he was cool
April 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I knew this wealthy girl who told everyone she worked “in tech” and was “part of a rapidly growing startup” but actually she had no job and spent 10 hours a day moderating a Buffy the vampire message board and everyone treated her like a computer wiz. That’s basically Marc Andreessen if he was cool
Reposted by Peter Berard
We talk a lot about social media radicalizing the population but it's been far more efficient at radicalizing public figures.
Online radicalisation of elites is a significant and yet poorly understood aspect of contemporary politics.
Holy shit, when Richard Hanania is not far enough right for you. Would love to hear what US Senators and prominent bloggers doing appearances with Andreessen think.
April 28, 2025 at 11:26 AM
We talk a lot about social media radicalizing the population but it's been far more efficient at radicalizing public figures.
If you ask me, 2025 proves we on the left should have been playing maximalist since 2001 at least. We thought we had the implicit cooperation of moderates against the worst. We either never did, or we did and it just didn’t matter, because here we are.
April 27, 2025 at 3:43 PM
If you ask me, 2025 proves we on the left should have been playing maximalist since 2001 at least. We thought we had the implicit cooperation of moderates against the worst. We either never did, or we did and it just didn’t matter, because here we are.
Reposted by Peter Berard
"pro-natalists" should consider the baby boom that will happen 9 months after Donald Trump dies
April 26, 2025 at 12:48 PM
"pro-natalists" should consider the baby boom that will happen 9 months after Donald Trump dies
Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs.
(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)
(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)
April 26, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs.
(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)
(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)
Extra layer of funny, for me- anthologies like the Norton TRY to assemble and preserve canons. Canon-formation and literary tastemaking are profoundly capricious processes and the canonized make tasty targets. That’s part of what happened to Diaz (you know, along w/the rest of it)
How are they still whining about this shit in April 2025
![Thomas Chatterton Williams
Might not be as attention grabbing as what the administration is doing these days, but this kind of woke illiberalism is insidious. I was also told it was over (if it had ever happened):
“In effect, [Junot] Díaz had been canceled, not just informally but in a final, official way. Removal from an anthology is far more consequential for a writer than ephemeral, even if viral, tweets or sensational feature stories. The Norton anthologies are one of the primary channels through which we establish and preserve literary canons. Assembled by the profession’s most influential scholars, they shape what instructors pass down to the next generations and what those next generations, in turn, will view as their cultural inheritance. In expunging Díaz’s work from such a high-profile anthology, the academy was conferring its imprimatur upon a smear campaign against a once-revered author based on reliably discredited rumors.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j76trmiofvaxxpvx2vnb2vwf/bafkreiaqrizihjbghk7vldhrd3lcwc4t25gnvsvmj3vjexsokyxanbrzcu@jpeg)
April 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Extra layer of funny, for me- anthologies like the Norton TRY to assemble and preserve canons. Canon-formation and literary tastemaking are profoundly capricious processes and the canonized make tasty targets. That’s part of what happened to Diaz (you know, along w/the rest of it)
I wrote in my substack! Reviews of a few books, including @quinnslobodian.com’s fantastic new work open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
Recent readings
"Trump Sky Alpha" - "The Municipalists" - "Hayek's B*stards"
open.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 3:30 AM
I wrote in my substack! Reviews of a few books, including @quinnslobodian.com’s fantastic new work open.substack.com/pub/peterber...
Sentimentality forms a critical part of the ideological base for fascism. One example is this shit around autism. What bothers most average shitty people about autism in children is that they might not act like the kids they imagine in their mind's eye. They won't perform childhood right.
April 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Sentimentality forms a critical part of the ideological base for fascism. One example is this shit around autism. What bothers most average shitty people about autism in children is that they might not act like the kids they imagine in their mind's eye. They won't perform childhood right.
Reposted by Peter Berard
“Yemen done me wrong, pet” averred the beleaguered Secretary of Defense as the landlord ejected him
April 21, 2025 at 12:43 AM
“Yemen done me wrong, pet” averred the beleaguered Secretary of Defense as the landlord ejected him
Reposted by Peter Berard
What do we get from shutting down our misplaced empathy? For Quinn’s new right thinkers, a sounder economy and greater prosperity. Not equally shared of course, but one that would avoid the inevitable collapse that Keynesianism, communism, social democracy, environmentalism, etc. would cause.
April 17, 2025 at 4:16 PM
What do we get from shutting down our misplaced empathy? For Quinn’s new right thinkers, a sounder economy and greater prosperity. Not equally shared of course, but one that would avoid the inevitable collapse that Keynesianism, communism, social democracy, environmentalism, etc. would cause.
Reposted by Peter Berard
Finished @quinnslobodian.com's book Hayek’s Bastards, and highly recommend it to understand the ideas that helped feed this current moment.
The book also made me reflect on one of Musk’s recent comments, that “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
The book also made me reflect on one of Musk’s recent comments, that “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
April 17, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Finished @quinnslobodian.com's book Hayek’s Bastards, and highly recommend it to understand the ideas that helped feed this current moment.
The book also made me reflect on one of Musk’s recent comments, that “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
The book also made me reflect on one of Musk’s recent comments, that “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
My cat is perfect
April 17, 2025 at 12:34 AM
My cat is perfect
“Thomas Chatterton Williams” is the name George Schuyler would have given a guy exactly like Thomas Chatterton Williams in one of his satires on black intellectual/political life
The harper's letter crowd is pretending the real threat to free speech is the same as the fake one they spent years panicking about.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
April 16, 2025 at 12:36 PM
“Thomas Chatterton Williams” is the name George Schuyler would have given a guy exactly like Thomas Chatterton Williams in one of his satires on black intellectual/political life
The people I care most about will never post about their lives as freely as they did pre-2016 or so. That’s what I liked about social media- having updates from my friends cheek by jowl with interesting articles etc.
Something tells me that isn’t coming back, alas.
Something tells me that isn’t coming back, alas.
April 16, 2025 at 2:04 AM
The people I care most about will never post about their lives as freely as they did pre-2016 or so. That’s what I liked about social media- having updates from my friends cheek by jowl with interesting articles etc.
Something tells me that isn’t coming back, alas.
Something tells me that isn’t coming back, alas.