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socraticme.bsky.social
@socraticme.bsky.social
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socraticme.bsky.social
AAAAAAAGH!!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬
“Walsh said watching the "Romeo + Juliet" movie makes the literature easier to understand. During the Oct. 28 meeting, the board cited concerns over gang violence shown in the movie.”
November 11, 2025 at 1:20 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
Whole thing is brilliant, but this description of the product of the NYT: elite.
“Only when you stand a little closer, or when circumstances make you a little less blinkered, do you notice the fact which then becomes blinding and finally crazymaking, which is just that there is zero, less than zero, stress put on the relation between those two "sides," or their histories, or their sponsors, or their relative evidentiary authority, or any of it. Instead, what you get is a piece making the various more or less bovine noises of studious grey-lady impartiality, with the labor of anything resembling "appraisal" surgically excised.”
November 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
That face when @mskellymhayes.bsky.social ‘s book finally gets here and you cry just reading the table of comments bc it names so many pains that seem perpetually unnamed.
The cover of a book: Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis Edited by Kelly Hayes
November 4, 2025 at 4:57 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
If you see this, post a vampire that isn’t Dracula.
Grey Worm from Game of Thrones, who also played Louis in the new adaptation of Interview with a Vampire.
October 29, 2025 at 12:10 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
Distrust.
Russel Vought, a white man with a confused look on his face, stands at a podium, while Vance, RFJ and Johnson stand around him with their best “I am a very thoughtful white man” faces on. None of them appear to know what they are actually doing and the performance is middle school levels of transparent.
September 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
No luck with C&C. Just a different approach. Is this sort of thing from Orbital Blues any help?
August 2, 2025 at 3:37 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
Given the strengths of the rest of the essay, this strikes me as painfully weak, and is honestly only saved by the fact that the author acknowledges he is of this class and thus helps us provide grace for his blindness. 2/
Quoted Text: As an aside, I think this explains a lot of left anger at liberals. When they say 'middle-class liberal' they're imagining someone who has not had experiences like this and does not understand-indeed, arrogantly dismisses-the perspective of those who have. It isn't a fair characterization of all, or even most, liberals (loads of us have also had shit jobs), but it is of some affluent libs, and it does make them incredibly frustrating to talk to. While there will always be people who will try and stereotype liberals, we could do a better job at avoiding this image, at not letting people like this be the face of the movement.
July 21, 2025 at 4:09 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Holy shit. This is so good. Some of the best long-form I have read in a while. Quick screencap here and then thread on the resentments against liberal humiliation (which I think is still understood/explained way too thinly here). 1/
Quoted text: This provides a freedom-based argument for workers cooperatives, public institutions, and a strong public sector. That these institutions create barriers to humiliation is one reason why the right opposes them. For instance, l've often suspected the real bone-deep hatred many American conservatives have for the DMV is because their staff have greater job security and are hence harder to humiliate. Their stereotype of a DMV worker is of a middle-aged-to-older Black woman who will not tolerate being disrespected. The mere thought of this is enraging to them.
July 21, 2025 at 4:09 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
I don’t know why it always feels so much more grotesque because of the blatant lies, but it does. It absolutely sends me into a rage.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement that said: "This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody. Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible."
July 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Look, this whole article is just terrible people having vapid arguments because they all think this right here is fucking normal. You want to fix USian politics? Say “no one wants to work with or for that asshole” more often.

Stop. Coddling. Pathetic. Asshole. Men.
Lording power over politicians and the press was the Cuomo way when he was governor. His close aides thought they could go right back to yelling and cursing and making demands of endorsers and reporters alike, who tended to respond by treating Cuomo as a menace and Mamdani as a fascination.
June 30, 2025 at 5:36 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
To say Ben and I have some disagreements about how we got here is putting it mildly, but I think that might be chalked up to engaging with different aspects of what “The Left” might mean and how we engage with them. That said, superb article and prescription, IMO. Click through. Click through.
…But to Mamdani, democratic socialism isn't an identity or a set of principles. It is being part of and accountable to a democratic organization, the sort of working-class civil society that has atrophied in this country, but at one time built the backbone of the welfare state across western society and lent the muscle to the New Deal.
June 27, 2025 at 4:36 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
More excellent work from Thrasher. (This time with alt text)
“…especially magnanimous of Lander, who seems like a real mensch. He must have known in the final weeks that he, personally, would not win, yet, he never punched left. Instead, he repeatedly used his various privileges to defend his ally: as a white man running interference for an immigrant of Ugandan and Indian heritage, as a Jew for a Muslim, as a 55-year-old for a 33-year-old, as a liberal for a leftist.”
June 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Really impressive writing throughout.
Quote from the article linked in the quoted post: “Prominent Democrats speaking out about all this a year ago would have been meaningful. Today, it means nothing. Denouncing Biden's run now that he's a political nonentity-out of office and perhaps very near death-isn't taking a brave stand against the internal culture of the Democratic Party. It's a reflection of it: a wholly cost-free and substantively empty way for opportunists to perform independence from the party now that the coast is clear and there are no toes of consequence to step on. Biden ran again, and is being condemned for running again, for the very same reasons.”
May 23, 2025 at 7:35 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Let me try that again, with alt text.
Josh Marshall: The only relevant political point is that Republican members of Congress are all supporting these tariffs 100%. They could stop them at any moment. Each day is on them. Everyone with a messaging bullhorn needs to make that clear. They can pull the plug now or pay the price at the polls next year.
April 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
This was the post right above yours in my feed, and it felt indicative. I read it and immediately thought “you might as well threaten to slap them with a wet noodle”.
April 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Just in case I get blocked. The account claims to be a Dem strategist.
CW: white supremacist rhetoric Photo of Elon Musk staring directly into the camera with a blank expression. His eyes are slightly red-rimmed. Written across his forehead is: “This is the immigrant who took your job.” This is a common claim about immigrants and is used to argue for eliminationist policies, though it is not generally considered eliminationist on its own.
March 13, 2025 at 1:17 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
Pants Inventor:

Everyone Else: Do you gird your loins at me, sir?

PI: No sir, but I doth gird my loins, sir.

EE: But doth thou gird thy loins at ME, sir?

PI: No sir, but I doth gird my loins, SIR!

Time Traveling Shakespeare in the background:
March 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
lol. Nice work, timeline.
February 14, 2025 at 5:25 PM
socraticme.bsky.social
Name a show you’re positive no one remembers but you.
November 22, 2024 at 4:58 AM
socraticme.bsky.social
If all this election cycle does is finally help liberals (not VR, obvs) fully understand that excluding creeps makes things better from a D&I standpoint, that alone would be a HUGE win.
Vivek Ranaswamy Tweet saying “this whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from Dems is dumb and juvenile. This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It’s also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches “diversity and inclusion”. Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please.”
July 29, 2024 at 3:04 AM