Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
@steveshelton.bsky.social
History teacher. Sci-fi enthusiast. Kind of an idiot.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
December 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
Merry Christmas everybody.
December 25, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Merry Christmas everybody.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 8, 2025 at 9:29 AM
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
An idea has formed in the dark recesses of my mind... The Sound of Music remade with only the Music of Creed! The setting, Orlando, FL 2001. We meet the musical Von Stapp family...
November 17, 2025 at 12:00 AM
An idea has formed in the dark recesses of my mind... The Sound of Music remade with only the Music of Creed! The setting, Orlando, FL 2001. We meet the musical Von Stapp family...
Mamdani is going to implement Shemar Moore law. Everyone will have to watch Criminal Minds and listen to their moms say how handsome he is.
Mamdani is going to implement Sriracha law. Everyone will have to slather hot sauce on their scrambled eggs
Mamdani is going to implement My Sharona law. Everyone will have to create songs with undeniable rock beats.
November 9, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Mamdani is going to implement Shemar Moore law. Everyone will have to watch Criminal Minds and listen to their moms say how handsome he is.
Between Bong Joon Ho, KPop Demon Hunters, and their love of fried chicken taking out tech-capitalist morons, the people of Korea have my enduring respect. (Also soju rips)
한국의 인구 감소와 웰빙 트렌드를 감안해서 한국 치킨 업계에 숏을 걸었다가 (젠슨황 교촌 회동때문에) 47만불을 청산당한 레딧 유저
한국인의 치킨 사랑을 간과하다니
한국인의 치킨 사랑을 간과하다니
November 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Between Bong Joon Ho, KPop Demon Hunters, and their love of fried chicken taking out tech-capitalist morons, the people of Korea have my enduring respect. (Also soju rips)
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
October 27, 2025 at 10:19 PM
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
The struggle is real
It is my mission in life to demonstrate that it is technically possible to be a white guy interested in Rome and still be normal
there was a dumb tiktok going around that was like (a year or two ago that has evolved and also was referencing twitter posts) "WHY ARE SOOOOO MANY MEN OBSESSED WITH THE ROMAN EMPIRE" and I was like "idk probably because they're nazis" and also personellly im a 3kingdoms guy @gaius.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The struggle is real
I think we've perhaps been sleeping on the fact that Rick Steve's has been Travel Mr. Rogers this whole time... He's just a soft-spoken dude who loves traveling and weed and always seems to come down on the right side of history... In short, he rules.
In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly today, President Trump said climate change is a “con job” and climate scientists are “stupid people” — and he called green energy and immigration a “double-tailed monster” that is destroying Europe.
🧵 1/5
🧵 1/5
September 23, 2025 at 10:28 PM
I think we've perhaps been sleeping on the fact that Rick Steve's has been Travel Mr. Rogers this whole time... He's just a soft-spoken dude who loves traveling and weed and always seems to come down on the right side of history... In short, he rules.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
Crucial to distinguish between
a) the Right claiming the Kirk murder is akin to the 1933 Reichstag fire (and demanding drastic state repression in response)
and
b) an actual comparison between the situation in the United States today and Germany in early 1933.
A few thoughts on both:
a) the Right claiming the Kirk murder is akin to the 1933 Reichstag fire (and demanding drastic state repression in response)
and
b) an actual comparison between the situation in the United States today and Germany in early 1933.
A few thoughts on both:
I had a great conversation with @lincolnsquare.media about where we are today: About political violence and the Right’s desire for escalation.
But also about how we got here: About the recent history of the GOP and the rise of Trumpism. And, finally, about where America might go from here:
But also about how we got here: About the recent history of the GOP and the rise of Trumpism. And, finally, about where America might go from here:
Is the Right Looking for a Reichstag Fire? | Historian Thomas Zimmer joins Susan Demas
We're no longer a democracy, but not yet a dictatorship. Welcome to purgatory, or what political scientists call "competitive authoritarianism."
www.lincolnsquare.media
September 17, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Crucial to distinguish between
a) the Right claiming the Kirk murder is akin to the 1933 Reichstag fire (and demanding drastic state repression in response)
and
b) an actual comparison between the situation in the United States today and Germany in early 1933.
A few thoughts on both:
a) the Right claiming the Kirk murder is akin to the 1933 Reichstag fire (and demanding drastic state repression in response)
and
b) an actual comparison between the situation in the United States today and Germany in early 1933.
A few thoughts on both:
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
"The real world has a funny way of challenging ideology, and frankly, I can’t think of a text more relevant to today’s classrooms than the Ten Commandments."
If I Can’t Hang the Ten Commandments in My Classroom, How the Hell Am I Supposed to Get My Students to Stop Coveting Their Neighbor’s Wife?
These days, it seems like the only qualification someone needs to opine on what’s best for our nation’s schools is their own dimly remembered time ...
buff.ly
September 15, 2025 at 1:00 AM
"The real world has a funny way of challenging ideology, and frankly, I can’t think of a text more relevant to today’s classrooms than the Ten Commandments."
The Age of Veg is over! The Time of The Pork has come.
August 25, 2025 at 10:28 PM
The Age of Veg is over! The Time of The Pork has come.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
The irony here is that history teachers, rather than inflaming divisions, are actually helping students understand divisions that undeniably exist. trib.al/yZ826GA
“Indoctrination”? We Call It “Education.”
It’s not “divisive” to teach about division. It’s divisive to bury it.
trib.al
August 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
The irony here is that history teachers, rather than inflaming divisions, are actually helping students understand divisions that undeniably exist. trib.al/yZ826GA
Hold on, I'm busy starting a Soviet-themed Country cover band named "The Linda Ronstadt Rebellion"
August 7, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Hold on, I'm busy starting a Soviet-themed Country cover band named "The Linda Ronstadt Rebellion"
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
As end-of-empire scenarios go it is so much more dignified to get your capital city sacked by the Visigoths than to have a bunch of illiterate rich people in their 70s doing it through a series of incomprehensible tantrums because their brains were defeated by their phones.
August 5, 2025 at 11:44 PM
As end-of-empire scenarios go it is so much more dignified to get your capital city sacked by the Visigoths than to have a bunch of illiterate rich people in their 70s doing it through a series of incomprehensible tantrums because their brains were defeated by their phones.
"We wants it, precious. We wants the bowling pin..."
- Drunk Gollum
- Drunk Gollum
August 4, 2025 at 1:52 AM
"We wants it, precious. We wants the bowling pin..."
- Drunk Gollum
- Drunk Gollum
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
no no no you don't get it caveman
I didn't rob the bank, I'm training a large money model
I didn't rob the bank, I'm training a large money model
July 31, 2025 at 3:45 AM
no no no you don't get it caveman
I didn't rob the bank, I'm training a large money model
I didn't rob the bank, I'm training a large money model
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
I am going to get a full professorship at this center. I'm going to show Veggie Tales videos to a bunch of 19-year-olds who brought briefcases to class and ostentatiously cry for much of the running time. My salary will be paid by a grant from the Vlad Dracul Youth Education Initiative.
Exclusive: Harvard leaders have discussed creating a center for conservative scholarship as the school fights the Trump administration’s accusations that it is too liberal.
Harvard Explores New Center for Conservative Scholarship Amid Trump Attacks
The Ivy League school has discussed an effort to ‘support viewpoint diversity’ with potential donors. Harvard says the initiative ‘will not be partisan.’
on.wsj.com
July 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
I am going to get a full professorship at this center. I'm going to show Veggie Tales videos to a bunch of 19-year-olds who brought briefcases to class and ostentatiously cry for much of the running time. My salary will be paid by a grant from the Vlad Dracul Youth Education Initiative.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
The absolute DEEPEST of cuts!
Dune 3: Arrakeen Nights
DUNERAKER
July 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
The absolute DEEPEST of cuts!
New contender for favorite drag name...
June 27, 2025 at 9:24 PM
New contender for favorite drag name...
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
right-wingers will often say that America deserves credit for ending slavery rather than blame for having slavery. but then we made a holiday to commemorate the end of slavery and they still got mad, which should tell you what their real objection is.
when you’re so racist you don’t let your workers have a day off for a holiday recognizing the end of slavery
June 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
right-wingers will often say that America deserves credit for ending slavery rather than blame for having slavery. but then we made a holiday to commemorate the end of slavery and they still got mad, which should tell you what their real objection is.
Reposted by Gus Polinski (Polka King of the Midwest)
you: please act normal you need these people to like you
people: hello Ed nice to meet you
me: Fanta was invented by the Nazi German subsidiary of Coca-Cola when supplies of sugar and syrup were cut off during WWII, and the original recipe was based on beets and apple cores.
people: hello Ed nice to meet you
me: Fanta was invented by the Nazi German subsidiary of Coca-Cola when supplies of sugar and syrup were cut off during WWII, and the original recipe was based on beets and apple cores.
June 16, 2025 at 8:46 PM
you: please act normal you need these people to like you
people: hello Ed nice to meet you
me: Fanta was invented by the Nazi German subsidiary of Coca-Cola when supplies of sugar and syrup were cut off during WWII, and the original recipe was based on beets and apple cores.
people: hello Ed nice to meet you
me: Fanta was invented by the Nazi German subsidiary of Coca-Cola when supplies of sugar and syrup were cut off during WWII, and the original recipe was based on beets and apple cores.
Reposting this for absolutely no reason at all...
I know calling him "President Musk" feels like it'll cause a rift because of Trump's egomania, but everyone in Trump's orbit is still a sniveling sycophant and when The Night of Long Knives comes, Musk can be served up as a scapegoat for the damage caused by the conservative movement's policies.
June 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposting this for absolutely no reason at all...
Listen, all I'm saying is that Enrique Iglesias would have been much less alluring had he gone by the name "Henry Church"
May 26, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Listen, all I'm saying is that Enrique Iglesias would have been much less alluring had he gone by the name "Henry Church"