Marc Singer
@theothermarcsinger.bsky.social
Not that one. Not that one, either. Writer and English professor at Howard University in Washington DC. Author of Breaking the Frames (2018) and Grant Morrison (2012).
The internet was a lovely place once.
"My scheme blinded them all, as if by fog
But for these medd'ling kids and this their dog."
"My scheme blinded them all, as if by fog
But for these medd'ling kids and this their dog."
From the ancient Sumerian phase of the Internet, 1993 sends us Hamlet, rewritten as a Scooby Doo episode!
users.cs.northwestern.edu/~riesbeck/lo...
users.cs.northwestern.edu/~riesbeck/lo...
The Lost Quarto of Hamlet
users.cs.northwestern.edu
November 16, 2025 at 6:28 PM
The internet was a lovely place once.
"My scheme blinded them all, as if by fog
But for these medd'ling kids and this their dog."
"My scheme blinded them all, as if by fog
But for these medd'ling kids and this their dog."
Reposted by Marc Singer
I‘m tired of being nice about this; “abolitionism” has had years to develop a non-idiot policy program and the best they’ve come up with is ”murder without even the pretense of juridical process.” And I am not nut-picking; this is all over abolitionist writing.
November 14, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I‘m tired of being nice about this; “abolitionism” has had years to develop a non-idiot policy program and the best they’ve come up with is ”murder without even the pretense of juridical process.” And I am not nut-picking; this is all over abolitionist writing.
Elite institutions are folding right and left, but when the rank and file stand up, we can win.
WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Elite institutions are folding right and left, but when the rank and file stand up, we can win.
Reposted by Marc Singer
Thinking a lot about how everyone in media hated The Wire S5's Templeton storyline, which turned out to be one of the most accurate depictions of modern media creatures.
I see professional media solidarity is back out in full force again
November 13, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Thinking a lot about how everyone in media hated The Wire S5's Templeton storyline, which turned out to be one of the most accurate depictions of modern media creatures.
Reposted by Marc Singer
Growing up in a time when “selling out” was the most shameful thing you could do and then being forced to live through the 2020s feels like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
November 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Growing up in a time when “selling out” was the most shameful thing you could do and then being forced to live through the 2020s feels like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
Reposted by Marc Singer
It all would have been much easier if, as would have happened if we were remotely a serious country, it all ended with the Access Hollywood interview.
November 13, 2025 at 3:46 AM
It all would have been much easier if, as would have happened if we were remotely a serious country, it all ended with the Access Hollywood interview.
This about sums it up.
I spent the afternoon in a meeting where my colleagues wheeled out one moralistic excuse after another not to penalize students for using AI to write papers (academic integrity is "surveillance" now).
It's the 21st century and nobody wants to do their goddamn jobs.
I spent the afternoon in a meeting where my colleagues wheeled out one moralistic excuse after another not to penalize students for using AI to write papers (academic integrity is "surveillance" now).
It's the 21st century and nobody wants to do their goddamn jobs.
Another revelation from all of these emails is that many of the richest and most powerful people in the country absolutely cannot write. Helps explain their sweaty embrace of LLMs.
November 13, 2025 at 3:37 AM
This about sums it up.
I spent the afternoon in a meeting where my colleagues wheeled out one moralistic excuse after another not to penalize students for using AI to write papers (academic integrity is "surveillance" now).
It's the 21st century and nobody wants to do their goddamn jobs.
I spent the afternoon in a meeting where my colleagues wheeled out one moralistic excuse after another not to penalize students for using AI to write papers (academic integrity is "surveillance" now).
It's the 21st century and nobody wants to do their goddamn jobs.
It truly pains me to say this--you absolutely do not Gotta Hand It to Hegseth--but the decline in military appearance standards and the slide towards a paramilitary aesthetic is absolutely a problem the military needs to address.
Hegseth is, of course, the last person I would trust to address it.
Hegseth is, of course, the last person I would trust to address it.
What is with Hegseth’s weird obsession with facial hair?
Hegseth: "We don't need to be a military of beardos anymore. Do you know how many troops claim to be Nordic Pagan? No, suddenly it's become this real fake religious affiliation inside the Pentagon where troops came to be Nordic Pagan so they can grow a beard and nobody challenges them on it."
November 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
It truly pains me to say this--you absolutely do not Gotta Hand It to Hegseth--but the decline in military appearance standards and the slide towards a paramilitary aesthetic is absolutely a problem the military needs to address.
Hegseth is, of course, the last person I would trust to address it.
Hegseth is, of course, the last person I would trust to address it.
Josh Marshall sums it up well--the shutdown went about as well as it could have (the minority party almost never gets any real concessions) and the big fight is over a broader and much-needed realignment of Democratic politicians, esp. in the Senate. The list of litmus test issues is a good start.
The Status Interview – Or How To Write Up a Senate Purge List talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-s...
The Status Interview – Or How To Write Up a Senate Purge List
Over the last couple days I’ve argued both that the denouement of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Josh Marshall sums it up well--the shutdown went about as well as it could have (the minority party almost never gets any real concessions) and the big fight is over a broader and much-needed realignment of Democratic politicians, esp. in the Senate. The list of litmus test issues is a good start.
Anybody can fall into a rut. I spent so many years working in comics/cultural studies that I completely lost track of literary fiction. I spent the last ~6 years catching up on all the outstanding work I'd missed over the previous decade and it has been rewarding in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
a random men reading story that isn't 'ooh, look at that man reading.' When I lived in South Korea I had a friend, Paul, who was an ex-army sergeant in his late thirties and had come from a pretty rough family background in rural Illinois. Very sweet guy, kind of a disordered life.
November 11, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Anybody can fall into a rut. I spent so many years working in comics/cultural studies that I completely lost track of literary fiction. I spent the last ~6 years catching up on all the outstanding work I'd missed over the previous decade and it has been rewarding in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
I am begging writers of functionally immortal popular culture franchises to rediscover Umberto Eco's "The Myth of Superman."
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
I am begging writers of functionally immortal popular culture franchises to rediscover Umberto Eco's "The Myth of Superman."
I for one will never forgive those Venezuelan fishermen for ramming their boat into the World Trade Center.
And for those still going on about drug boat strikes - I wish you’d cared this much about Afghanistan. I don’t love the use of the military to kill drug runners, but it’s no worse than you’ve allowed for three decades. It’s a bit late for moral hazard pearl clutching now.
November 6, 2025 at 12:29 PM
I for one will never forgive those Venezuelan fishermen for ramming their boat into the World Trade Center.
Raising the question of why the fuck they didn't arrest him then.
November 4, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Raising the question of why the fuck they didn't arrest him then.
Royal who Cheated on Wife with Consenting Adult Looking Pretty Good Now, Huh?
by King Charles
by King Charles
Breaking News: Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, is being stripped of his title as prince, Buckingham Palace said. nyti.ms/4oQeykJ
October 30, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Royal who Cheated on Wife with Consenting Adult Looking Pretty Good Now, Huh?
by King Charles
by King Charles
I stand humbly chastened.
Hi, It’s Me, Wikipedia, and I Am Ready for Your Apology
“Wikipedia, the constantly changing knowledge base created by a global free-for-all of anonymous users, now stands as the leading force for the dum...
www.mcsweeneys.net
October 28, 2025 at 10:08 PM
I stand humbly chastened.
This was a great weekend for Chris Murphy to send me a fundraising email, inasmuch as it was also a great weekend to make sure I never receive a fundraising email from Chris Murphy again.
Chris Murphy on Platner's Totenkopf tattoo: "He sounds like a human being to me. A human being who made mistakes, recognizes them, and is very open about it."
October 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
This was a great weekend for Chris Murphy to send me a fundraising email, inasmuch as it was also a great weekend to make sure I never receive a fundraising email from Chris Murphy again.
I will vote for whatever candidate promises to tear down his gilded ballroom, rebuild the White House, abolish ICE, undo everything he has accomplished, restore everything he has wrecked, and send every last one of these people to prison.
October 23, 2025 at 7:51 PM
I will vote for whatever candidate promises to tear down his gilded ballroom, rebuild the White House, abolish ICE, undo everything he has accomplished, restore everything he has wrecked, and send every last one of these people to prison.
The left really, really needs to come up with better candidate selection criteria than "he seems working class and he hates the people I hate."
So Graham Platner has an SS-Totenkopf tattoo.
chat it doesn't look good
October 21, 2025 at 10:43 AM
The left really, really needs to come up with better candidate selection criteria than "he seems working class and he hates the people I hate."
Reposted by Marc Singer
I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it's really genuinely him treating the white house like it's his own personal property; he's the king and it's his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed
I'm not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It's like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.
The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing
October 21, 2025 at 3:51 AM
I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it's really genuinely him treating the white house like it's his own personal property; he's the king and it's his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed
INCOMING METAPHOR ALERT
Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU
White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom
The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.
wapo.st
October 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
INCOMING METAPHOR ALERT
“To lose one vice president, Mr. Trump, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
An artillery shell fired during 250th anniversary celebration of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday detonated prematurely over Interstate 5, damaging a California Highway Patrol vehicle on JD Vance's security detail www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/u...
Artillery Shell Detonated Over Interstate 5 During Marines’ Celebration, California Officials Say
www.nytimes.com
October 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
“To lose one vice president, Mr. Trump, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
One thing I love about my neighborhood--from pedestrians to drivers, we all fucking loathe Donald Trump.
October 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
One thing I love about my neighborhood--from pedestrians to drivers, we all fucking loathe Donald Trump.
This whole thread is just one bullseye after another.
“Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were not the same person…..the appeal of a ridiculous assumption like ‘one family was responsible for decades worth of civil wars’ stems from the need to impose simplicity on complex historical events….”
*strokes chin*
“Instead, we must examine social structures”
*strokes chin*
“Instead, we must examine social structures”
Going to become a Vader isn’t Anakin truther as a bit
October 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
This whole thread is just one bullseye after another.
WaPo is hemorrhaging subscribers over this stuff but they don't care. It is no longer a newspaper, it's the publishing arm of Amazon's lobbying operation.
This is a stupid framing and I skimmed the article and it sucks. Republicans could end this by extending subsidies. They could do it tomorrow. That they don’t is not about both sides’ (equivalent, it must be implied) entrenched rage.
This government shutdown is mostly about two parties’ rage at each other and their battle over who will run Washington for the next three years.
That makes it less predictable, and potentially much harder to resolve, according to people on both sides.
That makes it less predictable, and potentially much harder to resolve, according to people on both sides.
October 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
WaPo is hemorrhaging subscribers over this stuff but they don't care. It is no longer a newspaper, it's the publishing arm of Amazon's lobbying operation.