Tom Scocca
@tomscocca.bsky.social
Editor of Indignity.net. This Bluesky is about the Machines.
Not sold on the idea that this would shift the blame, since kind of the whole point is that when the news is bad, normal people just blame the president; what it would do is take a lot of bad things out of the news, creating the impression that the president must be handling things better now.
November 10, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Not sold on the idea that this would shift the blame, since kind of the whole point is that when the news is bad, normal people just blame the president; what it would do is take a lot of bad things out of the news, creating the impression that the president must be handling things better now.
The New Yorker piece is fascinating because it's basically a writer describing how he started with the accurate understanding and then decided it was cringe and let the pressure to be savvy to push him off of it
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The New Yorker piece is fascinating because it's basically a writer describing how he started with the accurate understanding and then decided it was cringe and let the pressure to be savvy to push him off of it
November 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Historically, the theory that you reach the masses by running to the center is built on a candidate who won 43 percent of the vote in a three-way race
A "modest margin" when Mamdani beat his next closest challenger by 8 points in a three-person race. Trump won by just 1.5% and it was played off as a seismic realignment of American politics and culture.
Damn, I hate it when things that happen mean nothing :-(
November 9, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Historically, the theory that you reach the masses by running to the center is built on a candidate who won 43 percent of the vote in a three-way race
Lawn darts caused one fatality www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
November 8, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Lawn darts caused one fatality www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
Reading the argument actually feels like watching a reel of a scrub player intentionally undermining their own stats to throw a prop bet
this is a really astoundingly bad blog
After a recent N.B.A. scandal, more writers and pundits came out against legalized sports betting. But the case that they’re making is weaker than it appears. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/7tQVbk
November 7, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reading the argument actually feels like watching a reel of a scrub player intentionally undermining their own stats to throw a prop bet
Physiognomy, you mean
November 7, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Physiognomy, you mean
Reposted by Tom Scocca
Facebook friends, here is Indignity Vol. 5, No. 195, BUSINESS DEP'T: Newsletter news www.indignity.net/newsletter-news/
Newsletter news
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 195
www.indignity.net
November 6, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Facebook friends, here is Indignity Vol. 5, No. 195, BUSINESS DEP'T: Newsletter news www.indignity.net/newsletter-news/
Casey Kasem from Battle of the Planets
I think everybody has a “Wallace Shawn from Young Sheldon” — my first one would probably be “Vincent Price, the guy who did the voice of Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective”
November 3, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Casey Kasem from Battle of the Planets
Reposted by Tom Scocca
Facebook friends, here is Indignity Vol. 5, No. 193, The Indignity Image Roundup for October: MONSTER! www.indignity.net/indignity-image-roundup-monster/
Indignity Image Roundup: MONSTER
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 193
www.indignity.net
October 31, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Facebook friends, here is Indignity Vol. 5, No. 193, The Indignity Image Roundup for October: MONSTER! www.indignity.net/indignity-image-roundup-monster/
Anyway, constructively, when you're there inside the death throes of an exhausted dominant system you can't trust it really will die, and rejecting it is exhilarating but it doesn't much feel like winning, and only well afterward do the people who played Chicago everywhere start playing Public Enemy
It's sort of impossible (blessedly!) for present-day music listeners to get what it was like when the entire soundscape was only physical media and small finite numbers of broadcast outlets—every time someone played "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" meant someone NOT hearing "Fascination Street"
Calling 1989 “a perfect year in music” is like calling 1988 “a perfect year in the Soviet Bloc”
October 30, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Anyway, constructively, when you're there inside the death throes of an exhausted dominant system you can't trust it really will die, and rejecting it is exhilarating but it doesn't much feel like winning, and only well afterward do the people who played Chicago everywhere start playing Public Enemy
Good engagement here though
1989 was a really strong year in Thai luk thung music (not sure about perfect), still during Pumpuang Duangjan time and right at the start of Jintara Poonlap's career. Siriporn Ampaipong was also doing some of her best work in that year, as linked here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55D...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55D...
สาวไร่อ้อยคอยแฟน - ศิริพร อำไพพงษ์ [ Official Audio ]
YouTube video by ศิริพร อําไพพงษ์
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Good engagement here though
It's not a reevaluation of the music, it's the original evaluation of the music. And these "u wanted engagement" posts are incomprehensible to me, this site ain't monetized, I didn't actually want to know how many people insist "Girl You Know It's True" is up there with "When Doves Cry."
I won't say this was a grift post, probably shared in earnest, but I will say that Blender Mag "Worst [BLANK] Ever" type catnip rears its ugly head ever so often on social media and people swipe at this low-hanging fruit every time. Cannot imagine a worse way to reevaluate the music of the past.
People need to stop retconning literally the worst era in American popular music history into something it wasn't, just because there were also some amazing records that like 250 people happened to be hunting down and listening to
October 30, 2025 at 3:32 PM
It's not a reevaluation of the music, it's the original evaluation of the music. And these "u wanted engagement" posts are incomprehensible to me, this site ain't monetized, I didn't actually want to know how many people insist "Girl You Know It's True" is up there with "When Doves Cry."
Reposted by Tom Scocca
HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 191, GLAD TIMES DEP'T: What's New in Cheerful Topics www.indignity.net/look-on-the-bright-side/
Look on the bright side
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 191
www.indignity.net
October 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS
It's sort of impossible (blessedly!) for present-day music listeners to get what it was like when the entire soundscape was only physical media and small finite numbers of broadcast outlets—every time someone played "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" meant someone NOT hearing "Fascination Street"
Calling 1989 “a perfect year in music” is like calling 1988 “a perfect year in the Soviet Bloc”
Post an album I had to travel 350 miles to learn had been released
October 30, 2025 at 1:06 PM
It's sort of impossible (blessedly!) for present-day music listeners to get what it was like when the entire soundscape was only physical media and small finite numbers of broadcast outlets—every time someone played "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" meant someone NOT hearing "Fascination Street"
Yeah I had all their demo tapes
October 30, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Yeah I had all their demo tapes
This is a what originally put this chip on my shoulder, a Pitchfork thing confidently holding forth on the public reception of the various different singles off Surfer Rosa when they came out
I feel like Pitchfork gave some people the Mandela Effect of thinking that they were listening to SST and 4AD releases on release day rather than finding out about them in 1996 at the earliest
October 30, 2025 at 12:48 PM
This is a what originally put this chip on my shoulder, a Pitchfork thing confidently holding forth on the public reception of the various different singles off Surfer Rosa when they came out
I think we’ve reached Making Up a Guy to Make Up a Guy Who Was Mad At to Be Mad At
October 30, 2025 at 12:46 PM
I think we’ve reached Making Up a Guy to Make Up a Guy Who Was Mad At to Be Mad At
Also seems like a whole lot of people think the way not to be an overbearing music snob is to be an overbearing reverse snob about music
Calling 1989 “a perfect year in music” is like calling 1988 “a perfect year in the Soviet Bloc”
Post an album I had to travel 350 miles to learn had been released
October 30, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Also seems like a whole lot of people think the way not to be an overbearing music snob is to be an overbearing reverse snob about music
Calling 1989 “a perfect year in music” is like calling 1988 “a perfect year in the Soviet Bloc”
Post an album I had to travel 350 miles to learn had been released
Post a perfect album from 1989...
October 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Calling 1989 “a perfect year in music” is like calling 1988 “a perfect year in the Soviet Bloc”
The replies are convincing me that people who use the word “banger” mean “bad song”
Lot of "but there is also some really good popular music from this year" in the replies, not enough "that list is banger after banger". One of the benefits of not being a 20-something music snob any more is that I can enjoy Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
People need to stop retconning literally the worst era in American popular music history into something it wasn't, just because there were also some amazing records that like 250 people happened to be hunting down and listening to
October 30, 2025 at 11:45 AM
The replies are convincing me that people who use the word “banger” mean “bad song”
The word “find” in “find an audience” is pretty much the whole point here
you can easily make any seminal year look fishy pulling the reliably overly earnest year end hot 100. we think '91 is cool but year end says paula abdul and bryan adams ran shit. but 89 is the year rhythm nation, 3 feet high & rising, straight outta compton, countless 5 star joints find an audience.
People need to stop retconning literally the worst era in American popular music history into something it wasn't, just because there were also some amazing records that like 250 people happened to be hunting down and listening to
October 30, 2025 at 11:40 AM
The word “find” in “find an audience” is pretty much the whole point here
Post an album I had to travel 350 miles to learn had been released
Post a perfect album from 1989...
October 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Post an album I had to travel 350 miles to learn had been released
I don't think you quite got the point here
Pretty Hate Machine invalidates not only your argument, but also your soul
People need to stop retconning literally the worst era in American popular music history into something it wasn't, just because there were also some amazing records that like 250 people happened to be hunting down and listening to
October 29, 2025 at 9:14 PM
I don't think you quite got the point here