in 2016 i was a “class reductionist” and what now gets called the radical center was all-in on identity progressivism, scolding us. now i feel quite a bit more identity-progressive than they have become. although i think my values haven’t changed, tried to balance caution and decency then and now.
one thing to say about Charlie Kirk is he had enormous emotional range. he could project — very effectively! — reasonableness, bonhomie, good will, even across deep social chasms. he could also spew bile, hatred, and bigotry in a way that left little doubt he meant it. 1/
this range renders him extraordinarily divisive. some communities will select to portray and remember him through (videoclips of) extraordinary openness and good will extended to putative adversaries. others will recall the crushing epithets and hatefulness. 2/
each will feel righteous speaking and acting in ways the other finds deplorable, unforgivable. 3/
there are few public figures whose murder could be so effective a fuse. /fin
is bullet engraving like a common hobby in real america, just a thing people do?
in general, “money is defined by the unit of account in which people borrow and contract future obligations” is a pretty good rule.
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should lower court defiance of this supreme court be overt, loud and proud, or disguised behind technicalities and fine parsings?
i wonder if any of the people on that boat had children?
( contains useful information on relative responsibility for political violence in the recent past. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/o... )
i despair i may never stand on land that isn’t sliding.
as kind of a rule of thumb, try not to be governed by people who like palaces.
once you understand that the right is them and the left is anyone who fails to cherish, worship, and protect them, you understand that of course it is the left who has attacked them.
we believe in your freedom to speak admiringly of us.
a job you’ve considered secure and built your budget around is a great point of leverage.
i think this is unfortunately accurate. towards the end of the Biden Administration, i'd have said the ship of state was turning, insane doctrines ("no industrial policy") of prior decades were cast aside. although it would be coming from behind imperfectly, you should not count the US out. now?
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we are united in our opposition to political violence.
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“Authorizes the State Department to revoke passports to any individual who been charged, convicted, or determined to have knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to a foreign terrorist organization.” // how narrow or broad might such a determination be?
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they were tired of being mocked as conspiracy theorists, so when they found themselves in power, they had an idea. “let’s us actually conspire! *we* then can mock them as conspiracy theorists, if they accuse us of what we’re obviously doing. if they don’t, well, then they are just vain dupes!”
what odds would you give to some Americans being prevented from international travel (by eg passport revocation) at the pure discretion of the executive branch, within the next three years?
yet more evidence that the writers lack subtlety. ht @pamelahayter.bsky.social
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