Maybe we will look back on this as the period of time that clarified for all of us that fossil fuels are truly over and post-WWII universalist liberalism is absolutely worth preserving because the alternative, the alternative is… this.
i feel like we recapitulated this whole Habermas history in like 15 years between 2000 and 2015. engelsbergideas.com/essays/jurge... ht @thebrowser.bsky.social cc @poetryforsupper.bsky.social
Jürgen Habermas’ lost world: the coffee-house and the public sphere
Link Preview: Jürgen Habermas’ lost world: the coffee-house and the public sphere: Jürgen Habermas' enduring work began in the coffee-houses of Georgian London. His deepest insight was, in the end, a conservative one.
huh. i missed the big anniversary like a couple of weeks ago, but interfluidity.com is twenty years old this month. i'm on a bit of a hiatus as my life is overwhelmed by other things, but i'm still blogging after all these years. drafts.interfluidity.com/archive.html
sometimes nostalgia is so painful i think it will burn a hole right through me.
OBAA > OBBB
the franchise is a sacrament, not a device to be manipulated. but from a purely sociopathic perspective, wouldn’t the SAVE Act be just terrible for MAGA? there are not in fact a lot of illegals voting. 1/
i guess the theory is the extra burden on married women who changed names (birth certificate + marriage license) would discourage more lib-voting women than the whole doc requirement would discourage the low information, weakly partisan voters who are MAGA’s margin? 2/
it’s a betrayal of the democratic ethos, which thirsts for universal participation. but on its own cynical terms, it seems like a risky bet. /fin
"There is no channel to change, and you can’t rewind the action. Trump made his foolhardy decision and now we must live with the consequences." @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...
Opinion | Is There Method to Trump’s Madness?
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on the bright side, it’s the first time these guys have been willing to concede that the straits are the problem.
i worry about whether the SAVE act would create incentives for politicians to make it more difficult for (some) people to get passports. international travel is good for people and for the polity.
Thread.
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‘Only Nazis ban books’: on the frontlines with students fighting Trump over higher education
Link Preview: ‘Only Nazis ban books’: on the frontlines with students fighting Trump over higher education: Documentary First They Came for My College goes inside the fight for academic freedom at Florida’s New College
Worth a read: “The Enemy Is Power, Wherever You Find It” by @mattzwolinski.bsky.social www.liberalism.org/p/the-enemy-...
The Enemy Is Power, Wherever You Find It
Link Preview: The Enemy Is Power, Wherever You Find It: Concentrations of power are a danger, and a liberal society must reckon with them wherever they occur.
this is horrible.
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if this decade we discovered that Bond villains are real, i'm holding out hope for next decade and Santa Claus.
so. what's next?
vietnam syndrome was sanity.
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vietnam syndrome was sanity.
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“He thought he might remake the country in his own image. Instead, he’s likely to leave it like one of his casinos: broke, broken and in desperate need of new management.” @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/o...
Opinion | The Alternate Universe of Donald J. Trump
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🧵
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“Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war. Too many people still expect it to look like war." @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social www.meditationsinanemergency.com/on-my-never-...
Terminology, Clarity, and the Question of What Is the Left?
Link Preview: Terminology, Clarity, and the Question of What Is the Left?: I often say that spoken and written are two different languages with their own grammar and their own difficulties and invitations. Anyone who's ever transcribed a conversation or an interview learns t...