I won’t disagree — at some level questions about what is fake vs real in a person are beyond me, my orientation is very behaviorist — but even if so, that won’t prevent those so inclined to see the bonhomie and ostentatious good will and miss the rest.
i never interpreted that so literally!
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
but a lot more intricate and demanding i think at microscale!
at that scale, it doesn’t seem quite as craft-y or neurotic.
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?
seems to depend for whom.
i’m grateful you’d want me as a neighbor.
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.
whatever they are, the decor is often sparkling something!
as kind of a rule of thumb, try not to be governed by people who like palaces.
🙁❤️
no.
