I do think the cult of the operator extends its assumptions all the way to treating things like democracy and nation-building as fundamentally unreal. The only thing that's real to them is violence, imagined to be fantastically effective in both overt or covert forms.
Better or worse than orange vanilla?
Ok what's going on here?
Trump does keep hitting the tariff button like it's shadow bolt while life tapping away the rest of the economy
A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything!
Scene from The Good Place where Michael is standing next to Janet and saying he's surprised Jason figured it out, but it's edited so he's saying "England figured it out? England?"
Y'all we got COVID after we made that mummy talk. Nothing good can come of this.
This is really useful illustration of how locations (like people) can be forced to operate by the logics of social media regardless of whether they chose that for themselves
Also what the fuck does having a "monopoly" on funding mean when no one else is doing any funding?
Look, between the right hosting their own halftime show, a potential sports gambling backlash, and that RFK clip going around where he says he'll be eating a bunch of meat and yogurt while watching, I think the leftists might actually be able to take sports in the national divorce
I taught a class on “hope” last year and the few theorists who’ve written on it all point out that hope is the harder choice - that despair is easy and too often fashionable
While this is kind of cute, the reality is that if you buy into the idea that being surveilled while protesting places you at grave risk, they have already won.
Stop trying to defeat their surveillance - you can't. Realize that the goal of surveillance is to scare you, so you obey in advance!
They're doing a live-action reboot of the original one first
I wonder how this lines up with sentiment about AI being used BY government or companies to make decisions. I know previous surveys showed people weren't too keen on it, and if that remains the case then this is even stranger.
The Virginia legislature today passed four constitutional amendments, all by day 3 of 2026 session:
—protect abortion rights
—repeal the same-sex marriage ban
—allow mid-decade redistricting
—greatly expand voting rights restoration.
These will all go to 2026 referendums.
Also that the market forces of counterinsurgency, from defense contractors to how it inflected firearms marketing and culture in the US, had to go SOMEWHERE after the GWOT, even beyond 1033
the union taking Richmond from the rebs again is a nice outcome
This is why I called in an expert
@phirmth.bsky.social I need you to weigh in with options
Reign of Fire is a terrible movie that would be much better served by an anime adaptation
It is, but an obsession with opsec is a real hindrance for activists. If you're out there confronting ICE, I assure you they can figure out who you are if they really wanted. The key is to not do anything illegal (taking or sharing video is not) and to understand there's safety in numbers.
If anyone ever crows to you about ruby ridge or waco again but doesn't include this moment you can tell them to get all the way bent
Lotr is fascinating because it's a beloved piece of fiction with an adaptation so successful that studios seem to loathe its existence because people don't really want or need anything else out of it
A whole game structured around the bit of reminding you the ravens are bad
One point that deserves more emphasis: fascism isn’t only immoral and unjust -- it’s *operationally worse*
It degrades how societies think, learn, and coordinate. 🧵
That’s why HAVN designed the EMF-blocking beanie. Powered by our proprietary WaveStopper™ Technology, it forms a barrier that blocks over 99% of WiFi, 5G, and Bluetooth radiation right where it matters most: your brain.
They gentrified the tinfoil hat
“i don’t like either party”
This is what got me through the book and, to my own surprise, left a lingering interest in potential sequels or spin-offs (she's alluded to the possibility of the latter iirc). I think understanding it as YA helps better calibrate your expectations.
