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Charles Mathewes

@ctmathewes

I teach religion & ethics @ UVa I'm mostly here to find books & articles I don't yet know about Sometimes also interested in opinions, but not as often as many of you seem to believe

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Latest posts by Charles Mathewes @ctmathewes

Is there something in that Barry schwartz book, the paradox of choice?
For philosophers, it seems to me, a lot of this goes back to William James & the idea of "live" vs "notional" options etc..

06.03.2026 00:07 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a man with a mustache and sunglasses is wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses . ALT: a man with a mustache and sunglasses is wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses .

Is Meira driving the bus?

05.03.2026 20:58 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Rudyard Kipling | The Orwell Foundation "Kipling is in the peculiar position of having been a byword for fifty years. During five literary generations every enlightened person has despised him, and at the end of that time nine-tenths of tho...

I'm very anti-Noem. But here's what Orwell said, in an essay on Kipling: "He sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them." www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...

05.03.2026 20:56 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Wut

05.03.2026 20:53 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

73 years since Joseph Stalin died. A good day to remember.

05.03.2026 12:28 πŸ‘ 165 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 2

Significant

05.03.2026 11:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, though I believe this is just a ruling to let the vote happen. If I'm right, they still have to decide whether it's actually legitimate, which they may do in April. Nonetheless, we should all vote!

05.03.2026 00:15 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Virginia court allows a referendum on Democrat-led redistricting that could flip 4 House seats The Virginia Supreme Court has again ruled that voters will get to cast ballots on a congressional redistricting plan that could help Democrats in this year’s midterm elections.

Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled that voters can cast ballots on a Democrat-led congressional redistricting plan that could help the party win four more U.S. House seats.

04.03.2026 22:21 πŸ‘ 228 πŸ” 63 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2

Yes I did, actually, beyond the title (which definitely says that), and you kind of danced around the claim in the piece, but the "uncanny duality" paragraph is the core, imho.
Also I think Venezuela is def front of mind, but they're thinking also of Suleimani and also last July.

04.03.2026 22:42 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Look I'm as much against this as the next person who walks upright and does not drool, but shouting "quagmire!" on day, what? five? is imho a bit hasty. I'm against Trump, and against this, but I'd give it a couple weeks before I formed a summative judgment of the effectiveness of the campaign.

04.03.2026 21:56 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Netanyahu has partisanized Israel, and now he's delegitimated it to a huge proportion of America

04.03.2026 20:28 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

(I would be cautious about shocking, priors-validating claims of rampant behavior made by a single Substack that is repeating allegations from an activist organization apparently consisting of one person!)

03.03.2026 14:12 πŸ‘ 186 πŸ” 25 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 5

This chart is everything. How do we (academics) get NYTimes education writers (and others) to realize this is the case? That most students major in business or health related stuff.

03.03.2026 14:41 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

F’n A, this is how it’s done

04.03.2026 14:36 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ll offer you that for only $2,000

04.03.2026 14:35 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

LOLOLOL

02.03.2026 20:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Hegseth has offered more clarity on his war on the Boy Scouts than on the current war with Iran.

02.03.2026 16:01 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Hegseth has offered more clarity on his war on the Boy Scouts than on the current war with Iran.

02.03.2026 16:06 πŸ‘ 49 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Social media is probably in sum not good for any of us, but for some of us most of the time, and for almost all of us some of the time, it's positively devastating. This person seems an example of that.

02.03.2026 02:00 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Every machine is a smoke machine if you operate it wrong enough.

01.03.2026 20:30 πŸ‘ 49 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Remember that scene in "Men in Black" where a character's body was simply a skinbag in which a host of cockroaches were walking around pretending to be a human? He looks like that here, to me

01.03.2026 20:00 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Working list of senior figures reportedly killed in Iran today (all tbc, and several not verified as yet); hearing plenty of other names too - but attributions more vague/less reliable as yet:

Ali Khamenei, Supreme leader
Mojtaba Khamenei, son and heir apparent
Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defence

28.02.2026 21:49 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 5

Once again. If you said NOTHING while the regime murdered 30,000 of its own people in less than one months time, maybe you should do the same today. You don’t actually care about Iranian lives.

28.02.2026 22:06 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Posted on the ayatollah's official X page: ‏ "In the name of the Lion of Great Repute (peace be upon him).

28.02.2026 22:13 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3
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Footage from Abdanan, Isfahan, Saqqez and many other cities and towns. People are celebrating over Khamanei's death following US-Israeli airstrikes. In addition, there are reports coming in of clashes between IRGC and Basjii forces trying to supress protests in Karaj and Mashhad. #Iran

28.02.2026 22:20 πŸ‘ 352 πŸ” 78 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 4

Also, first as tragedy, then as farce, but a bloody farce, alas

28.02.2026 15:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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This is one of my pettier impulses but I want the record to reflect just how often this motherfucker said that Kamala Harris was the pro-war candidate in 2024.

28.02.2026 13:15 πŸ‘ 5243 πŸ” 970 πŸ’¬ 163 πŸ“Œ 63

You mean the Santayana line?

28.02.2026 13:46 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

You & Tertullian, bros 4eva

27.02.2026 02:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adultsβ€”Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebeβ€”living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

26.02.2026 03:41 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0