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Reposted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 20h

In Zohran Mamdani’s vision, New Yorkers will be given status and privileges that ought to be based on merit.

by A.G. Sulzberger

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 15h

If this is unhinged, I’m unhinged.

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endeavorance 🕊️ @endeavorance.camp · 1d

Hello, it is me, Technology Broseph. I will now dictate what the future of humanity looks like. My qualifications are that I once tripped balls with a billionaire who then funded my abstract eternal life research venture

Anyway, first thing we gotta do is install cameras in everyone's assholes

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 23h

I was 10 at the 1969 Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. And here we are.

This is Sam. I am. @themewl.bsky.social · 1d

at a previous No Kings I met an old guy who was 15 when he was at the 1971 May Day protests.

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Olivia Waite @oliviawaite.com · 2d

The problem with “virtue signaling” as a rhetorical framework was always that it pressed you not toward deeper and more sincere acts of virtue, but away from goodness as a goal at all.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

That’s great to hear, since the supposed “Italian food” I had on my one trip to Japan (in 2007) was in the running for “worst food I have ever eaten.” Everything else, I hasten to say, ranged from “delicious” to “beyond sublime.”

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 1d

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 2d

Religious movements are *always* internally contested. It is not for historians/outsiders to decide which party to the contestation represents the “true“ version or deserves exclusive use of the movement’s name/label. Their job is rather to describe the internal diversity as accurately as possible.

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Liz @liz-is.bsky.social · 1d

Such a good explanation! A clever extrovert friend explained this to me years ago as "it literally doesn't matter what you say - do the friendly ritual" and my autistic self has been a happy small-talker ever since

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

Well, with the Guelphs on side, that settles everything. -:)

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

It’s almost as if sophomoric, half-informed, jumping-to-simple-conclusions dipshittery works, everywhere it operates, to empower and reinforce the worst side of every conflict. The Saudis are the most orthodox Muslims. Bolshevism was the real Communism. And so forth.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

This dynamic exists elsewhere as well — see, for instance, non-Catholics who insist that the worst clericalist strains in Catholicism represent the core of _all_ Catholic tradition, thus setting themselves up as the arbiters of a religion that isn’t theirs. Other examples abound.

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Big Worker @bigworker.bsky.social · 2d

Was definitely a breakthrough for me when I realized that people don't care about the answers to the small talk questions they're asking you, you just have to say something friendly and vaguely on topic to keep the conversation going

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

I understand completely! I’m not autistic by any definition but I’m far enough on the spectrum that I experience similar difficulty. Having an _explanation_ like the one quoted upthread doesn’t fix everything but is non-trivially helpful nonetheless.

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Dr. Fade @fade.bsky.social · 1d

I learned the absolute joy of talking about the weather when I moved to Minnesota. It's a great way to communicate to a stranger while stuck together in a place for a bit (waiting for a bus or elevator) that were all humans who acknowledge each other's humanity and aren't gonna be hostile.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

“Your distributor went bankrupt.”

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 2d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Praisegod Barebones’ Hallowe’en Name. @pgbarebones.bsky.social · 2d

This and also - perhaps the most important lesson I ever learnt in a maths class - it's a learnable skill that develops with practice.

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Kip Williams sort of @kipwilliams.bsky.social · 2d

Truly boggled by the number of people for whom "copy the post text, delete the post, repost with error fixed" is not a viable solution., but "make fraud possible by changing a post that's already been replied to" looks just great.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

Not only is this explanation great, I also know 5,271,009 people whose lives would be changed for the better by taking it on board.

Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 12d

This Tumblr user summarizes something I've been feeling/doing lately. Against everything going on, it somehow feels helpful.

User homoquartz writes: as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now."
Small talk isn't to get to know a person. It's just a greeting to affirm you're buddies in the universe. I am motivated by wanting the other person to know I am friendly, so I have gotten pretty decent at small tall when I used to hate it.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 2d

This is the kind of full and unequivocal defense trans people deserve to hear from more candidates for office

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

Also:

Map of Canada by provinces and territories. I've lived in Ontario, slept in BC, Manitoba, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, driven across PEI, and never visited the others.

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

(That said, I've spent more cumulative lifetime in Minnesota and Massachusetts than at least one state I've lived in. I think my total time in Massachusetts is closing in on a year, and I'm there right now.)

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

Lived in, slept in, driven through, driven into. 48 out of 50.

US map by states. Yellow, the 9 states I've lived in (MI, IL, IA, AZ, OR, NY, CA, WA, OK). Dark blue, the many I've slept in. Dark red, the 8 I've only driven across. Light blue, the 3 I've only driven briefly into (MI, AL, SC). Peach, the two I've never visited (AK & HI).

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

This is an aphorism for the ages.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d

an experience I think about a lot: I was visiting a class in DC Jail shortly after Kim Kardashian visited and had brought in her camera team. I relayed critiques of her "performative", "virtue signalling" acts I had heard on the outside. the response was somewhere between a shrug and an eye roll

utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 3d

anyone else notice that the west took a turn for the worse once the concept of signaling one’s own social virtue became derogatory, almost as if cynically deriding all displays of charity and good will is indicative of a deeply cynical and nihilistic society capable of collaborating in genocide

larry @larrrrrry.bsky.social · 3d

her advocacy for Palestinians doesn't bother me nearly as much as she is so desperately doing all this as an actual act of transparent virtue signaling, to fill the absence she has in depth of character

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