Zeb Larson
@zeblarson.bsky.social
7.5K followers 1.5K following 9.2K posts
Freelance writer with a PhD in history. Ex-academic; studied the anti-apartheid movement. Emeritus adjunct. Became a software engineer in 2020. Words in Teen Vogue, Smithsonian, Jacobin, BBC. He/Him zeb-larson.com
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zeblarson.bsky.social
I’m pinned beneath a very sleepy, probably sick baby and need a diversion to stay awake.

1 like = 1 album I love and why
zeblarson.bsky.social
My weird brand of shit posts, academia dragging, music trivia, and politics
zeblarson.bsky.social
Quick everybody, follow me
Reposted by Zeb Larson
pazsays.bsky.social
"Pardo weaves a wonderful blend of hard-boiled noir, engaging characters, and imaginative world-building that goes far beyond the usual 'What if the U.S. lost World War II?'" Thanks @benfrancisco.bsky.social for putting THE SHAMSHINE BLIND in such awesome company
zeblarson.bsky.social
(Joke’s on us, he retired after a long career and enjoying tenure)
zeblarson.bsky.social
Anyway he also always asked female grad students to get him sodas during class, so ya know, he’s not getting off the hook either
zeblarson.bsky.social
Do I think he shared his views? Probably not, but I also think he’s in that class of people who think a functioning free society should include people who want to throw their political opponents from helicopters
zeblarson.bsky.social
Shoutout to the last prof I TA’d for, back in 2018 who had one of these YAF students in the front row openly looking at watermelon and oven memes on his laptop every day, and when pressed to do something about it shrugged and said “free speech”
rincewind.run
I think two things are true:

1. young republicans were always terrible and racist

2. young republicans become openly hitler-loving groypers is in fact a new and alarming development that is worth paying attention to
zeblarson.bsky.social
I was about to say, I haven’t said anything interesting today so it must be Adam Gurri juicing my follower count
zeblarson.bsky.social
It’s also absurd to imagine that this class of people who CRAVE public attention and adoration would survive for two days in an isolated bunker. Covid lockdowns drove them to near-madness. By the time we looters bust in to strip the place, we’ll discover their self-cannibalized bodies.
kashana.blacksky.app
The funniest part of all the billionaires are building bunker stories is the part where they’re sure the class hierarchy will survive the apocalypse.
aelkus.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...

"I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking."
zeblarson.bsky.social
As somebody who does care a lot about working through the “classics” of any field, medium, or genre, it’s also fine to work up to them? And there are new classics being created constantly! And it’s also fine and good to have gateways that help get people excited!
zeblarson.bsky.social
Shame about those adjuncts w/o permanent positions (but honestly I wouldn’t expect any government to bail out that many people)
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Reposted by Zeb Larson
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
"And yet Táíwò’s own position misses something fundamental about the world we now inhabit. Shame does not operate in a vacuum...today, the sturdy ground that once formed shame’s foundation has collapsed."

Helpful response by @eric-reinhart.com in @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2015...
Why Shame No Longer Works in American Politics
While it once played a role in binding society, shame has lost its power—and so have the liberal tools that depend on it.
newrepublic.com
zeblarson.bsky.social
I stand by this lolwut. It’s more doable? But not by much.
zeblarson.bsky.social
8:20 PM on a weekend lolwut
zeblarson.bsky.social
I’m glad they got the hookup, since I guess we’re two steps away from finding black markets
zeblarson.bsky.social
It is a vehicle for caffeine, I can’t argue with that
zeblarson.bsky.social
You can tell the kind of snob I am that it didn’t even occur to me that people would be starting their day with Monster or Red Bull
zeblarson.bsky.social
“Functional substitutes”

What, like Postum? I’m good. Or do they mean tea? Because I’m pretty sure tea is getting tariff nuked as we speak.
zeblarson.bsky.social
Too many data centers and any more goddamned fossil fuel plants, because once they get built nobody will want to get rid of them. We’ll just have a bunch of shitty natural gas plants being repurposed
zeblarson.bsky.social
Biden basically let himself get knifed in the back by somebody he knew was carrying out war crimes, and then kept sending him arms. It’s not a legacy worth respecting or defending; it doesn’t even meet the standard of being pragmatic and evil.
zeblarson.bsky.social
It’s hard to gin up a lot of sympathy for them: they had all the information they needed as a warning and did it anyway.
zeblarson.bsky.social
I’m a hard AI pessimist who thinks this will come crashing down (and soon), but even so we’ve managed to break whole swathes of the internet. Putting it back together is harder than breaking it.