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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 28m

There’s going to be some brutally swift epiphanies about the concept of “crime is a social construct”.

Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 16h

The absolute biggest miss of Neuromancer was the lack of absolutely ubiquitous cell phones and wireless data networks…but I suppose in 1984 I can understand it, TCP/IP was only two years old at that point.

Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 16h

I spent 9 months over 2000 and 2001 housesitting and managing a restaurant in the San Juan Islands over summer, so I got to experience Ichiromani, which def gave me a soft spot for the Mariners anyway.

Also they’ve never even won an AL pennant! Give ‘em the glory!

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 16h

I'll be rooting for the Mariners, if for no other reason than they have no World Series championships, and I know how that feels.

(Yes, the Brewers have none too, but also, Brewers)

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 17h

Two Harbors was my grandparents’ old stomping grounds. Going up to 160 acres of North woods for Christmas was a core memory of my childhood…ditto visiting the Split Rock lighthouse.

Man, do I love that region of the country…

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 17h

Though in full transparency, the potential weight of what we did didn’t hit me until much later. At the time, it was more of a fun lark to block someone who was being an asshole, I was thinking of it in terms of a nuisance, not danger.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 17h

Happened to me once at a campus bar. Fortunately nothing more imminently dangerous than a drunk jerk that kept badgering her, but def glad I was able to help deflect his unwanted attentions.

My NROTC friends and I walked her to the bar that her friends had gone to after.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

Still one of my all time faves

Thera • 1d
...
@theraseth.bsky.social
every Pacific naval encounter from late 1943 onward is like the IJN Golden Kirin, Glorious Harbinger of Eternal Imperial Dawn versus six identical copies of the USS We Built This Yesterday supplied by a ship that does nothing but make birthday cakes for the other ships

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

…capitalist model of corporate ownership and profit/valuation distribution is entirely incapable of accomplishing.

Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

I’ve been banging the drum for a literal decade while working in tech consulting that “technological unemployment” is just a form of capital pushing out labor, and if that’s truly going to accelerate, we need to be ready to distribute the fruits of that acceleration in a way that the present…

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

People never seem to extrapolate that “post-scarcity” also means “post-needless accumulation” because there would (rationally, anyway) be no social value attached to display of wealth.

“Post-needless accumulation” is literally the death of the vet majority of the consumer economy, though.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

The Cult of the Operator ignores the immense logistical and administrative bureaucracy that exists to enable them to put lead on target in the same way that the Cult of the Farmer ignores the immense logistical etc. etc.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

The other thing is that this is the EXACT SAME sort of stupid projection the “warrior ethos” cult in the military has.

Oh, the farmer is the one that does the real work? Not the supply chain specialist that makes sure they get their seeds? Not the crop scientists? Not the ag extension folks?

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

There’s a reason that the Arthur C. Clarke short story “Superiority” used to be required reading for freshmen engineering students at MIT…

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

(Admitted, fifty years ago was in the crop insurance era, IIRC, I’m doing that stupid mental trick of accidentally anchoring myself to my childhood era for time comparisons, so “fifty years ago” feels a lot longer back than Altman was actually talking about)

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 19h

Also, the reason we don’t have those old-timey farming jobs any more wasn’t because they were “real work”, it’s because they were literally a lifetime of back-breaking labor and (until relatively recently, historically) highly precarious finances!

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

Oh, I see you’re going as a mensch for Halloween!

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

Credit to @prisonculture.bsky.social for the O.P. I just wanted to comment on it and quote posts were disabled.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

This is one of the most uplifting and genuinely heartwarming things I’ve seen recently

We deserve to have politicians who don’t just listen to us, but show through their actions that they love their constituents. Either Mamdani’s the world’s best actor, or he loves New Yorkers with his whole heart

Humans of New York •
...
A few years ago I received a DM from Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Only recently did I discover its existence. It was a very unusual DM-especially coming from a local assemblyman who would soon be running for higher office. He had very little name recognition at the time, and could have benefited from publicity. But unlike the thousands of messages I've received from people with something to promote, Zohran did not ask to be featured on Humans of New York. Instead he asked if he could introduce me to taxi drivers that were struggling beneath the burden of debt. Coming from a man with political ambitions, this self-denying request was so strange as to be almost singular. I don't endorse politicians on Humans of New York. But I'll endorse a good man. And it was a good man who cleared 30 minutes from his schedule yesterday to swing by Grand Central and visit Dear New York's Vanderbilt Hall Exhibition. Nearly fifty-student artists were visiting that day with their families, and I thought a surprise visit from this widely-loved future mayor would be a special memory for all of them. Before Zohrans arrival I was convinced I'd made a terrible mistake. The exhibit was filled to capacity with adult visitors. Dear New York is self-funded so there was very little staff and security for crowd control. In the crush of people I was almost certain this special day for the kids would devolve into thirty minutes of selfie requests. But everyone rose to the occasion. Hundreds of adults quickly cleared the

everyone rose to the occasion. Hundreds of adults quickly cleared the room and stood outside the exhibit. Eleven very notable adult photographers are also featured in the show, but even they took a step back, so that these students could briefly have the stage to themselves. Each child stood by their work and Zohran was able to meet all of them, one at a time, and honor their contributions to the most-visited art show in New York City. Thanks to everyone who ceded the stage yesterday to make this moment possible. Thank you Zohran for literally sitting down on the floor so that these young artists could feel so tall. Thanks for continually centering other people in your life and work. And thank you, for being such an important part of Dear New York.

A picture of Zohran Mamdani sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, smiling broadly, while surrounded by children ranging in age from (guessing) 6 to 14 or so.

zohrankmamdani O
Business chat
Hi Brandon + HoNY team! My name is Zohran Mamdani and I'm an
Assemblymember from Astoria, Queens.
I'm reaching out because NY's taxi drivers are in crisis and are currently leading a 24/7 protest outside of City Hall. I've joined them a number of times and each time I've gone, I've met drivers from across the world and heard their heartbreaking stories of debt and devastation. You can see excepts of some of them in my most recent IG story highlight.
Their protest has been going on for 10 days now and while it has grown with each one, the major challenge has been public consciousness of this fight and of the scale of this crisis. Is there any chance you'd be interested in coming down and speaking to some of the drivers about their journeys and what they've gone through?
I'd be happy to talk to you more about the details of the crisis, how the City created it and how it can stop it, as well as answer any other questions you might have. Thank you so much for your work - it's been an inspiration to so many, including myself and how I've sought to document the stories of the past week and a half.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

I know! I feel kinda bad now about putting them to death for not transmuting lead into gold.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

My tiny inner tyrant chortles with glee over the idea of sweating drovers leading camels or ox-drawn wagons carrying the goods of far-off lands for thousands of miles so I can have a lil snacky-snack.

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

Mid-afternoon snack of champions: rosemary marcona almonds, dried apricots, and Oreos.

A small ramekin holding...uh...the contents of the post?

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

(on reflection, really the above should say "... finished formal schooling..." Rather than making it about high school. There are plenty of incredibly incurious and willfully ignorant folks with secondary and post-secondary degrees, too)

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 20h

I mean, fair, the First Amendment DOES exempt protest that annoys people in power. It's right there in....*searches*...overrrrrr here?.....I'll get back to you, but it's DEFINITELY in here!

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Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 21h

The firm once floated the idea of requiring us to use the company-issued AmEx Gold and the points woild accrue to the firm.

EVERYONE, from the Managing Directors on down, revolted. That's an understood benefit earned from having to be on the fucking road more than half the week, every week.

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