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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2h

One thing I am glad this did (might not be accessible in the UK alas unless you have Means) is just absolutely go in on that nonsense "does it really count as starving children if the children are also sick for other reasons?" thing the Free Press did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieT...

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

www.youtube.com

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Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 1h

"We can table this argument until I see you in hell" is an all timer hater line

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2h

One thing I am glad this did (might not be accessible in the UK alas unless you have Means) is just absolutely go in on that nonsense "does it really count as starving children if the children are also sick for other reasons?" thing the Free Press did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieT...

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

www.youtube.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 19h

Absolutely brutal.

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

www.youtube.com

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Obama: "When you see an administration suggest that ordinary street crime is an insurrection or a terrorist act, that is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy."

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d

My version of this is that Vought, Yarvin etc represent a kind of braindead right-Gramscianism, which leaves out all the interesting subtleties and treats civil society _only_ as a realm of indoctrination, where one ideological master-narrative can readily be substituted for another.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

oh this guy is delusional delusional

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 2d

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · 2d

Yup. Yet another sign the world truly has gone mad.

Slurmsadako MacKenzie @slurmsmackenzie.bsky.social · 2d

GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment.

An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action.

A disinformation machine as our journalism fails.

A bias machine as fascism takes root.

A job killer in a cost of living crisis.

Bria "tries to write a book" Horses @thevoidencore.bsky.social · 7d

The "cognitive decline and brain damage from repeat COVID infections" and "easy to use robot that makes slop and melts your critical thinking skills" is a hell of a combo in a post-fact media ecosystem

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Slurmsadako MacKenzie @slurmsmackenzie.bsky.social · 2d

GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment.

An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action.

A disinformation machine as our journalism fails.

A bias machine as fascism takes root.

A job killer in a cost of living crisis.

Bria "tries to write a book" Horses @thevoidencore.bsky.social · 7d

The "cognitive decline and brain damage from repeat COVID infections" and "easy to use robot that makes slop and melts your critical thinking skills" is a hell of a combo in a post-fact media ecosystem

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Amrei Bahr @amreibahr.bsky.social · 4d

Was diese Doku eindrücklich zeigt: Wie wir uns als Menschheit ohne Not in 1 Flut aus AI-Slop ertränken. Darin gehen nicht nur Qualitätsinhalte unter, weil sie aufgrund der Überfülle an Zeug nicht mehr auffindbar ist, sondern auch wir, durch falschen, blödsinnigen, teils gefährlichen Quatsch-Content.

Mario Sixtus @sixtus.net · 13d

Jetzt online: Meine neue Arte-Doku "KI: Der Tod des Internet". Click, watch and enjoy! 🦐
www.arte.tv/de/videos/12...

KI: Der Tod des Internets - Die ganze Doku | ARTE

Das Internet wird überschwemmt von KI-generiertem Müll. Automatisierte Bots produzieren eine Flut aus KI-generierten Inhalten, der das Internet zu ersticken droht. Der Wissensraum wird mit Desinformat...

www.arte.tv

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Natascha Strobl @nataschastrobl.bsky.social · 4d

Wenn ihr jetzt ernsthaft Donald Trump und den Friedensnobelpreis diskutiert, dann ist eure Lernkurve in Sachen rechtsextremer Diskursvernebelung erstaunlich flach.

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · Aug 29

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 4d

“Before RFK Jr. took office, measles cases were rare. Vaccination requirements kept our communities safe. I urge you: do not listen to anti-vaccine rhetoric. Do not gamble with your child’s health… Vaccinate them. Spare them — and yourself — a lifetime of pain, regret, and unanswered “what ifs.””

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Jan Skudlarek @janskudlarek.bsky.social · 5d

"Die gesamte grüne Bewegung zu diskreditieren, ist falsch", sagte Seehofer. "Das gehört zu den strategischen Fehlentscheidungen in den letzten sieben Jahren."

Dass ich mal dem Seehofer zustimmen würde... 🤯

www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

CSU: Horst Seehofer kritisiert Markus Söders Umgang mit den Grünen

Der frühere CSU-Chef wirft seinem Nachfolger "strategische Fehlentscheidungen" vor. Die gesamte grüne Bewegung zu diskreditieren, sei falsch.

www.zeit.de

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Laura @lauropea.bsky.social · 6d

tories have this duality where they will thunder about humanities degrees being rip-off waste of time but will tell starry-eyed how you Boris Johnson is a genius because he memorised the first six lines of the Iliad in Greek, which you can in fact do without even knowing Greek

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Amrei Bahr @amreibahr.bsky.social · 5d

This. Hoffe sehr, dass angesichts dieser Einsicht auch öffentliche Resignationsbekundungen zu politischer Arbeit/Aktivismus im Modus „das bringt doch eh nichts!“ etwas abnehmen, die seit Monaten Timeline & DruKos fluten. Doch, es bringt was. Lasst uns auch in anderen Bereichen gemeinsam dranbleiben!

Frau Büüsker @uedio.bsky.social · 6d

Ihr habt wahrgenommen, welchen Unterschied zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement in den letzten Tagen bei der Frage der Chatkontrolle gemacht hat?
Gut.
Lasst euch nicht einreden, Engagement nütze nichts.

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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 5d

I saw two Antifas making Antifa babies in the closet and one of the Antifa babies looked at me!

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Parents For Future #EndFossilFuels 🪧🛢️❌ @parentsforfuture.de · 6d

"Radikalisierter Konservatismus von @nataschastrobl.bsky.social erläutert das. Wie aus dem Lehrbuch. Ja, die Ablenkung ist gewollt." — @sachlichepolitik.bsky.social

#RadikalisierterKonservatismus

Christian Stöcker @christianstoecker.de · 6d

Dieser ständige Kulturkampfnonsens verbraucht so viel Zeit, Energie, Aufmerksamkeit und Ressourcen,dass man sich fragt, ob die Union wirklich nichts Besseres zu tun hat, als der eigenen Wirtschaft ohne Not zu schaden.Maria Marquart hat natürlich völlig Recht. Was soll das? #Wurst

EU-Parlament zum Veggiefleisch
Merz geht’s um die Wurst, den Preis zahlt die deutsche Wirtschaft
Ein Kommentar von Maria Marquart
Wenn das EU-Parlament für ein Veggiewurst-Verbot stimmt, trifft es eine deutsche Zukunftsbranche am härtesten. Der Bundeskanzler hat es so gewollt.

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Marina Weisband @afelia.bsky.social · 7d

Ich schaue nach langer Zeit durchaus wieder mit Optimismus wieder in die Ukraine. Und zwar, weil ihre Kriegsstrategie aufgeht. Weil sie schneller innoviert als Russland. Letztlich, weil sie ein freies Land ist. Und Russland nicht.

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 5d

Remember this when they tell you that arts degrees are worthless.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 5d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 6d

war, war never changes.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 6d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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Natascha Strobl @nataschastrobl.bsky.social · 6d

In Österreich werden die Gehälter von Lehrer_innen, Polizist_innen, Gesundheitspersonal, Metaller_innen, die Leistungen für Familien und die Pensionen gekürzt. Währenddessen werden die Reichen immer reicher und wir reden nichtmal über eine Vermögens/Erbschaftssteuer im europäischen Schnitt.

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