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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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Pinned

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · Aug 24

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

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 21m

I was about to say, I haven’t said anything interesting today so it must be Adam Gurri juicing my follower count

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 3h

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 @kashana.blacksky.app · 4h

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.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 7h

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."

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 6h

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!

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 6h

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

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 7h

Culture might seem a less consequential right than free assembly+ its infringement makes less spectacular news than repressive violence. But the repeal of the right to culture is grave.

honored to be with @isanchezprado.bsky.social in @hyperallergic.com today!

hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

How to Protect Your Right to Culture

The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.

hyperallergic.com

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Reposted by Zeb Larson

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 8h

I spoke with @insidehighered.com
@kathrynpalmer.bsky.social about OSU’s decision to cancel conference funds for racially marginalized students.

Under Anti-DEI Pressure, Ohio State Limits Conference Funds

The Education Department recently criticized Ohio State University’s involvement with a nonprofit that encourages people from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue doctorates. Now, OSU is rethinking ...

www.insidehighered.com

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Reposted by Zeb Larson

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 7h

"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

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 7h

I stand by this lolwut. It’s more doable? But not by much.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 8h

8:20 PM on a weekend lolwut

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

I’m glad they got the hookup, since I guess we’re two steps away from finding black markets

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

It is a vehicle for caffeine, I can’t argue with that

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

“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.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

This. Even the number of people in rural America who are actually farmers is fractional, it's such a small group. Rural America mostly consists of the same shit job you find everywhere else.

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

I'd love to know how much human content is actively being supplanted (editors getting rid of their writers, etc) vs. a bunch of blogs/websites/pseudo-publications are just spewing AI slop out on the internet. Neither scenario is desirable.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

Definitely that's a part of it. Even really politically-savvy people fell for a lot of the mythologizing about farmers, but years of seeing them vote against their own interests and demand "welfare for me, not for thee" has taken its toll.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

The level of grassroots anger at farmers over their support for Trump (and whining) right now is kind of wild. I feel like my whole life, the public at large treats farmers as pseudo-super citizens; that facade feels like it's finally falling away.

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

There's that, too. 2020 seems to have broken the brains of a lot of the oligarchs; I wish the threat that they thought existed actually did.

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

It says a lot about how resistance was seen during Trump I; the admin was seen as kind of a joke, so standing up to them was easy and people made a show of doing it. By contrast, now they’re seen as a threat, so orgs like WaPo and others have leadership that have mostly rolled over.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

wow. bezos has destroyed this paper.

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

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Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 1d

Definitely.