@lurkersteve.bsky.social
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I think about this, also in terms of vaccines, and really struggle with how you have a free society that doesn’t fall into this trap in one way or another. solved problems become invisible and the solutions become the source of conspiracy theories.
This seems logical but Dems solved* the whole problem of old-age health care costs in the mid-1960s and then they lost five of the next six presidential elections because by 1968 it was a solved problem and no one cared about it.
*Yes oversimplifying here and the rest of course.
*Yes oversimplifying here and the rest of course.
i will amend my earlier tweet. whichever party solves the prices of housing *and child care* will rule america for a generation
December 13, 2025 at 2:24 AM
I think about this, also in terms of vaccines, and really struggle with how you have a free society that doesn’t fall into this trap in one way or another. solved problems become invisible and the solutions become the source of conspiracy theories.
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Propaganda. We thought that it was gauche and problematic to have government propaganda about public accomplishments and so people forgot about them. People consistently like the military more than ‘the government’ and you know what a large part of that is? They have an advertising budget.
I think about this, also in terms of vaccines, and really struggle with how you have a free society that doesn’t fall into this trap in one way or another. solved problems become invisible and the solutions become the source of conspiracy theories.
This seems logical but Dems solved* the whole problem of old-age health care costs in the mid-1960s and then they lost five of the next six presidential elections because by 1968 it was a solved problem and no one cared about it.
*Yes oversimplifying here and the rest of course.
*Yes oversimplifying here and the rest of course.
December 13, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Propaganda. We thought that it was gauche and problematic to have government propaganda about public accomplishments and so people forgot about them. People consistently like the military more than ‘the government’ and you know what a large part of that is? They have an advertising budget.
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This was so bad on its own merits, but it also revealed that the pure popularists have no red lines. If you can't stand up for men being disappeared to a foreign torture prison without due process, then what's the point of you?
December 12, 2025 at 12:55 PM
This was so bad on its own merits, but it also revealed that the pure popularists have no red lines. If you can't stand up for men being disappeared to a foreign torture prison without due process, then what's the point of you?
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AI is involved in this to some degree, but the actually existing American “tech”” barons are violently opposed to climate policy and doing all in their considerable power to stop it. objectively anti-progress
December 11, 2025 at 12:03 PM
AI is involved in this to some degree, but the actually existing American “tech”” barons are violently opposed to climate policy and doing all in their considerable power to stop it. objectively anti-progress
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I'm not sorry to say that I think liberals have just got to have a zero-tolerance policy for this stuff. Your friend's tarot habit isn't cute and quirky anymore.
December 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I'm not sorry to say that I think liberals have just got to have a zero-tolerance policy for this stuff. Your friend's tarot habit isn't cute and quirky anymore.
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Everywhere you look there is an opening for leadership.
What an irony that the Democratic consultant-pundit class fell into a poll-following Popularist obsession at a time of such volatility
What an irony that the Democratic consultant-pundit class fell into a poll-following Popularist obsession at a time of such volatility
December 10, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Everywhere you look there is an opening for leadership.
What an irony that the Democratic consultant-pundit class fell into a poll-following Popularist obsession at a time of such volatility
What an irony that the Democratic consultant-pundit class fell into a poll-following Popularist obsession at a time of such volatility
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this is why i prefer the term "the malaise." there is *demonstrably* a malaise. nobody likes The Current Thing™️. but *what* they're mad about? or more precisely, what *caused* them to be mad? that is a much harder question, and one it does not do to presuppose
December 8, 2025 at 10:28 PM
this is why i prefer the term "the malaise." there is *demonstrably* a malaise. nobody likes The Current Thing™️. but *what* they're mad about? or more precisely, what *caused* them to be mad? that is a much harder question, and one it does not do to presuppose
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Permanent Dissident Brain is a form of misguided allyship that fucks all of us and will sadly still go unlearned throughout the well earned suffering that follows.
September 7, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Permanent Dissident Brain is a form of misguided allyship that fucks all of us and will sadly still go unlearned throughout the well earned suffering that follows.
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Complain about insurance companies all you want, fundamentally healthcare costs so much in this country because we let doctors and hospitals act as obscene rent seekers. And no, it’s not about the cost of medical education—it’s about greed.
December 5, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Complain about insurance companies all you want, fundamentally healthcare costs so much in this country because we let doctors and hospitals act as obscene rent seekers. And no, it’s not about the cost of medical education—it’s about greed.
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Remember how Trump and Vance laughed about how fishermen were afraid to go out on the water?
December 3, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Remember how Trump and Vance laughed about how fishermen were afraid to go out on the water?
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“Progslop” is the assertion southern white people would vote for socialists if they heard their message about universal healthcare.
“Modslop” is the assertion Dems could win southern white people if they spent their whole campaigns reacting to Republican talking points.
“Modslop” is the assertion Dems could win southern white people if they spent their whole campaigns reacting to Republican talking points.
December 3, 2025 at 4:02 AM
“Progslop” is the assertion southern white people would vote for socialists if they heard their message about universal healthcare.
“Modslop” is the assertion Dems could win southern white people if they spent their whole campaigns reacting to Republican talking points.
“Modslop” is the assertion Dems could win southern white people if they spent their whole campaigns reacting to Republican talking points.
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The true "condescending coastal elite" belief that is actually quite pervasive is this idea that Rural America is full of secret Liberals or Socialists who would only agree with us if we properly reached out, but have "no choice" to vote Republican because us "elitists" are so intolerable.
December 1, 2025 at 7:20 PM
The true "condescending coastal elite" belief that is actually quite pervasive is this idea that Rural America is full of secret Liberals or Socialists who would only agree with us if we properly reached out, but have "no choice" to vote Republican because us "elitists" are so intolerable.
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this is just rank cowardice, the student very obviously disregarded the instructions and the assignment to antagonize her peers and instructors and provoke this exact reaction, society simply can’t function when the people in charge scurry like kicked dogs every time some troll bully says boo
November 30, 2025 at 8:55 PM
this is just rank cowardice, the student very obviously disregarded the instructions and the assignment to antagonize her peers and instructors and provoke this exact reaction, society simply can’t function when the people in charge scurry like kicked dogs every time some troll bully says boo
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The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime is underway and it's not AI:
Official data is in this week, and US solar continues to grow rapidly, with generation up 30% compared to last year!
November 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM
The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime is underway and it's not AI:
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I'll never judge someone for not being a ra-ra USA type person because I don't know what their experience of this country has been, but the people who get upset at others expressing any kind of positive vision or attachment are just doing FUCK U DAD politics. most countries are many things.
November 21, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I'll never judge someone for not being a ra-ra USA type person because I don't know what their experience of this country has been, but the people who get upset at others expressing any kind of positive vision or attachment are just doing FUCK U DAD politics. most countries are many things.
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It annoys me when nominal support for LGBT rights is used instrumentally to push for clout or unrelated goals. But I *really* hate it when it’s treated as basically a cringe bourgeois affectation, whether it be the right, left, or center that’s pulling out that old canard.
November 20, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It annoys me when nominal support for LGBT rights is used instrumentally to push for clout or unrelated goals. But I *really* hate it when it’s treated as basically a cringe bourgeois affectation, whether it be the right, left, or center that’s pulling out that old canard.
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Kevin Kiley introducing a bill to ban partisan gerrymandering at the national level and desperately trying to become a Reasonable Bipartisan after Newsom deleted his district shows how you *acutally* uphold norms btw: you impost costs for breaking them
November 12, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Kevin Kiley introducing a bill to ban partisan gerrymandering at the national level and desperately trying to become a Reasonable Bipartisan after Newsom deleted his district shows how you *acutally* uphold norms btw: you impost costs for breaking them
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"World's first potential trillionaire has killed 600,000 people, including 400,000 children" is the only headline that anyone should ever read about Elon Musk
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 1:33 AM
"World's first potential trillionaire has killed 600,000 people, including 400,000 children" is the only headline that anyone should ever read about Elon Musk
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By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000.
More than 260,000 will be children.
Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
More than 260,000 will be children.
Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts
Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total...
www.bu.edu
November 5, 2025 at 10:28 PM
By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000.
More than 260,000 will be children.
Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
More than 260,000 will be children.
Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
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genuinely crazy-making how much the national press is indifferent to the verifiable fact that jd vance is buddy buddy with internet nazis, and the degree to which this is almost certainly a form of solidarity among people with a similar institution pedigree
mainstream media report on jd vance’s twitter mutuals, challenge level: impossible
He has already chosen, what the fuck are we doing here
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
November 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
genuinely crazy-making how much the national press is indifferent to the verifiable fact that jd vance is buddy buddy with internet nazis, and the degree to which this is almost certainly a form of solidarity among people with a similar institution pedigree
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one of you on here coined “importance-washing”, I forget who, and it’s kind of an awkward term but it does capture a real thing: you can just think people are lame and dislike their vibe. that’s allowed. it doesn’t have to be anything bigger than that.
November 1, 2025 at 5:15 PM
one of you on here coined “importance-washing”, I forget who, and it’s kind of an awkward term but it does capture a real thing: you can just think people are lame and dislike their vibe. that’s allowed. it doesn’t have to be anything bigger than that.
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i think i would honestly find this whole discourse more tolerable if people simply said what they were actually saying, which is that they think the Democratic Party is too associated with femininity (and secondarily, with black people) and that they want to correct this
October 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
i think i would honestly find this whole discourse more tolerable if people simply said what they were actually saying, which is that they think the Democratic Party is too associated with femininity (and secondarily, with black people) and that they want to correct this
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ordinary americans are filming ice agents and trying to save their neighbors. for all the hemming and hawing during 2024 about how democracy was an elite concern, the elites gave up far more quickly than average people.
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
ordinary americans are filming ice agents and trying to save their neighbors. for all the hemming and hawing during 2024 about how democracy was an elite concern, the elites gave up far more quickly than average people.
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video stores aren't "good," but going out and engaging with the world is good, while staying home half-watching the latest garbage the Netflix algorithm shoved at you while scrolling through your Insta feed is a form of cultural and spiritual malnourishment encouraged by corporate psychopaths
Yeah, I think I see the problem here - it's not that the video store was good, it's that you miss being a teenager
October 20, 2025 at 4:10 PM
video stores aren't "good," but going out and engaging with the world is good, while staying home half-watching the latest garbage the Netflix algorithm shoved at you while scrolling through your Insta feed is a form of cultural and spiritual malnourishment encouraged by corporate psychopaths
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🚨 NEWS: Colombian President Gustavo Petro accuses U.S. government officials of murder and violating Colombia’s sovereignty and says the Trump-ordered strike of a boat in the Caribbean killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.
October 19, 2025 at 3:09 AM
🚨 NEWS: Colombian President Gustavo Petro accuses U.S. government officials of murder and violating Colombia’s sovereignty and says the Trump-ordered strike of a boat in the Caribbean killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.