Patrick Fessenbecker
@pfessenbecker.bsky.social
Teaching writing and ethics to engineers, writing a book on George Eliot.
I recommend the strategy I use in buying presents: pick a perfectly functional and nice normal thing in your life and ask for the luxury version of that item. Some really fancy sheets, maybe, or a really good carbon steel wok.
December 3, 2025 at 11:54 PM
I recommend the strategy I use in buying presents: pick a perfectly functional and nice normal thing in your life and ask for the luxury version of that item. Some really fancy sheets, maybe, or a really good carbon steel wok.
Absolutely, what we need is a podcast that’s just Normal Men
December 3, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Absolutely, what we need is a podcast that’s just Normal Men
Also one should want a little water in the whisky, makes it taste better.
December 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Also one should want a little water in the whisky, makes it taste better.
Yeah, Helen Rosner has a good takedown, the basic thermodynamics make no sense. Whiskey stones are a scam by Big Granite.
December 3, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Yeah, Helen Rosner has a good takedown, the basic thermodynamics make no sense. Whiskey stones are a scam by Big Granite.
That’s way too many words, but what we want to recover is the (genuinely accurate) idea that’s there a connection between holding criminal elites responsible and making a society where everyone has a shot at thriving. Make America Fair Again or something.
December 1, 2025 at 2:25 PM
That’s way too many words, but what we want to recover is the (genuinely accurate) idea that’s there a connection between holding criminal elites responsible and making a society where everyone has a shot at thriving. Make America Fair Again or something.
riffing off this, the slogan misses the link between economic welfare and elite exploitation. compare it to something like: “Justice For All: giving the hardworking poor what they deserve, and the billionaire elites what THEY deserve.”
December 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
riffing off this, the slogan misses the link between economic welfare and elite exploitation. compare it to something like: “Justice For All: giving the hardworking poor what they deserve, and the billionaire elites what THEY deserve.”
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
On the Punnett square of "The Iraq war was/wasn't done for oil" and "And that's good/bad" he is the only person on God's green, brown, blue, white and gold Earth who falls in the "It wasn't/And that's bad" quadrant, the most proactively imperialistic position possible.
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Hero of the antiwar movement!
November 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
On the Punnett square of "The Iraq war was/wasn't done for oil" and "And that's good/bad" he is the only person on God's green, brown, blue, white and gold Earth who falls in the "It wasn't/And that's bad" quadrant, the most proactively imperialistic position possible.
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Not in a way that matters, Ross's neuroticism is the fungi growing underneath the show
November 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Not in a way that matters, Ross's neuroticism is the fungi growing underneath the show
George not doing our taxes is really ableism, when you think about it, it's kinda discriminatory against those us with spreadsheet allergies tbqh
November 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
George not doing our taxes is really ableism, when you think about it, it's kinda discriminatory against those us with spreadsheet allergies tbqh
We must imagine the Wet Bandits happy
November 23, 2025 at 4:26 PM
We must imagine the Wet Bandits happy
My new JFK thriller: the explanation behind the real mystery, which is why everyone else wasn’t shot. seems sus that that amount of guns and Texas wouldn’t kill everyone in a few years, right?
the hidden answer: air conditioning
the hidden answer: air conditioning
November 23, 2025 at 2:05 AM
My new JFK thriller: the explanation behind the real mystery, which is why everyone else wasn’t shot. seems sus that that amount of guns and Texas wouldn’t kill everyone in a few years, right?
the hidden answer: air conditioning
the hidden answer: air conditioning
I warmly recommend graebers book on the topic! The short answer is that there was absolutely not enough hard currency for conducting ordinary daily transactions, which instead depended on debts.
November 23, 2025 at 1:49 AM
I warmly recommend graebers book on the topic! The short answer is that there was absolutely not enough hard currency for conducting ordinary daily transactions, which instead depended on debts.
But something happened, right? Like probably someone cooked something, maybe someone had an instrument and played it. theres no hard currency in this world, that’s for royals, so no one is paying cash. So what do the arrangements look like?
November 23, 2025 at 1:18 AM
But something happened, right? Like probably someone cooked something, maybe someone had an instrument and played it. theres no hard currency in this world, that’s for royals, so no one is paying cash. So what do the arrangements look like?
There’s a line in Graeber‘s debt where he says suppose you’re arranging a wedding for your daughter in 14th century France. historians have actually no idea how that got set up or how various servicers were compensated.
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 AM
There’s a line in Graeber‘s debt where he says suppose you’re arranging a wedding for your daughter in 14th century France. historians have actually no idea how that got set up or how various servicers were compensated.
But also just want to say thanks for getting in here and mixing it up with us about this.
November 19, 2025 at 12:54 AM
But also just want to say thanks for getting in here and mixing it up with us about this.
but if on the other hand it's possible to deliver broad-based prosperity and aligning with one's base on cultural issues without winning broad popularity—as Bidenism did—that seems to imply the link between prosperity and popularity isn't actually that direct.
November 19, 2025 at 12:53 AM
but if on the other hand it's possible to deliver broad-based prosperity and aligning with one's base on cultural issues without winning broad popularity—as Bidenism did—that seems to imply the link between prosperity and popularity isn't actually that direct.
It seems like if the response to Hayes's objection is "cultural/values alignment doesn't matter that much if economic outcomes are poor," then one takeaway would be "cultural debates don't really matter and it's fine to align with your base so long as you're also delivering posterity."
November 19, 2025 at 12:51 AM
It seems like if the response to Hayes's objection is "cultural/values alignment doesn't matter that much if economic outcomes are poor," then one takeaway would be "cultural debates don't really matter and it's fine to align with your base so long as you're also delivering posterity."
Riffing off this, what's the falsifiability condition? What would Labour have to have successfully done for you to conclude "ah okay, these stances on cultural issues did not in fact turn out to be helpful in the way I thought they would?"
November 18, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Riffing off this, what's the falsifiability condition? What would Labour have to have successfully done for you to conclude "ah okay, these stances on cultural issues did not in fact turn out to be helpful in the way I thought they would?"
Let me tell you about my vision of a bike column going downtown to the Madison No Kings protests, and how many people went with option Nah, We’re Going To Stand On a Streetcorner instead.
November 18, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Let me tell you about my vision of a bike column going downtown to the Madison No Kings protests, and how many people went with option Nah, We’re Going To Stand On a Streetcorner instead.
I mean, the evidence of our reactions suggests that it worked.
November 18, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I mean, the evidence of our reactions suggests that it worked.
One doesn’t even have to be a particularly rigid Marxist to think that four years of ICE occupations is going to make urban Dem primary voters unforgiving of any compromises with the right. Does Gavin Newsom even clear 10% in a Chicago primary right now?
November 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM
One doesn’t even have to be a particularly rigid Marxist to think that four years of ICE occupations is going to make urban Dem primary voters unforgiving of any compromises with the right. Does Gavin Newsom even clear 10% in a Chicago primary right now?
The group chats for the kids in these classes have to be wild right now, the next two weeks are going to yield some incredible performance art.
November 18, 2025 at 2:20 PM
The group chats for the kids in these classes have to be wild right now, the next two weeks are going to yield some incredible performance art.