Thomas Effing Paine
tom-effing-paine.bsky.social
Thomas Effing Paine
@tom-effing-paine.bsky.social
Dr. Bryan Register

Professionally philosophical, highly historical, avidly antifascist, gleefully gaming, merrily movieviewing. ATX.

Scalawag fighting the long Civil War. (Views not those of employer or expressed in the classroom.)
"Cartoon" is right; this guy believes the cartoon version of Cartesian representationalism and needed 1. an introduction to philosophy and/or 2. a swift kick in the ass.
December 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
"Bible", like a picture, is worth a thousand words.
December 1, 2025 at 1:29 AM
After checking Wikipedia to make sure, yes, though I wasn't quite clear on some details.
December 1, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Given that Paul's Hero's Journey consists largely in transcending gender identities, it could be that the Duniverse actually has *multiple* Butlerian Jihads: one against the machines, and one against naturalized gender roles.
November 30, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Thomas Effing Paine
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
November 30, 2025 at 1:16 AM
(I think that there might be no issue here except a mild nuance about what to count as a 'boycott', and I take your point about that.)
November 30, 2025 at 8:02 PM
If someone is *organizing* a boycott in the sense that you mean, that's one thing, but then someone is setting up some sort of temporary alt-Amazon to get us through the boycott. Given that this really is a looser call to action, it might as well be expressed as such.
November 30, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Spoken like someone who's never heard of the Roman conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, which preceded their conquest of Transalpine Gaul. Or who's never heard of the Civil War distinction between the Cis-Mississippi Theater and the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
November 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Almost all advice is best given in the form of "here is a reason to do X that you might not have known about or given full weight to". It's pretty unusual that the best advice is "do X come Hell or high water".
November 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I think that this *is* a pretty obscure concept to most people, but even if you've heard of it, you mostly don't know *what* the loss leaders are. If someone were to post "this is what Target loses money on" somewhere, that would be a valuable service!
November 30, 2025 at 5:39 PM
No, no. The human body is a *bag* of shit. There is no larger shit of which the human body is a fragment.
November 30, 2025 at 2:15 AM
There has to be an instrument of accountability. The alternatives are law or vigilantism.
November 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
It's an ancient Chinese phrase meaning "I need more shelves".
November 26, 2025 at 6:42 AM
I'm right with you, but the antipolygraph page seems really legit.
November 26, 2025 at 4:33 AM
As a matter of personal improvement, "feeling bad" about things is only useful if you would not otherwise learn from your experience.
November 26, 2025 at 2:04 AM
What's the connection between Kids These Days being too casual on your lawn, and them not spending so much on plane tickets? If I spend $10K on a ticket, I'm damned if I'll feel more obligated to dress up for it; if I wear a suit, I'm damned if I'll spend more on the ticket because of it.
November 25, 2025 at 11:30 PM