Stephen
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tungol.org
Stephen
@tungol.org
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tungol.org
I once looked up “chuffed” in the OED, it didn’t clarify the sentence for me.
Chuffed: a. Pleased, satisfied. b. Displeased, disgruntled.
June 4, 2025 at 12:06 AM
tungol.org
Also seen
A picture of marker grafitti which reads: The After LYFE! (VIP) Your LIVING It! :) Have A Great DAY!
May 25, 2025 at 7:55 PM
tungol.org
For me, the definitive essay on the role of contingency versus structure in history is @adapalmer.bsky.social's: www.exurbe.com/on-progress-...
So when I tell people about this election, and they ask me “Does it always have the same outcome?” the answer is yes *and no*. Because the Great Forces always push the same way. The strong factions are strong. Money is power. Blood is thicker than promises. Virtue is manipulable. In the end, a bad man will be pope. And he will do bad things. The war is coming, and the land — some land somewhere — will burn. But the details are always different. A Cardinal needs to gather fourteen votes to get the throne, but it’s never the same fourteen votes, so it’s never the same fourteen people who get papal favor, whose agendas are strengthened, whose homelands prosper while their enemies fall. And I have never once seen a pope elected in this simulation who did not owe his victory, not only to those who voted, but to one or more of the humble functionaries, who repeated just the right whisper at just the right moment, and genuinely handed the throne to Monster A instead of Monster B. And from that functionary flow the consequences. There are always several kingmakers in the election, who often do more than the candidate himself to get him on the throne, but what they do, who they help, and which kingmaker ends up most favored, most influential, can change a small war in Genoa into a huge war in Burgundy, a union of thrones between France and England into another century of guns and steel, or determine which decrees the new pope signs. That sometimes matters more than whether war is in Burgundy or Genoa, since papal signatures resolve questions such as: Who gets the New World? Will there be another crusade? Will the Inquisition grow more tolerant or less toward new philosophies? Who gets to be King of Naples? These things are different every time, though shaped by the same forces.
April 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
tungol.org
I don't think this can be read as a denial of any influence
April 21, 2025 at 2:59 AM
tungol.org
Your characterization of Will's views seems undercut by what he's actually said (for example here).
April 21, 2025 at 2:54 AM
tungol.org
You could really just do anything in the 1800s.
Screenshot of a wikipedia article
December 27, 2024 at 7:51 PM
tungol.org
Really enticing content here, good work Meta
Screenshot of an email: "3 threads we think you might like". tungolum, see what people are saying on Threads yara_badr11 10h ♥✨ 3 replies meenaraput 17h Good morning ji 12 replies · 14 likes shr777eya 8h Its Magical 💜🧡🩷 >> 1 reply · 278 likes See more on Threads
October 8, 2024 at 7:09 PM
tungol.org
quality wordsmithing here

(from www.offmessage.net/p/trump-pand... )
The thing about Trump that appeals to young men isn’t rooted in policy per se, but in his devil-may-care affect. Trump exudes Go Fuck Yourself, and young men constitute the demographic that most wants you to get fucked.
September 27, 2024 at 6:58 PM
tungol.org
Cat meme: I have seen the end / no one was spared, not even the children
July 9, 2024 at 1:45 AM
tungol.org
The intro paragraph is in the RSS feed via a bug but it's very funny to imagine responding to the NYT asking for an op-ed about "authoritarianism and democracy" with a 7,500 word essay about NASA's Artemis program. Why didn't they publish? It's a mystery.
In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on authoritarianism and democracy. They declined to publish my submission, which I am sharing here instead. distant photo of Artemis rocket on launch pad A little over 51 years ago, a rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying three astronauts and a space car. After a three day journey to the moon, two of the astronauts climbed into a spindly lander and made the short trip down to the surface, where for another three days they collected rocks and did donuts in the space car. Then they climbed back into the lander, rejoined their colleague in orbit, and departed for Earth.
May 22, 2024 at 7:17 PM
tungol.org
I achieved free hat
April 27, 2024 at 9:16 PM
tungol.org
Trains are big and fast.
April 27, 2024 at 8:16 PM
tungol.org
So nobody thought about how this was going to look or what

In the Capitol Hill station of all places
Ad in the Capitol Hill light rail station: Powering progress with more parking
March 7, 2024 at 11:57 PM