roast potatoes
@insearchofwonder.bsky.social
Feeling detached from local politics. I wish that platforms wouldn't show me local posts. I opted out of as much data gathering exercises as possible but somehow they keep showing me stuff from around here.
September 24, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Feeling detached from local politics. I wish that platforms wouldn't show me local posts. I opted out of as much data gathering exercises as possible but somehow they keep showing me stuff from around here.
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I wrote a little essay on substack about how actually, quite a lot of people outside the academy are interested in books and other real things. The main reason to read this piece is that I discuss Frances, she of the bread-and-jam.
emily613.substack.com/p/let-us-eat...
emily613.substack.com/p/let-us-eat...
Let Us Eat Cream-Cheese-Cucumber-Tomato-Sandwiches, On Rye-Bread
I love my students and my colleagues, and I love the discussions that are possible in the classroom and among scholars, in academic contexts.
emily613.substack.com
September 20, 2026 at 11:09 PM
I wrote a little essay on substack about how actually, quite a lot of people outside the academy are interested in books and other real things. The main reason to read this piece is that I discuss Frances, she of the bread-and-jam.
emily613.substack.com/p/let-us-eat...
emily613.substack.com/p/let-us-eat...
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‘Various nations have claimed to be its leader – France, Britain, the United States – but the central drama of the West has been its diet: which nations it has chosen to keep out, and which it has swallowed whole.’
Thomas Meaney on the West:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Thomas Meaney on the West:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Thomas Meaney · Ranks of Humanity: West of where?
The West can play at being universal, seeing itself as the only ‘civilisation’ and basing itself on metrics of...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 20, 2026 at 5:20 PM
‘Various nations have claimed to be its leader – France, Britain, the United States – but the central drama of the West has been its diet: which nations it has chosen to keep out, and which it has swallowed whole.’
Thomas Meaney on the West:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Thomas Meaney on the West:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The Chosen One ideology isn't exclusively Protestant. I suspect it is a universal tendency existing within most populations that may get amplified at certain times by certain personalities and perhaps certain events.
September 21, 2026 at 10:33 AM
The Chosen One ideology isn't exclusively Protestant. I suspect it is a universal tendency existing within most populations that may get amplified at certain times by certain personalities and perhaps certain events.
I do not give a fuck for Charlie Kirk or sympathise with someone who has spread so much hate and it should not be controversial to say it.
September 14, 2026 at 1:53 PM
I do not give a fuck for Charlie Kirk or sympathise with someone who has spread so much hate and it should not be controversial to say it.
I have more respect for people who are openly greedy and selfish than those who wrap their destructive opportunism in the language of vicious morality
September 14, 2026 at 1:52 PM
I have more respect for people who are openly greedy and selfish than those who wrap their destructive opportunism in the language of vicious morality
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I said there are three ways to deal with an increased capital share that may come with massive introduction of AI.
1 Create unconditional guaranteed minimum income
(not ideal; people need meaning in their lives; they need jobs);
1 Create unconditional guaranteed minimum income
(not ideal; people need meaning in their lives; they need jobs);
September 12, 2026 at 5:56 PM
I said there are three ways to deal with an increased capital share that may come with massive introduction of AI.
1 Create unconditional guaranteed minimum income
(not ideal; people need meaning in their lives; they need jobs);
1 Create unconditional guaranteed minimum income
(not ideal; people need meaning in their lives; they need jobs);
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God that’s so real. I feel like Arab dads either preserve the culture sometimes to their own detriment or go Assimilation Mode Premium and there’s no middle ground.
It’s funny that your fam is Lebanese bc I and lots of diaspora kids were told to tell people we’re Lebanese instead of Palestinian.
It’s funny that your fam is Lebanese bc I and lots of diaspora kids were told to tell people we’re Lebanese instead of Palestinian.
September 11, 2026 at 4:46 PM
God that’s so real. I feel like Arab dads either preserve the culture sometimes to their own detriment or go Assimilation Mode Premium and there’s no middle ground.
It’s funny that your fam is Lebanese bc I and lots of diaspora kids were told to tell people we’re Lebanese instead of Palestinian.
It’s funny that your fam is Lebanese bc I and lots of diaspora kids were told to tell people we’re Lebanese instead of Palestinian.
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Thinking about how a girl at Christian summer camp asked me if my dad was in Al Qaeda and I got in trouble for asking if her dad was a Klansman bc “her question was understandable”
September 11, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Thinking about how a girl at Christian summer camp asked me if my dad was in Al Qaeda and I got in trouble for asking if her dad was a Klansman bc “her question was understandable”
Gross there are right wing advocates of UBI on Bluesky. Which is supposed to be a refuge from these freaks.
September 11, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Gross there are right wing advocates of UBI on Bluesky. Which is supposed to be a refuge from these freaks.
The stereotype of a Nouveau riche person and a pick me seem to stem from a similar essence
September 11, 2026 at 5:08 PM
The stereotype of a Nouveau riche person and a pick me seem to stem from a similar essence
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‘Often the terms on which English literature is defended concede so much to the dingy gods of the marketplace that they don’t capture the point, the real reason someone might want to study the subject.’
Colin Burrow on the uses of literary criticism:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow on the uses of literary criticism:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow · Good Weird or Bad Weird: Uses of Criticism
Literary criticism is a supremely occasional skill, where you have to be bold enough to operate where there aren’t any...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 11, 2026 at 1:15 PM
‘Often the terms on which English literature is defended concede so much to the dingy gods of the marketplace that they don’t capture the point, the real reason someone might want to study the subject.’
Colin Burrow on the uses of literary criticism:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow on the uses of literary criticism:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
One thing that's weird about SBF is that he was a liberal / progressive version of a crypto bro EA billionaire. I wonder if this caused an identity conflict.
September 9, 2026 at 4:20 PM
One thing that's weird about SBF is that he was a liberal / progressive version of a crypto bro EA billionaire. I wonder if this caused an identity conflict.
Something i noticed about ultra conservative religious fundamentalist politicians (this could have been before MAGA, anyway these people were not yet MAGA) was how off putting many of them were. And it made me think this was perhaps the only way they could become prominent and powerful. Eg Ted Cruz.
September 9, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Something i noticed about ultra conservative religious fundamentalist politicians (this could have been before MAGA, anyway these people were not yet MAGA) was how off putting many of them were. And it made me think this was perhaps the only way they could become prominent and powerful. Eg Ted Cruz.
Something i never fully articulated was how a former UBI candidate I used to support when I thought he was liberal / progressive(I have not done so for years) seemed more at ease with the so called down to earth type even if reactionary and not with a kind of cultivated liberal society.
September 9, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Something i never fully articulated was how a former UBI candidate I used to support when I thought he was liberal / progressive(I have not done so for years) seemed more at ease with the so called down to earth type even if reactionary and not with a kind of cultivated liberal society.
Vance having been much disgusted by conservative culture (at least in rural culture) as a VC (not exactly liberal then but more so than the people he derided) and then swinging to the ultra conservative far right shows you how disgust can only go so far without principles and people can change.
September 9, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Vance having been much disgusted by conservative culture (at least in rural culture) as a VC (not exactly liberal then but more so than the people he derided) and then swinging to the ultra conservative far right shows you how disgust can only go so far without principles and people can change.
The irony is that in vibe and in theory (obviously not in practice) someone with Vance's political affiliation should side with the "Hillbilly" group he condemns in his book. The stereotype is that liberals don't welcome them. Make up your mind about what you are ffs.
September 9, 2026 at 12:12 PM
The irony is that in vibe and in theory (obviously not in practice) someone with Vance's political affiliation should side with the "Hillbilly" group he condemns in his book. The stereotype is that liberals don't welcome them. Make up your mind about what you are ffs.
Lol what was Balaji smoking
![The goal, he said, was to do to San Francisco what Musk had done to Twitter: Gut it, purge it, and harvest its power. Early on, Musk had upended the site’s reality by erasing blue checks, the official checkmarks that once appeared on the accounts of journalists, celebrities, and politicians and which had become an online status symbol. “Elon, in sort of classic Gray fashion… captures Twitter and then, at one stroke, wipes out millions of Blues’ status by wiping out the blue checks,” he said. “Another stroke… [he] renames Twitter as X, showing that he has true control, and it’s his vehicle, and that the old regime isn’t going to be restored.” Corporate logos would fill the skyline in the Gray sector, and streets would be renamed to honor tech figures. Meanwhile, the Grays would build monuments and screen propaganda films to remind people of the alleged horrors inflicted by progressive Democratic governance. As if this entire vision wasn’t already dripping in fascist cosplay, Srinivasan generated a masterpiece of authoritarian fantasy, which he called the “Gray Pride parade.” “A huge win would be a Gray Pride parade with 50,000 Grays,” said Srinivasan. “That would start to say: ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ You have the AI Flying Spaghetti Monster. You have the Bitcoin parade. You have the drones flying overhead in formation… You have bubbling genetic experiments on beakers… You have the police at the Gray Pride parade. They’re flying the Anduril drones…”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:slkg4p6vkp3nqojzsr6j3ex2/bafkreidetmyxnyikdjhw6rgnl47bfqnk3cf5ddtfjkgngx4rrmqff4g66y)
September 9, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Lol what was Balaji smoking
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My impression is this is pretty typical, and its another thing that persuades me that... to be honest... The Cosmopolitan Way Of Life is simply superior. The people throwing the authoritarian temper tantrum are simply those ignorant of its benefits.
September 9, 2026 at 7:44 AM
My impression is this is pretty typical, and its another thing that persuades me that... to be honest... The Cosmopolitan Way Of Life is simply superior. The people throwing the authoritarian temper tantrum are simply those ignorant of its benefits.
Something i notice about the weird e/acc Network State Silicon Valley proponents. They seem deadly serious. So are the (US) activists who oppose them. If someone said this in the UK the overall response would be to make fun of their fanatical earnestness. Even liberals and progressives would laugh.
September 9, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Something i notice about the weird e/acc Network State Silicon Valley proponents. They seem deadly serious. So are the (US) activists who oppose them. If someone said this in the UK the overall response would be to make fun of their fanatical earnestness. Even liberals and progressives would laugh.
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‘A good critic is a kind of lightning conductor who picks out the energy in what they read and passes it on to others.’
Colin Burrow on Helen Vendler and the uses of criticism.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow on Helen Vendler and the uses of criticism.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow · Good Weird or Bad Weird: Uses of Criticism
Literary criticism is a supremely occasional skill, where you have to be bold enough to operate where there aren’t any...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 8, 2026 at 5:25 PM
‘A good critic is a kind of lightning conductor who picks out the energy in what they read and passes it on to others.’
Colin Burrow on Helen Vendler and the uses of criticism.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow on Helen Vendler and the uses of criticism.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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Jake Paul has announced on a podcast that he intends to
1. Go to Stanford
2. Walk on to their football team
3. Get drafted
4. Play for the NFL as a slot receiver
So your imposter syndrome can, absolutely and without question, fuck right off
1. Go to Stanford
2. Walk on to their football team
3. Get drafted
4. Play for the NFL as a slot receiver
So your imposter syndrome can, absolutely and without question, fuck right off
September 8, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Jake Paul has announced on a podcast that he intends to
1. Go to Stanford
2. Walk on to their football team
3. Get drafted
4. Play for the NFL as a slot receiver
So your imposter syndrome can, absolutely and without question, fuck right off
1. Go to Stanford
2. Walk on to their football team
3. Get drafted
4. Play for the NFL as a slot receiver
So your imposter syndrome can, absolutely and without question, fuck right off
I didn't realise the distinction before but even though he's a conspiracist crackpot this could be a useful guide about how these people think. From Gil Duran's The Nerd Reich.
September 8, 2026 at 1:42 PM
I didn't realise the distinction before but even though he's a conspiracist crackpot this could be a useful guide about how these people think. From Gil Duran's The Nerd Reich.
Burnham has cojones unlike Starmer
September 8, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Burnham has cojones unlike Starmer