When the powerful playact powerlessness it is always a ploy to avoid accountability.
September 19, 2026 at 2:43 PM
When the powerful playact powerlessness it is always a ploy to avoid accountability.
And try not to take your frustration and feelings of powerlessness out on each other.
January 3, 2026 at 8:57 PM
And try not to take your frustration and feelings of powerlessness out on each other.
Powerlessness is a curriculum. It's taught to us. We have to break through it.
June 29, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Powerlessness is a curriculum. It's taught to us. We have to break through it.
"It is a particularly liberal delusion that a party should be rewarded for its powerlessness."
The Democrats Can’t Afford to Play Dead
Liberals aren’t going to be rewarded for their powerlessness.
nymag.com
March 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"It is a particularly liberal delusion that a party should be rewarded for its powerlessness."
"speaking truth to power" becomes "speaking smarm to powerlessness"
December 16, 2024 at 4:28 AM
"speaking truth to power" becomes "speaking smarm to powerlessness"
I’m of the opinion that confronting our powerlessness is the bravest thing we can do.
There are people who cowardly give in to powerlessness.
Deny or ignore powerlessness.
Punish others for powerlessness.
But sometimes just sitting quietly with it is the most powerful thing you can do. 👇🧵
There are people who cowardly give in to powerlessness.
Deny or ignore powerlessness.
Punish others for powerlessness.
But sometimes just sitting quietly with it is the most powerful thing you can do. 👇🧵
January 6, 2026 at 2:41 AM
I’m of the opinion that confronting our powerlessness is the bravest thing we can do.
There are people who cowardly give in to powerlessness.
Deny or ignore powerlessness.
Punish others for powerlessness.
But sometimes just sitting quietly with it is the most powerful thing you can do. 👇🧵
There are people who cowardly give in to powerlessness.
Deny or ignore powerlessness.
Punish others for powerlessness.
But sometimes just sitting quietly with it is the most powerful thing you can do. 👇🧵
“Our powerlessness” to…not understand ASL?
January 11, 2025 at 12:47 AM
“Our powerlessness” to…not understand ASL?
Powerlessness.
I don't care if my enemies suffer. I care about their ability to make other people suffer.
I don't care if my enemies suffer. I care about their ability to make other people suffer.
What WOULD you wish on your worst enemy? I'll start:
That they consistently wake up in the middle of the night and start at the ceiling unable to fall asleep haunted by the notion that they've never really been unconditionally loved
That they consistently wake up in the middle of the night and start at the ceiling unable to fall asleep haunted by the notion that they've never really been unconditionally loved
"i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy" i would. that's the point of having a worst enemy. grow up and hate people like an adult
September 28, 2023 at 9:30 PM
Powerlessness.
I don't care if my enemies suffer. I care about their ability to make other people suffer.
I don't care if my enemies suffer. I care about their ability to make other people suffer.
Natalie Wynn pointed out a few years ago that there is a tremendous amount of powerlessness for your average hyper politically engaged online queer person. That powerlessness sometimes metastasizes into bullying behavior because online lefty spaces are the only place they can leverage any power.
May 3, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Natalie Wynn pointed out a few years ago that there is a tremendous amount of powerlessness for your average hyper politically engaged online queer person. That powerlessness sometimes metastasizes into bullying behavior because online lefty spaces are the only place they can leverage any power.
Levi gets up, adds other examples of discrimination and political powerlessness in conjunction with standards for a finding of a quasi-suspect class.
February 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Levi gets up, adds other examples of discrimination and political powerlessness in conjunction with standards for a finding of a quasi-suspect class.
More than half of young adult women who grew up as Latter-day Saints have now left the church. Many are reacting against politics, purity culture and powerlessness.
Jana Riess: Why are so many young women leaving the LDS Church?
More than half of young adult women who grew up as Latter-day Saints have now left the church. Many are reacting against politics, purity culture and powerlessness.
www.sltrib.com
August 5, 2026 at 10:28 PM
More than half of young adult women who grew up as Latter-day Saints have now left the church. Many are reacting against politics, purity culture and powerlessness.
“That’s how it starts… The fever. The rage. The feeling of powerlessness.”
January 6, 2025 at 12:30 AM
“That’s how it starts… The fever. The rage. The feeling of powerlessness.”
Pedophiles are not necessarily homosexual people. The attraction is the powerlessness of a young "sexless" person, male OR female.
October 9, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Pedophiles are not necessarily homosexual people. The attraction is the powerlessness of a young "sexless" person, male OR female.
it looks like you're struggling to reconcile with your powerlessness in a world out of your control. would you like to yell at some college kids you might be able to get in trouble?
October 12, 2023 at 12:34 PM
it looks like you're struggling to reconcile with your powerlessness in a world out of your control. would you like to yell at some college kids you might be able to get in trouble?
"Kafkaesque" has come to mean, to many, absurdist, byzantine, surreal. But The Trial is also about powerlessness in the face of an authority that deliberately makes reality unknowable.
Over on X, a tale of the madness currently playing out with student visas is currently going viral on the basis of an astonishing quote from a judge calling what the Trump administration is doing “Kafkaesque.”
The lawsuit is one of Banias. law’s emergency TRO cases and the quote is from 5 days ago.
The lawsuit is one of Banias. law’s emergency TRO cases and the quote is from 5 days ago.
![[QT] Sasha Gusev @SashaGusevPosts •1d
This has to be one of the craziest admissions from A JUDGE that l've ever seen in a court transcript. What the hell are we doing here?!
[Start screenshot]
THE COURT: Do you realize that this is Kafkaesque?
I've got two experienced immigration lawyers on behalf of a client who is months away from graduation, who has done nothing wrong, who has been terminated from a system that you all keep telling me has no effect on his immigration status, although that clearly is BS. And now, his two very experienced lawyers can't even tell him whether or not he's here legally, because the Court can't tell him whether or not he's here legally, because the government's counsel can't tell him if he's here legally.
[end screeenshot; start tweet that was being QTed]
@ Dr. Émile P. Torres@xriskology•1d
Four students at Case Western Reserve
University -- my university —- were told that their visas had been revoked and that they will need to leave the country, while the semester is still going. Now, turns out, the...
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April 22, 2025 at 3:24 AM
"Kafkaesque" has come to mean, to many, absurdist, byzantine, surreal. But The Trial is also about powerlessness in the face of an authority that deliberately makes reality unknowable.
Ossoff reminds us that the people have power right now, and powerlessness is an illusion. @hcrichardson.bsky.social
March 23, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Ossoff reminds us that the people have power right now, and powerlessness is an illusion. @hcrichardson.bsky.social
I really think Trump's Iran threat is a breaking point. We just learned that the GOP won't step up even when its leader threatens unthinkable war crimes and even genocide. This realization of powerlessness in the face of this madness will take a deep psychic toll.
newrepublic.com/article/2087...
newrepublic.com/article/2087...
April 9, 2026 at 8:55 PM
I really think Trump's Iran threat is a breaking point. We just learned that the GOP won't step up even when its leader threatens unthinkable war crimes and even genocide. This realization of powerlessness in the face of this madness will take a deep psychic toll.
newrepublic.com/article/2087...
newrepublic.com/article/2087...
From @meganwachspress.bsky.social’s post (on having been the target of a professor’s advances as a student):
“To want someone who wants to learn from you is to want someone for their powerlessness.”
“To want someone who wants to learn from you is to want someone for their powerlessness.”
More details and context about what being a woman math major in the early-2000s was like and why it was so damaging here:
cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/p/a-fuller-s...
cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/p/a-fuller-s...
A Fuller Statement About My Bluesky Posts
Let me paint a picture of what it was like to be a woman math major at the University of Chicago circa 2004.
cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com
March 17, 2026 at 3:39 AM
From @meganwachspress.bsky.social’s post (on having been the target of a professor’s advances as a student):
“To want someone who wants to learn from you is to want someone for their powerlessness.”
“To want someone who wants to learn from you is to want someone for their powerlessness.”
Underrated reason so many men in the United States are angry and consumed with feelings of powerlessness and rage is that many of them in the last 10 years have given away their financial security in scams, ponzi schemes, online gambling, crypto etc
October 15, 2024 at 6:21 AM
Underrated reason so many men in the United States are angry and consumed with feelings of powerlessness and rage is that many of them in the last 10 years have given away their financial security in scams, ponzi schemes, online gambling, crypto etc
In all that time, your abuser looms larger than life in your mind. You remember his power, and your powerlessness, and you have to reach for what you can do piece by piece.
March 16, 2026 at 11:43 PM
In all that time, your abuser looms larger than life in your mind. You remember his power, and your powerlessness, and you have to reach for what you can do piece by piece.
the dominant culture of substack writing is a culture of powerlessness
April 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
the dominant culture of substack writing is a culture of powerlessness
My therapist stopped using substack after i ranted about it for 15 minutes during one of our sessions where I was learning to deal with powerlessness. lol
April 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
My therapist stopped using substack after i ranted about it for 15 minutes during one of our sessions where I was learning to deal with powerlessness. lol
Two sitting justices of the Supreme Court are insurrectionists—or, most generously, married to them. Our system can do nothing about them because the people running it have insisted upon their own powerlessness. We’re not operating under a constitution; we’re trapped in a suicide pact.
May 28, 2024 at 11:39 PM
Two sitting justices of the Supreme Court are insurrectionists—or, most generously, married to them. Our system can do nothing about them because the people running it have insisted upon their own powerlessness. We’re not operating under a constitution; we’re trapped in a suicide pact.
her story was one of astonishing resilience in the face of total powerlessness, not a glorification of non violent protest. Genuinely deranged interpretation
May 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
her story was one of astonishing resilience in the face of total powerlessness, not a glorification of non violent protest. Genuinely deranged interpretation