It's friction, not rewards and dopamine hits and indulgences, that will save you. www.ask-polly.com/p/nyc-is-a-c...

Remember , your best work was never that effortful. It wasn’t a puzzle and it wasn’t a journal entry, either. It was traveling blind. open.substack.com/pub/askmolly...

Hm no they're not.

Emotional abuse is very hard to recognize when you’re in it. From the outside, it’s so obvious. This is why you have to talk to your friends and not keep the darkness in your relationship a secret. www.ask-polly.com/p/my-open-ma...

Let us all have the courage displayed by the residents of Minneapolis.

Abolish ICE. Impeach Trump.

if I were a Democratic strategist, columnist, or politician, I would simply not be outflanked by Bill Kristol and this guy

How many January 6 insurrectionists were armed? Is the position now that Capitol police could have shot them all? Just trying to keep up

10 years of this shit

I’ve heard from multiple friends today about daycares being raided and parents being ripped out of cars (in one case with a child left behind in the backseat). Grim times here.

There are too many overpaid undertaxed motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!

Around half of San Francisco is without power right now and something like 1/3rd of intersections I drove through had waymos stopped in the middle of them making a dangerous situation even worse. Do not let Waymo into your city.

How can you be loved enough by beasts who, when you aren’t performing innocence or emptiness, see you as a pest? askmolly.substack.com/p/oaks

Stand up for your huge, romantic heart at all costs, even when it causes you pain, because becoming numb is so much worse. www.ask-polly.com/p/am-i-too-r...

If you're a daydreamer or an escapist, this column is for you. www.ask-polly.com/p/this-malad...

Jimmy Kimmel once called me to thank me after I wrote a good review of his show. It was unnerving and maybe savvy but mostly just came off as friendly and kind. I think he’s fucking great and I’m boycotting ABC, Disney, and all of their ugly children and cousins. Grow a spine, motherfuckers.

Sharing for anyone who needs this reminder to embrace your passions. “Joy is believing that it all adds up, that it all matters, that your dumb, small, deluded thing is the reason you’re alive.” — @heatherhav.bsky.social

No, self-help will not make you a jerk. Observe the jerks. If they were happy, would they insist that people who aren’t like them be more like them? If they had firm boundaries, would they call people who need help and support weak and pathetic? www.ask-polly.com/p/no-self-he...

I've heard about the same few male surrealist painters 10,000 times. But until @heatherhav.bsky.social's Substack today, I'd never seen a painting by Jane Graverol, and now I am OBSESSED www.artnet.com/artists/jane...

Regular features: Don't Shape Your Art Into a Parody of Your Most Popular Work Fuck Perfection Lower The Bar Raise The Bar Again Say Anything Art Can Be Fun Again Experiment Collaborate, You Rigid Fucks Shame Is The Enemy of Art Exercise More, Think Less

I also love the Bowerbirds' little-known 2021 album. One perfect catchy lovely divine melody after another with the faintest whiff of Grateful Dead vibes, which normally I would not love but here it's magic. open.spotify.com/album/6FF5NS...

I might start a newsletter that's just for artists I personally want to produce more work. Would just be coaching them (and me) to get off our fucking asses. Isaac Wood and Harriet Wheeler are honorary members of this club, sorry sorry not sorry.

Love the Bowerbirds so much and love Phil Moore's solo album from 2016. It's such a coherent work, perfect for a long run or long drive. open.spotify.com/artist/3bf8M...

There is no further comment I can make to emphasise the monstrosities happening here

The more curious you become about other people's emotional experiences, the more love enters your life. www.ask-polly.com/p/retire-you...

Buy @maris.bsky.social’s book at your local indie store to be as cool as meeeeeee

When you refuse to set boundaries, you teach your kid to be a whiny, badgering asshole. Then you blame him for the fact that he’s an asshole, and you suffer, and you mope about what an asshole he is www.ask-polly.com/p/my-teenage...

"There were more people wearing vests than one typically sees upon venturing out." Love this post about dancing by Sarah Miller, which includes a plea to help her friend Mohammed and his family. therealsarahmiller.substack.com/p/youre-ever...

The hustle invades every corner of a life, every inch of the body’s virgin land. askmolly.substack.com/p/hustle-479

Holy shit, New York! Here’s the full view. #NoKings #50501Movement

Everything was peaceful in downtown LA until the cops attacked, with horses, flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, and tear gas, But it won’t be reported like that.

Durham, NC - huge crowd

Remarkable. MSNC: "I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful." Seconds later, LA County sheriffs start firing on the crowd. Yet again, "law enforcement" deliberately escalated.

Your dreams are alive inside your body, whether you pretend they don't exist or not. www.ask-polly.com/p/i-killed-a...

Good work here to clarify LA’s history and current reality, which has nothing to do with Trump’s fear-mongering propaganda. www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

“Trump is using military forces to stop a protest — I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.” Doechii at the #BETAwards

Do you take responsibility for everything that goes wrong around you, then turn callous when it doesn't work? Did you shape-shift to win your parents' love? If so, your shame might be running your life. Feeling your frustration and sadness will lead you to joy. www.ask-polly.com/p/i-destroye...

"Waving Mexican flags is bad optics" = "Kneeling on the field is unpatriotic." If you can't rise above repeating Trump's talking points, you're not engaging your brain cells and you're a functioning part of his machine, disseminating his propaganda.

Remember what it means to pledge allegiance to ideals that transcend property and party and blood lines. You are the sum of your actions. Who are you? What are you doing? askmolly.substack.com/p/memorial

Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.

Everyone contributes to the movement in the ways they see fit. Some get teargassed and shot with rubber bullets by rampaging cops, others offer notes online re: how the people getting gassed/shot might seem less deserving of getting gassed/shot to the general public. It's a coalition.

This by @heatherhav.bsky.social is about as perfect an understanding of the writing road as I've ever seen:

My kids give me good presents.

What we’re seeing is a collective move away from “plagiarism is a bad thing and you should feel bad if you do it” to “plagiarism is the future and if you don’t do it, you’ll fall behind”

I keep naming files the same thing, apparently.

We want to see without being seen. We want to judge without risking judgment. We want the aesthetics of community, not the costs. The structure permits that. Not just permits; thrives on it.

You live in a culture that’s ruled by shame, inhabited by people who are ruled by shame. Commit to healing the broken world you see, instead of letting it trick you into believing that you’re the one who’s broken. www.ask-polly.com/p/a-message-...

"Trump’s project, in part, is to redefine and narrow the boundaries of whiteness." www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-fabi...

Honor those who sacrificed. Honor those who were sacrificed. You will be gone and forgotten soon. Until then: You are the sum of your actions. What are you doing? askmolly.substack.com/p/memorial