New post just out: "Cordon Sanitaires and Purity Spirals" Antisemitism is becoming mainstreamed on both left and right at an alarming rate. What can it teach us about the way radicalisation takes root? And can it be stopped? (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/c...

and yes it only has like 30% approval. we are a strange people.

I think the other thing that has really been troubling and frustrating me about Bluesky lately is that my own angriest posts get the most traction, and I don't love that. Aside from a core group of mutuals I interact with a lot if I post about something fun or good natured, it gets lost.

I agree, I follow several people with large or medium (or whatever) numbers of followers who limit both replies and QT's and to the degree that it keeps them sane while online I affirm and celebrate their decision, even if it limits how I can interact with them.

(Sontag, cont'd) "Now one can afford to look on sympathetically and derive nourishment from whatever one can find to admire. Religions are converted into 'religion,' as painting and sculpture of different periods and motives are converted into 'art.'"

This plus the generic "faith" of the subtitle reminded me of Susan Sontag's essay "Piety Without Content," which is critical of "a religiosity without either faith or observance" that features "nostalgia over the loss of the sense of sacredness and relief that an intolerable burden has been lifted."

the people who will run the next iteration of the regime also have a vested interest in extracting as much of a W from this as possible in order to use that political capital to solidify their hold over what will be a nation in utter ruin/crisis.

rather than stopping doing journalism on bluesky because bad-faith bullies use context collapse to create dogpiles, i think people with large followings should be judicious about turning off QTs. otherwise you're letting the trolls set the standard.

After years of research, Daphna Renan & I are thrilled to announce preorders of SUPREMACY. Why is US democracy so broken? One reason is we've wrongly accepted that 9 justices have the final say over the Constitution. This book traces how that happened—& how we can reclaim power to govern ourselves.

Not one for theories of everything (other than the housing theory of everything, duh), but I do think "we undermined the material basis for patriarchy without destroying its grip on the collective imagination, thereby driving many people insane" is a sort of skeleton key to most of what's happening.

If you’ve lived thru mental health struggles or lived with someone who had terrible anxiety, you recognize the “I don’t *care* if my fear is reasonable, I *need* you to engage with me about it!” response that we see a lot online during campaign season.

"Since last summer, the Atlantic has not published a trans person’s voice or perspective, nor has it run any significant piece defending trans rights."

I actually do sincerely wonder how many users on BlueSky who struggle with bad faith misinterpretations have diagnosed mental health issues and/or disabilities.

NEW: About those 'Track AIPAC' color-coded cards you might have been seeing... here's a look at how just how rigorous the group's approach is. www.thebulwark.com/p/track-aipa...

FYI: I am going to stop summarizing Supreme Court decisions on here as they come down. One comment has been plucked out of context of all my reporting, misread, and used as the basis of a mean-spirited pile-on. I am not going to subject myself to this. If this was your goal, then congratulations.

Feels longer!

You feel every minute, too.

Congrats! You have invented Calvinism

jesus died for every single bad post you’ve done or ever will do.

Now I'm just imagining what "Catholic guilt" would look like in a theology where Jesus only atoned retroactively.

dang, that must have taken quite some time

Yep, forward and backwards. He atoned for all sins ever, past present and future

This works in reverse as well; ironically poptimism and cultural snobbery are both extensions of the eternal Puritan fear that someone, somewhere is having badwrongjoy.

I find a lot of the let-people-enjoy-things discourse around Marvel films insidious, it’s not enough that they’re extremely successful films that are for the most part well liked by the majority of critics and the cinemagoing public, no one is allowed to dislike those movies without backlash

it's okay to like trash, folks! you don't have to justify your tastes to anyone, and you don't even have to pretend it's not trash. there's plenty of shit i love that i can 100% see why other people would hate it or think it sucks. i think that's cool! diversity of opinions is interesting!

this sentiment coalesced for me around the deadpool movies. the nihilism of “hey come spend your money on our stupid and meaningless movie, you idiots” repulsed me, but somehow that made ME the stupid idiot.

Yeah, an important balance is pointing out that centralized nature of criticism in the past was genuinely myopic and bad too. But we really did throw out the baby with the bathwater here

I am currently attempting to read Ulysses and, when I need a break from that (which is fairly often, that book's hard work), I'm reading some really trashy sci fi. I'm enjoying the latter a lot more but I'm not going to pretend it's better, or even anywhere close to as good.

I think they worked way more hand in hand than we’d like to admit even if it wasn’t coordinated or conscious. GFC, populism, poptimism, tech golden era of the 10s. Hell, even our “popularism“ debates now around politics

"this is some protestant shit, basically" is a cultural cheat code

almost every single argument in that piece is totally wrong, the only part that holds up is Sanneh’s point about the implied racism of older music criticism

That you or I like EastEnders (for example) is our own business. (I watched it for years.) But I never pretended it was equivalent to Lear or Streetcar or The Cherry Orchard. That would not only be stupid, but harmful. It is harmful.

also digital music. sanneh talks about joy of listening to music out of context on ipod shuffle

Poptimism was a mistake, but that it coincided with social media and the decline of media and publications dedicated to cultural analysis and critique, was catastrophic

honestly, i think it goes way deeper and further back than that. this is some protestant shit, basically.

This is me with most tentpole movies, lol.

some people need to remind themselves of precisely what the "guilty" half of "guilty pleasure" means and embrace the idea that they too indulge in some guilty pleasures

i dont disagree that people are allowed to enjoy things. but i balk at the idea that i should feel apologetic or guilty about not sharing their enjoyment. i dont begrudge people enjoying mcdonald's. but i don't demand it be recognized as peak cuisine either.

We wanted to understand how the rising price of gas will affect blue-collar Americans in Midwestern swing states. So we talked to three Ivy-educated podcasters with trust funds at a Le Pain Quotidien in Dupont Circle.

Unplugged In New York still rules, BTW: youtu.be/80B_yiN2FH8?...

I had fun talking to @joepompeo.bsky.social about the work that went into the book. joepompeo.substack.com/p/elon-green...

@maris.bsky.social and @eliasisquith.blog 1. One of my dogs does this and 2. Both these dogs are so cute I was like “is this real or a stuffed animal”

Iran using children in security roles in war, reports and witnesses say www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hegseth just held a prayer service asking God for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy." New essay on what that tells us — and what it doesn't — about who he thinks he is.

FRANCE: we're fancy WORLD: ok FRANCE: a fried ham sandwich is our national lunch WORLD: FRANCE: a fried ham sandwich with an egg is its wife

Someone has to provide a counterweight to the millions of Democratic primary voters clamoring for a queer Latina atheist atop the ticket.

this is a perfectly pointless story. it doesn’t matter at all. primary voters in south carolina and nevada will make this decision. it could not matter less what the people who go to parties in georgetown with axios reporters think.

x is populated by people who failed 11th-grade english, drove three startups into the ground, make mid-six-figures, and own two cybertrucks. bluesky is full of folks who hold two phds, have won prestigious awards in their field, can't quite consolidate their hold on fulltime work, and ride a bicycle