"It's bad but not as bad as some people are saying, and that's the real problem" ticks so many pundit boxes. 1. Contrarian ""nuanced"" take; 2. Punching left; 3. Defends evil without actually defending it, ensuring you're still invited to give keynotes at Evil Corp Dinners but also to MET Gala.

THAT PART IT'S INFURIATING 🔥

A good thing you can do about this instead of dooming is Google “how to become a poll observer in [your town]”

It's because of the collapse of local journalism and the death of the man on the street interview. In the 90s and 2000s there would be hundreds of TV news organizations throughout the country doing local news angles that would be repackaged into soundbites for national and 24 news network.

Republicans are going to end up building a statue of Jeffrey Epstein to put next to Columbus.

Holy shit it’s not great political strategy to constantly denounce your own voters?!

It's kind of amazing how the worst consequence many of our most powerful people can conceive of is someone being mad at them online, to the degree that they are driven to distraction about it even in the abstract.

“I do not think that 50 year old men should be having sex with 16 year old girls. But “

this is my kind of shit, hell yeah

Someone in our Patreon comments referred to themselves as ‘a Michael apologist’ and it has been rattling around in my head all week

Charles Manson.

Spilled coffee on myself this morning in the train. I had a tiny mess to clean and a spot of red on my wrist, instead of a lawsuit to pay for skin grafts. I am naturally re-listening to vintage YWA @yourewrongabout.bsky.social @michaelhobbes.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Behold, the full range of American ethnicities

This freak grifter is the worst

I just generally think the antidote to dooming and feelings of helplessness is getting involved in any way. It can be as a poll worker, doing ICE watch, running for local office, helping with mutual aid, whatever. You can get so much accomplished in your town or city if you just get involved.

Thank you @volts.wtf and @michaelhobbes.bsky.social this was such a cathartic listen. There are so many times I've had to listen to people around me complain about the loony left and the threat they pose and my response is always, okay, but are they the ones in power? And get met with, no, but still

“First they came for Ghislane Maxwell” is not how the poem goes, Lizzo

Let a thousand @hellgatenyc.com s bloom.

Started this one because I love feeling Bad in a "same as it ever was" kind of way

3 yrs ago I started writing a book that is in stores TODAY. It's narrative nonfiction, anti-fascist spy thriller set in Trump era. It's timely as hell & I'm proud of it. A thread of what people are saying abt it & why I hope you'll help make it a bestseller www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Cat...

It's true that the LA River bike path is cute and safe but it's also true that this is the road that goes *to* the LA River bike path

If you see me biking around LA in this today, say hi! Because I am never wearing it again

The framing reflects a structural problem in how media engages with academic research. Within the academic literature, there's theoretical/empirical consensus that building more housing reduces costs. But one working paper disagrees, and so now it's a "debate." www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

If you're rich you get a tax cut, if you're not you have to work longer and harder. Populism! bsky.app/profile/atru...

This is legitimately the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in the New York Post, which is saying something. This makes their incessant astrological coverage seem studied and informative. nypost.com/2026/02/03/u...

I read thousands of pages of Epstein files this weekend trying to understand what he wanted out of his meeting with 4chan's Christopher Poole. Here's everything we know about Epstein's plans to dismantle the internet and, eventually, democracy. www.garbageday.email/p/here-s-how...

I'm not being facetious. Epstein was apparently giving talking points to the people pushing anti trans rhetoric in the UK.

It’s hard to focus on one thing to be appalled about, but these stories out of Minnesota are awful. (And, of course, on the other hand, very encouraging.) I cannot believe you can wrongly grab somebody, transport them, and then leave them where YOU took them.

I see adam tooze has the "it's no longer less expensive to cook at home" twitter brainworms. As someone who both cooks at home on the cheap and whose livelihood depends on people going out to eat, I support this

I may have missed something, but I haven't seen any of these people try to get out ahead of the Epstein files and admit/ reckon with their involvement with him before it gets leaked. Instead we have denials and minimizations, many of which are revealed as lies with each new document dump.

We really, really need to squash this idea that the first step in effective protest is ensuring that nobody can ever identify who you are or distinguish you in any way

'measles outbreak at the child prison' seems entirely avoidable, it's really the kind of thing that only happens if you do several unthinkably evil things on purpose all at once

get the name. thats the next CBS anchor.

We know that 4more children from Liam's school are still in ICE custody in TX. But we still do not know how many children from MN in total have been detained by ICE.

34,000 signing up for this work AFTER seeing their fellow citizens gunned down by federal thugs in cold blood? I'm chugging whatever the opposite of doomerism is

1. The new batch of Epstein documents helps illuminate one contemporary controversy: What is Bari Weiss up to at CBS? I think the answer is she is trying to rehabilate the Epstein network as a bulwark of reactionary centrism. Let me explain.

Yup. Funding is hard to come by, you hustle, seek patronage, flatter rich donors whatever But lets be real, there are hundreds-thousands of rich philanthropic gala attending alumni+people Epsteins a big fish but in that ocean, after a certain time, its a distinct choice to bait that line

The problem with applying this logic to Epstein associates is that vanishingly few have come forward before their names show up in these document dumps. Epstein has been an issue of public concern for a decade! Where is the public reckoning among elites for their entanglement with this asshole

And Epstein was an explicit eugenicist! Even in the (unlikely) scenario that the academics writing him chummy emails didn't know about the pedophilia charges, they were seeking funding because they thought their work aligned with his interests, which were monstrous.

I promise you, even if someone is your mentor and friend, you should have the ability to say they made a mistake in FUCKING COMMUNICATING CASUALLY AND ALL FRIENDLY WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN NOT WRITE AN EIGHT POST THREAD ON HOW WE SHOULDNT JUDGE

Nicholas Christakis, sociologist. 9/ bsky.app/profile/kjhe... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichola...

This was a really entertaining and interesting conversation between 2 of my favorite podcasters. @michaelhobbes.bsky.social @volts.wtf overcast.fm/+AAoT_nACD5A

Very similar dynamic to now, where people in the Trump Administration keep stating publicly, “I am doing this racist thing racistly because I love racism” and the entire media is like “his motivations, what could they possibly be?!”

Only halfway through but this book is phenomenal so far.

i am a bari hater and take no pleasure in reporting this but nellie does seem to have been on the up and up re epstein: she contributed reporting to at least one story on him (www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/n...) and also specifically wrote about him emailing her (www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/b...)

the Silverlake Goodwill has two of the most cursed items I’ve ever seen

An entire political movement founded on uncovering hidden messages in documents to discover the powerful secret pedophiles and meanwhile the powerful pedophiles out here sending gmails saying "Hi fellow pedophile when are we meeting to do pedophilia again"

The answer is for WA to become the anti-MAGA. Invest in higher ed, not cut it as Gov. Ferguson wants. Fund the research and health care that Trump and DOGE cut. Hire all the scientists and experts looking for a good job in a good place. Build a lot more housing so people can afford to move here.

What I’m seeing here is that Epstein is a nexus point for the “intellectual” cabal that shores up the race science justifying our current immigration and anti-DEI policies (Huberman), as well the tone policing moderates (Brooks) that hamstrings oppositions. Oh and their billionaire benefactors.