The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

I always admire @winterjessica.bsky.social 's work, and this was no different. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

moar

This morning, I stopped by the Share Food Program to learn how you can get help and give help to your neighbors in Philly right now during the government shutdown.

Is it bad to cheat on your boyfriend with the fabric of space and time? "Timelike Curves, Spacelike Curves" by @p-h-lee.bsky.social is out now at Reactor! Art by Rebekka Dunlap Edited by @malf.bsky.social

I wrote about the degrading choices our political system forces on us, the importance of respecting yourself, and the time I experienced a mild Oliver Stone moment at Sammy's Deluxe in Rockland, Maine. defector.com/what-job-is-...

“The would-be doll is encouraged to see herself not as a person with inherent worth but a collection of assets – lips, tits, hair, wits, followers, “designer vagina” – that make her marketable. Her self-worth becomes tied to how well she cultivates these assets to serve the interests of capital.”

Retention elections for supreme courts tend to be sleepy affairs, but that's changing. Last year, a justice lost for the first time in Oklahoma history, while progressive campaigns fell short in Arizona and Florida. This fall, eyes are on Pennsylvania.

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay

We're live, folks! @matthtaylor.com and I have a blood-curdling body-horror story in this talent-packed anthology, about TRANS WITCHES hunting a MONSTER. Of course, that mission goes horribly, horribly wrong.

One of the things about this study is that a lot of baby and toddler books are written in house, by editors. So the study reveals the whiteness of editorial in kidlit even if not explicitly. But, big picture, this trend is unacceptable. I remember so many promises www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

feed me your booooooooooks

PHILADELPHIA — By the top of the ninth inning, the stadium was visibly pockmarked by absences, and people were booing Jhoan Duran's walkout show. defector.com/never-bunt

Video taken one hour ago outside the Portland ICE facility of the violent insurrectionists in question

Bertrand Russell once received letters from Sir Oswald Mosley, the founder of the British Union of Fascists, inviting him to a debate. Russell not only declined but replied quite generally that “nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.” @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

Sharing this excerpt from my foreword to Alaa Abd el-Fattah's extraordinary collection of prison writings, "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated." Stay tuned... lithub.com/naomi-klein-...

just absolutely furious with @alixeharrow.bsky.social for being such a goddamn genius "the contradictory heart of what prose does, which is to waste the reader’s time as efficiently and sexily as possible...a reader gives you their time, and you tell them, word by word, how to spend it." y E s

One insurance denial for Teressa's husband stated, “your newborn does not meet the criteria for coverage.” “This is when I really start to think they’re just denying,” she recalled. “They’re not even looking. They’re just ‘deny, deny, deny.’” ➡️ Full story: www.propublica.org/article/ment...

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

oh well, onward and upward

Had three drinks at a work thing and came home directly to the Zapruder film of Jalen Carter spitting on Dak Prescott

this is an interesting idea re: marketing but i don't really agree with this and actually think Pixar's mistake has been over-reaching in trying to appeal to adults over kids in terms of tone and sensibility (along with a couple genuine duds quality-wise)

We'll never know if Travis Kelce would have proposed after winning the Super Bowl, because Kansas City got absolutely stomped by the Philadelphia Eagles. defector.com/travis-kelce...

Not an exaggeration. If anything, this understates how unhinged the video is. It is, quite literally, five white guys talking about how to free the states from the burdens of the 14th Amendment so churches can effectively be given ownership over "gangbangers in Baltimore."

This is one of the absolute toughest things about predatory inclusion — the predation is often fun or a little useful. Criticism makes a reasonable person sound like an asshole. LowerEd weathered me for this kind of social death. So I’ll say it: your enjoyment does not matter & should not matter.

In November of 2016, nearly 60 years after the paper was published internally, I had discovered the joke. A few years later, I filed to have the paper declassified, and the NSA eventually agreed, and even put it up on their webpage: media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/14/...

Nerves, nerves, nerves: On autobiographies of trans female sexuality defector.com/nerves-nerve...

the iron rule of lord of the rings is when you go someplace you have to stop and declaim exactly where you are and its significance

Erotic, you say? Queer, you say? Cosmic horror, yo kshidnd wit zilll l kg uiwoqp jjjjjjj r'lyeh

Hot Girls with Balls is an expertly structured text. Reading it is a dizzying experience, as overwhelming as scrolling through a constantly updating online comment section, while straining to follow the various polarized arguments that are being thrown around.

Verily I have blogged it ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/mahmo...

"Is the sex scene relevant? Does it move the plot forward?" Does it matter? Tiffany Fritz discusses two key moments N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season–and how blending intimacy and narrative builds a story more honest, emotional, and true to the themes of her work: reactormag.com/the-necessar...

It's a very modern tradition! Not until we got home kitchens did we do this I wrote a whole book on restaurant culture and foodways (Lost Restaurants of Napa Valley) so trust me when I tell you almost everyone ate out all the time until fairly recently.

Keep in mind public land is land owned BY YOU, the taxpayer. Republicans want to sell it off so they can pay for their tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.

Me and @zachrabiroff.com have discovered that a gay, disabled, pill-popping Yale Drama grad likely ghostwrote many of Stan Lee's most famous comics Marvel Comics and Disney don't want you to know about Ron Whyte New from @flaminghydra.com below "Face it tiger ... you just hit the jackpot!"

This year, in the absence of any media outlet or corporation asking me to write about Pride, I challenged myself to write a Pride essay I’d actually want to read. This is what I wrote. open.substack.com/pub/johnpaul...

Happy Pride to introverted aromantics who enjoy sitting on the edge of the party and vibing.

"Everything in the world is trying to keep us from getting lost in thought lately." My latest newsletter is about why art and culture are more important than ever, and why the world's most powerful people are trying to wreck them. This is a huge theme in my new book! buttondown.com/charliejane/...

Last thing I'll say about it here, but if you interpret "acting like ordinary human beings who make goofy mistakes sometimes" as a portrayal of humiliating incompetence, the problem is not with the show.

I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/

Over at the newsletter: "Watchmen," paranoid readings, and what happens when a work designed to upend cliches and formulas becomes the formula in need of upending: jude-doyle.ghost.io/broken-watch/

Whaddya mean I caint lick the arsenic?

I’m finally ready to do a full, spoiler-filled thread about Marvel’s Thunderbolts*. Grab a snack and get comfy, or mute me and come back after you’ve watch the movie. CW: mentions of suicide, depression, child abuse, murder, racism, and military propaganda. Alright, let’s do this. #JeanneBolts

!! thank you KBJ, she is nailing it on the real shit she's like "you're making a catch-me-if-you-can regime where everyone has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the govt to stop violating people’s rights and idk how that is remotely consistent with the rule of law"

This is such a fascinating (and also kind of sad) read about the slow corporate death of creativity and some of the people fighting against it

NEW: How the Pacific Northwest’s Dream of Green Energy Fell Apart @opb.org

this month for flaming hydra i wrote about the music in Sinners

Life Imitates Art confirmed