In the 1920s, the KKK circulated rumors that Catholics had amassed a huge arsenal of weapons and explosives and hidden them in the basements and sewers beneath the University of Notre Dame, in preparation for a Catholic takeover of the US. Thinking about this today for no particular reason.

Guys liberals can’t do propaganda! We’ve never done it before!! Oh I dropped this.

orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing

Who up forgetting they auld acquaintance

Quoted for alt text:

good piece with an incidental insanely brutal takedown of klein

For New Year's Eve I wanted to find a Low Quality Ad that really encapsulates 2025. I think this pin does the trick. collabs.shop/nnulu0

Using the word "journalist" to describe this person and what he does, muddies and allows complete capture of the term by propagandists and mis-informationalists. Don't cede the meaning of terms, especially from a "journalism" outlet. WORDS HAVE MEANINGS DAMNIT.

I wonder if the person who wrote "put baby in pelican mouth" knows that they're a genius.

This set of observations is produced by my scrolling Reddit and otherwise listening to people talk about "how to write." A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption. B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.

I redrew my Watership Down sticker!

Please tell us more about these bux of cheese.

I really would like everyone writing these mealymouthed-ass letters and threads and articles of AI acquiescence/acceptance to stop speaking for everyone. You are making a choice for YOU. Don’t fucking tell me what I have to do. I don’t have to accept shit.

When Nick Shirley arrived to "test" if he could enroll his son "Joey" in Minneapolis day cares, his viral video omitted that he showed up with an entourage of masked men acting like security, multiple vehicles including vans, cameras, and men who wouldn't identify themselves. One day care owner /

I've become radicalized into thinking stunts like this should qualify as probable cause for a warrant to search their hard drives for CSAM.

The one that started MTV: youtu.be/W8r-tXRLazs?...

Thinking about something the enshittification of web search has ruined for me: being curious. Like a friend is talking about a thing to me online and I would quickly go look up that abbreviation or show name or person, so I didn't have to stop them mid-flow and ask "huh?!" Search is fucked now. 😒

My first introduction to the Hero’s Journey was in the Zork Chronicles tie-in novel by George Alec Effinger. It was not until many years later that a book about members of the Supernatural and Fantastic Wayfarers Association vying for the Campbell award clicked.

Found these while cleaning my office. Am I too late to exchange them for an Anakin Skywalker figure?

This is a solid post. Dang.

So many clothes online now have AI imagery instead of real pictures on their product pages. Like okay, I guess I just won't know what your clothes look like at all? I guess they're all hoping one day. We'll only use AI pictures of ourselves anyway so it won't matter what our clothes look like?

The younger child just came in and asked me if I could explain GenAI in a way that would make sense to their friends and classmates, and I was like “It’s basically ‘my apes’ but with a better salesman”

There's a repeated problem - that good news doesn't feel like news, because it's not a single moment of upheaval the same way all the bad news is. Good things happen because people build them, step by step, until things are simply different than they were before.

If you ever feel like the naming conventions in your fantasy novel don't make sense, remember that the Flying TIGERS put SHARK mouths on their warHAWK planes. Real life history often didn't let consistent theming get in the way of rule of cool 😅

Feel like in more functional countries if a bunch of random dudes turned up to a daycare and demanded to see the children they would be immediately escorted to prison

Refreshingly honest to name your phony venture capital scam after a metaphor for unchecked avarice.

How was I not already aware of this!!? *adds to wedding registry*

Pedialyte tastes like sweetened ear wax and Ensure tastes like punishment in liquid form. But do you know what they do really well? Keep people alive. Years ago, I interviewed a woman who had undiagnosed TB while pregnant and she could not swallow and Ensure helped her and her fetus stay alive.

THIS. Did you know sickle cell is curable, now? FULLY curable. If you're feeling down or despairing about what FEELS like technology/advancement/science "standing still" or being fully malicious, I have great news: You're not paying attention to actual science. Just tech industry marketing.

this remains the greatest synopsis of incel culture one could ever ask for

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

fuck I can't believe I totally neglected to make a lemon piglet, I have one more day to do it, omg

So I'm going to post this as a resolution here, and check in to make sure I'm doing it: In the new year, I resolve to spend at least an hour each week working on the creative projects that have been on the back burner forever, because they're never the top priority of the week. Be it so resolved.

Then kill it.

Daycare centers were also the primary target of the Satanic panic, because fundamentally American religious conservatism is opposed to women having jobs outside the home.

We won't begin to roll back the tide of fascism until white liberals come to terms with the fact that tens of millions of their fellow citizens actively, knowingly, support racist Gestapo policies. Tens of millions of racists were not deluded or misled. How will you adjust your strategy accordingly?

A bunch of weirdos with a documented party history of pedophilia who are in the middle of covering for Epstein want to hang out at child care centers. Fucking freaks. And we should say so.

🚨 A reminder that less than 36 hours from now, up to 24 million Americans are about to see their net health insurance premiums skyrocket. Use the drop-down menu at the top to find your state: acasignups.net/ira-subsidy-...

A friend suggested Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li and I finished it last night. I don't have words. It was devastating, beautifully written, and a powerful example of how to write about grief without making it mainly about grief. Highly recommend. bookshop.org/p/books/thin...

The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."

The big row within MAGA circles is whether they hate Jews more than brown people, or brown people more than Jews. That's *it*. The sum total of their disagreement. There's no reason to side with *either* subgroup of explicitly fascist genocidal conspiracist monsters.

Friends are here for New Year's and we exchanged holiday gifts. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS 🪲

Authors! Readers! The grand Barnes & Noble pre-order sale is now upon us. Use the code PREORDER25 to save 25% off basically every pre-ordered book for next year. Authors: please reply to this post with your upcoming book title, a link, and at least one cool thing in your book!

Due to unfortunate circumstances, due process and rule of law have been replaced by reactions to viral videos and memes

*taps my book wild faith* as noted in literally the first chapter, the Satanic Panic never ended, it just took a nap for awhile this shit about daycares is literally just the 1980s warmed over. can we bring back cool hair instead of christian vigilantism www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/talia...

The Supreme Court has made a commitment to eradicating every Amendment in the Constitution. They aren't doing an oopsie. They have open eyes and clear minds as they do their best to pave the way for permanent fascism. They're hoping to get it done this presidential term. Come on. Be for real.