I said a few days ago, people like fascism because it's easy. Trump makes it very clear how to appease him. But the public? They're tricky, complex, unpredictable. That's why the people in power are happy to capitulate, it's simpler than worrying about what's popular.

There are utility workers digging in my yard and my Internet just went down. Surely these things aren't connected at all.

My teenager just learned that there was a whole generation of Sesame Street without Elmo. He can't believe I don't love Elmo. We are a house divided.

I don't want to hear democrats talking about big tent. The Democrat tent is no longer what matters. It's just are you anti-fascist or not and that isn't a Republican/Democrat question.

Every time I see BYU gear in the wild I get a tiny jump scare. I'm supposed to be protected from this on the east coast! If I'm not careful they will know I was one of them!

This is turning into an evergreen post, sadly.

Part of what is so weird about this moment is that the powerful people outside of government are unwilling to exercise their power. Which just leaves it to us.

Let's fund a fifth classroom today. This one's in Massachusetts, and it serves an incredibly diverse student body. $422. www.donorschoose.org/project/book...

I think we really need this. And hey if you want to start it I'm still out of work and have experience working on the revenue side in media so hit me up to help!

Successfully obtained covid and flu shots in NC! Didn't need a prescription, they just asked me for my comorbidity and checked a box when I told them.

I'm worried the only way for the Internet to stay tolerable is for extremely hot people who lived long and generally good lives to keep dying every few days.

So many excellent Redford watches to recommend but I have to throw out one of my favorite movies of all time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which has both Redford and Newman (and Katharine Ross!) being charismatic as hell in a fantastic script full of perfect one liners by William Goldman.

Absolutely fuck this guy. A complete lack of principles.

Redford intersects with my life so much--in the many films of his that I love passionately, and the importance of independent film in my life but also in my actual irl life--that it's impossible to say how I feel about this without making it all about me. A lot of feelings.

16yo: I got a 9 out of 10 on the news quiz for last week's current events. Me: Congratulations and I'm sorry.

Started the rice cooker when i started dinner, congratulations to me! Thank goodness for the keep warm function.

Just thinking about Somebody Somewhere makes me weepy so now I'm straight up 😭

What the fuck does "civility" even mean any more? If you say things that hurt people, that make them angry, but you say it without being angry yourself, is that civility? Just having a calm tone while you say whatever you want to incite hate?

No one has told me either way, do we still not know??

The other major benefit of fascism is that things become true simply by speaking them. Once you start, I'd imagine you see the power in it very quickly.

Someone just tell me when we figure out if he's Mormon or not, please.

A thing that's become immensely clear this week is how much people like fascism. It's a clear set of rules to follow, a specific kind of person to be, and a whole bunch of other people you get to be better than.

Everything being shit for me personally while everything is also shit for the world is really starting to wear me down, can one of them get better please?

Watching Die Hard with the kids and so far most of my asides have been to tell them which things that are perfectly normal now were signs of luxury in the 80s: car phones, bottled water, etc.

The thing about Brooks and so many other commentators and centrists is that they don't define their political beliefs based on actual beliefs. Instead it's all about social groups, hierarchies, reactions. I'm not sure they believe in anything except their own comfort, tbh.

The kids have requested another Pop Culture Education pick for our next movie night. Suggestions?? Previous picks: Rocky, The Godfather, Get Out, Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, 12 Angry Men, The Breakfast Club

One night all year i have plans after 9pm. One night all year i have to pick up my kid at 11pm. YES OF COURSE THEY ARE THE SAME NIGHT

It was August 2 days ago and somehow it is 56 degrees right now?? This has been such a weird summer.

Got a full request on the memoir 11 months ago so maybe I should finally follow up with that agent?

I don't understand how Spike Lee couldn't get a better script for this remake. Every way that it's good is in spite of the script. How do you not just get a better one? Maybe from someone who's written a script before??

Gilbert has been making a lot of money for a lot of years as someone who is wise and insightful, I saw her at a well paid keynote last year. So it's wild that she's out here freely telling everyone that she is a total mess who makes really terrible decisions and definitely shouldn't be trusted!

In her excellent posts on phone bans in schools today, this point bears repeating. Schools execute policies within their larger contexts and systemic issues. A school that deprioritizes low income students or students with disabilities will use this kind of policy to continue that discrimination.

I have lost count of the number of accounts I've seen on here engaging with that Snoop Dogg quote as if it is serious. He's in the right wing grift, that's where his money is coming from. The more you engage with it, the happier they are and the more money he makes.

My suspicion is that they have to talk this way because if they said what they really felt they would be voted out of office. They absolutely cannot speak freely.

The straw man is a classic right wing tactic that Democrats and centrists keep falling for. As soon as you engage with it, you lose.

This is a classic case where talking about Mamdani only makes him stronger. They are just SO bad at this! If you're so much better than him, why are you so obsessed with him??

Alien: Earth is fine. But honestly it's making me feel like we should just shut that universe down. I spent a long time being frustrated by the franchise and wanting the original vibes back. But now that I have them I'm bored!

This month I'm focusing on ways to cut back expenses, including cutting back on subscriptions. Then today I got off the Rancho Gordo Been Club wait-list.

Who the fuck let Mike Love talk at this funeral? Please do not let my nemesis that has been in a decades long feud with me for ownership of my creative output give me a fucking eulogy, don't let them in the door!

Newsletter out today! On why being unemployed isn't all that different from being in a reading slump. Also my favorite new books for August, including releases from @charliejane.bsky.social and @haileypiperfights.bsky.social jess-of-the-durbervilles.ghost.io/beating-the-...

If I was a world leader I would have a 1000% tariff because I would not be able to pretend that the US is run by a competent, rational person. I feel sympathetic towards these world leaders who sit there fake smiling because all the other world leaders have decided this is their best approach.

That scene in the new Final Destination where she's walking down the street pointing out all the things that can kill you is just how I live my life every day. These movies are just morbid anxiety, are there people that don't have that??

My key coping strategy during unemployment is to stay as busy as possible but I have absolutely no plans for Saturday and I'm nervous that just one empty day could fuck up weeks of work to stay okay.

This is sharp and personal and hilarious, diving into celebrity and capitalism and relatability. Best thing I've read in weeks.

@alexanderchee.bsky.social Just read your newsletter and I have this same experience in my Prius all the time! I think some people get offended when they see I'm driving faster than they are, as if I am doing it to hurt them individually. Mine is green and 10 years old which probably doesn't help 😂

I've been using Firefox and searching with DuckDuckGo for a few months now. Today for a project I had to replicate a search in Google and it is BANANAS how much worse the results were in Google. I know it but it really is something to see it so starkly.

Applied to a bunch of jobs over the last week or two. Which means it's now time for the parade of rejection emails to start arriving.

hey yall, does anybody know of a trustworthy expert who researches right-wing social media imagery and memes? it's for comment on a story

Guys. I stayed out late and drank a lot on a weeknight. This is a real achievement at 45! I'm very proud of myself.

I worry that Substack is keeping us from creating the kind of collectives that will become the new media we will need after Substack is no longer around.