(Zizek voice) See? Writers and engineers are not enemies. In fact they are making out, kissing sloppy style and so on and so forth...

I have to admit, I'm a bit lost on how to communicate ideas along the lines of "these people are genuinely very bigoted and the policies they're pushing contribute to that, but I don't think that the policy is deliberately formulated to get that result: they're genuinely too dumb to track cause and

Definitely more of a LinkedIn post than a Bluesky one, this one, but it might still be fun

I know that it's perhaps too much to hope for, but Brandon Sanderson should pull as much of his IP that he can from the game. A small thing, but it'd make me happy

Jeszcze wokeness nie zgineło, kiedy my żyjemy

I am ashamed to say that I initially misread that as Hamon and momentarily thought that the NYT was trying to push a pro-Pillar Men agenda.

we will let bill kristol have one regime change. he gets el Salvador

Not so much for the military tech thing either, alas. This government's defence policy is *also* dogshit.

I think we start with Zakat and Sawm, and *maybe* Hajj as a stretch goal

Why does Sliwa look like a VDV sergeant with a massive hangover?

Why are you, a trans woman, thinking about sex? You should be reading Clausewitz and Jomini and thinking about the importance of interior lines. (Admittedly I only know of two trans women who go all in on military theory, and one of them is me, but I still think it should be a stereotype!)

You know, for someone who's a trans woman, and even pretty femme, I'm startlingly unfeminine much of the time

Apologies for my absence from the hellsite for the last nine days: I had to block it (in /etc/hosts, even) to maintain a bit of sanity. I will be restoring the block soon, but rest assured, you shall be getting my cursed posts again just as soon as I figure out how to write a client that doesn't...

Alright, first new article in a while, and it's my fiftieth! This one's about the important but subtle difference between social skills and social traits: deadsimpletech.com/blog/notes_o...

From the archives: 2025-11-02 at 21:09 PM Licking the AI Boot

From the archives: 2025-11-01 at 22:06 PM Licking the AI Boot

From the archives: 2025-10-31 at 23:08 PM Coding in a material world

From the archives: 2025-10-30 at 21:20 PM The abuser economy

From the archives: 2025-10-28 at 21:43 PM Migrating my website from Vercel to Hetzner Part 1 - OpenTofu and cloud-init

From the archives: 2025-10-27 at 21:42 PM Addicted to bullshit

From the archives: 2025-10-26 at 22:07 PM What it's like

From the archives: 2025-10-25 at 21:39 PM Living As If

You know, these are just generally excellent words to live by

Patience is a difficult virtue to cultivate, and probably the one in which, alas, I'm most lacking

If you *are* going to try and grow something to help with meals (without necessarily expecting to feed yourself entirely), I'd go for a) herbs and b) leafy greens. Short turn-around time, you can get a useable amount out of a window box or similar, it helps with vitamins and minerals

From the archives: 2025-10-23 at 20:13 PM Who has permission to know things?

Existing literature distinguishes "purity testing" - withholding support from candidates who fail to meet each and all of a set of standards - and its negation, which treats all standards as expendable. Such a distinction elides a third possibility I call "tattoo inspection". In this essay I will -

So, these guys suck but also while they imagine they are hearkening back to some traditional birth pattern, they're not. As blog readers will know, by the Early Modern, much of Europe is a late/late marriage pattern society, with childbearing starting in the mid-late 20s. acoup.blog/2025/08/01/c...

Of course this kind of discourse on child-bearing is almost invariably a gossamer-thin cover for deep masculine insecurity and a desperate effort to paper it over it by exerting domination over the lives of women.

I hate that understanding this is actually useful knowledge of a sort

increasingly obvious that the dividing line in american politics is between people who think trump is causing democratic backsliding and those who aren't

The three cultures I know of that linked performance of masculinity with ability to fire off poetic verse are: Viking, Samurai, and late 20th century African American urban poor. All produced aesthetics people find fascinating, and all had a really high murder rate. Not sure what to make of this. 🤷🏽

Goddamn, @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social is good at this shit.

Huge idiot whose blog is mysteriously read by a concerning number of very smart people, reporting for duty

I think that one important lesson for liberals and socialists alike is that organising in a largeish group to try and advocate for your needs and wants is in and of itself a good thing

Have to admit, I hope they do well enough that they win an *actual* Nobel for it

I have to admit, it's a little odd to me that a lot of the doomerism on here kinda presumes that "nativist fascist regime" is a stable equilibrium. These things inevitably fall apart, and faster than we expect

OK, but I believe shellfish are only Halal according to the Maliki school (which is of course the correct school of Fiqh, but point is, this ain't a universal opinion)

Should I ever speak to my parents again, I will have to ask my dad why all his favourite "intellectuals" turned out to be... like this

Does Judith have no sense of self-preservation? In five years time, this is going to be roughly equivalent to her taking a photo with Oskar Dirlewanger

This does mean, by-the-by, that a good way for us to win is to give people healthier ways to get that recognition and respect. It's not likely to persuade the hard core of Trump supporters, but it's great for engaging people who have been depoliticised.

Oh. Oh no. This is an uncomfortably good encapsulation of my essays.

So, what I'm getting from this is that the next election is going to be Greens vs Reform vs Lib Dems? Because Labour and the Conservatives... well, they seem to be trying to mimic Reform, but not even in a whole-hearted way? Farage believes his shit. Labour and the Cons just feel gross and sleazy

*winces* OK, yes, but they also very much do not pronounce European names correctly. Like, at all.

The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath

A friend of mine has started a blog, and it's really good: I wholly recommend you to read it.

i liked this essay from @miniver.bsky.social on what's broken down--on the idea that there was a kind of genuine post-80 compromise, that it seemed p good to both parties at the time, and also that both sides now have reason to reject it miniver.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

I do think that what's likely to happen is eventually a wholesale collapse and replacement of the elite class with someone quite a lot more woke, because it turns out that some level of connection to reality is required to actually run a country, and that tends to lead to leftish beliefs

Please make this happen! I would not mind a high-ranking civil service job, and if Trump Fascism becomes properly cringe I might just get one.

After yet another job rejection where I was found to be "very impressive" and yet turned down for reasons unrelated to my candidacy, I'm tempted just to say that whenever someone has nothing but good things to say about me as a candidate and still throws me out, they should pay me $20,000