Hey, you guys know that author whose fiction I keep plugging on my theology podcast, @anarchodoxpod.bsky.social ? No, not Pterry. The other one. Yeah, her. She's got a sale on of her books for Pride. Go buy some.

Minor PS: if my last article about an author’s political stances led to a direct refutation by that author’s daughter, I would simply fade away from the mortification, but I guess some people lack the organ of shame.

In sum, skip the Atlantic on this one and read Monstrous Regiment, a great standalone Pratchett and a perfect book for right now, because it takes on propaganda, war, gender, and how religious zealots starve nations and ruin everything. Quote me on that, why don’t you.

Pratchett’s politics evolved over the series, because he wrote them over the course of most of his life, and his own thoughts evolved. This does not make his politics “hard to pin down” unless what you’re trying to do is avoid describing the conclusions he reached about, say, trans rights, HELEN.

From the start Vimes celebrates justice rather than mere order: his ancestor was a famous regicide and that possibility is always lurking. He fights against other police on the regular, and in Night Watch he straight up joins the revolutionaries in the People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road.

Sure, he started as a silly joke about an activist who became a zombie by refusing to die out of optimist zeal — but by the time we reach Night Watch, where we see that death, it is intensely moving and heroic. Related: to say Vimes is an example of lionizing the police is, in a word, LMAO

Sometimes as an NYT books columnist you find yourself quoted in the Atlantic by Helen Lewis, who believes two odd things: 1. That nobody is reading Pratchett anymore (instead of all the time, as they should), and 2. That Pratchett’s politics are hard to pin down, and Reg Shoe is not a fucking hero.

Agree and this bsky.app/profile/adam...

The GOP caters to its base while Democrats despise theirs and would like a different base.

Status report, "May the 24th Warmup": Absolutely super weather today. Think I'll go put up the umbrella over the paddock table, pour a glass of something cold, settle down outside for a bit, and reread NIGHT WATCH. (While pausing to enjoy a hardboiled egg or so...) #GNUTerryPratchett

Yep. It's the droid situation all over again... :/

PSA:

If you've ever thought to yourself, "I wish there were a theorist of ecological communism who also made great wallpaper," then I have an article just for you. doi.org/10.1177/1474...

If yoh see this, post a Star Trek.

Hear a good Word from Diane.

Pick a Bond from photos you already have in your phone

@peter.petermorwood.com glanced at this image once, smiled, and merely said, walking away to get some tea: "That's no castle. Like its owner, it's indefensible."

Me right after posting this: god damn it, this is just sexy murder poet vs basically pleasant bureaucrat, isn’t it?

Calvin’s dad voice: The two types of philosophy are mysticism and lists. All philosophy falls into one of these two categories. Plato? Mysticism. Aristotle? Lists. Confucius? Lists. Zhuangzi? Mysticism. Despite constantly talking about true essences and infinite attributes, Spinoza is lists.

@billieiswriting.bsky.social, @dr-maeforrest.bsky.social and I ended up doing a LOT of this on this week's episode of @anarchodoxpod.bsky.social .

There is a new trend among young men, and it has a lot of unexamined aspects that frankly terrify Bill and Mae, so they lit the beacons and summoned friend of the show and fellow anarchist theologian @billieiswriting.bsky.social to tackle the issue. www.patreon.com/posts/s3e18-...

How do you play Game Changer: Home Edition? 🤔

Need someone to make that "Fuck off I don't believe in that madeup nonsense 😡/ so true!!! 😁" meme but for God and AI girlfriends

To be clear, it continues to baffle me that I'm allowed to drive, since I am objectively bad at it, but without robust transit I'm not gonna *stop.*

The main reason I support transit is that many people should not be allowed to drive and that shouldn't be immiserating to enforce

"When I kneeled at Orthanc and vowed my allegiance to the white hand, I had no idea we would be in league with Sauron!"

Socialists, I request that you internalize this

As somebody who due to spinal and hip crap now has trouble walking longish distances... Dublin is a tiny hell because there's NOWHERE TO SIT. :/

I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"

If he shouts out to Sankara this place will explode

The hootin’ and hollerin’ this site will do if the pope drops a reference to Fanon

If you did not know, we have another show! You've been missing out Fox in the Hell Housethe most anarchic X-Files review podcast on the internet, led by actual anarchists. Check out Fox in the Hell House, everywhere fine podcasts are found!

WE ARE ON STRIKE TODAY! As someone who regularly looks at ProPublica web traffic, today's the only day of my career I want to see low numbers. We know our readers support our union. Don't read us today. We'll be there tomorrow.

“No self-enclosed government agency has the right to reduce humanity to ashes. There is no law, no police agency and no sanctimonious institution higher than the law of life itself.” - Murray Bookchin, Stop The Bomb (1954) theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murr...

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!

“Fly me to the Moon, let me play among the stars” - - Frank Sinatra “I need to borrow your rocket, I ain’t telling you why” - Evasive Sinatra

This is really all they have left. "We have a pointless and criminal war pushing gas prices through the roof and the global economy to the brink but at least the government isn't treating trans people like they're human beings" will be the entirety of the midterm message.

Happy Holy Abolitionist Day to all who celebrate.

Which of our colleagues said “I’d sooner put a gun in my mouth”? THAT.

Once again, if you happen to be looking for some new wizard books to replace THOSE wizard books, I *cannot* rec DD enough. (Also I think some of them are currently on sale and you should buy them.) [Once more with feeling, as it were...]

Once again, if you happen to be looking for some new wizard books to replace THOSE wizard books, I *cannot* rec DD enough. (Also I think some of them are currently on sale and you should buy them.)

couldn't come up with better PR for transgenders than "underground transgender mafia successfully heisted 12 tonnes of Kitkats"

I am allergic to penicillin.

This whole concept in LOTR is one of my favourite parts of the whole book. “Evil fucks up because evil people fundamentally cannot imagine that others are not motivated by the same things as them” is another theme that feels relevant right now

Abolish DHS absolutely includes Fuck The TSA

Deploring Israel's actions as a state isn't antisemitic. Attacking Jews and symbols of Jewish culture in supposed retaliation for Israel's actions is however *textbook* antisemitism and these are not complicated thoughts to simultaneously hold in one's head.

I expect the Harry Potter show will be popular, at least for a while, and the extremism of the author will be minimized. If this comes to pass, I suggest practicing these phrases: "No, I haven't heard about it." "Isn't that for, uh, 11 year olds?" "So... you're really still into that? Uh. OK."

movie about all the world's nations working together to stave off an environmental apocalypse succeeds by completely avoiding politics