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Reposted by Embrace the Void

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 12h

every ruling out of chicago is like, "federal judge rules ICE agents cannot desecrate graves; must not deploy nuclear weapons against journalists and faith leaders."

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 9h

One concern I have with the other framing that this avoids is it may lands us in false balance centrism where if the progressives want trans rights for kids and the conservatives don’t the answer must be a compromise, rather than to recognize one argument is better than the other.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 9h

There I think you have the stronger argument for a “healthy Conservative Party” for sure. There’s some concern that attempts at a healthy Conservative Party consistently succumbs to fascism. Other options would be multiparty issue focused systems but we live in American hell so…

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 9h

I think small c conservatism is status quo bias, which can lead to skepticism about change but not necessarily the most functional kind. I think a single individual can be both dispositionally progressive and also have a healthy skepticism to change that sounds “too good to be true,” for example.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 9h

Right, but like Mill points out we can do that through dialogue and debate that doesn’t require some folks to be stubbornly resistant or fearful of change. Those aren’t great basis for quality control and we’ve seen that play out in practice.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 9h

I think you can be a progressive though and also have healthy skepticism about change. We don’t need to divide that labor up into two political camps to get the desired effect I don’t think. I think we’re trying to find a value in conservatism but I’m not convinced the evidence supports that.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 10h

I’m fine with 2 and 3 here, but I’m skeptical about 1 at this point. Mill makes this same claim but it seems largely to assume that progressives can’t balance ourselves. I think we can manage without conservatism, which is just status quo bias at scale, with basic quality control on new ideas.

Astreia @redoubters.bsky.social · 14h

1) Conservatism, in an ideal world, serves a role similar to that of a defense attorney, by making those who want societal change argue/demonstrate/prove that it will be beneficial, not just change for change's sake
2) Conservative people exist
3) They need a sane non-fascist party to vote for

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 11h

The other side of the uncanny valley is gonna be wall to wall nightmare fuel.

Aaron Stewart-Ahn @badideas.bsky.social · 14h

Oh god just saw this OpenAI generated video someone posted to Reddit of ‘A girl knocks on your door at 3am’ and this may be the least mentally healthy product on the planet it not most terrifying

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 14h

Invincible is such an orange flag fandom.

DC Updates @updates4dc.bsky.social · 3d

Invincible and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman says Omni-Man could easily take down Superman, adding, “Superman sucks.” (via Collider)

#OmniMan #Superman #Invincible #TheWalkingDead

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 19h

They're still litigating the Civil War so...

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 19h

Stringer Bell from The Wire with the text "Is you texting notes on a racist fucking conspiracy?

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 23h

Wrapped up The Fire is Upon Us. It’s so relevant because nothing has changed for the GOP in 50 years. Atwater gets a lot of credit for the Southern Strategy but Buckley should too. He saw the electoral power of racial resentment and crafted modern conservatism around it, and here we fucking are.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

Between his emphasis on “color-blind” approaches to preserving segregation and his objection that calling him a racist for believing certain facts about the races dilutes the concept, Buckley was an early adopter of the neoliberal compromise on race that now dominates discourse on the topic today.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

Somehow this book got even more relevant since I last listened to it. Buckley is so absurdly racist and yet his civility porn approach meant so many people saw him as practicing politics the right way. Truly, every page of this book sounds like it could be describing the current moment.

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Reposted by Embrace the Void

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 1d

The executive is usurping a core Article I function, this should be treated with the same amount of alarm as if he declared he's disbanding Congress, because that's functionally what he's doing/done

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

The fact that ICE recruiting cannibalizes local police seems like it validates a lot of criticisms of local police.

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 1d

What Trump is doing is very bad. But I want to push back against some of the numbers here.

ICE did not hire 10,000 agents. It WANTS to. That it keeps running ads suggests it is struggling. And when it does, it seems to cannibalize local police, who don't like that.

More significantly:

Peter Sterne @petersterne.com · 1d

"(Officers) refuse to recognize local or court authority. A judge says you can’t arrest journalists. Watch us. A judge says we have to wear badges. No. State law says we can’t drive around in unmarked vans? Too bad. Elected officials who want to see what is going on should prepare to be arrested."

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a wonderful modern Socratic dialogue that actually changed my views on personhood. The follow up book is also great.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

Every year we are increasingly cursed with Christopher Columbus discourse when Sopranos clearly settled the issue back in 2002.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

Yep. Quite a reversal on the southern strategy in that sense.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

Between his emphasis on “color-blind” approaches to preserving segregation and his objection that calling him a racist for believing certain facts about the races dilutes the concept, Buckley was an early adopter of the neoliberal compromise on race that now dominates discourse on the topic today.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

Somehow this book got even more relevant since I last listened to it. Buckley is so absurdly racist and yet his civility porn approach meant so many people saw him as practicing politics the right way. Truly, every page of this book sounds like it could be describing the current moment.

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 3d

I’m in a funk waiting for my book to get published so I’m going back and listening to books that really did it for me the past few years. First up, The Fire Next Time, about the Buckley vs. Baldwin debate. I continue to be struck by the paradox of progress. Things get better AND they stay the same.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

…the use of the phrase “frogs together strong,” an allusion to Planet of the Apes, reflects both the deep roots of activism in environmentalist causes and the fact that the “apes” represent the subordinated classes overcoming their entho-cultural differences to unite in liberation…

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 1d

The use of frog costumes is not a mere accident of choice. Due to their permeable skin, amphibians have a higher sensitivity to pollutants in the environment. This makes them nature’s own “canaries in a coal mine” and so organic symbols of protest. In this absurdist essay I will

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

S-tier special effects makeup.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

lol I bring up in my book how confused I am by the popularity but seeming lack of social impact of Carol. Like, why is this socialist screed the most produced performance of all time in this Capitalist hellscape?!

Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

I haven’t seen a ratio this pure since the before times.

Ratio on a pro Bari Weiss article. 5 reposts, 415 quotes, 16 likes. 1.1k comments.

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

Peter Thiel screaming crying throwing up reading this.

NPR @npr.org · 2d

Gen Z protesters from Indonesia and Nepal to Madagascar and Morocco, are rallying behind an unexpected banner: a grinning skull in a straw hat.

Why Gen Z protesters worldwide are flying an anime pirate flag

Gen Z protesters from Indonesia and Nepal to Madagascar and Morocco, are rallying behind an unexpected banner: a grinning skull in a straw hat.

n.pr

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Embrace the Void @etvpod.bsky.social · 2d

The most trenchant philosophical critique ever drawn.

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