J. Martin
@gyokusai.bsky.social
300 followers 45 following 1.2K posts
All my snark is sincere. Writer, Ph.D., Professor of Game Design. Not necessarily in that order. JAN 2007 Twitter veteran as gyokusai, movethirtyseven, & newsoftheend. 加油 🇭🇰 🟩 🇺🇦 🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌮 🕎 ☮️ https://mastodon.social/deck/@gyokusai https://linktr.ee/gyokusai
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Reposted by J. Martin
jamellebouie.net
Hi Sally. When Weiss published a supposed expose on the death of George Floyd, a veteran criminal justice reporter showed in deep detail that the piece was not just wrong but filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations. Weiss did not retract the piece. What do you think of that?
sallyjenx.bsky.social
This is really smart. Amazed at the hysteria over the ascendance of a woman entrepreneur who clearly knows how to cover and sell news and who's not afraid to take on a mob. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss
The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by J. Martin
brianlyman.bsky.social
The federal courts have degenerated into places for far-right charlatans to bypass democracy, and democratic reforms must start there.
Reposted by J. Martin
jamellebouie.net
oh this guy is delusional delusional
sharonk.bsky.social
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
Reposted by J. Martin
eliasisquith.blog
i think it’s noteworthy that a lot of centrist pundits have decided to just take it as a given that jd vance lies constantly and to treat this as almost part of his intellectual program so that only gauche rubes would bother to mention or care about it.
Reposted by J. Martin
Reposted by J. Martin
gyokusai.bsky.social
美輪山 Meilunshan Forest Park, Hualien, Taiwan

April 2025, Canon PowerShot

#Hualien #Taiwan #Photography
Signpost in greenery.
gyokusai.bsky.social
First Listen: Weathered by Creed, released November 2001

rateyourmusic.com/release/albu...

#Grunge #PostGrunge #music
Cover art from the album Weathered by Creed
Reposted by J. Martin
ibogost.bsky.social
I suppose I know the answer to the original question, which is that "congrats" is an obsequious lie meant to reward a person for conforming with the expectations or demands of the agent issuing the fake congratulatory message. It means, "Your compliance is my accomplishment."
gyokusai.bsky.social
花蓮市 Hualien Cityscapes

April 2025, Canon PowerShot

#Hualien #Taiwan #Photography
Close-up of a facade with tiles, hanzi, AC units, balconies, and laundry hanging out to dry.
gyokusai.bsky.social
The New York Times, in these trying times, turns out to be the New York Post in a tuxedo.
karlbode.com
you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate
NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."
Reposted by J. Martin
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
The NYT is absolute fucking trash.
karlbode.com
you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate
NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."
gyokusai.bsky.social
Cutaway, Taipei, Taiwan

April 2025, Canon PowerShot

#Taipei #Taiwan #Photography
Facade with open stairs and sheet-iron containers.
Reposted by J. Martin
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
Reposted by J. Martin
theradr.bsky.social
"lockstep" is quite the word choice for this approach, AP
apnews.com
Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.
Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury
Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.
bit.ly
gyokusai.bsky.social
台北車站 Taipei Main Station Ticketing Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

May 2025, Canon PowerShot

#Taipei #Taiwan #Photography
Atrium-like train station ticketing hall.
Reposted by J. Martin
ibogost.bsky.social
I received direct email marketing from a company that has previously sold me goods. I clicked to see the promotion but didn't add anything to a cart or even view a product detail page. Within an hour the company sent this "you forgot to buy our shit" nag. Email is the enemy and must be eradicated.
Reposted by J. Martin
adamserwer.bsky.social
stephentotilo.bsky.social
SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...
Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year
Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File
www.gamefile.news
Reposted by J. Martin
gyokusai.bsky.social
四四南村 Forty-Four South Village, Taipei, Taiwan

May 2025, Canon PowerShot

#Taipei #Taiwan #Photography
Footway between old two-story houses with balconies and open doors.
Reposted by J. Martin
meanwhileua.bsky.social
The face of Ukraine’s defense: courage has no gender.

📷: @DPSU_ua
Reposted by J. Martin
karlbode.com
twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross
photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)