Alon (they/them)
@alonlevy.bsky.social
Transit researcher in Berlin. Lived in Tel Aviv, Singapore, the Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris. https://pedestrianobservations.com/ http://patreon.com/alonlevy [email protected] @[email protected]
Yes, and the solution of outmoraling them is such a punt.
February 11, 2026 at 3:23 AM
Yes, and the solution of outmoraling them is such a punt.
Yeah, if people are estimating 750,000, or 600,000 as I saw in another post, then that's fine. What I object to is the 20 million dead over 5 years estimate.
February 11, 2026 at 2:17 AM
Yeah, if people are estimating 750,000, or 600,000 as I saw in another post, then that's fine. What I object to is the 20 million dead over 5 years estimate.
The problem is that it isn't anything like the history of Nazi anti-Semitism in any year beforehand, either. It's not even like the US/UK reception of Nazism as dangerously efficient tyranny. (In contrast, US/UK transphobia absolutely is parallel to Nazi anti-Semitism ca. 1934.)
February 11, 2026 at 2:16 AM
The problem is that it isn't anything like the history of Nazi anti-Semitism in any year beforehand, either. It's not even like the US/UK reception of Nazism as dangerously efficient tyranny. (In contrast, US/UK transphobia absolutely is parallel to Nazi anti-Semitism ca. 1934.)
There's so much preference for dynasts in American politics that the baseline assumption should be that they're less qualified. It's like hearing that someone got into Harvard on legacy preferences: it should count against them.
February 11, 2026 at 2:15 AM
There's so much preference for dynasts in American politics that the baseline assumption should be that they're less qualified. It's like hearing that someone got into Harvard on legacy preferences: it should count against them.
0.04/1,000 is 325,000, yeah.
February 11, 2026 at 1:42 AM
0.04/1,000 is 325,000, yeah.
To give credit where due, his opponent a) was a Kennedy and b) opposed legalizing marijuana on the grounds that it would make pretextual police stops harder. Having dynasts is as bad as having too many geezers.
February 11, 2026 at 1:39 AM
To give credit where due, his opponent a) was a Kennedy and b) opposed legalizing marijuana on the grounds that it would make pretextual police stops harder. Having dynasts is as bad as having too many geezers.
Yeah, if it happens people here are going to react the same as they did to 7.10 (extremely derogatory).
February 11, 2026 at 1:37 AM
Yeah, if it happens people here are going to react the same as they did to 7.10 (extremely derogatory).
The Rowling strain of transphobia kind of does view trans people that way - as a conspiracy of men to invade women's spaces. It liberally borrows from the anti-Semitism of portraying hook-nosed goblins controlling the banks.
February 11, 2026 at 1:34 AM
The Rowling strain of transphobia kind of does view trans people that way - as a conspiracy of men to invade women's spaces. It liberally borrows from the anti-Semitism of portraying hook-nosed goblins controlling the banks.
Sanity check question: the global crude death rate is around 62 million people per year. I see a figure of 20 million deaths from USAID cuts bandied about - but even spread over multiple years, it should be visible in global crude death rates. Has it been visible?
February 11, 2026 at 1:20 AM
Sanity check question: the global crude death rate is around 62 million people per year. I see a figure of 20 million deaths from USAID cuts bandied about - but even spread over multiple years, it should be visible in global crude death rates. Has it been visible?
Okay. So, 16 km is almost exactly the sum of U8 to Märkisches Viertel, U7 to BER (purely development-oriented), and U5 to ex-TXL (also development-oriented).
February 11, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Okay. So, 16 km is almost exactly the sum of U8 to Märkisches Viertel, U7 to BER (purely development-oriented), and U5 to ex-TXL (also development-oriented).
Then why kill an activist while her partner is sitting in the car filming things? None of that interaction screams "premeditated murder" and everything screams "heat-of-the-moment murder."
February 11, 2026 at 1:14 AM
Then why kill an activist while her partner is sitting in the car filming things? None of that interaction screams "premeditated murder" and everything screams "heat-of-the-moment murder."
If you mean anti-Semitism, then it's an example and not a counterexample. Jewish economic success has been a dampener on anti-Semitism. For example: Jews got to write our own narrative of the Holocaust; Roma largely didn't.
February 11, 2026 at 1:08 AM
If you mean anti-Semitism, then it's an example and not a counterexample. Jewish economic success has been a dampener on anti-Semitism. For example: Jews got to write our own narrative of the Holocaust; Roma largely didn't.
Also, to be clear, the alt-left doesn't think Will should be shunned, they think he should be murdered for the crime of not being a communist dead-ender.
February 11, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Also, to be clear, the alt-left doesn't think Will should be shunned, they think he should be murdered for the crime of not being a communist dead-ender.
I mean, my American feed more or less never talks about the genocide of Native Americans on its own terms. People do get outraged when I joke about Manifest Destiny genocide.
February 11, 2026 at 1:02 AM
I mean, my American feed more or less never talks about the genocide of Native Americans on its own terms. People do get outraged when I joke about Manifest Destiny genocide.
And as for implicit directives: yes, they exist for some historic genocides - the orders to exterminate the Armenians were oral rather than written, and the orders to commit the Holocaust never had Hitler's signature. But the totality and non-randomness of these are distinct from the murder of Good.
February 11, 2026 at 12:56 AM
And as for implicit directives: yes, they exist for some historic genocides - the orders to exterminate the Armenians were oral rather than written, and the orders to commit the Holocaust never had Hitler's signature. But the totality and non-randomness of these are distinct from the murder of Good.
Yes, and this parallels other bottom-up brutality, including by regular police and by the odd enlisted IDF nutter (like Elor Azaria; this is not the same as the odd IDF officer nutter like the guy who ordered shooting on WCK).
February 11, 2026 at 12:53 AM
Yes, and this parallels other bottom-up brutality, including by regular police and by the odd enlisted IDF nutter (like Elor Azaria; this is not the same as the odd IDF officer nutter like the guy who ordered shooting on WCK).
Am I allowed to apply a multiplier for the fact that where I live, subways cost something like 1/3 what they cost in non-New York America?
February 11, 2026 at 12:41 AM
Am I allowed to apply a multiplier for the fact that where I live, subways cost something like 1/3 what they cost in non-New York America?
It's not internationally prohibited. Like nearly all other weapons, it is permitted against military targets and forbidden against civilian ones. Israel is attacking military targets; the serious criticism is that it has high tolerance of collateral civilian casualties.
February 11, 2026 at 12:14 AM
It's not internationally prohibited. Like nearly all other weapons, it is permitted against military targets and forbidden against civilian ones. Israel is attacking military targets; the serious criticism is that it has high tolerance of collateral civilian casualties.
He kissed one of his siblings, right? Pedophile.
February 10, 2026 at 10:49 PM
He kissed one of his siblings, right? Pedophile.
I just say "queers" and let the counterparty be the asshole who language-polices me.
February 10, 2026 at 10:25 PM
I just say "queers" and let the counterparty be the asshole who language-polices me.
And Sunak's, until Labour shifted to actually reducing immigration numbers and wondering why line no go up.
February 10, 2026 at 10:24 PM
And Sunak's, until Labour shifted to actually reducing immigration numbers and wondering why line no go up.
Queer is the same number of characters as LGBTQ and fewer than anything with more identities. It's also one syllable. So I use that.
February 10, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Queer is the same number of characters as LGBTQ and fewer than anything with more identities. It's also one syllable. So I use that.
Yeah, fair, if the point is to be defensive and make sure the Democrats win the House in a neutral environment then it's fine. The CB 2/3 border is annoying, though :(.
February 10, 2026 at 9:25 PM
Yeah, fair, if the point is to be defensive and make sure the Democrats win the House in a neutral environment then it's fine. The CB 2/3 border is annoying, though :(.
Is there an aristocrats-style joke called "the popularists" about Starmer?
UK (GB), YouGov poll:
REFORM~NI: 27% (+1)
LAB-S&D: 19%
CON~ECR: 18%
GREENS-G/EFA: 16% (-1)
LDEM-RE: 14%
SNP-G/EFA: 3%
PC-G/EFA: 2%
+/- vs. 01-02 February 2026
Fieldwork: 08-09 February 2026
Sample size: 2,466
➤ europeelects.eu/uk
REFORM~NI: 27% (+1)
LAB-S&D: 19%
CON~ECR: 18%
GREENS-G/EFA: 16% (-1)
LDEM-RE: 14%
SNP-G/EFA: 3%
PC-G/EFA: 2%
+/- vs. 01-02 February 2026
Fieldwork: 08-09 February 2026
Sample size: 2,466
➤ europeelects.eu/uk
February 10, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Is there an aristocrats-style joke called "the popularists" about Starmer?