ben chambers 🏴
@benjaminchambers.bsky.social
dipshit dilettante | og sjw | wokescold | apprentice of the cathedral | acolyte of cthulhu | partisan of the unpopular front | game theoretic moralist | free market communist | evangelist for anarchy | antistemlord aktion | mtm dysphoric | he/him/his
Pinned
remember, fascists are small men who want to feel big, dorks who want to look cool, simpletons who cant handle complexity
theyre losers who embrace a low effort ideology that lets them win, playing on easy mode to feel like theyve conquered something
theyre losers who embrace a low effort ideology that lets them win, playing on easy mode to feel like theyve conquered something
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
a good bit of the pathology attributed to 'religion' in the abstract is basically pathology associated with the psychology of social identity processes and the evolved psychology of coalitions; religion is a social identity & a basis for coalitions but it is hardly the only one
The decline of religion as a source of meaning in people's lives remains underrated as a factor shaping society. The need doesn't go away - they just seek it out elsewhere in (often false) health/wellness beliefs, (often highly polarized/conflictual) politics, etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
November 25, 2025 at 3:44 PM
a good bit of the pathology attributed to 'religion' in the abstract is basically pathology associated with the psychology of social identity processes and the evolved psychology of coalitions; religion is a social identity & a basis for coalitions but it is hardly the only one
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
the parts of our evolved cognitive architecture -- and some individuals' personalities in particular -- that contribute to classical forms of magical thinking do not simply evaporate when religious identity does, even if norms associated with some religious identities do facilitate magical thinking
a good bit of the pathology attributed to 'religion' in the abstract is basically pathology associated with the psychology of social identity processes and the evolved psychology of coalitions; religion is a social identity & a basis for coalitions but it is hardly the only one
The decline of religion as a source of meaning in people's lives remains underrated as a factor shaping society. The need doesn't go away - they just seek it out elsewhere in (often false) health/wellness beliefs, (often highly polarized/conflictual) politics, etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
November 25, 2025 at 3:51 PM
the parts of our evolved cognitive architecture -- and some individuals' personalities in particular -- that contribute to classical forms of magical thinking do not simply evaporate when religious identity does, even if norms associated with some religious identities do facilitate magical thinking
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
venezuela under maduro is a patrimonial military dictatorship and petro-party-state, but, all things considered, i think its best for everyone if us forces eat shit bay of pigs style and the trump ii regime gets humiliated
November 25, 2025 at 1:33 AM
venezuela under maduro is a patrimonial military dictatorship and petro-party-state, but, all things considered, i think its best for everyone if us forces eat shit bay of pigs style and the trump ii regime gets humiliated
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
Conservative Christians spent the past few decades trying to make the Boy Scouts into a strictly male strictly queerphobic space and you know what they reaped from all that showing of patriarchy? A $2.46 billion sexual abuse settlement.
November 25, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Conservative Christians spent the past few decades trying to make the Boy Scouts into a strictly male strictly queerphobic space and you know what they reaped from all that showing of patriarchy? A $2.46 billion sexual abuse settlement.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
It's much simpler than that. The Boy Scouts aren't maximally cruel to trans kids and so Republicans believe it should be destroyed.
Hegseth is very very terrified, deep deep down of something to do with maleness www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
U.S. ready to cut support to Scouts, accusing them of attacking 'boy-friendly spaces'
Documents show the U.S. military is planning to sever all ties with the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts.
www.npr.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 PM
It's much simpler than that. The Boy Scouts aren't maximally cruel to trans kids and so Republicans believe it should be destroyed.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
we have one of the most popular anarchist youtubers talking about game theory
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Bt...
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Bt...
Can Anarchy Protect Us From Bad People?
YouTube video by Andrewism
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
we have one of the most popular anarchist youtubers talking about game theory
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Bt...
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Bt...
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
I'm not going to read this because I can't be bothered with the Atlantic. But conservative standards have always barely risen above mere propaganda for their illiberal traditionalisms. Their contribution to academia and journalism has been risible.
Trump is both a product and a cause of the decline in intellectual standards on the right. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Conservative Movement’s Intellectual Collapse
Trump is both a product and a cause of the decline in intellectual standards on the right.
www.theatlantic.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:15 AM
I'm not going to read this because I can't be bothered with the Atlantic. But conservative standards have always barely risen above mere propaganda for their illiberal traditionalisms. Their contribution to academia and journalism has been risible.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
November 25, 2025 at 3:20 AM
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
The US currently has a whites only refugee policy.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
De Maistre must be like, the only intelligent conservative from the immediate French countrrevolutionary period, right?
November 24, 2025 at 1:36 AM
De Maistre must be like, the only intelligent conservative from the immediate French countrrevolutionary period, right?
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
so if i understand this correctly, gaines has made her career by publicly calling trans athletes predators and threats to women while completely failing to ever mention even once that her mentor/college swimming coach was sexually assaulting and harassing women on the team while she was there?
Riley Gaines climbed the MAGA ladder by vilifying trans women in sports. Now, teammates are speaking out about the real problems on her team: abusive coaching, sexual harassment, eating disorders. ow.ly/o3wq50XuCzp
How right-wing superstar Riley Gaines built an anti-trans empire
The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.
ow.ly
November 25, 2025 at 1:32 AM
so if i understand this correctly, gaines has made her career by publicly calling trans athletes predators and threats to women while completely failing to ever mention even once that her mentor/college swimming coach was sexually assaulting and harassing women on the team while she was there?
venezuela under maduro is a patrimonial military dictatorship and petro-party-state, but, all things considered, i think its best for everyone if us forces eat shit bay of pigs style and the trump ii regime gets humiliated
November 25, 2025 at 1:33 AM
venezuela under maduro is a patrimonial military dictatorship and petro-party-state, but, all things considered, i think its best for everyone if us forces eat shit bay of pigs style and the trump ii regime gets humiliated
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
This is often how personalist regimes work -- dozens of guys close to the leader compete for power and influence, backstabbing and out-maneuvering each other for the leader's attention/ignorance.
The crazy thing about Trump II is that we really have no idea who is drafting the war plans or the peace plans, or even how much Trump is in the loop on either.
November 24, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This is often how personalist regimes work -- dozens of guys close to the leader compete for power and influence, backstabbing and out-maneuvering each other for the leader's attention/ignorance.
offs this guy is making essentially the same movie over and over again
the vvitch was a masterpiece but every film since then has been the same pretentious grimdark period piece reboot of a Great Story(TM) insufficiently re-imaginative to justify its re-adaptation
the vvitch was a masterpiece but every film since then has been the same pretentious grimdark period piece reboot of a Great Story(TM) insufficiently re-imaginative to justify its re-adaptation
I fear that Robert Eggers is just making misery porn at this point.
November 25, 2025 at 12:48 AM
offs this guy is making essentially the same movie over and over again
the vvitch was a masterpiece but every film since then has been the same pretentious grimdark period piece reboot of a Great Story(TM) insufficiently re-imaginative to justify its re-adaptation
the vvitch was a masterpiece but every film since then has been the same pretentious grimdark period piece reboot of a Great Story(TM) insufficiently re-imaginative to justify its re-adaptation
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
You have to keep giving money to avoid collapse and if there’s collapse you have to give more money. It’s called the free market.
November 24, 2025 at 10:54 PM
You have to keep giving money to avoid collapse and if there’s collapse you have to give more money. It’s called the free market.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
"MeToo is bad because it's way worse than people realize and it may come for me."
November 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
"MeToo is bad because it's way worse than people realize and it may come for me."
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
everyone's bitching about smith, which is understandable, but i am still hung up on the "promotions were gated by sex." like just the most explicit, out-and-out sexual discrimination imaginable! this isn't even structural-microaggression stuff, just... AAAAAAAA
November 24, 2025 at 11:43 AM
everyone's bitching about smith, which is understandable, but i am still hung up on the "promotions were gated by sex." like just the most explicit, out-and-out sexual discrimination imaginable! this isn't even structural-microaggression stuff, just... AAAAAAAA
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
I assume this is the same Wes Yang who JK Rowling (amongst others) is mates with
November 24, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I assume this is the same Wes Yang who JK Rowling (amongst others) is mates with
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
Can I just point out that modern "anticapitalists" really have to read Lenin and Trotsky in the early days of the Revolution. Lenin is talking about communism as MORE Taylorism, FASTER industrialisation, a Central Bank as the model for a bureaucracy which makes Line Go Up *faster* than capitalism
I've spoken before about how many so-called "anti-capitalists" are actually just Against The Modern World (feudal nostalgists or even primitivists); but some look at the Stalinist model of "we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us" and think that was a FEATURE rather than a bug
“Capitalism forces you to wake up at 7am against your body’s natural rhythms” no that’s Taylorism and if you don’t like living in a society that coordinates effort to ensure a better outcome for all then I don’t think you’ll love the alternatives
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Can I just point out that modern "anticapitalists" really have to read Lenin and Trotsky in the early days of the Revolution. Lenin is talking about communism as MORE Taylorism, FASTER industrialisation, a Central Bank as the model for a bureaucracy which makes Line Go Up *faster* than capitalism
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
reactionaries see "science" as brute technology, and "history/philosophy" as a navel-gaze hobby
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
I’ve been noodling over Thiel’s use of “science” in his antichrist crap. First: as we see here, it sounds super weird and off, every time. Second: I think he means “technology”, but for some reason he avoids saying it.
"We need to stop science" is the creed of "one world" antichrists he claims. So, the people pointing to science to argue for addressing climate change also want us to stop science. No nuance, they want to stop "Science". Sure, buddy.
November 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
reactionaries see "science" as brute technology, and "history/philosophy" as a navel-gaze hobby
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
The homicide rate in modern Kenya is something like half that of 19th century Europe, and Kenya hasn't performed an execution in over 30 years.
November 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
The homicide rate in modern Kenya is something like half that of 19th century Europe, and Kenya hasn't performed an execution in over 30 years.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
Destroying DEI because they will never be FEI (funny, esteemed, or included).
November 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Destroying DEI because they will never be FEI (funny, esteemed, or included).
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
General Bill Slim, Britian's best WW2 General, thought encouraging private armies within the military was liable to end just as well (terribly) as encouraging them outside the military.
part of my pitch for future democratic military policy is "we should crush the special forces and double crush the seals specifically"
they contribute little-to-nothing valuable to american defense and are riddled with war crimes and also just regular crimes
they contribute little-to-nothing valuable to american defense and are riddled with war crimes and also just regular crimes
They're routing this through SOCOM ppl who have traditionally been used for assassinations abroad, presumably including occasional black ops on the high seas.
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
General Bill Slim, Britian's best WW2 General, thought encouraging private armies within the military was liable to end just as well (terribly) as encouraging them outside the military.
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
The reason this is rarely flipped is heterosexuality and patriarchy. Women are taught that men are brutish beasts they must nevertheless throw themselves at, love, redeem and civilize. When it’s flipped it’s usually “wah! evil sexy bitch lady monster tricked me with horny, then killed and ate me! 😢”
Has this pairing ever been flipped? Where a man falls in love with a monster?
November 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
The reason this is rarely flipped is heterosexuality and patriarchy. Women are taught that men are brutish beasts they must nevertheless throw themselves at, love, redeem and civilize. When it’s flipped it’s usually “wah! evil sexy bitch lady monster tricked me with horny, then killed and ate me! 😢”
reactionaries see "science" as brute technology, and "history/philosophy" as a navel-gaze hobby
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
I’ve been noodling over Thiel’s use of “science” in his antichrist crap. First: as we see here, it sounds super weird and off, every time. Second: I think he means “technology”, but for some reason he avoids saying it.
"We need to stop science" is the creed of "one world" antichrists he claims. So, the people pointing to science to argue for addressing climate change also want us to stop science. No nuance, they want to stop "Science". Sure, buddy.
November 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
reactionaries see "science" as brute technology, and "history/philosophy" as a navel-gaze hobby
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
science for them is about creating advanced tools to augment their power and control, and humanities about generating airs of superiority and intellectualized justifications for their power and privilege
Reposted by ben chambers 🏴
I mean, all climate campaigners are by definition big believers in science, since that's how we know about global warming in the first place. Just absolutely nonsensical accusations.
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I mean, all climate campaigners are by definition big believers in science, since that's how we know about global warming in the first place. Just absolutely nonsensical accusations.