Graham Cummins
@grahamiancummins.bsky.social
Bikes, transit, tech, dense cities, wilderness, thriving within environmental limits.
One of the top political questions on my mind is how many young GOP are really literal, devoted, out-of-the-closet Nazis, and how many are doing youth rebellion: trying to find any way to offend and shock a culture that's too jaded and/or permissive to be shocked.
In Aug., the NY Young Republican Club posted a statement to its website in support of the AfD. The statement concluded with the phrase “AfD über alles” in bold, a play on the line “Deutschland über alles,” which was frequently used in Nazi propaganda www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Young Republicans chapter plans to host far-right German leader after ‘I love Hitler’ chat
The New York Young Republican Club will host Markus Frohnmaier, an AfD deputy chairman, at its annual gala after calling for a ‘new civic order’ in Germany.
www.politico.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
One of the top political questions on my mind is how many young GOP are really literal, devoted, out-of-the-closet Nazis, and how many are doing youth rebellion: trying to find any way to offend and shock a culture that's too jaded and/or permissive to be shocked.
To some extent, I think Republicans themselves believe Murc's Law.
If you run on "the Government is fundamentally bad and will turn anything it touches to shit" for long enough, you end up having a hard time imagining good things for the government to do.
If you run on "the Government is fundamentally bad and will turn anything it touches to shit" for long enough, you end up having a hard time imagining good things for the government to do.
I'm personally guilty of believing Murc's Law in this case. I can't imagine them even _trying_ to improve conditions. That's just not something they do.
I can imagine them:
1. sending out checks signed by Trump
2. starting a war
3. starting a domestic meltdown equivalent to a war
I can imagine them:
1. sending out checks signed by Trump
2. starting a war
3. starting a domestic meltdown equivalent to a war
December 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
To some extent, I think Republicans themselves believe Murc's Law.
If you run on "the Government is fundamentally bad and will turn anything it touches to shit" for long enough, you end up having a hard time imagining good things for the government to do.
If you run on "the Government is fundamentally bad and will turn anything it touches to shit" for long enough, you end up having a hard time imagining good things for the government to do.
A minor but blatent example:
Influential voices directed at young men who aren't getting laid are directly rewarded with money and political power when young men don't get laid. This has predictable effects on the quality of their advice.
Influential voices directed at young men who aren't getting laid are directly rewarded with money and political power when young men don't get laid. This has predictable effects on the quality of their advice.
Our culture is good at reaching the outcomes it incentivizes, but suicidally bad at choosing which outcomes to incentivize.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
December 3, 2025 at 1:56 PM
A minor but blatent example:
Influential voices directed at young men who aren't getting laid are directly rewarded with money and political power when young men don't get laid. This has predictable effects on the quality of their advice.
Influential voices directed at young men who aren't getting laid are directly rewarded with money and political power when young men don't get laid. This has predictable effects on the quality of their advice.
Our culture is good at reaching the outcomes it incentivizes, but suicidally bad at choosing which outcomes to incentivize.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
December 3, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Our culture is good at reaching the outcomes it incentivizes, but suicidally bad at choosing which outcomes to incentivize.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
In most cases where we're collectively doing cruel, evil, self-destructive things, leaders and instigators are doing exactly what they were paid or otherwise rewarded for.
Reposted by Graham Cummins
Currently dorking out over this graph about child mortality with my brother. Just mind boggling to take in.
December 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Currently dorking out over this graph about child mortality with my brother. Just mind boggling to take in.
Ding
sorta coming around to the view that the social danger of genAI images is less that they'll make people believe fabricated things are real and more that they'll make people believe real things are fabricated
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Ding
Reposted by Graham Cummins
Rohrschach test headline
imagine what we could be doing if the federal government wasn't actively trying to throttle the growth of this industry
November 26, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Rohrschach test headline
Specifically, this article includes the only definition of "elite" that matches MAGA's use. An elite is a person who uses system-2 thinking. If they make $40K a year working 2 jobs with no authority, they are still Elite if, and only if, they apply active attention to their thought process.
November 26, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Specifically, this article includes the only definition of "elite" that matches MAGA's use. An elite is a person who uses system-2 thinking. If they make $40K a year working 2 jobs with no authority, they are still Elite if, and only if, they apply active attention to their thought process.
Reposted by Graham Cummins
Some times, a simple solution to a complex problem exists, it's just a matter of understanding that the complex problem exists because the incentives are all wrong for the source of the problem.
Fix the incentives.
Fix the incentives.
November 26, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Some times, a simple solution to a complex problem exists, it's just a matter of understanding that the complex problem exists because the incentives are all wrong for the source of the problem.
Fix the incentives.
Fix the incentives.
Reposted by Graham Cummins
This is the underlying truth the Abrahamic faiths are pointing at when they talk about being damned to Hell for eternity.
November 21, 2025 at 1:34 PM
This is the underlying truth the Abrahamic faiths are pointing at when they talk about being damned to Hell for eternity.
Yes, I do
You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?
November 21, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Yes, I do
Companies are a top example of conservatives who hate government transfer payments they are the main beneficiaries of. Government programs from SNAP to education to roads and power grids are de-facto subsidies that help companies avoid paying their real costs.
this is true for basically all tradeswork, employers aren’t willing to pay enough for the training to make it worth it
a huge reason the auto industry cannot hire all the mechanics they need is lack of access to the technical education anyone needs to become an automotive technician! cost of this education & failure by corporations to train workers - also a huge factor.
November 17, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Companies are a top example of conservatives who hate government transfer payments they are the main beneficiaries of. Government programs from SNAP to education to roads and power grids are de-facto subsidies that help companies avoid paying their real costs.
Reposted by Graham Cummins
this is true for basically all tradeswork, employers aren’t willing to pay enough for the training to make it worth it
a huge reason the auto industry cannot hire all the mechanics they need is lack of access to the technical education anyone needs to become an automotive technician! cost of this education & failure by corporations to train workers - also a huge factor.
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 AM
this is true for basically all tradeswork, employers aren’t willing to pay enough for the training to make it worth it
Reposted by Graham Cummins
If discovery of a load of written evidence changed anything they'd all already be locked up.
November 13, 2025 at 7:50 AM
If discovery of a load of written evidence changed anything they'd all already be locked up.
GOP: "We don't solve problems, but if you ask really nicely, we might stop actively worsening them and claim that's a solution"
Yeah whoever jacked up tariffs on coffee from Brazil earlier this year must be a real bonehead
November 13, 2025 at 7:52 PM
GOP: "We don't solve problems, but if you ask really nicely, we might stop actively worsening them and claim that's a solution"
I'm not sure what the future of the Democratic party is, but we can be certain it's not listening to the New York Times. That way lies only death.
November 12, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I'm not sure what the future of the Democratic party is, but we can be certain it's not listening to the New York Times. That way lies only death.
Prosperity is potential rent that escaped. Rentiers don't like it.
This is why we get such disagreement about what's "good" for the economy. What's good for the nominal owners of land and natural resources is the opposite of what's good for everyone else.
This is why we get such disagreement about what's "good" for the economy. What's good for the nominal owners of land and natural resources is the opposite of what's good for everyone else.
November 12, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Prosperity is potential rent that escaped. Rentiers don't like it.
This is why we get such disagreement about what's "good" for the economy. What's good for the nominal owners of land and natural resources is the opposite of what's good for everyone else.
This is why we get such disagreement about what's "good" for the economy. What's good for the nominal owners of land and natural resources is the opposite of what's good for everyone else.
Apparently, some of the internet has transubstantiated the real and reasonable fear that we will be worse off 40 years in the future than we are now into the twisted delusion that we were richer 40 years in the past than we are now
Inflection points are possible, folks. Trends aren't eternal
Inflection points are possible, folks. Trends aren't eternal
November 12, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Apparently, some of the internet has transubstantiated the real and reasonable fear that we will be worse off 40 years in the future than we are now into the twisted delusion that we were richer 40 years in the past than we are now
Inflection points are possible, folks. Trends aren't eternal
Inflection points are possible, folks. Trends aren't eternal
Ding!
You have to understand what pieces like this from the NYT are and are not.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
November 11, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Ding!
SMALLER PHONE!!!!
(My wife is avoiding replacement of a damaged phone because she hasn't found *anything* she's willing to carry. She might buy a 2yo nodel on ebay)
(My wife is avoiding replacement of a damaged phone because she hasn't found *anything* she's willing to carry. She might buy a 2yo nodel on ebay)
No one cares about a thin phone.
Now try a smaller phone with a headphone jack.
gizmodo.com/iphone-air-2...
Now try a smaller phone with a headphone jack.
gizmodo.com/iphone-air-2...
The iPhone Air 2 Might Already Be DOA
Well, that was fast.
gizmodo.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:32 PM
SMALLER PHONE!!!!
(My wife is avoiding replacement of a damaged phone because she hasn't found *anything* she's willing to carry. She might buy a 2yo nodel on ebay)
(My wife is avoiding replacement of a damaged phone because she hasn't found *anything* she's willing to carry. She might buy a 2yo nodel on ebay)
"We have an 18% growth target" is how you say "Job satisfaction is impossible here, and wanting it is heresy" in capitalist.
the race to scale is so pernicious
Friends don't let friends build things they care about with VC
November 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
"We have an 18% growth target" is how you say "Job satisfaction is impossible here, and wanting it is heresy" in capitalist.
Reposted by Graham Cummins
instead of saying this was good strategy, maybe senate dems should say: "the republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren't monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We'll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters."
November 11, 2025 at 1:42 PM
instead of saying this was good strategy, maybe senate dems should say: "the republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren't monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We'll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters."
My TL keeps showing me the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Although I like history (and Gordon Lightfoot), I'm just not in the market for another metaphor for US democracy just now, thanks anyway.
Although I like history (and Gordon Lightfoot), I'm just not in the market for another metaphor for US democracy just now, thanks anyway.
November 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
My TL keeps showing me the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Although I like history (and Gordon Lightfoot), I'm just not in the market for another metaphor for US democracy just now, thanks anyway.
Although I like history (and Gordon Lightfoot), I'm just not in the market for another metaphor for US democracy just now, thanks anyway.
The new imposter syndrome is where you believe that you might not be an imposter, and thus you're doomed to never fit in. Your only hope of social acceptance is to hide your fitness-for-purpose from your peers at all costs.
This is extremely representative of Nate's talent for predicting the opinions of crowds (which is the primary skill he's paid for, in case anyone still finds it possible to have imposter syndrome)
November 10, 2025 at 5:38 PM
The new imposter syndrome is where you believe that you might not be an imposter, and thus you're doomed to never fit in. Your only hope of social acceptance is to hide your fitness-for-purpose from your peers at all costs.