Jason Colavito
@jasoncolavito.bsky.social
Author, researcher. Pop culture, science, & history. Bylines in Esquire, The New Republic, CNN, Slate, etc. My new book, "Jimmy," about James Dean out now!
It consistently amazes me that so many modern authoritarians jump right to terror and oppression without even trying to gain popular support by making life better for the population. Even Hitler had a whole program of improvements and benefits to buy support, not just genocide and terror.
"Trump has been functioning as a dictator...but it’s a vulnerable dictatorship. Virtually none of these abuses are popular with the American people...and it’s coming home to roost for Trump."
On the pod, @davidrlurie.com is good on Trump as weak, failing autocrat:
newrepublic.com/article/2037...
On the pod, @davidrlurie.com is good on Trump as weak, failing autocrat:
newrepublic.com/article/2037...
Trump’s Fury at NYT Explodes amid Fresh Concerns about Mental Decline
As Trump’s rage at the paper of record reveals too much, the author of piece on Trump as “lame duck dictator” explains how devastating it is for him that his carefully-cultivated illusion of strength ...
newrepublic.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM
It consistently amazes me that so many modern authoritarians jump right to terror and oppression without even trying to gain popular support by making life better for the population. Even Hitler had a whole program of improvements and benefits to buy support, not just genocide and terror.
Please let Conde Nast know that I am available to take the job, and I have zero sex scandals and no ethical conflicts of interest. Plus, I can actually write and edit.
Semafor: Vanity Fair gonna lose-y Nuzzi
www.semafor.com/article/11/3...
Btw how it started, how it's going
www.semafor.com/article/11/3...
Btw how it started, how it's going
December 1, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Please let Conde Nast know that I am available to take the job, and I have zero sex scandals and no ethical conflicts of interest. Plus, I can actually write and edit.
The University of Oklahoma published my book, "The Mound Builder Myth" (2020), and it is deeply embarrassing that they are now entertaining the idea that a sophomoric paper whose only citation is "God said so" ought to be accepted as a science essay just because the student was offended.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:57 PM
The University of Oklahoma published my book, "The Mound Builder Myth" (2020), and it is deeply embarrassing that they are now entertaining the idea that a sophomoric paper whose only citation is "God said so" ought to be accepted as a science essay just because the student was offended.
If the workers didn't have to grind away until they die, how would the wealthy feel superior?
November 30, 2025 at 7:25 PM
If the workers didn't have to grind away until they die, how would the wealthy feel superior?
I learned today that the Bögbokcirkeln (Gay Book Circle) book club in Stockholm, Sweden read my book, "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean," this month and held a meeting and discussion about it on Wednesday.
November 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I learned today that the Bögbokcirkeln (Gay Book Circle) book club in Stockholm, Sweden read my book, "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean," this month and held a meeting and discussion about it on Wednesday.
It probably would have been a good idea to wait until the tech actually worked before forcing it on the public and poisoning their opinion of it. But the dirty secret may well be that the tech is never going to work.
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?
Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?
www.windowscentral.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:55 PM
It probably would have been a good idea to wait until the tech actually worked before forcing it on the public and poisoning their opinion of it. But the dirty secret may well be that the tech is never going to work.
"High Weirdness" derives from adapting "High Strangeness," one of J. Allen Hynek's categories for the unusualness of UFO sightings. He meant "extremely anomalous," but believers, on analogy with terms like "high adventure," reinterpreted it as "rarefied" or "superior" strangeness.
I wrote a piece about how we’re all living in a world that High Weirdness built and that weirdly the conservatives have it the worst. Not sure if that’s on track for what you’re thinking.
Welcome to the modern American Right - the world that high weirdness built - The Skeptic
The 2024 US election campaign has illustrated the ongoing influence of 'high weirdness' in the MAGA movement and modern conservatism
www.skeptic.org.uk
November 30, 2025 at 2:57 AM
"High Weirdness" derives from adapting "High Strangeness," one of J. Allen Hynek's categories for the unusualness of UFO sightings. He meant "extremely anomalous," but believers, on analogy with terms like "high adventure," reinterpreted it as "rarefied" or "superior" strangeness.
I watched "Anniversary," a thinly veiled allegory about the corrosive nature of Trumpism on American values and human decency. It was effective in parts, but the low budget kept it from feeling as important as it might have been.
November 30, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I watched "Anniversary," a thinly veiled allegory about the corrosive nature of Trumpism on American values and human decency. It was effective in parts, but the low budget kept it from feeling as important as it might have been.
Inside the right-wing effort to rewrite the history of Watergate. "If Donald Trump and his advisors and his supporters, in the media and within his administration, can alter the history of Watergate, then they can pretty much change anything." www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
The campaign to make Richard Nixon great again
The late president, who resigned in disgrace in 1974, actually wasn’t a crook, pundits on the right argue.
www.nbcnews.com
November 29, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Inside the right-wing effort to rewrite the history of Watergate. "If Donald Trump and his advisors and his supporters, in the media and within his administration, can alter the history of Watergate, then they can pretty much change anything." www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
I am curious what editor looked at that and thought, "Looks great to me!"
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 29, 2025 at 5:23 PM
I am curious what editor looked at that and thought, "Looks great to me!"
Pete Hegseth plans to ban the Scouts from military bases and will ask Congress to cut all government ties because they let girls in. Seriously. He wants girls banned and the return of "Boy" to the Scouts' name to restore "masculine values." www.vanityfair.com/news/story/p...
Pete Hegseth, No Boy Scout, Reportedly Wants to Put the “Boy” Back in Scouts
The Department of Defense won’t comment to VF on the possibly leaked “predecisional” documents, which would push Congress to cut ties with Scouting America
www.vanityfair.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Pete Hegseth plans to ban the Scouts from military bases and will ask Congress to cut all government ties because they let girls in. Seriously. He wants girls banned and the return of "Boy" to the Scouts' name to restore "masculine values." www.vanityfair.com/news/story/p...
If this isn't an argument for the uselessness and random caprice of the executive class, I don't know what is. Perhaps most executive decisions are really just random chance mixed with bias. If A.I. can do an executive's job, that job probably wasn't actually worth doing in the first place.
A study by Dayforce shows 87% of executives use AI for work, compared to 57% of managers and just 27% of employees.
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
If this isn't an argument for the uselessness and random caprice of the executive class, I don't know what is. Perhaps most executive decisions are really just random chance mixed with bias. If A.I. can do an executive's job, that job probably wasn't actually worth doing in the first place.
Purification of the homeland's population isn't a policy goal that ends well. There's a word for a government that combines ethnic cleansing with the demand for lebensraum.
They're not even bothering to disguise their real aims any longer.
November 29, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Purification of the homeland's population isn't a policy goal that ends well. There's a word for a government that combines ethnic cleansing with the demand for lebensraum.
This is an abomination.
November 29, 2025 at 3:12 AM
This is an abomination.
Even I think the 65-box novelty macaroni and cheese package Walmart shoppers are enraged is out of stock is ridiculous. Maybe it makes sense if you are sharing it with your whole extended family.
November 29, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Even I think the 65-box novelty macaroni and cheese package Walmart shoppers are enraged is out of stock is ridiculous. Maybe it makes sense if you are sharing it with your whole extended family.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to start thinking about Christmas with "Egg Nog Pie" from 1959--a pie shell filled with eggnog and whipped cream gelatin.
November 28, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to start thinking about Christmas with "Egg Nog Pie" from 1959--a pie shell filled with eggnog and whipped cream gelatin.
If canned cranberry sauce is not gelatinous enough four your Thanksgiving, be sure to check out Cranberry Souffle Salad, which turns canned cranberry sauce, pineapple, and mayonnaise into a gelatin ring.
November 27, 2025 at 3:14 PM
If canned cranberry sauce is not gelatinous enough four your Thanksgiving, be sure to check out Cranberry Souffle Salad, which turns canned cranberry sauce, pineapple, and mayonnaise into a gelatin ring.
I'm not sure of the point of announcing you have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery if you aren't going to tell anyone what it is, possibly for years. www.bbc.com/news/article...
'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site
Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.
www.bbc.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I'm not sure of the point of announcing you have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery if you aren't going to tell anyone what it is, possibly for years. www.bbc.com/news/article...
The problem is that "National Guard" is also the name of the organization, so that creates ambiguity about whether the speaker means an individual or the organization that broadcasting tries to avoid. You don't want viewers confused about what you mean.
weird language thing: everybody wants to add 'member' after national guard.
they're a national guard. it's the best most succinct term. better than gendering it guardsman/guardswoman, and better than 'national guard member'.
they're a national guard. it's the best most succinct term. better than gendering it guardsman/guardswoman, and better than 'national guard member'.
November 27, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The problem is that "National Guard" is also the name of the organization, so that creates ambiguity about whether the speaker means an individual or the organization that broadcasting tries to avoid. You don't want viewers confused about what you mean.
The publicist representing the researchers sent this out earlier this week under embargo, which is when I received it. It didn't really seem like the kind of news that needed to be kept secret until the night before Thanksgiving.
Archaeologists say a 3D model of a centuries-old quarry of unfinished stone head statues on Easter Island offers new clues about how these monuments were made and the Polynesian society that brought them into being. https://cnn.it/4okaqZC
November 27, 2025 at 1:18 AM
The publicist representing the researchers sent this out earlier this week under embargo, which is when I received it. It didn't really seem like the kind of news that needed to be kept secret until the night before Thanksgiving.
People also think the Magic 8 Ball is listening and answering their questions.
November 26, 2025 at 3:17 AM
People also think the Magic 8 Ball is listening and answering their questions.
Watching the "Everybody Loves Raymond" reunion reminds me how much the Frank and Marie looked and sounded like my grandparents--and how vehemently my grandparents insisted at the time that they could see no resemblance and were insulted by the comparison when my father told them.
November 25, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Watching the "Everybody Loves Raymond" reunion reminds me how much the Frank and Marie looked and sounded like my grandparents--and how vehemently my grandparents insisted at the time that they could see no resemblance and were insulted by the comparison when my father told them.
James Patterson claims Marilyn Monroe was murdered in his new "true-crime thriller" "The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe," but there's a catch: The fine print says the book is "a work of fiction" and Patterson made up dialogue and scenes. www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
James Patterson Is Pretty Sure Marilyn Monroe Was Murdered
The acclaimed author, whose 250 books sold half a billion copies, casts an eye on the actress’s still-mysterious death.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
James Patterson claims Marilyn Monroe was murdered in his new "true-crime thriller" "The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe," but there's a catch: The fine print says the book is "a work of fiction" and Patterson made up dialogue and scenes. www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
This is sort of the opposite of the failed scam two corrupt Republican senators ran in the Garfield administration to flip control of the Senate to the Democrats through strategic resignations in the hope that it would make government worse and increase their power.
PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:
@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 10:22 PM
This is sort of the opposite of the failed scam two corrupt Republican senators ran in the Garfield administration to flip control of the Senate to the Democrats through strategic resignations in the hope that it would make government worse and increase their power.