laura olin
@lauraolin.bsky.social
the best goddamn dancer in the american ballet academy // lauraolin.com
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laura olin
@lauraolin.bsky.social
· May 8
I've had a newsletter since before it was cool (2014) and its latest format is a monthly collection of art, ideas, and internet. Latest edition below, and you can subscribe here: lauraolin.com/newsletter
buttondown.com/lauraolin/ar...
buttondown.com/lauraolin/ar...
Reposted by laura olin
One of the reasons i love tolkien is the theme that despair is an enemy
and it makes clear you don’t need to have constant hope, you can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair
and it makes clear you don’t need to have constant hope, you can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair
You can be as terrified or nonplussed or unperturbed as you like; the sun will still rise tomorrow & the rent will still be due on the 31st. The world has no romantic narratives for its fate except those we invent, because the world does not die. That is our privilege.
I said it elsewhere, but it’s weirdly exhilarating and addictive to be terrified all the time, and the people addicted to it, when they say this, may as well be saying “I can stop at any time, it’s just the world doing this *to* me.”
December 31, 2023 at 3:23 AM
One of the reasons i love tolkien is the theme that despair is an enemy
and it makes clear you don’t need to have constant hope, you can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair
and it makes clear you don’t need to have constant hope, you can get by with grim determination or spite but never despair
Reposted by laura olin
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
November 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
Please keep this safety tip in mind this Thanksgiving:
November 27, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Please keep this safety tip in mind this Thanksgiving:
Reposted by laura olin
This is the first Thanksgiving for Sophie & Colin Hortman without their parents, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman who were assassinated along with the family dog in an act of political murder. National guards troops were not deployed to the state in response.
November 27, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This is the first Thanksgiving for Sophie & Colin Hortman without their parents, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman who were assassinated along with the family dog in an act of political murder. National guards troops were not deployed to the state in response.
Reposted by laura olin
I wish it didn’t feel so unusual and inspiring to see a leader treating everyone like they matter and saying that we have a responsibility to help each other
Combatting poverty and hunger in this city will take every single one of us. Myself included.
November 27, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I wish it didn’t feel so unusual and inspiring to see a leader treating everyone like they matter and saying that we have a responsibility to help each other
Reposted by laura olin
Once again; you can't moderate your way to neutralizing an issue like immigration.
It's fundamentally just racist reaction. Nothing is ever enough because what's demanded—ethnonationalist homogeneity—is completely unavailable in modern conditions. There will *always* be a basis for more demagoguery
It's fundamentally just racist reaction. Nothing is ever enough because what's demanded—ethnonationalist homogeneity—is completely unavailable in modern conditions. There will *always* be a basis for more demagoguery
YOU WANTED NET IMMIGRATION TO COME DOWN! THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE!
November 27, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Once again; you can't moderate your way to neutralizing an issue like immigration.
It's fundamentally just racist reaction. Nothing is ever enough because what's demanded—ethnonationalist homogeneity—is completely unavailable in modern conditions. There will *always* be a basis for more demagoguery
It's fundamentally just racist reaction. Nothing is ever enough because what's demanded—ethnonationalist homogeneity—is completely unavailable in modern conditions. There will *always* be a basis for more demagoguery
Reposted by laura olin
coca-cola ai could never
witness! the holiday majesty that is the s. d. ireland holiday cement truck
November 27, 2025 at 2:53 AM
coca-cola ai could never
Reposted by laura olin
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
Here's a cursed job:
November 26, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Here's a cursed job:
Reposted by laura olin
God this is so motivating.
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:43 PM
God this is so motivating.
Nearly three-year-old niece doesn’t know the word “touch” so said “look with your fingers” instead, which kind of nails it
November 26, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Nearly three-year-old niece doesn’t know the word “touch” so said “look with your fingers” instead, which kind of nails it
Oh now we care that he’s also old
Still, nearly a year into his second term, Americans see Mr. Trump less than they used to, according to a New York Times analysis of his schedule. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...
Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Oh now we care that he’s also old
Reposted by laura olin
those of you who are afraid of aging, please understand that one of the huge blessings of middle age is arriving at this exact station
We gotta normalize responding to bullshit with "dude who fucking cares"
October 30, 2025 at 12:44 AM
those of you who are afraid of aging, please understand that one of the huge blessings of middle age is arriving at this exact station
Reposted by laura olin
I was like, why did I gain hundreds of followers, and then I saw this
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I was like, why did I gain hundreds of followers, and then I saw this
Reposted by laura olin
No bailouts. The US should extort these companies when the crash happens so they get minimal compensation in return for nationalizing the entire panopticon industry and then destroying it once harvested for socially useful parts. It won’t happen but it should
November 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
No bailouts. The US should extort these companies when the crash happens so they get minimal compensation in return for nationalizing the entire panopticon industry and then destroying it once harvested for socially useful parts. It won’t happen but it should
Reposted by laura olin
"Dogs don't bark at parked cars" is an all-time great line
"My mentor always tells me, 'Kim, dogs don’t bark at parked cars." They’re coming after critical race theory, 1619, intersectionality because these ideas mobilized people. They gave them the language to actually articulate what they were seeing with their own eyes," says Kimberlé Crenshaw.
November 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"Dogs don't bark at parked cars" is an all-time great line
Reposted by laura olin
The best thing I learned from Macaulay Culkin at last night’s Home Alone screening is that his 4yo son loves the movie, thinks of himself as Kevin, and has no idea that that’s his dad. Culkin is attempting to hide that fact for as long as possible
a young boy is smiling and says `` i made my family disappear '' .
ALT: a young boy is smiling and says `` i made my family disappear '' .
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The best thing I learned from Macaulay Culkin at last night’s Home Alone screening is that his 4yo son loves the movie, thinks of himself as Kevin, and has no idea that that’s his dad. Culkin is attempting to hide that fact for as long as possible
Reposted by laura olin
this is what ten years of obsession with "wokeness" in the media was trying to get to btw bsky.app/profile/mari...
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
this is what ten years of obsession with "wokeness" in the media was trying to get to btw bsky.app/profile/mari...
Reposted by laura olin
One good thing about Bari Weiss is that she articulates the worldview of the 0.00001% with total clarity, and thereby makes it obvious that they are dangerously out of their minds.
November 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
One good thing about Bari Weiss is that she articulates the worldview of the 0.00001% with total clarity, and thereby makes it obvious that they are dangerously out of their minds.
Reposted by laura olin
Seeing how much of the right-wing on Twitter is just bot farms, kinda lays bare how much hate and hatred is a project that needs to be constantly maintained, a fire that needs to be fed all the time lest it go out for a moment, so much time, effort, and resources to keep people angry and hateful.
November 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Seeing how much of the right-wing on Twitter is just bot farms, kinda lays bare how much hate and hatred is a project that needs to be constantly maintained, a fire that needs to be fed all the time lest it go out for a moment, so much time, effort, and resources to keep people angry and hateful.
Reposted by laura olin
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
November 23, 2025 at 10:39 PM
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
Unquestionably compared to other OECD countries for at least the last 25 years
I think the harshest true thing you can say about our current epoch is that this is the worst time to live in the USA *relative to the rest of the world* in its history
November 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Unquestionably compared to other OECD countries for at least the last 25 years
We may live in hell but at least there are glimmers of a better world waiting to be born www.cnn.com/2025/11/24/s...
New clues hint at early signs of domestication in raccoons that feast on urban trash | CNN
Raccoons have easy access to food in the form of human trash. It could be jump-starting physical and behavioral changes in the masked bandits, new research suggests.
www.cnn.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
We may live in hell but at least there are glimmers of a better world waiting to be born www.cnn.com/2025/11/24/s...