It's for that reason that I really think it should just be outright banned, whatever constitutional issues there are with it be damned. The party is beyond redemption and every member is a criminal by their mere membership.

We all know the internet and esp social media have transformed society, but the mechanism and nature of these changes aren’t well theorized. Anthropologists should illuminate this by tracing the history of the disconnection of the social location of interaction from its physical location

I would reply if I could to ask, is there any viable path to annexation of at least many of these? It seems like the most just path forward for the city and region, and yet politically all but impossible

Urbanism isn't just a pet issue, it's a broad vision of what our way of life should be in urbanized society. It is essential, not incidental, to a viable social-democratic or socialist politics. Both philosophically and practically, it's a prerequisite for plural, egalitarian democratic society

Semiotics + dialectics = correct political analysis

PSA to any Dems who plan on running for president in 2028: now is the perfect time to call for Schumer to step down and for the 8 Vichy Dems to be primaried

With tonight's shameful surrender, this assessment sadly still looks right.

One of the most important discoveries of social science is that our lived experience—no matter how sincerely felt and accurately reported—can nevertheless be false. So lived experience, though never to be lightly dismissed, cannot be the foundation of a political epistemology.

Yelp and all the other online review platforms have obliterated this distinction for many people, to my endless frustration

I think Hubert Dreyfus's intuitions about the intrinsic limitations of AI are still right, do still (with appropriate adjustments) apply to LLMs, and will apply to any future attempt at AI that is not embodied in more or less the same way we are.

Sociological question that housing policy discussions almost never address: what are the actual boundaries of the market area within which a supply-demand relationship operates, or the effects of some intervention are to be measured, etc?

Put these everywhere in Chicago. Infrared heaters under the awning, they’ll do fabulous business all year round

Is there any way to defeat all this other than replacing the sclerotic Democratic leadership with more adequate people, then winning a trifecta that is strong enough (not hamstrung by Manchins & Sinemas) to turn it all back, eliminate the filibuster and pack the court? Is even that feasible?

Chicago really needs a permanent indoor public market (i.e., year round farmers' market, but with butcher, fishmonger, bakery, prepared food stalls, et al.). Operated as a co-op I think. Anybody got a few million dollars and a suitable building?