Michael Hobbes
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michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Michael Hobbes
@michaelhobbes.bsky.social
190K followers 1.6K following 7.6K posts
Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
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michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Oliver Sacks would have been a great wellness grifter
By the late sixties, Sacks had become, he wrote, “almost a monk in my asceticism and devotion to work.” He estimated that he produced a million and a half words a year. When he woke up in the middle of the night with an erection, he would cool his penis by putting it in orange jello. He told Erpelding, “I partly accept myself as a celibate and a cripple, but partly—and this is . . . the wonder of sublimation—am able to transform my erotic feelings into other sorts of love—love for my patients, my work, art, thought.” He explained, “I keep my distance from people, am always courteous, never close. For me (as perhaps for you) there is almost no room, no moral room.”
December 16, 2025 at 7:15 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
huge whiff not to call this "The Anality of Evil"
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shengold was not a doctrinaire thinker, but he was still susceptible to psychoanalytic fashions. Reflecting on how he might have viewed living openly as a gay man at that time, Shengold’s daughter, Nina, told me, “I don’t know that was a door that Dad necessarily had wide open.” In several books and papers, Shengold, a prolific reader of Western literature, tried to understand the process by which troubled people sublimate their conflicts into art. In his 1988 book, “Halo in the Sky: Observations on Anality and Defense,” Shengold wrote about the importance of transforming “anal-sadistic drives”—he used the anus as a metaphor for primitive, dangerous impulses—into “adaptive and creative ‘making.’ ” When Sacks read the book, he wrote in his journal that it “made me feel I was ‘lost in anality’ (whatever this means).”
December 16, 2025 at 7:11 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 3:37 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
I love it when scientists have cute little clapbacks
December 16, 2025 at 3:36 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
None of the examples in this article are “restarting the world’s idea machine.” They are AI tools helping scientists automate rote or routine tasks.
December 16, 2025 at 2:32 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Wow, why didn't anyone think of this before
December 16, 2025 at 1:28 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
No you can't. Telling a computer to paint something for you is not remotely the same as painting something yourself, what is wrong with these people
December 15, 2025 at 1:53 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
This is embarrassing.
December 15, 2025 at 1:48 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
I’m so fascinated by how no one even tries to say it wouldn’t save thousands of lives. Policies that do this are good!
December 15, 2025 at 3:19 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Why would you assume this
December 14, 2025 at 1:04 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
So if we really want to save lives we should install a mandatory minimum speed for cars rather than a maximum, got it.
December 14, 2025 at 12:50 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
“Insane overtaking” is the exact behavior this policy seeks to prevent!
December 14, 2025 at 12:29 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Nope! You will have to drive slower so that people do not die. This is the reason the policy is unpopular.
December 14, 2025 at 12:08 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
It is not a "surveillance state" for your car to know that the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
December 14, 2025 at 12:02 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Shoot, turns out the only way to stick it to Trump is for 40,000 people to keep dying every year
December 13, 2025 at 9:06 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Really not trying to dunk on this person, but I just don't think invoking power dynamics works here. RFK had no power over Nuzzi.

She was a star national politics reporter and had the power to shape his public image and help install him in office. This is a story of her abusing power, not him.
December 13, 2025 at 8:52 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
They’re back lol
December 13, 2025 at 6:55 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Nuzzi is straightforwardly lying here. Her book does not say a single word about RFK's career in public life. She has explicitly refused to discuss his record at HHS.
December 13, 2025 at 5:52 AM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
First of all it's not a text, so definitionally it's not a sext. It's also not particularly sexual, she's expressing love here. Personally I think it's fine to include specific examples as evidence. Was he just supposed to say "a love note" here rather than quoting it?
December 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
OP for the curious. Do not go harass this person!
December 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Nuzzi wrote an article in Sept 2024 glazing Trump as her lover was negotiating for a role in his administration. According not only to Lizza but Nuzzi herself, she was helping RFK with these negotiations!
December 12, 2025 at 6:46 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Nothing precludes you from believing that all workers should get fair wages and a generous social safety net and also that gutter racism toward a customer should get you fired.

I swear to god they are making up this author to make leftists look stupid.
December 12, 2025 at 5:44 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
As usual with this magazine, the author concedes throughout that the point he's making is dumb as hell.
December 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Learning all kinds of historical facts on official passport bros dot com
December 11, 2025 at 10:02 PM
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
This is such a psychotic thing to write about Trump in September of 2024
nymag.com/intelligence...
Which is not to say that his consideration yielded the kind of results that might convert those who loathe him into admirers — or even change his grudge-motivated approach to politics. But it was the case that where there was once only action, there was now some effort, conscious or not, to relate. He had a softer presence. He laughed a lot. When others spoke, he listened carefully and with interest. He asked questions. The public saw this during his interview with podcaster Theo Von. Trump asked him about his experiences using drugs before he was sober. He seemed absorbed in what Von had to say. A longtime adviser said he was “more docile.”
December 11, 2025 at 9:28 PM