Patrick Fessenbecker
@pfessenbecker.bsky.social
Teaching writing and ethics to engineers, writing a book on George Eliot.
Pinned
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
How precisely are we defining “toaster”? I mean, I could toast bread with my car, my firepit, or a server bank at the local data center.
December 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
How precisely are we defining “toaster”? I mean, I could toast bread with my car, my firepit, or a server bank at the local data center.
There’s a world where this money funds the Green New Deal, your house runs on MetaThermal energy, and Zuckerberg is president. instead we have…this.
Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble on the "Metaverse" has lost his company more than $77 billion.
December 5, 2025 at 5:34 PM
There’s a world where this money funds the Green New Deal, your house runs on MetaThermal energy, and Zuckerberg is president. instead we have…this.
Okay a student has a radio show where he plays what his professors are listening to and A) this is the best idea, and B) he asked me for my picks and I haven't felt this kind of pressure since the job market.
December 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Okay a student has a radio show where he plays what his professors are listening to and A) this is the best idea, and B) he asked me for my picks and I haven't felt this kind of pressure since the job market.
I think an underrated aspect of Trump‘s political movement is that proposing insane ideas all the time means that opposing any one of them with enough force to stop it makes one look gullible (lol why were you taking Trump seriously?) instead of strong.
the Democratic Party has comprehensively failed to oppose either war with Venezuela or these boat strikes beyond a handful of statements and media hits about how one of them violates the rules of war.
I'm not saying they *support* it. but they are not even attempting to lead the opposition to it.
I'm not saying they *support* it. but they are not even attempting to lead the opposition to it.
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I think an underrated aspect of Trump‘s political movement is that proposing insane ideas all the time means that opposing any one of them with enough force to stop it makes one look gullible (lol why were you taking Trump seriously?) instead of strong.
Happy to say my new band, The Squirrel’s HeartBeats, has just release our first album, The Other Side of Silence!
The only trouble is that everyone who has listened to it died.
The only trouble is that everyone who has listened to it died.
December 5, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Happy to say my new band, The Squirrel’s HeartBeats, has just release our first album, The Other Side of Silence!
The only trouble is that everyone who has listened to it died.
The only trouble is that everyone who has listened to it died.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
November 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
So I write a weekly newsletter for our indivisible chapter, and each week I profile a left journalist operation. If you’re struggling to build an audience for your thing and think you can speak to a lefty ex-hippie inner-ring Madison suburb that’s very into good apples, get in touch.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
Corollary: buying just one more new planner will definitely make you more organized from now on
December 4, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Corollary: buying just one more new planner will definitely make you more organized from now on
The good news is that if you just murmur “I have to get my s*** together“ to yourself one more time, it’ll definitely happen.
December 4, 2025 at 2:29 PM
The good news is that if you just murmur “I have to get my s*** together“ to yourself one more time, it’ll definitely happen.
Visit the parking lot at any engineering facility and you find a lot full of Japanese cars. The only Detroit vehicles will belong to interns who couldn’t afford anything else.
Sean Duffy on slashing fuel economy standards: "This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon. Maybe a little wood paneling on the side. We can bring back choice to consumers."
December 4, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Visit the parking lot at any engineering facility and you find a lot full of Japanese cars. The only Detroit vehicles will belong to interns who couldn’t afford anything else.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
I would just like to say I like Avatar, think that it’s good, and that the notion that’s insufficiently influential involves a wildly idiosyncratic standard applied to very few other works of popular art.
Also building an Avatar theme park instead of Harry Potter park looks great in retrospect.
Also building an Avatar theme park instead of Harry Potter park looks great in retrospect.
December 3, 2025 at 11:10 PM
I would just like to say I like Avatar, think that it’s good, and that the notion that’s insufficiently influential involves a wildly idiosyncratic standard applied to very few other works of popular art.
Also building an Avatar theme park instead of Harry Potter park looks great in retrospect.
Also building an Avatar theme park instead of Harry Potter park looks great in retrospect.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
On the Punnett square of "The Iraq war was/wasn't done for oil" and "And that's good/bad" he is the only person on God's green, brown, blue, white and gold Earth who falls in the "It wasn't/And that's bad" quadrant, the most proactively imperialistic position possible.
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Hero of the antiwar movement!
November 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
On the Punnett square of "The Iraq war was/wasn't done for oil" and "And that's good/bad" he is the only person on God's green, brown, blue, white and gold Earth who falls in the "It wasn't/And that's bad" quadrant, the most proactively imperialistic position possible.
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Hero of the antiwar movement!
Yall are going to be very surprised what this in response to.
The damned in hell are not more powerful for the fact that the fires do not consume them; it is part and parcel of their torment.
November 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Yall are going to be very surprised what this in response to.
Here's the question: do I at least learn how to remove bamboo?
(there's a very cool couple I'd like to be friends with and they're fighting bamboo)
(there's a very cool couple I'd like to be friends with and they're fighting bamboo)
November 22, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Here's the question: do I at least learn how to remove bamboo?
(there's a very cool couple I'd like to be friends with and they're fighting bamboo)
(there's a very cool couple I'd like to be friends with and they're fighting bamboo)
I recognize the case for pulling Larry Summers out of his classes, but aside from the fact that firing tenured professors for odious things they wrote in personal emails is a bad precedent, a stage in front of Harvard undergrads right now has to be more of a pillory than a platform.
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I recognize the case for pulling Larry Summers out of his classes, but aside from the fact that firing tenured professors for odious things they wrote in personal emails is a bad precedent, a stage in front of Harvard undergrads right now has to be more of a pillory than a platform.
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
the hangry undersecretary went hangrily to the apothecary,
in hand a suede satchel and periodical perched precariously
in hand a suede satchel and periodical perched precariously
November 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM
the hangry undersecretary went hangrily to the apothecary,
in hand a suede satchel and periodical perched precariously
in hand a suede satchel and periodical perched precariously
I’d say this goes too far, but Far, go! was clearly the point.
First off, my suspension has ended. Got a little harsh with a post a few days ago but I didn’t have my feet on the ground and I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Will try to be more chipper. Knock on wood!
November 18, 2025 at 10:38 AM
I’d say this goes too far, but Far, go! was clearly the point.
“inferior writers are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the [journalism] that he cannot write.”
November 18, 2025 at 2:23 AM
“inferior writers are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the [journalism] that he cannot write.”
Reposted by Patrick Fessenbecker
to have an affair with one longshot presidential candidate twice your age that you’re profiling may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness
November 18, 2025 at 1:44 AM
to have an affair with one longshot presidential candidate twice your age that you’re profiling may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness
I once saw the brilliant John Shelton Reed talk through a series of maps of different ways of defining the South—certain states, but also maps of cities with lots of Elvis impersonators, with barbecue restaurants, with economic connections to Atlanta, etc. Quick thread /1
November 17, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I once saw the brilliant John Shelton Reed talk through a series of maps of different ways of defining the South—certain states, but also maps of cities with lots of Elvis impersonators, with barbecue restaurants, with economic connections to Atlanta, etc. Quick thread /1
I think the subtext here is that Kelly is voicing the conservative moral intuition that preferring women who are thin, passive, underdeveloped, lacking established careers or commitments, and much younger than their husbands is not merely morally tolerable but good and rational.
WHAT TWISTED DEPRAVED SICK LOGIC MEGYN KELLY HAS 🤬 #ReleaseTrumpEpsteinFiles 🤬
November 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I think the subtext here is that Kelly is voicing the conservative moral intuition that preferring women who are thin, passive, underdeveloped, lacking established careers or commitments, and much younger than their husbands is not merely morally tolerable but good and rational.
My theory is that the utterly nonsensical speculation about a race that's still three years away is a way for political journalists to avoid dealing with politics as they actually are.
This is some weapons-grade nonsense
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
My theory is that the utterly nonsensical speculation about a race that's still three years away is a way for political journalists to avoid dealing with politics as they actually are.
Arguing with a dear friend about whether Kamala concentrated on identity stuff, the evidence he had was her 2016 VP acceptance speech (which mentions being a black woman). IMO everyone's priors about what a Harris campaign *must* be were too powerful to be overcome by her actual campaign.
a take which I thought was too basic to write up but I clearly should have written up lol was that one underrated success of the 2024 Trump campaign was to manage to make it *look* like the Kamala campaign was back-to-back culture wars, they did a very good job on that front!
Pundits: Why didn't Kamala Harris run on kitchen table issues?
Kamala Harris's campaign speeches:
Kamala Harris's campaign speeches:
November 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Arguing with a dear friend about whether Kamala concentrated on identity stuff, the evidence he had was her 2016 VP acceptance speech (which mentions being a black woman). IMO everyone's priors about what a Harris campaign *must* be were too powerful to be overcome by her actual campaign.
it is the curse of our times that center right voters are deeply stupid and cannot take yes for an answer. Given everything they could ask for as proof that the left isn’t making kids transgender, they’re still fas-curious.
matt yglesias' primary claim about politics is that to win elections, democrats should adopt the strategy which has given starmer a 13% approval rating in the UK
November 17, 2025 at 12:32 PM
it is the curse of our times that center right voters are deeply stupid and cannot take yes for an answer. Given everything they could ask for as proof that the left isn’t making kids transgender, they’re still fas-curious.
Come major in English at Harvard! Your job will still be emailing billionaries, but we'll teach you to do it with em dashes.
did not have Harvard English professor Elisa New emailing Jeffrey Epstein about Lolita on my 2025 bingo card
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Come major in English at Harvard! Your job will still be emailing billionaries, but we'll teach you to do it with em dashes.