socially constructed account
@pomatador.bsky.social
"the tenser tensor networker". professional physicist, amateur epistemologist, failed poaster
maybe one day progressive pundits will learn what "cranks" are
January 12, 2026 at 3:16 PM
maybe one day progressive pundits will learn what "cranks" are
this is one of my main frustrations with the "define" route: sure, if you can't abolish, you could use funding & training to, say, weed out the brownshirts and wannabe Punishers. but that would be so much less ideologically satisfying than doing a bunch of symbolic acts while the problem gets worse!
this is not a party gearing up to even pare back funding, let alone abolish ICE. I cannot stress enough that it'd be cleaner and easier to just get rid of every last one of them via primary than try to figure out which is worth saving
Democrats officially going all in on the mealy mouthed “ICE needs training” narrative.
No. ABOLISH ICE.
No. ABOLISH ICE.
January 12, 2026 at 2:48 PM
this is one of my main frustrations with the "define" route: sure, if you can't abolish, you could use funding & training to, say, weed out the brownshirts and wannabe Punishers. but that would be so much less ideologically satisfying than doing a bunch of symbolic acts while the problem gets worse!
Or maybe it's so hard to look "normal" under intense public scrutiny that very few people can pull that off while also being qualified public servants, & when we demand a compelling performance of authenticity we get a dozen Eric Adams for every one Mamdani
When you see Mamdani looking all normal doing normal person things—petting bodega cats, riding public transport—you realize just how bizarre and estranged our average candidate for public office is. Rich martians in flesh suits
November 2, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Or maybe it's so hard to look "normal" under intense public scrutiny that very few people can pull that off while also being qualified public servants, & when we demand a compelling performance of authenticity we get a dozen Eric Adams for every one Mamdani
every once in a while I need a reminder that everyone else is going insane too, and that's when I log in to bluesky
August 2, 2025 at 1:55 PM
every once in a while I need a reminder that everyone else is going insane too, and that's when I log in to bluesky
i'm imaging mr crushbort here as a (now-aging) Clinton staffer who saw Bill scribble DO NOT HIRE HILLARY at some point after hillarycare crashed
August 2, 2025 at 1:50 PM
i'm imaging mr crushbort here as a (now-aging) Clinton staffer who saw Bill scribble DO NOT HIRE HILLARY at some point after hillarycare crashed
I may have been a bit hard on Kevin in the past for suggesting that seniors don't belong in Congress, but now i know he expects congresspeople to seek out armed confrontation, i'm starting to see where he was coming from there
They've got to stop taking no for an answer.
June 19, 2025 at 11:40 PM
I may have been a bit hard on Kevin in the past for suggesting that seniors don't belong in Congress, but now i know he expects congresspeople to seek out armed confrontation, i'm starting to see where he was coming from there
Gotta say, dismissing representative democracy via the connection to electoral monarchy is a new one to me.
I guess it's possible they understand how a robust representative democracy *is* collective decision-making, but that's far too much to expect and I don't have the patience to look further
I guess it's possible they understand how a robust representative democracy *is* collective decision-making, but that's far too much to expect and I don't have the patience to look further
3. Choosing your rulers by vote is an aristocratic tradition designed to centralize decision-making power in a small number of hands. People making decisions collectively is an egalitarian tradition designed to spread power out among a community.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
May 22, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Gotta say, dismissing representative democracy via the connection to electoral monarchy is a new one to me.
I guess it's possible they understand how a robust representative democracy *is* collective decision-making, but that's far too much to expect and I don't have the patience to look further
I guess it's possible they understand how a robust representative democracy *is* collective decision-making, but that's far too much to expect and I don't have the patience to look further
At this point I'm fully willing to stake a position that "Dems too old" is much less of a problem than "Dems don't think expertise accrued over years has value"
We are five months into this legislative term and three Democrats have already died in office.
All of them were in their 70s. The Democratic Party’s gerontocracy is a growing problem.
All of them were in their 70s. The Democratic Party’s gerontocracy is a growing problem.
Another Democratic congressman has died:
May 21, 2025 at 7:36 PM
At this point I'm fully willing to stake a position that "Dems too old" is much less of a problem than "Dems don't think expertise accrued over years has value"
Waaaay too many people are just assuming this is accurate
April 3, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Waaaay too many people are just assuming this is accurate
An issue that's been bothering me in recent months is just how hard it is to tell major actors, "we will punish you for doing the wrong thing and reward you for doing the right thing." Or rather: how little attention there seems to be to toward solving the coordination problem at its root.
March 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
An issue that's been bothering me in recent months is just how hard it is to tell major actors, "we will punish you for doing the wrong thing and reward you for doing the right thing." Or rather: how little attention there seems to be to toward solving the coordination problem at its root.
this assumes that the people you have in mind* have the power to do the something you have in mind. which, assuming we're still talking about the continuing resolution, it's important to remember something about the filibuster:
there's a real fun "emperor's new clothes" aspect to all this where everyone in politics is sort of standing around avoiding each other's eyes because if any of them actually admit to the level of crisis currently taking place, they might have to do something about it
March 22, 2025 at 5:14 PM
this assumes that the people you have in mind* have the power to do the something you have in mind. which, assuming we're still talking about the continuing resolution, it's important to remember something about the filibuster:
Reposted by socially constructed account
Sometimes I let myself get distracted from the blow-by-blow here by my job and children I am here to report: you all are pickling your brains in rage.
March 14, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Sometimes I let myself get distracted from the blow-by-blow here by my job and children I am here to report: you all are pickling your brains in rage.
I've been more and more inclined towards a fundamentally coalition-based understanding of politics, and now I'm wondering if the ability to see things through that lens has been an accidental casualty of media neutrality:
imo this is true but not in the intended sense of "elected Dems have the wrong strategy" so much as, effectively, "media have (correctly) decided that parties should not be able to control the narrative, but are only willing or able to apply this to Democrats"
If the Democratic Party had any ability to control the narrative, this budget fight would be a win no matter how they played it. But they don’t. And so it’s lose-lose for them. Again.
March 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I've been more and more inclined towards a fundamentally coalition-based understanding of politics, and now I'm wondering if the ability to see things through that lens has been an accidental casualty of media neutrality:
imo this is true but not in the intended sense of "elected Dems have the wrong strategy" so much as, effectively, "media have (correctly) decided that parties should not be able to control the narrative, but are only willing or able to apply this to Democrats"
If the Democratic Party had any ability to control the narrative, this budget fight would be a win no matter how they played it. But they don’t. And so it’s lose-lose for them. Again.
March 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
imo this is true but not in the intended sense of "elected Dems have the wrong strategy" so much as, effectively, "media have (correctly) decided that parties should not be able to control the narrative, but are only willing or able to apply this to Democrats"
Reposted by socially constructed account
The left's complicated relationship with government has diluted this fundamental message:
A key role of government is protecting regular people from the abuse by the rich and powerful. If you destroy government, they are unchecked.
Government often sucks at this role, but it's all we got.
A key role of government is protecting regular people from the abuse by the rich and powerful. If you destroy government, they are unchecked.
Government often sucks at this role, but it's all we got.
March 3, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The left's complicated relationship with government has diluted this fundamental message:
A key role of government is protecting regular people from the abuse by the rich and powerful. If you destroy government, they are unchecked.
Government often sucks at this role, but it's all we got.
A key role of government is protecting regular people from the abuse by the rich and powerful. If you destroy government, they are unchecked.
Government often sucks at this role, but it's all we got.
Reposted by socially constructed account
This whole saga has, I think, demonstrated very well my contention that American political journalists believe that they deserve all of the respect and deference that comes with filling a vital societal role, while rejecting the idea that holding such a position also entails duties and obligations.
Trump is blacklisting a news outlet for using a name he doesn't like.
It's that simple.
So why aren't more reporters and media outlets speaking out more vehemently to help The AP? In part, I'm told, it's because the WH Correspondents' Association is trying to work out a solution behind the scenes.
It's that simple.
So why aren't more reporters and media outlets speaking out more vehemently to help The AP? In part, I'm told, it's because the WH Correspondents' Association is trying to work out a solution behind the scenes.
February 20, 2025 at 4:48 AM
This whole saga has, I think, demonstrated very well my contention that American political journalists believe that they deserve all of the respect and deference that comes with filling a vital societal role, while rejecting the idea that holding such a position also entails duties and obligations.
we have a problem—imo the central problem—that people who don't recreationally watch politics have lost most of their connection to the sources they'd need to understand the complex things this "distracts" from. "Trump says he's king" seems way more likely to reach them.
February 19, 2025 at 9:52 PM
we have a problem—imo the central problem—that people who don't recreationally watch politics have lost most of their connection to the sources they'd need to understand the complex things this "distracts" from. "Trump says he's king" seems way more likely to reach them.
Reposted by socially constructed account
It's a big problem that "why are Dems not saying anything?" is often "why is social media and the news media not telling me about any of the Dems who are saying anything?"
Here's a bunch of Democrats who've called on the governor to remove him, I wouldn't say no Dem anywhere is saying anything gothamist.com/news/will-go...
February 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM
It's a big problem that "why are Dems not saying anything?" is often "why is social media and the news media not telling me about any of the Dems who are saying anything?"
should probably stay mostly off here until I learn to bear the ever-popular genre of "journalists/media figures acting like public consensus is either the sole domain of politicians or is irrelevant to politics"
February 14, 2025 at 1:42 AM
should probably stay mostly off here until I learn to bear the ever-popular genre of "journalists/media figures acting like public consensus is either the sole domain of politicians or is irrelevant to politics"
Reposted by socially constructed account
People are like “wow, we really screwed up, gotta start taking the information environment seriously!” and then you say “okay, politicians’ and journalists’ information environment is Twitter” and they’re all “NOOO THAT CAN’T BE TRUE SHUT UP SHUT UP”
It’s exasperating
It’s exasperating
December 16, 2024 at 1:45 PM
People are like “wow, we really screwed up, gotta start taking the information environment seriously!” and then you say “okay, politicians’ and journalists’ information environment is Twitter” and they’re all “NOOO THAT CAN’T BE TRUE SHUT UP SHUT UP”
It’s exasperating
It’s exasperating
Reposted by socially constructed account
If I had to express my deep sense of dislocation about this political moment and the national mood, I’d put it this way: I feel like the murder of a healthcare CEO probably has wider support than *actual* single payer healthcare.
December 13, 2024 at 9:34 PM
If I had to express my deep sense of dislocation about this political moment and the national mood, I’d put it this way: I feel like the murder of a healthcare CEO probably has wider support than *actual* single payer healthcare.
Guess they're just like us after all
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...
South Korea’s president avoids impeachment after martial law misstep
A vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol failed after a ruling party boycott meant ballots cast failed to pass the minimum threshold in the National Assembly.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 7, 2024 at 1:19 PM
Guess they're just like us after all
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...
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There is no greater indictment of our political media than the continued employment of this person.
November 28, 2024 at 8:21 PM
There is no greater indictment of our political media than the continued employment of this person.
John Stuart Mill failed to consider X, the everything app
November 20, 2024 at 4:04 PM
John Stuart Mill failed to consider X, the everything app