Ammon Allred
@pythianmusagete.bsky.social
Professional philosopher (philosophy of mythology), semi-professional writer, roustabout by avocation. He/him
Listen,
The world is a hellscape, no question. But this is the letter that Ingrid Bergman wrote Roberto Rossellini at the opening of their collaboration.
The world is a hellscape, no question. But this is the letter that Ingrid Bergman wrote Roberto Rossellini at the opening of their collaboration.
January 3, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Listen,
The world is a hellscape, no question. But this is the letter that Ingrid Bergman wrote Roberto Rossellini at the opening of their collaboration.
The world is a hellscape, no question. But this is the letter that Ingrid Bergman wrote Roberto Rossellini at the opening of their collaboration.
I’m going to write a book called “Who Paid the Pipers of Western Christianity” and it’s going to be about Julian the Apostate’s successful bid to create a pagan fifth column that would outlast the Roman Empire. Let’s call this column the Christianity Infiltration Assignation.
January 2, 2026 at 2:03 AM
I’m going to write a book called “Who Paid the Pipers of Western Christianity” and it’s going to be about Julian the Apostate’s successful bid to create a pagan fifth column that would outlast the Roman Empire. Let’s call this column the Christianity Infiltration Assignation.
I’m seeing a lot of takes about the New Year, but I just want to put it out there that we should not do another 2025.
January 1, 2026 at 7:54 PM
I’m seeing a lot of takes about the New Year, but I just want to put it out there that we should not do another 2025.
My current favorite trolling is when people say “Imagine if AI could do [thing it can’t remotely do yet]. If you still deny that it can do [thing it can’t remotely do yet] then you never really cared about [thing it can’t remotely do yet.”
Wow you sure got me there!
Wow you sure got me there!
December 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
My current favorite trolling is when people say “Imagine if AI could do [thing it can’t remotely do yet]. If you still deny that it can do [thing it can’t remotely do yet] then you never really cared about [thing it can’t remotely do yet.”
Wow you sure got me there!
Wow you sure got me there!
You know, sometimes I find myself thinking about that day that they knocked down the Palais, and how my sister stood and cried. If I’m being honest, I’d say that on the day they knocked down the Palais, it was as though part of my childhood had died.
December 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
You know, sometimes I find myself thinking about that day that they knocked down the Palais, and how my sister stood and cried. If I’m being honest, I’d say that on the day they knocked down the Palais, it was as though part of my childhood had died.
You’re a Zenobia, but he’s no Odaenathus. Five ways to ditch your Dud Orientalis and jumpstart your career.
#MyCareerAsASubstackInfluencerIsAboutToTakeOff
#MyCareerAsASubstackInfluencerIsAboutToTakeOff
November 17, 2025 at 1:09 PM
You’re a Zenobia, but he’s no Odaenathus. Five ways to ditch your Dud Orientalis and jumpstart your career.
#MyCareerAsASubstackInfluencerIsAboutToTakeOff
#MyCareerAsASubstackInfluencerIsAboutToTakeOff
Idea for a New York Times Op-Ed:
“He lost New York’s mayoral race. He’s our best hope to retake the White House.”
“He lost New York’s mayoral race. He’s our best hope to retake the White House.”
November 5, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Idea for a New York Times Op-Ed:
“He lost New York’s mayoral race. He’s our best hope to retake the White House.”
“He lost New York’s mayoral race. He’s our best hope to retake the White House.”
You guys I don’t want to blow your minds too much or anything but what if - and hear me out - the reason why Trump shared an AI video of himself talking about med beds is - let’s say hypothetically Trump’s brain is so cooked that he can’t fully remember what he’s done on a day to day basis?
September 29, 2025 at 11:19 PM
You guys I don’t want to blow your minds too much or anything but what if - and hear me out - the reason why Trump shared an AI video of himself talking about med beds is - let’s say hypothetically Trump’s brain is so cooked that he can’t fully remember what he’s done on a day to day basis?
I think that now that we know that [redacted’s] name does not appear [unredacted] in the subset of the Epstein files that has been released, we all owe [redacted] an apology.
September 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I think that now that we know that [redacted’s] name does not appear [unredacted] in the subset of the Epstein files that has been released, we all owe [redacted] an apology.
Here’s a riddle:
What do you call someone who grows up in an entirely right-wing milieu, consumes entirely right-wing media, participates in online far-right spaces including internicene far-right disputes,
What do you call someone who grows up in an entirely right-wing milieu, consumes entirely right-wing media, participates in online far-right spaces including internicene far-right disputes,
September 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Here’s a riddle:
What do you call someone who grows up in an entirely right-wing milieu, consumes entirely right-wing media, participates in online far-right spaces including internicene far-right disputes,
What do you call someone who grows up in an entirely right-wing milieu, consumes entirely right-wing media, participates in online far-right spaces including internicene far-right disputes,
Americans think politics is identity based but they think identity is vibes based.
September 17, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Americans think politics is identity based but they think identity is vibes based.
Oh hey look the dumbest motherfucker you went to high school with is now a free speech expert.
September 16, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Oh hey look the dumbest motherfucker you went to high school with is now a free speech expert.
As an ex-Mormon who retains research interest and personal connections to the faith, who if not himself very online is still very online adjacent, and who works academically at the intersection of politics and “culture,”
September 13, 2025 at 2:04 PM
As an ex-Mormon who retains research interest and personal connections to the faith, who if not himself very online is still very online adjacent, and who works academically at the intersection of politics and “culture,”
If yesterday was the first day that you became concerned about the problem of political violence, you should probably be doing a lot of introspection today.
But you won’t be.
But you won’t be.
September 11, 2025 at 12:34 PM
If yesterday was the first day that you became concerned about the problem of political violence, you should probably be doing a lot of introspection today.
But you won’t be.
But you won’t be.
One down in tomorrows NYTimes Mini Puzzle has me screaming a “well, actually” in frustration.
August 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
One down in tomorrows NYTimes Mini Puzzle has me screaming a “well, actually” in frustration.
As a follow-up to my previous post, I should also say this: if the primary language game that we’re playing is “can I pass the Turing test,” then we’ve already all lost, irrespective of whether our interlocutors are human or not, sentient or otherwise.
August 28, 2025 at 6:26 PM
As a follow-up to my previous post, I should also say this: if the primary language game that we’re playing is “can I pass the Turing test,” then we’ve already all lost, irrespective of whether our interlocutors are human or not, sentient or otherwise.
It seems to me that the reception of AI has cut diagonal across the old analytic and continental distinction in professional philosophy… I suspect that most people will accept this pretty uncontroversially, but I wonder if there has been good accounts either of why that is or if it’s meaningful.
August 28, 2025 at 1:43 PM
It seems to me that the reception of AI has cut diagonal across the old analytic and continental distinction in professional philosophy… I suspect that most people will accept this pretty uncontroversially, but I wonder if there has been good accounts either of why that is or if it’s meaningful.
Important question:
Where on the “precocious” vs “insufferable” axis do we put me teaching my eight year old to always pronounce it “fahn kokh?”
It’s crucial that I have an answer in the next 90 minutes or so.
Where on the “precocious” vs “insufferable” axis do we put me teaching my eight year old to always pronounce it “fahn kokh?”
It’s crucial that I have an answer in the next 90 minutes or so.
August 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Important question:
Where on the “precocious” vs “insufferable” axis do we put me teaching my eight year old to always pronounce it “fahn kokh?”
It’s crucial that I have an answer in the next 90 minutes or so.
Where on the “precocious” vs “insufferable” axis do we put me teaching my eight year old to always pronounce it “fahn kokh?”
It’s crucial that I have an answer in the next 90 minutes or so.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Continue to list your hair color as “brown”on your driver’s license against the dying light.
August 20, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Do not go gentle into that good night. Continue to list your hair color as “brown”on your driver’s license against the dying light.
Three days into the @nytimes.com new Pips game, one of them was finally hard. What made it hard was a really clever twist: my phone wouldn’t display all of the dominoes until I’d restarted the app like five times. Once I figured out this cunning little ruse, it was pretty easy again.
August 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Three days into the @nytimes.com new Pips game, one of them was finally hard. What made it hard was a really clever twist: my phone wouldn’t display all of the dominoes until I’d restarted the app like five times. Once I figured out this cunning little ruse, it was pretty easy again.
Reposted by Ammon Allred
This was really great. And honestly, I hadn’t watched either of the two videos linked here. That walk across manhattan is deeply moving.
lots of people have written about Zohran’s video strategy, but @coreyatad.com actually talked to the people who made them
Selling Zohran | Defector
On a cool Sunday in November, a few days after Donald Trump’s re-election, Zohran Mamdani stood on a street corner in Jamaica, Queens, holding up a hastily drawn cardboard sign that read, “DID YOU VOT...
defector.com
August 18, 2025 at 2:35 PM
This was really great. And honestly, I hadn’t watched either of the two videos linked here. That walk across manhattan is deeply moving.
I hope that Steven Pinker is interested in sponsoring my Power/Knowledge seminar, where the catch is that we do read Spinoza and Wodehouse, but through Foucault.
August 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
I hope that Steven Pinker is interested in sponsoring my Power/Knowledge seminar, where the catch is that we do read Spinoza and Wodehouse, but through Foucault.
“But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken. Sorry Mom, AI has spoken.”
August 14, 2025 at 1:13 PM
“But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken. Sorry Mom, AI has spoken.”
I am genuinely more than happy to do my civic duty and do jury service. I am even happy to sit in an overcrowded room on a not great chair - budgets need to be spent on tax cuts for the rich. I get it!
July 21, 2025 at 4:43 PM
I am genuinely more than happy to do my civic duty and do jury service. I am even happy to sit in an overcrowded room on a not great chair - budgets need to be spent on tax cuts for the rich. I get it!
Just in case it turns out that they release all of Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday memory book, I just want to put it out there that some of the contributors might have erroneously believed “Epstein is 50” to be a special anniversary issue of like a prestigious literary magazine or something.
July 19, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Just in case it turns out that they release all of Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday memory book, I just want to put it out there that some of the contributors might have erroneously believed “Epstein is 50” to be a special anniversary issue of like a prestigious literary magazine or something.