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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 15h

I'll be giving a talk at Jupiter's Eye Book Cafe with D.J. Lee on Oct. 3! Learn about: conversations with the dead about illuminated printing, seeing in the infinite in everything, englobing the vortices of spacetime, and why everyone is a prophet.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 7d

"An obscene amount of money has turned debate into a weapon, deliberately honed to punish good-faith participation by making us feel like fools for assuming the best of an ideological opponent who only wants to win. "

John Raimo @johnraimo.bsky.social · 8d

Gift link: essential and sadly brave writing for dark times from Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd.bsky.social). www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

Opinion | Mourn, or Else

www.nytimes.com

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 7d

I'm so sorry. I'm here to help too.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 8d

I'm teaching our Intro to DH seminar for grad students. I've not taught it in a bit, and I'm struggling to find newish (2019-present) syllabi online. I also veer more into media studies/archeology than distant reading or archives. So, if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 10d

I think there's also something to be said that a lot of the compromises of the past were rooted in white supremacy, sexism, and varieties of queerphobia. And there's not an alternative for consensus and solidarity-building on the left as of yet.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 12d

If you see this, quote skeet with a screenshot from a video game that released the year you were born.

By the time I was aware of games, Galaga was out and I was more into that one. But this is pretty solid.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 13d

list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep:
1. The triangle era of Superman comics.
2. William Blake's approach to mysticism & illuminated printing.
3. Why Dark Souls is a Buddhist game.

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 13d

list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep

1. Letterpress printing
2. Infantry tactics from the 30YW to Napoleon
3. Mid-era Sonic Youth

Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 13d

list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep

1. the feces of various species
2. lunch meat
3. sweetbreads

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

Yeah that makes sense. That q of platform design and politics is just beginning to be theorized (Bratton/Hui). Media shifts have historically caused great political upheaval. I can't imagine our country doing it differently, especially given decades of deregulation.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

Recursivity and Contingency:

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

apropos of nothing: I think you'd get a lot out of Yuk Hui's work. Reading it now, and it seems to provide a broader historical sweep of cybernetics, organic/mechanistic philosophy, and cybernetics/technodiversity.

Reposted by Roger Whitson

Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 18d

Commitment to free speech doesn't just mean commitment to letting people say things you don't believe in. It's a commitment to them saying or expressing it in a *way* that you dislike, or is actively unpleasant to you.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18d

there is a point here i want to amplify. the free speech defenders of the mainstream seem to have no awareness that actual free speech is often more fractious and destabilizing than civil and respectful. a society where speech is genuinely free isn’t the deferential space they want it to be.

John Ganz @lioneltrolling.bsky.social · 18d

The round-up.—
www.unpopularfront.news/p/reflection...

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

Liberal culture means something totally different b/t print and digital. It was much easier to tolerate disruptive speech when it was at a talk or in a newspaper. I think it'd be productive to give some grace on a social level, but that's difficult to do when we're in survival mode.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

For instance, the way he links cybernetics with Whitehead's philosophy of organism is amazing. It's something that seems obvious, but I never made the connection between them.

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 18d

The scope of Yuk Hui's work is pretty breathtaking, but it only comes into focus after looking at several of his works - at least for me. I'm fascinated that he spends so much time on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, someone I haven't thought about since reading Annie Dillard in undergrad.

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 19d

so sorry to hear this.

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 19d

I very much approve. And that CAKE! Looks amazing. Is there anything to the rumor that the Viennese dance a waltz at midnight for New Years?

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 20d

most: Beauvoir or Arendt. I'd have a fun but dramatic friendship w/ Deleuze.

Least: Heidegger. I mean, what he did to Husserl....

Aloysius Ventham @paranoidaquinoid.bsky.social · 20d

Tonight, following the ethics reading group, I asked a bunch of philosophers which historical philosopher they'd most and least like to befriend. I chose Hume for 'most', and oscilated between Kant, Wittgenstein and Schopenhauer for 'least'. What about the rest of you? #philsky #philosophy

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 20d

Kant had amazing dinners. I'd befriend him just for that.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

next thing you know, you'll learn that you're actually a god and only have two years to live....

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

Because of this post, I'm going to have extra hot honey today. #HotHoney4Evah

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

I'm showing The Matrix in my sci-fi class today. Of 20 students, only three of them have seen it before.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

No spiritus mundi? :(

Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

i was just thinking about getting that the other day. but i already promised myself to Elif Batuman, so i'll put it in my queue.

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

but your complications seem so delicious!

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Roger Whitson @rogerwhitson.bsky.social · 21d

Dark is three seasons. does that count?

Kevin Smokler @weegee.bsky.social · 26d

Everyone has a 1-2 season TV show they sorely miss and not enough people knew about that you are always praising the heavens about.

What's yours?

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