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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈

@thirdthoughts.bsky.social

620 followers 140 following 3.2K posts

Ex-academic political scientist/theorist. Queer, nerd, agen/enby. 🏳️‍⚧️ rights are human rights. Nuance > Hot Takes. Newsletter: thirdthoughtsmedia.substack.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThirdThoughtsYT

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 26d

New from Me: Our Republic is in danger, and the danger will not disappear unless we revitalize and renew its fundamental institutions. But what can be done? We need to move beyond most common solutions and really address executive overreach and Congressional dysfunction!

Renewing the Republic

Confronting an Unbalanced Separation of Powers

open.substack.com

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Shammai @shammaiintl.bsky.social · 1h

Yeah, that's fair.

Your Result:
Lulav
You might be prickly and a bit stubborn, but you're the backbone of your group.

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 20h

I do not care about whoever was criticizing. But I am reblogging because this is an awesome vest.

Spider. @vaspider.gay · 1d

Ah, yes, one of the keenest modern satirists, someone whose books are so thickly packed with hidden references that some take years to find, an embarrassment to read.

Anyway, here's my Feet of Clay vest. I'm 48.

A butch in a blue baseball cap and a denim vest taking a picture of the back of his vest over their shoulder. It has a golem on it with "Emet" or "truth" on its chest in Hebrew and the sentence "words in the heart cannot be taken" in Yiddish embroidered on it.

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 20h

Forgot alt-text, but the relevant feature of the image shows that ACA marketplace signups have grown by over 150% between 2020-2025, across a swath of countries that were all swing states that broke for Trump in 2024, or were Trump bastions in the deep south.

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 20h

The relevant image:

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 20h

I did not have "The Wall Street Journal goes to bat for Obamacare subsidies" on my bingo card, but given how much they hate unnecessary shutdowns, I probably should have.

Who Gets Healthcare Subsidies Under the Affordable Care Act

The ACA marketplace health plans now cover more than 24 million people, many of them reliant on enhanced subsidies to keep costs down.

www.wsj.com

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 20h

Now that's dedication.

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 21h

Nothing quite like helping someone else to get your ADHD ass to do meal prep...

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Overall this is solid, especially this updated version. Still has some issues with the "great lakes" region - Buffalo, Cleveland, and Ft. Worth-Shipshewana IN are a much looser grouping than the rest of these.

Buffalo through Toledo is probably separate, but N. Indiana groups with Michigan.

Terry @terrylamarche.bsky.social · 1d

The creator has a newer version of the map and still refining
www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fcultural-map-of-the-us-which-number-are-you-im-from-the-v0-6qni1uq553of1.png%3Fwidth%3D4501%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D38a1e7be2962abca329e74698e84a9191d060518

Reddit - https://preview.redd.it/cultural-map-of-the-us-which-number-are-you-im-from-the-v0-6qni1uq553of1.png?width=4501&auto=webp&s=38a1e7be2962abca329e74698e84a9191d060518

www.reddit.com

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Coward talk. Surely we, the greatest country in the history of the world, can buy enough soy to offset a country with 3-4x our population, that invented soy sauce, and addicted the world to mapo tofu!

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Cam confirm. The original post is just exquisite. And peak fucking Irish humor.

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

This is an exquisite troll. Incredible ambiguity. Peak Irish. Well done.

Hell, it'd be funny even if it *was* about American Gavin. Just A+++ bait.

Conor Smith @conorsmith.ie · 3d

Gavin has shown himself unfit to be President. This is why we should let our current President take a third term, despite his age. Who cares what the constitution says.

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Which one 🤣🤣🤣

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Also overly detailed descriptions of every setting, but that also has value 150-200 years later.

Unlike Raskolnikov's 300th page of somehow grandiose self-flagellation

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 1d

Well, this explains why, when I taught it, I felt comfortable just omitting like all of books IV-V and giving the students a quick summary.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 2d

One of the reasons Crime and Punishment is so long, yet ends so abruptly, is that it was serialized, Dostoyevsky had gambling debts and strung it along to get paid, and finally his editor told him to wrap it up, already

Witchy Cthulhu @lostshadows.bsky.social · 2d

The last time I saw someone pushing the idea, they claimed it would stop books becoming so padded with filler to make them longer.

As an owner of an unabridged copy of the Count of Monte Cristo, I don't think they really understood how this actually works.

Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 2d

Update: I have read the book about the sentient sourdough culture and it was lovely and hit the spot.

Lesson: Book recs from the author are great

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 4d

I also write fantasy! If you like romance, SWORDHEART, if you don’t, A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 2d

Appropriate response to a fuckup achieved. I award you 100 internet points.

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 2d

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

In Discworld, cities thrive because they welcome dwarfs, trolls, vampires, and humans alike. Ankh-Morpork works because everyone belongs. Funny how fiction can seem more humane than policy sometimes.

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 2d

Wait, they’re coming for my goddamn pasta now?!

Michael Derby @michaelsderby.bsky.social · 3d

Italy trying to get US to call off mega tariff on imported pasta that will double prices for American consumers. Via Reuters

Rome calls on US to reconsider extra tariff on pasta imports

With almost $800 million in exports, the U.S. is one of Italy's top three export markets for pasta, a staple of the country's culinary heritage and a substantial export commodity.

www.reuters.com

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Ed @ed3d.net · 2d

the screamers are polarizing me into wondering if bsky T&S is doing a better job than I gave them credit for, if this is their operating environment

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 2d

We definitely don’t talk enough about how much bias and discrimination operates via who gets the benefit of the doubt.

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 2d

And, as I pray, UNLIMITED BATH IRON WORKS

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Matt Darling @besttrousers.bsky.social · 2d

We are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly for we are Jem Hadar/posters.

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Third Thoughts 🏳️‍🌈 @thirdthoughts.bsky.social · 2d

Im the fine tradition of YA literature, I Shall Wear Midnight is by far the most intense and trauma-filled book in all of Discworld. It hits like a freight train. Its like Night Watch and Carpe Jugulum had a baby, and the baby was the distilled essence of Terry's rage.

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