David Barral
@thoreaupeutic.bsky.social
High school English Lit program in the French system
Thoreau studies (philological/philosophical wordplay) & translation; Lit; pragmatism | indie research
WIP « La résistance au gouvernement civil », traduction annotée : https://thoreaupeutic.net
Thoreau studies (philological/philosophical wordplay) & translation; Lit; pragmatism | indie research
WIP « La résistance au gouvernement civil », traduction annotée : https://thoreaupeutic.net
Pinned
David Barral
@thoreaupeutic.bsky.social
· Aug 17
I dwelt before, perhaps, in the illusion that my life passed somewhere only between heaven and hell, but now I cannot persuade myself that I do not dwell wholly within hell. … Life itself being worth less, all things with it, which minister to it, are worth less. (1/3)
Reposted by David Barral
Something that boggles my mind a little is that in 1977 Fredric Jameson gave a series of lectures to 25 or so people in Minnesota & one of them had a cassette recorder. And this year we remastered those cassette tapes & around 14,000 people in 53 countries heard those lectures.
The Jameson Tapes, Side A
with Isabel Bartholomew, Anna Kornbluh, Caleb Smith, Robert Tally, & Fredric Jameson
theamericanvandal.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Something that boggles my mind a little is that in 1977 Fredric Jameson gave a series of lectures to 25 or so people in Minnesota & one of them had a cassette recorder. And this year we remastered those cassette tapes & around 14,000 people in 53 countries heard those lectures.
Reposted by David Barral
sorry but the nineteenth century is the longest
December 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
sorry but the nineteenth century is the longest
Reposted by David Barral
Love the “Tom Selleck slowly shakes head” line of shaming
I'm re-watching Magnum P.I. and I can't believe how vastly superior the 1980s ideal of masculinity is, vs today's whining, lying misogynist edgelord ideal that we see in culture all the way up to the Presidency.
The 50's stereotypical man had at least some other things to offer. Typically noble or stoic. Perhaps serving the greater good. Instead it's now a bunch of energy drink selfish neurotics who spend too much time at the gym and have no developed personality at all but being online.
December 9, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Love the “Tom Selleck slowly shakes head” line of shaming
Reposted by David Barral
Actual bluesky challenge: post your favourite work of art from fifty years before you were born
December 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Actual bluesky challenge: post your favourite work of art from fifty years before you were born
Reposted by David Barral
We can create Atlanticism 2 by having Canada join the EU
December 9, 2025 at 4:05 PM
We can create Atlanticism 2 by having Canada join the EU
Actual bluesky challenge: post your favourite work of art from fifty years before you were born
December 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Actual bluesky challenge: post your favourite work of art from fifty years before you were born
Reposted by David Barral
I think academic twitter is a useful metonymy for the broader situation we find ourselves in. Our current social form produces contexts quickly at scale and then enshittifies them just as fast, but it’s possible to form durable communities even w/in that paradigm that are portable.
December 9, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I think academic twitter is a useful metonymy for the broader situation we find ourselves in. Our current social form produces contexts quickly at scale and then enshittifies them just as fast, but it’s possible to form durable communities even w/in that paradigm that are portable.
Love the “Tom Selleck slowly shakes head” line of shaming
I'm re-watching Magnum P.I. and I can't believe how vastly superior the 1980s ideal of masculinity is, vs today's whining, lying misogynist edgelord ideal that we see in culture all the way up to the Presidency.
The 50's stereotypical man had at least some other things to offer. Typically noble or stoic. Perhaps serving the greater good. Instead it's now a bunch of energy drink selfish neurotics who spend too much time at the gym and have no developed personality at all but being online.
December 9, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Love the “Tom Selleck slowly shakes head” line of shaming
Reposted by David Barral
Once again, we see that it is expensive to be poor
For example, a shock to food generates inflation 126% higher for the poorest than the richest decile; for petroleum and coal products, inflation is 54% higher for the poorest, revealing sectors where price increases have systemic distributional effects. 8/16
December 8, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Once again, we see that it is expensive to be poor
Reposted by David Barral
hey man did you read the rest of the document where the White House implicitly calls for AfD to win elections
Why is he like this? Does he wake up and go: "My vatnik brain compels me to lick the yummy boot of murder and oppression"
December 8, 2025 at 7:05 PM
hey man did you read the rest of the document where the White House implicitly calls for AfD to win elections
just wish I could power read like I can power nap
December 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
just wish I could power read like I can power nap
Reposted by David Barral
Sauer saying something is unconstitutional because it "would be unconstitutional under Justice Scalia's dissent" is a remarkably cogent statement of the Roberts Court's approach to precedent.
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Sauer saying something is unconstitutional because it "would be unconstitutional under Justice Scalia's dissent" is a remarkably cogent statement of the Roberts Court's approach to precedent.
Reposted by David Barral
Reposted by David Barral
FWIW, this misperception comes frequently from the left, suggesting collectives like New Luddism, Against AI, etc. are naïvely endorsing arbitrary anger at the expense of organized labor. I think, to the contrary, they are essential to labor organizing, though not end in themselves.
Something I’ve encountered a lot lately is misperception of Luddites as technophobic reactionaries motivated by ignorance & resentment, rather than what they were, part of a well-informed labor movement seeking to seize control of means of production.
THE MAKING OF A PARIAH: The Case of the Luddites on JSTOR
David Linton, THE MAKING OF A PARIAH: The Case of the Luddites, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Winter 1991-92), pp. 404-413
www.jstor.org
December 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
FWIW, this misperception comes frequently from the left, suggesting collectives like New Luddism, Against AI, etc. are naïvely endorsing arbitrary anger at the expense of organized labor. I think, to the contrary, they are essential to labor organizing, though not end in themselves.
Reposted by David Barral
I’m gonna be honest @jay.bsky.team, banning a side account that I made after this one was suspended due to me being scared for my husband who was kidnapped by ICE and having a dev meme on this is insane PR for any site.
By that I mean BAD PR.
I’m simply asking for an apology. That’s it.
By that I mean BAD PR.
I’m simply asking for an apology. That’s it.
December 8, 2025 at 1:04 AM
I’m gonna be honest @jay.bsky.team, banning a side account that I made after this one was suspended due to me being scared for my husband who was kidnapped by ICE and having a dev meme on this is insane PR for any site.
By that I mean BAD PR.
I’m simply asking for an apology. That’s it.
By that I mean BAD PR.
I’m simply asking for an apology. That’s it.
Reposted by David Barral
Souvent, le créationnisme des évangéliques américains fait sourire. Redoutable vecteur de politisation, il est aussi un incubateur de la pensée conspirationniste au sein de cette population croyante. Et il est présent en Europe, comme nous l'avions montré avec @phlppgnzlz.bsky.social
(PDF) « Dominez la terre ! »
PDF | Historically, antievolutionism was the first cause that brought together conservative American Protestants in a potent social movement striving to... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...
www.researchgate.net
December 8, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Souvent, le créationnisme des évangéliques américains fait sourire. Redoutable vecteur de politisation, il est aussi un incubateur de la pensée conspirationniste au sein de cette population croyante. Et il est présent en Europe, comme nous l'avions montré avec @phlppgnzlz.bsky.social
Reposted by David Barral
This will always and forever be the most on point and prescient thing that Fukuyama ever wrote.
December 6, 2025 at 7:21 PM
This will always and forever be the most on point and prescient thing that Fukuyama ever wrote.
Reposted by David Barral
Good on Penn Jillette. Having to come to terms with your entire political identity and philosophy being wrong is not easy and most people could never do it.
December 7, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Good on Penn Jillette. Having to come to terms with your entire political identity and philosophy being wrong is not easy and most people could never do it.
Reposted by David Barral
Coming soon: Disability and the Gothic: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge Gothic Elements series. Publication date is 24 March 2026
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Disability and the Gothic
Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - Disability and the Gothic
www.cambridge.org
December 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Coming soon: Disability and the Gothic: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge Gothic Elements series. Publication date is 24 March 2026
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Reposted by David Barral
That’s what NYT decided to focus on today
December 7, 2025 at 4:46 PM
That’s what NYT decided to focus on today
Reposted by David Barral
Le GOP est aux mains de la droite chrétienne, qui apprend à ses ouailles à se méfier systématiquement de l'expertise scientifique et historique, au moins depuis la croisade anti-évolutionniste des années 1920. L'enseignement de la Shoah est une victime collatérale de cette méfiance 🤷♂️
Survey of GOP voters: nearly four in ten (37%) "believe the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe. Younger men are especially likely to hold this view (54% of men under 50 vs. 39% of women under 50)." www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/12/repu...
Republican voters and conspiracism - Lawyers, Guns & Money
“Conspiracism” is the neologism that Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead have invented to describe what they call “conspiracy theory without the theory,” that is, the classic Trumpian claim that “a l...
www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com
December 8, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Le GOP est aux mains de la droite chrétienne, qui apprend à ses ouailles à se méfier systématiquement de l'expertise scientifique et historique, au moins depuis la croisade anti-évolutionniste des années 1920. L'enseignement de la Shoah est une victime collatérale de cette méfiance 🤷♂️
Reposted by David Barral
Remember how Tim McOsker fought to have LA28 split sailing events across into two venues, Port of LA and Long Beach, so the city of LA could "benefit" from the games?
No one mentioned the part where local kids would lose their waterfront access for the next three years
No one mentioned the part where local kids would lose their waterfront access for the next three years
Port of LA to evict long-running Cabrillo Beach Scout camp for Olympic sailing facility
Scout troops and Cub Scout packs have regularly used the grounds for nearly 80 years. They’re being kicked out at the end of the month so it can become a waterfront training center.
lbpost.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Remember how Tim McOsker fought to have LA28 split sailing events across into two venues, Port of LA and Long Beach, so the city of LA could "benefit" from the games?
No one mentioned the part where local kids would lose their waterfront access for the next three years
No one mentioned the part where local kids would lose their waterfront access for the next three years
Reposted by David Barral
2) AI will set you free. Following SEC schools, uni execs are trying to minimize political risk while demonstrating the value of their already neck-deep plunge into the consumption of $$ AI. The solution? Fully automated luxury censorship, instantly adjustable to fit the newest fascist tantrum.
To Root Out Wokeness in the Course Catalog, This Texas University Is Turning to AI
“The AI was upset with my use of the phrase ‘women's rights movement.’”
www.texasmonthly.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
2) AI will set you free. Following SEC schools, uni execs are trying to minimize political risk while demonstrating the value of their already neck-deep plunge into the consumption of $$ AI. The solution? Fully automated luxury censorship, instantly adjustable to fit the newest fascist tantrum.
Reposted by David Barral
My university wants professors to create IG accounts to promote our classes and, yeah, I'm not going to do that.
December 6, 2025 at 10:11 PM
My university wants professors to create IG accounts to promote our classes and, yeah, I'm not going to do that.