@vchapman.bsky.social
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If you're looking for a quick present for someone, ebooks are always great, and I've got a great one for the poli-sci, cyberpunk, big data nerd, and/or sci fi political thriller fan in your life.
www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/...
www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/...
December 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
If you're looking for a quick present for someone, ebooks are always great, and I've got a great one for the poli-sci, cyberpunk, big data nerd, and/or sci fi political thriller fan in your life.
www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/...
www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/...
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Festive Marsupial is my new Aussie band name. Calling dibs.
Felt a lot smugger about having done my last bit of Christmas shopping on the way to Westminster before the rain disintegrated my paper bag and I had to carry around the gifts under my coat like some kind of festive marsupial.
December 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Festive Marsupial is my new Aussie band name. Calling dibs.
Since I’m a big fan of this comic (hoping we get six seasons and a movie) I’m starting a new routine in its honor and that of its creative team. Songs past that I know it inspired due to a future paradox yet to happen. This issue clearly lead to Take Me to Church by Hozier.
THE POWER FANTASY #14.
we are your new gods, now and forever, wait, I’ve got the wrong script.
imagecomics.com/comics/relea...
we are your new gods, now and forever, wait, I’ve got the wrong script.
imagecomics.com/comics/relea...
December 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Since I’m a big fan of this comic (hoping we get six seasons and a movie) I’m starting a new routine in its honor and that of its creative team. Songs past that I know it inspired due to a future paradox yet to happen. This issue clearly lead to Take Me to Church by Hozier.
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"A phrase I have heard a lot from people in business since 2022 is “this stupid war”, as though it is all a sort of accident or misunderstanding, and not the choice of an implacable state." Terrific column, this: www.ft.com/content/36c2...
When business and democracy don’t mix
Liberals were wrong to assume the two ideas are natural twins
www.ft.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
"A phrase I have heard a lot from people in business since 2022 is “this stupid war”, as though it is all a sort of accident or misunderstanding, and not the choice of an implacable state." Terrific column, this: www.ft.com/content/36c2...
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"No mainstream reporter has the stomach to say, 'By the way, this administration lies all the time and we should assume this is a lie too' after every unsupported statement." They should, because it's true.
Donald Trump and the Power of the Little Lie
The war against Venezuela isn’t about drugs. It’s about the destruction of regular order.
lnk.thebulwark.com
December 17, 2025 at 12:30 AM
"No mainstream reporter has the stomach to say, 'By the way, this administration lies all the time and we should assume this is a lie too' after every unsupported statement." They should, because it's true.
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robust social democracy + abolition-democracy = bouieism
December 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
robust social democracy + abolition-democracy = bouieism
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i am convinced that most people making a strong argument for an ideological presence on twitter simply do not understand what recommenders are or how they work
Part of the problem i feel is that people want to treat Twitter as a Habermasian public sphere when in reality, the ideological skew is defined by Musk
This is probably the worst sales pitch I've ever heard - "join this app, everyone is radicalised, hates you and wants to argue with you" - 99% of social media users don't want an experience that resembles that at all
December 15, 2025 at 3:24 AM
i am convinced that most people making a strong argument for an ideological presence on twitter simply do not understand what recommenders are or how they work
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Also, I am 40 years old. None of my friends needs to know how bad I am at shooters. That's knowledge just for me.
December 12, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Also, I am 40 years old. None of my friends needs to know how bad I am at shooters. That's knowledge just for me.
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The fact that we have super wealthy and extremely stupid people trying to set themselves up as new nobles has made historical nobility, which I only know from books, far more real to me. These people were not smart, they did not rule well, and rigid hierarchies of domination are very bad.
December 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
The fact that we have super wealthy and extremely stupid people trying to set themselves up as new nobles has made historical nobility, which I only know from books, far more real to me. These people were not smart, they did not rule well, and rigid hierarchies of domination are very bad.
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This is like Mr Rogers picking up Mjolnir
We got Weird Al out here singing Killing In The Name, the time for moderation is over
December 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
This is like Mr Rogers picking up Mjolnir
This is such a good insight that I hope someone with money and talent opens the Dishroom for Sri Lankan food the world (ed note. he really just means himself) deserves.
IMO the gaps in the market are at the upper end. Dishoom made "up-market Indian cuisine with small plates" a national/international phenomenon. The "Dishoom vibes for other diasporas cuisine" is pretty wide open at the moment
This post may be me manifesting "Dishoom for Nigerian food pls"
This post may be me manifesting "Dishoom for Nigerian food pls"
December 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
This is such a good insight that I hope someone with money and talent opens the Dishroom for Sri Lankan food the world (ed note. he really just means himself) deserves.
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government by Fox News addicts for Fox News addicts, which acknowledges no reality beyond that which exists in the Fox News Cinematic Universe and which serves no function other than generating new content for Fox News
The most disgusting thing about the likes of Hegseth is that they don’t even seem to care that their violence is inflicted on real people. Their victims are completely abstracted to them. Numbers on a screen to own the libs.
December 5, 2025 at 2:12 AM
government by Fox News addicts for Fox News addicts, which acknowledges no reality beyond that which exists in the Fox News Cinematic Universe and which serves no function other than generating new content for Fox News
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bill kristol is scoring off of the democratic house minority leader from the left. and he's right.
I’m kind of new to the Democrats, but I thought we were FOR respecting the legal process, and also that we were AGAINST political corruption. And that it was especially important to hold to these principles at this time.
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
Jeffries claims the charges against Cueller were "very thin" and says Trump's pardon was "exactly the right outcome"
December 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
bill kristol is scoring off of the democratic house minority leader from the left. and he's right.
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I’m kind of new to the Democrats, but I thought we were FOR respecting the legal process, and also that we were AGAINST political corruption. And that it was especially important to hold to these principles at this time.
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
Jeffries claims the charges against Cueller were "very thin" and says Trump's pardon was "exactly the right outcome"
December 3, 2025 at 6:30 PM
I’m kind of new to the Democrats, but I thought we were FOR respecting the legal process, and also that we were AGAINST political corruption. And that it was especially important to hold to these principles at this time.
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
But I guess there’s some insider memo I didn’t get that would set me straight?
Hearts and Prayers
Just landed at JFK, which means I will be home in over two hours despite it only being ten miles away
December 3, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Hearts and Prayers
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Can't believe the Abundance people passed up on Live Mas.
November 30, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Can't believe the Abundance people passed up on Live Mas.
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This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
December 1, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
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*slams print out of post on table*
"This is what we believe!"
"This is what we believe!"
It is genuinely insane how intensely developed the major stations are in Japan
There’s a huge amount below this and probably just as much either side. 7-8 stories of *stuff*
There’s a huge amount below this and probably just as much either side. 7-8 stories of *stuff*
November 30, 2025 at 3:01 PM
*slams print out of post on table*
"This is what we believe!"
"This is what we believe!"
Worth it
Basically this whole long goddamn ass thread:
Okay I'm feeling like a damn fool today so I'll contribute to the Machine Learning Discourse, Pat's standard rule of false dichotomy* nonwithstanding:
November 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Worth it
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Cheetahs continue to be scary predators.
November 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Cheetahs continue to be scary predators.
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and here in our beloved America, those of us who have the ability and power to do so must see to it that the full rights of the weak and defenseless are safeguarded against the violence and the intolerance of the strong and the mighty.
Clarence J. Brown, 1940
/2
Clarence J. Brown, 1940
/2
November 20, 2025 at 2:47 PM
and here in our beloved America, those of us who have the ability and power to do so must see to it that the full rights of the weak and defenseless are safeguarded against the violence and the intolerance of the strong and the mighty.
Clarence J. Brown, 1940
/2
Clarence J. Brown, 1940
/2
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We hear much of the struggle throughout the world to maintain democracy. From the lips of those who oppose this measure comes... at other times... the loudest protestations of belief in democracy. Let me say, here and now, that if democracy is to continue to live throughout the world, /1
November 20, 2025 at 2:46 PM
We hear much of the struggle throughout the world to maintain democracy. From the lips of those who oppose this measure comes... at other times... the loudest protestations of belief in democracy. Let me say, here and now, that if democracy is to continue to live throughout the world, /1
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Extremely upset that a throw-away XKCD joke somehow became the organizing principle for the Internet.
November 20, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Extremely upset that a throw-away XKCD joke somehow became the organizing principle for the Internet.
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I’ve been saying this for ages: These folks are doomed to be permanently angry because they’re angry about aspects of the culture that policy ultimately can’t change. They’re seeking political power as a consolation prize for lack of cultural power, and will always be dissatisfied.
I think this prediction is holding up pretty well, and maybe I should have noted the failure of the Turn Charlie Kirk Into A Martyr moment might have been the pinnacle of the phenomenon. In some deep way I think the New Right Loser Men fail to understand what state power can and can't do for them.
November 20, 2025 at 1:34 PM
I’ve been saying this for ages: These folks are doomed to be permanently angry because they’re angry about aspects of the culture that policy ultimately can’t change. They’re seeking political power as a consolation prize for lack of cultural power, and will always be dissatisfied.