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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 1h

Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, on what the judges should have said at his sentencing.

For politics is not like the nursery; in politics obedience and support are the same. And just as you supported and carried out a policy of not wanting to share the earth with the Jewish people and the people of a number of other nations—as though you and your superiors had any right to determine who should and should not inhabit the world—we find that no one, that is, no member of the human race, can be expected to want to share the earth with you. This is the reason, and the only reason, you must hang."

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 13h

My mom liked to exclaim "ach!" whenever confronted with something she found disagreeable, as a way to dismiss it.

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Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Lookit. Deep down every Irish person wants to spin some yank a yarn that gets cited as fact in some factual text. We told an Irish American girl that when the Muppets was released in Ireland, Kermit the Frog was called Dermot the Frog because Cromwell’s son was a Kermit.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Cortland, crisp for 6-7 weeks Sept-Oct. Just started eating Maia Gold: tart, dense & crisp, hoping I can eat it into winter.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Of a piece with the approach that "we can't call it a lie because we don't know what's in his head".

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Machiavelli's second-most important (after being able to think well for yourself) type of mind; the third type, not being able to distinguish good advice from bad, is so worthless as to be pernicious.

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Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 06/10/2026

A year ago, @propublica.org told you immigration agents had detained more than 170 U.S. citizens. We’ve updated our count, and we’ve got all the receipts. The tally: At least 506 citizens detained. Sometimes held at gunpoint, handcuffed, or even deported. projects.propublica.org/american-cit...

projects.propublica.org

More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...

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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It would be better if the guy who can order a nuclear strike wasn't insane.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"Stupidly wings it" as American value... ...which, y'know....

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Erin Keane @erinkeane.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I was raised by a nurse with an associates degree and a steel mill electrician. I am not denigrating the value and dignity of blue collar work when I ask how many elite national media staffers are raising future bricklayers themselves. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

theatlantic.com

Time to Consider Becoming a Bricklayer

College degrees hold less value, while jobs in the trades are booming.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

They were both on As the World Turns waaaay back in the day—Weber was the boyfriend of Julianne Moore's character—but I don't think at the same time.

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Hillary Monahan @hillarymonahan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If the argument for women should know better than to go into a rape den like a frat house, explain to me why a rape house like a fraternity is allowed to exist at all.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Exculpatory for the perp, condemnatory for the victim.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yes to it all. Also, I would like to join him for a meal.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Leo Kuper in his book Genocide notes the role of dehumanization in the run-up to massacres, ethnic cleansing & genocide. Simultaneously helps to steel against empathy and to provide a justification for the abuse.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

John Berger's "Here is where we meet" (novel) has a similar idea: the dead hang around until the last person who remembers them, dies.

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Kate Hagen's House of Horrors 👻 @thathagengrrl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Meanwhile, Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell and was denied her request to get her tuition refunded so that she could transfer to a different college. She hence faced more severe consequences than most of the men who she alleges gang-raped her." www.thecut.com/article/what...

thecut.com

What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now

As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.

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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward

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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

you will encounter more opportunities in life to change the batteries on a smoke alarm than you will to run into a burning building and no one gives a shit you changed those batteries but it is still very important and why are you waiting on a burning building, know what i’m saying, it’s a metaphor

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The Alternate Histoween 🎃 @althistorian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Happy Stanislav Petrov Day. Today we celebrate the life of a man who saved billions by not believing a computer. May we all learn this valuable lesson.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Heh. Waaay back when I worked for the college newspaper and was learning to drink coffee, the editor said she hated coffee, but when she drank it, she drank it black, because "real women drink it black."

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

And be bored! Be willing to stand in line, impatient, and just lookin' around, you mind wandering.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I clocked this awhile ago when pundits were hyperventilating about college students and a few college profs got in on the action: how dare the (mere) students express themselves! Same old power move: freedom for me, not for thee.

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Shower Cat @shower-cat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I was explaining this to my spouse the other day and he was absolutely dumbfounded. I then reminded him of a couple of procedures I had (different from these) where no anesthesia was offered and they told me I could drive after. The first one I believed them. The second one I asked him drive me.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Kaaaaaaaaaaaant! (Capt Kirk howl)

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When I was out canvassing for candidate Mamdani, one person complained that he was just about newcomers, didn't care about people like her or her family, then sneered at me, "how long have you been here?" "20 years; you?" "25" I rolled my eyes and wished her & her hub a nice day.

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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

When the powerful playact powerlessness it is always a ploy to avoid accountability.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

No, I'm saying that, in this instance, I don't care about intent. Which isn't to say intent doesn't matter or that no one should care about intent. And you could be right that this was a simple (meaning, innocent?) mistake! I still don't care.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Real Viennese mayor vibes, here.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don't think it requires either clandestine actions or conspiracy: it could be that someone thought this was edgy or clever w no other thoughts beyond that. But I don't care about the creator's intent; I care about the effect. And, to me, the effect is to use lynching to sell shoes.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

that there is a fix. And there are plenty of people who push back directly on bullshit—which is primarily what's needed in the pol-cult context. But maybe we should more consciously carry the awareness that, in our efforts to think things through, we end up giving up too much to the other side.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Again, in an academic context, that doesn't really matter, bc the analysis has its own ends. But in a political-cultural context, these analyses can end up making things easier for our adversaries. So should we stop our questioning & hypothesizing? Maaaan, I can't go for that. I don't know ...

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I'd like to believe that greater understanding → better politics, but that ain't so. Instead, our curiosity can end up granting generosity to bad actors and doing the work for lazy actors (mainly by providing them w reasons for their actions they haven't bothered to think up themselves).

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Wrenching this out of context to note that this is something (we) academics do: probe the counterfactual. Which is good! It's a way to gain a more thorough understanding of a subject, as well as to keep our own critical skills sharp. But: it's not always a great political response to controversy.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don't think this is hidden.

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Caroleeena @caroleeena.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

As a long, long, long, long, long time Converse buyer, I will never buy a Converse product ever again. I am sick of the virtue signalling to racists. I see this and I see a man hanged, a white robe that could be a klansman's robe and light shaped like a KKK hat. What the actual hell!?!

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Kwisatz Haderach-ass wannabes

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It's, at best, just a tarted-up ethical utilitarianism; at worst, it's delusional selfishness.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And utilitarianism—which is foundational to EA—requires information for it to work! If someone's just guessing then they are, as you note, just BSing.

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Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Spinning back to this to note that, notwithstanding the majority decision, Justice Alito's determination to blame, in part, the lower courts is another example of the TERRIBLE job the justices are doing mistreating the lower courts, especially district courts.

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Oh, that's too bad; at least some of the LA museums have him in their permanent collections!

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tlpete @absurdbeats.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Did you get to the recent Klee exhibit at the Jewish Museum in NYC? They had Angelus Novus, which I never thought I'd see in person. Astonishing.

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