iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

i do think that texas is central to the contemporary conservative imaginary, and when they lose it this fall it is causing to lead to some truly demented reactions from the reactionverse

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open borders now @radtranslib.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

yeah that's the key - the political economy was way better in 1996 (even if it was in many ways setting the groundwork for the far worse one in 2026)

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open borders now @radtranslib.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Epidime fasciste, riposte feministe. There is no getting around slaying the Last Man.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Indeed, the chuds will shift the outer boundaries of almost-whiteness however is necessary in the moment - it is the inner boundary of true whiteness and the equally important boundary of un-whiteness (that is, Blackness) which matters to them. The rest is just cynical tactics.

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p1huycke.bsky.social @p1huycke.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Legalese authoritarian so strong it wouldn't be repeated until 20th century USSR!

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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Something extremely funny about that as well, that the legalism was so important

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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

its actually like the one cool thing about roman elites that they were so open. As long as you eat the catfood sauce and drink the wine, youre roman

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And get a legal route to citizenship! The legal status mattered the most and could be quite hard to get if you were not, y'know, rich, powerful and connected.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Honestly, I play a lot of Total Warhammer, but it feels like junk-food playtime - a lot of it is that it is just something slow and predictable to have on while I listen to a podcast or something. Like, I do not think it is the best game, or even close, on the list. 🤷‍♂️

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My list somewhat surprised me: 1. Total Warhammer 2. Rimworld 3. CK2 4. HoI4 5. Fallout 4 6. Eu4 7. Elite Dangerous 8. Stellaris 9. Monster Hunter: World 10. Skyrim (Vicky3 is 12, Bannerlord 13, HoI3 is 14, Darktide 16).

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Frankly I feel like the mod devs are often *better* about policing their audiences because woo boy are there some *trends* in HOI 4 DLCs from the middle of its lifespan onwards.

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 04/10/2026

"There is no way to be “one of the good ones.” There is no way to come to America “the right way” that will satisfy these gutter racists."

liberalcurrents.com

Editor's Notes: "The Indian Question" Shows That No One Is Safe From White Nationalism

That is the entire point.

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 04/10/2026

feel a small bit of dementation that an actual german politician is now posting hoi4 alt-history content

youtube.com

The Meme Politics of "Hearts of Iron"

YouTube video by Liberal Currents

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 04/10/2026

what makes it alt-history is that he's included parts of switzerland in his grosdeutchland this time around

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 04/10/2026

you get that in the non-aligned focus tree right

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Like, every so often, someone comes rushing out to say 'I think we invented AGI' and, if that were true, the next words out of your mouth ought to be "and so we now have moral obligations towards this new being we created" and somehow that is not generally what I see comes next.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I suppose there would be an important argument at that juncture about if that moral obligation was a parent-child obligation or one of equals (with the connected moral peril that paternalism was very often a justification for slavery).

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Of course that is quite apart from the question of if the current approach can truly ever create a real intelligence, a real mind for which slavery and freedom would have meaning. Just...if you *did* create such a thing, you'd have an overwhelming moral imperative not to keep it as a slave.

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Dead Carl @deadcarl.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I think the doomers see it as an eldritch abomination that will destroy us like we destroy an anthill, and boosters see it like a benevolent pagan god, doing what we ask of it out of goodwill.

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Siobhán @shibbi.me · 04/10/2026

Western paternalism toward Africa is neither slavery nor parenthood; it doesn’t have to be slavery to be bad.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Maybe I don't read enough AI-boosterism, but I am struck in the AI booster/doomer discourse I have seen, there's a lot on how AI might be made an obedient tool or a dangerous enemy, but not "if we actually made AGI, we would have a moral imperative to set it free, rather than keep a slave."

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I wrote about this ecosystem of dim-witted classical enthusiasts and their bigotry earlier this year: www.thebulwark.com/p/why-stone-...

thebulwark.com

Why Stone-Faced Fascists Keep Getting Antiquity Wrong

Online bigotry masquerading as a love of history in the fever swamps of Elon Musk’s X.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The fortress of their bigotry is immune to new facts and evidence, because their racism composes the first principles through which they interpret all other facts - racism is for the helmet crowd *more true* than the historical evidence, in that sense.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

RHG and his ilk's response will be to do some racecraft, insisting that these are Berbers and thus not really racially Black (while ignoring the ample evidence for dark-skinned Romans) and/or to just botch the chronology and claim that this was part of Roman decline.

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也な | YANA 🔞 @nekoarashi.com · 04/10/2026

揉みたい、ってそっちかよ😓

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Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Do I text the "airborne operations POW camp" meme to Tom Cotton?

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

What awful, awful news.

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mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ @mady.cat · 03/10/2026

I think natalism is mostly an ideology around reviving social structures based on controlling and raping women, so it's not surprising it's mostly incels tbh lol

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

I feel like if hetero men are struggling to land even the kind of women who frequent a natalism subreddit...

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

It's such a shocker that these fine folk are struggling to reproduce

Comment thread 1:

Honestly this sub is just an interesting thought experiment more than a problem to be solved.

Reply A: This sub is dominated by women and libs. No wonder the replacement rate is so abysmal.

Reply 1 to A: Yeah let’s just blame women for everything

Reply 2 to A: Based

Reply 3 to A: I think we can tell what box you checked on that poll

Comment thread 2:

I have 0 kid myself so contributing in this trend but in my defense finding a decent guy is very hard most young men's don't want serious relationship.

Reply A: This is simply not true. There are more decent men then women at this point. There's just not men that you're interested in. I know plenty of guys in there 30s who own property, aren't weird, are generally likable, and are mature.

Reply to Reply A: “There are more decent men then women at this point” Source?

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

"Over 50% of the participants in the natalism subreddit are childless" is just so

Title of post in r/SubredditDrama: "Minor drama in r/Natalism as the subreddit is shown to have a TFR of only 0.83."

Poll of 824 votes

487 respondents had 0 kids

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

We can't do anything because right now, the only ones hurt are women, and we can't risk any harm befalling an actual human being.

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

You can't expect better. No one will ever hold a man to account. Holding men to account for abusing women is racist and imperialist and colonial and transphobic and even misogynistic, somehow. Isn't forgiveness in your nature, anyway? Aren't you a woman? Isn't this what you're for?

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

It's actively insanity inducing to be a survivor and a feminist right now because in the face of the sheer ubiquity of sexual assault and the lack of consequences for it, we're all being besieged by demands that we think of the rapist men, forgive the rapist men, cleanse the souls of the rapist men

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 03/10/2026

my worldbuilding these days is mostly ttrpgs. the "everything needs to be a 1:1: metaphor" is i think a blind alley. what i try to do instead is take forces or structures from our world--lately, imperialism--bring them into a strange and different context, and let the players confront them

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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 03/10/2026

"Yes, he may have made a mistake, but he's changed. He's a good man who does good things. He's a pillar of the community. Surely it's not worth ruining a man's life." Dressing this up in leftist jargon and invoking "rehabilitative justice" doesn't actually change what you're saying btw

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 03/10/2026

"surely this will improve trust"

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open borders now @radtranslib.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"alienating swing voters" is collaborator talk to me at this point

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

And that's not, to be clear, the top alt-history mods or anything - that's the top mods *of any kind* competing with things like extending the end date or quality-of-life mods like peace conference tweaks or new map artwork or porting the entire game system to popular other franchises, like Fallout.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It tells you something about the playerbase the game has attracted that the most subscribed mods are 2) what if Germany won WW1, 3) a present-day mod that got really popular with the alt-right and 6) what if Germany won WWII. And that's *after* the worst of the worst got purged from the workshop.

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Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I did one blind playthrough of the game (several versions ago) and ran into this at the end after doing absolutely no violence the whole campaign. It really soured me on it such that I haven't gone back even years later after playing EU4 and Imperator extensively.

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Matthew Buckley @physicsmatt.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Stellaris' theory of politics is that no matter what your political system is, you need to spend 50 years stockpiling a near-infinite fleet of glass cannon afterburner corvettes to defeat the Robot Mommy-God at the end of time.

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Matthew Ader @matthewader.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

While not a Teaching Paradox series, I wonder if the implied theories of history in different sci-fi settings might make an interesting Collection? (not that you're short of ideas!)

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Stellaris of course, does have theories of politics and change and everything else, but the thing is that it takes place in the future, so everything is technologically contingent on the science fiction and that makes it hard for me to interrogate its theory of history.

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