iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

So, he combines a total ignorance about moral philosophy with a total ignorance about economics, and thus hasn't worked out that, in business, immorality results in a deadweight loss to the economy. And he's a business bigwig. God on a f*#king pushbike.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I don't think that's true. Nationalism has been at least as much about a magic 'people'/ 'blood'/culture giving an excuse for privilege and seizing land. Maybe it's a magic circle? 'We have the right to seize the land that thereby becomes magic dirt because we live there and make more of us'?

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

That sounds *exactly* like what the current US administration is doing, seen from this side of the pond. And the 'co-opting of the populist aspects' sounds to me like exactly what Bret was talking about. Neither fascism nor Leninism are honest about their aims and approaches.

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Bloody hell.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Fundamentally, the story here is that humans are wired for hierarchy - status competition is an instinct we have. But we can and should mock and despise the people who cannot or will not rise above that instinct, the same as we would an adult who refused to ever be potty-trained.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Hmm, this strikes me as something that *shouldn't* be a problem but actually is because governments, through the law, are universally failing to fulfil their purpose. Sigh.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Maybe because *paying extra* for AI makes no sense whatsoever. In the longer term it is just a cheaper and strictly inferior form of product. Having something provided by a thinking person - who may or may not use AI tools in service to what they do - will **always** be better than instant AI slop.

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

None of this is a particularly British disease (HS-2 reminds me of the 1976 Montreal Olympics cost overrun in some ways)... we published a cross-national study of government blunders back in 2018. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I think it's just selfishness looking for allies. It's a desperate hunger for personal privilege realising that no-one is going to give privilege to you alone, so you need to offer to share the privilege in order to get the allies you need to take it. The oligarchic rich work the same way.

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Danielle Welch for Congress (NY-03) @votewelch.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

If there was any question, I support the Block the Bombs Act. I support applying international pressure to ensure that Palestinians have human rights, and international law is followed in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. It is not antisemitic to oppose the horrific actions of the Israeli govt.

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 23/04/2026

I'll say again: I miss having an FTC that might at least *try* to challenge shit like this wb/Paramount merger. And not just because paramount/skydance is fully captured by authoritatian bootlickers, either. Monopolies are bad! Bad for "consumers," & bad for creativity & stories & culture all around

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Fiona Tribe @fionatribe.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

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the spooky cake is not a lie @thecakeisnotalie.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Those who stand not for belief or principle, but instead only for tribal affiliation, are untrustworthy, dangerous, and can NEVER be more than temporary allies of convenience. Only those who act consistently out of principle can ever be trusted, for they believe in values greater than themselves.

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Bsky Kreuger @lammatic.hellthread.vet · 17/04/2026

A VCR never sold my private info to a nazi

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

'Current AI investments will crash and burn' and 'AI is here to stay' could both be true. Look at the Channel Tunnel (between the UK and France); the initial investors lost most of their investment, but the tunnel is still there and doing a useful job. With Ai's 'issues', a crash might do it good.

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🏳️‍🌈Gosh Darnit of the New Jersey Darnits😷 @goshdarn.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

But now that the people YOU elected are hurting your household, this isn't what you voted for. If you swallow enough hate, it grows like a cancer and eats the host. You voted for your own demise, and you will have to sit with it until the end.

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Charles Louis Richter @richterscale.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

"Felt genocidal today. Might delete later."

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Ryan H. Walsh @ryanhwalsh.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Every company website now has a CONTACT page with absolutely no way to contact a human presented on it, instead they all just funnel you into a labrynthian rat's nest of AI interactions you must somehow figure out how to trick into connecting you with a real one. It's pure garbage.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

How about for invading another country with aims and for reasons that you're not terribly clear about? Asking for an, um, not-friend...

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kjcon.bsky.social @kjcon.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Who knew this song would be so fitting after so many years 😒

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Making the Strait of Hormuz safe for energy shipments would be a remarkable accomplishment, one that the world has never seen since the beginning of the month.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The cluelessness is strong in this one. Exhibit 1: Alexander. The one that was actually called 'the Great'. And was taught by some philosopher guy. I'm sure y'all've heard of him.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

100% agreed, but that's not generally a thing that happens. 'Neo'-nazis persist after WW2, and that was a pretty huge defeat. In a wider sense, I think the general 'ideal' of 'WE should naturally have privilege over THEM' seems to be an eternal anchor hung around humanity's neck.

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Nathan Edwards @grackle.space · 04/03/2026

i have had a lot of frustrating conversations with friends of mine because they will not read and i will not listen to three-hour podcasts featuring sweaty guys who will believe literally anything unless there's a scrap of evidence for it

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

I think the main failing of most Western leaders (very much including here in the UK) has been and still is seeing 'foreign policy' as something distinct from and subsidiary to 'domestic policy'. We need to realise that the Internet knits them together to an ever increasing degree.

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Surely *someone* asked him about Bannon, Trump, Brexit & the Epstein files? Bueller?

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TheDevinTeam @thedevteam.itch.io · 16/02/2026

There’s an RPG theory called “RPG essentialism” which states that there’s one platonic ideal of RPG that all RPGs are striving to reach and this is such an incredibly silly theory. It’s akin to imagining there’s one way to describe a tree that all poets who describe trees are striving for.

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𓇢𓆸𝑭𝒆𝒅𝒆ꫂ❀ @fsohns.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

incredible. a rule zero excerpt written by an actual adult

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Alastair Campbell @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Closest anyone will ever get to an apology from The Orange ManBoy - now he should say something similar to the other 31 countries whose military he insulted

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Jeff Rueter @jeffrueter.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti. "Please get the truth out about our son."

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti
Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti

“We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

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Marty Suncreme @martinobeat.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I keep thinking “my god the people they’ve killed seem like exceptionally good folks” and I think the lesson there is that they’re not exceptional, but that wonderful people abound and that a baseline distrust in humanity is a shitty conservative trope that privileges power over collective strength

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

I’m completely fed up with elected Representatives saying shit like, “Republicans will tell you behind closed doors that they don’t agree with what ICE is doing”. Playtime is over. Professional courtesy no longer exists. Name them, record them, and make it public.

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Genevieve Cogman @genevievecogman.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

As Pratchett said:

“They avoided one another's faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard...
No one said anything. The cowards, thought each man.”

― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Surely more like 'sums up what is wrong with the ignorant tossers who brought us Brexshit'?

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

On the upside, he had a starring role in a good show.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

The 'rule' (at least as it came to the project management world from the back of an automobile workshop in Virginia) is generally 'two out of three' - which you achieve (cheap and good). Those who want the third as well are doomed to disappointment throughout life, and it's their own fault.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Even more the popularity/prevalence of the bayonet charge by the later 18th century.

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But Andrew Hickey Died Ten Years Ago This Very Night @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 24/12/2025

Just saw someone say the Bondi Beach massacre wasn't antisemitic because the killer was motivated by "the Zionist policies of Israel as a state". If your response to the policies of the Israeli state is to go and massacre some random Jews who are not Israeli, then *yes you're fucking antisemitic*

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

I remain genuinely gobsmacked that this wasn’t picked up more. The Alex Jones who *repeatedly accused grieving parents of making up their children’s murders*. Anyway, “after the news we’ll be joined by Nigel Farage & definitely won’t be asking him about any of this…”

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 23/11/2025

Beware anyone who loudly labels themselves a "truth-teller."

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Except that won't work. The problem isn't 'the foreigners', it's that regulation is happening at the wrong scale - national instead of international. The scope of government needs to shift again for it all to work - fighting against technology is a losing proposition.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Yes, the nation state is no longer a fully functional form of government because communication and weaponry technologies have once more made the scope of government too small. This has happened repeatedly throughout history. Until we accept it and figure out what to do about it, we're stuck.

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

It's just a statistical quirk. In any group of people of sufficient size, there will be people being arseholes. As the size of the group increases, the probability of arseholism at any point in time approaches unity. 🤓

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balesir.bsky.social @balesir.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

I think all it would require is to give VPs for siphoning money into a specific set of pockets. Have owners of property and businesses try to maximise their profits, and reward shaping policies to facilitate this via cost minimisation and monopoly leveraging.

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