Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 08/10/2026The vulgar Straussian "we need to preserve liberal education for future gentlemen (and for those tiny few capable of philosophy)" elitist vision of higher ed has been replaced by the idea that machines will be both the gentlemen and the philosophers, so liberal education is entirely fruitless. 181
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Tho to be fair to Tillis (and most of his ilk), they're better described as #MostlyTrump . 000
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026The #SometimesTrump Republicans like Tillis have no constituency whatsoever in their party. And it's hard to see what advantage they'd have even within a post-MAGA GOP, which is itself a fantasy. 110
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026No discussion of covers is complete without mention of this deathless classic: youtu.be/ysUjYAi0WcQ?...youtu.beHurra Torpedo - Total Eclipse Of The Heart (live)YouTube video by frozentoast 241
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026There are so many great covers out there... youtu.be/vwVX4cG6F9s?...youtu.beLERA LYNN // WOLF LIKE ME // TV ON THE RADIOYouTube video by Lera Lynn 152
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026It's an album, actually... youtube.com/playlist?lis...youtube.comSings: The Who Sell Out - YouTube 111
Reposted by Ben AlpersDarren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 06/10/2026They hounded Aaron Swartz to death for downloading papers from jstor but society is now supposed to just accept mass theft because this thing can write that TPS report *for* you. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_S...en.wikipedia.orgAaron Swartz - Wikipedia 111635551
Reposted by Ben AlpersHypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 06/10/2026Can we fast forward to the eagle and liver part.gizmodo.comSam Altman Thinks He's the Prometheus of Silicon ValleyIn a new interview, Altman compares AI to fire and OpenAI to the Greek god that gifted the power to humanity. 30744138
Reposted by Ben AlpersA.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Biden: The MAGA wing, well gosh, listen, they’re, it’s, a bit of a flirt with fascism, no kidding around Media: Democratic rhetoric invites political violence Trump: The nuclear flames that burn every mongrel soul in San Diego will be a cleansing fire. Media: Trump makes his case in Nebraska 81410316
Reposted by Ben Alpersthe Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 06/10/2026human interest writers watch even one episode of the twilight zone challenge 1364580
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026It's worth remembering that Pre-Woke Bill Kristol played a big role in selling Palin to national Republicans in early 2008. 060
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026In fairness, he has a better chance of governing Hilton than he has of governing California. Might be a sensible pivot! 040
Reposted by Ben AlpersRoland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Social media is a paranoia machine. It makes connections explicit, though not transparent. It not only allows you to trace ties between people, institutions, and events, but also continually produces new ties. On social media, everything becomes connected, and thus potentially suspicious 215545
Reposted by Ben AlpersMiles Grant @milesgrant.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The NY Times framing every fascist as tough strong & brilliant, and not a dumb racist liar, is one of many ways the NY Times tells Democrats that they are Not On Our Side, and Dems mostly choose not to listennytimes.comKaroline Leavitt, Trump’s ‘Machine Gun,’ Has a New Gig at Fox NewsA fierce and nimble speaker, Ms. Leavitt is the second of Mr. Trump’s former press secretaries to join the cable news network. 17968194
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Kinda hilarious that Bluesky considers that image of Liberty to be "adult content." 010
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Joining a hallowed list that includes John Glenn, Wesley Clark, and Fred Thompson, among many, many other non nominees. 030
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026A trailblazer for his community, Dennis Hastert will always be remembered as a person whose success helped enable other abusers and pedophiles to achieve leadership positions in the Republican Party. 021
Reposted by Ben AlpersPeople's Government of the Pelargir Commune 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴 @dov.bsky.social · 04/10/2026the other thing is that a lot of gentiles, from what i can tell, simply do not understand that asking a jewish person, even an anti-zionist, to never interact with members of the community who are in fact zionists, is really fundamentally antithetical to the nature of jewish communal life 1061168
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Though, to be fair to the party's empty suits in Congress, the (shrinking) GOP primary electorate remains supportive of Trump. 010
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Also the number of GOPers in Congress who are not ideologically committed to MAGA is tiny. Not only are there no Republican moderates, there are few flexible nihilists willing to follow wherever the political winds blow. 110
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Things change. When I moved to Oklahoma in 1998, both houses of the state legislature had been in Democratic hands for all but four years of the state's history. That changed in 2005. Since 2011, Dems have been reduced to a small minority in both houses. 020
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Also, if one looks at, e.g., business schools, many engineering departments, law schools, economics departments, and much of the faculty at institutions affiliated with theologically conservative religions, you'll quickly find that not all academics vote Democratic. 010
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Rather than acknowledging the attacks as the problem, the focus on "public trust" ends up inevitably being about building a university that the far right won't attack. This is both bad for American higher education and fruitless. The attacks won't stop until the foxes are in charge of the henhouse. 0102
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026"Decline of public trust" discourse is the "stop hitting yourself" of educational reform. Public trust has declined because of a relentless, baseless attacks on higher education from the right. 1194
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026And hostility to the continuing existence of Jews in the diaspora is a shared value between Zionism and far-right, antisemitic parties and states around the world. 010
Reposted by Ben AlpersTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Please, for the love of God, leave me behind with all the books because you don’t read. I want to be left behind! 11714107
Reposted by Ben AlpersHolly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · 04/10/2026“Now is not the time to quit, quietly or no. •Academic freedom is nothing other than intellectual autonomy from state, church, and corporate interests; •shared governance is workplace democracy; •peer review is a horizontally-run system of democratic expertise.” 03011
Reposted by Ben AlpersNY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026As a transphobic male senator, there is nothing more important to me than protecting women's sports. Here's why it never occurred to me that Jack Smith, a man, would choose to attend a women's college basketball game. by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) 181814276
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The Oklahoma Democratic Party foolishly endorsed an effort to bring Jungle Primaries to our state. Luckily they failed to get enough signatures to put it on the ballot. 040
Reposted by Ben AlpersMayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 01/10/2026Want to learn about the history of our city? Well you’re in luck. This month, we’re hosting a massive scavenger hunt across the city — all about the history of organizing in NYC. Sign up at organize.nyc.gov and come see the city through the eyes of the people who built it. 13159151333
Reposted by Ben AlpersStew Smith @stewbiedoo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Even when an execution goes "correctly" it's no less a barbaric act. Do not let anyone try and tell you that lethal injection is the "humane" way to do it. There is no humane way to execute someone. /2 1458
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The Venn diagram of folks who accuse other folks of saying "vote harder" and folks who claim to oppose Republicans but refuse to vote for Democrats is close to a circle. 030
Reposted by Ben AlpersStarfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I don’t trust the mainstream media, but I feel like the primary alternate model, getting the news from the posts of a 14 year-old Romanian schizophrenic shitposter named “G00n3R the Swamp Pervert,” is not necessarily a superior alternative. 311533209
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I'm uninteresed in supporting Kamala Harris in the 2028 primary, but I'm really hoping she runs because Newsom says he won't if she does. And I find him totally exhausting and aggravating. 130
Reposted by Ben AlpersPerry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026"For America to right itself, we need changes on the scale of Reconstruction and the New Deal. And I worry that’s not going to happen if Democrats and the broader anti-Trump left are taking their cues about what’s necessary and politically possible from the Times." newrepublic.com/article/2160...newrepublic.comThe Left Must Fight The New York Times’ Monopoly TooThe paper’s editorial vision is out of step with the robust liberalism needed today. 421689448
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Tbh, I go back and forth on that view, both as a description of reality and as kind of useful political rhetoric (it can be the latter even if it isn't the former.) 000
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Those founders, who believed in those principles, also baked chattel slavery into that Constitution. The glass half full take on our current circumstances (and the founding) is that those principles, even when being violated in practice, had (and have) aspirational weight. 200
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026That political protestors received harsher punishment than rapists is absolutely relevant. What they were protesting shouldn't be relevant...though the fact that you think it is illuminates the politics of underlying the disparity in punishment. 000
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026You're the one tying this to Gaza (which is, as you say, not relevant). What is relevant is the vicious crackdown on student political dissent that occurred not just at Cornell, but at campuses around the country. 200
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026TRAIN TO BUSANstatic.klipy.comGong Yoo Runs from Zombies in Train To BusanAlt: Gong Yoo Runs from Zombies in Train To Busan 1152
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026static.klipy.comMary TylerAlt: Mary Tyler Moore throws her hat in the title sequence from THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW 161
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026youtu.be/0oox9bJaGJ8?...youtu.beBooker T. & The MG's - Green Onions (Official Audio)YouTube video by RHINO 171
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Local sports coverage already does a fair bit of this. 000
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOWstatic.klipy.comRhps RiffraffAlt: Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia dancing in front of Rocky's tank. 141
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026static.klipy.comMonty Python's Flying Circus Title Sequence by Terry GilliamAlt: Monty Python's Flying Circus Title Sequence by Terry Gilliam 2121
Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Are you a Republican? Do you have a spare hundred million or so to contribute to the Ballroom or the Arch? 010