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Jason Eric Bystrom

@jasonbystrom.bsky.social
701 followers 265 following 1K posts

Multiculti mash-ups from the far edge of the Western world (Berkeley, CA): religion, food, language, education, photography, music, basic human decency.

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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Overheard a snippet of a conversation between two young people, likely UC undergrads, discussing how the city of Berkeley is “sort of like between being in NYC and being in Michigan.” . I think you’re on to something there, kids.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Dear Bluesky: I don’t care about U2, but tbh I liked them when I was about 15.
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
there are only three narratives in fiction: 1) the hero's journey 2) a stranger comes to town 3) a greedy developer is going to tear down our beloved community center...UNLESS we put on the greatest breakdance show this town's ever seen
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
Americans: oh, look, a systemic issue. I will solve it individually
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Unrelated, you say 🧐 “In response to a request for comment about the Wyoming attack, DHS told NPR: ‘Any attempt to blame DHS for an unrelated attack is RECKLESS and FALSE.’” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Sikh truck driver survives harrowing stabbing attack at Wyoming rest stop
Suspect charged with attempted murder as driver, identified by surname Singh, reportedly stabbed 17 times
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
71°F at 8:45am in Berkeley. So far , this is the first “hot” morning that we have had the entire year.
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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I’ll ask Cloud
A tiny cloud in a cloudless blue sky over a street with a utility pole and a bridge tower and a distant skyscraper and the back of a billboard in morning light
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
All the UC kids are back in Berkeley, and it seems like every fifth person I see is carrying a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps it’s a TikTok related thing, or maybe it’s in preparation for tomorrow in honor of all of those who have labored before them?
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Just spoke with an old dude who lives down the block from me. He told me that he was the photo editor for Berkeley High’s student newspaper about 60 years ago. It was a DAILY that published five days a week 🤯
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
For a minute I confused Paul Schrader with Paul Verhoeven. Big difference, it turns out. Whereas Schrader was raised Dutch Reformed, Verhoeven was raised Dutch. Also, Verhoeven, I just learned, was a non scholarly member of the Jesus Seminar 🤷‍♂️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_S...
en.wikipedia.org
Jesus Seminar - Wikipedia
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My Arabic class has been canceled 2 quarters in a row for under enrollment. I’m terrible with the discipline part, and I can tell that my (very basic) vocab is slipping away. But yesterday I saw a new barbershop with the word “صالون" on the sign which reminded me of that whole fascinating etymology.
A flyer for the twice-in-a-row Arabic language class at Berkeley Adult school featuring a photograph of the teacher who is a kindly older gentleman from Eritrea.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I am on a roll today! Just now I walked by two LDS elders and the entirety of our exchange was: Them [formal, tentative]- How are you doing today, sir? Me [jovial]- Pretty good. Them [earnest nod]- Have a nice one.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
First ever encounter of “Shabshal.”
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
“Prayer” as a descriptor doesn’t look right. “Praying person?” Or is that triggering like “pregnant person”?
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
1/2 Just had an amazing random interaction with a person on the street. Gentleman approached me and asked me to “pray over” him. Was about to politely say that I don’t pray, but he continued with something about being haunted by these demons and just needing someone to pray over him right now.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
One time when I was about 17, me and two friends got pulled over by about 6-8 cop cars. They were looking for some stolen microwaves. We were in a pickup truck with an empty cargo bed. And we were LITERALLY coming from a Bible study 😂 bsky.app/profile/raxk...
A screenshot of a news story regarding “Three South Carolina teens arrested after allegedly cutting down a Flock camera & smashing it with a hammer until its battery exploded.” The story has been reposted by someone who states that “No jury should convict these upstanding young men.” Another person reposted the now-evolving thread with “uhhh pretty sure these guys were all in my bible study class with me that day.”
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Just saw “Dollyscrolling” on a post. Yeah.
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DeeplyFlawedReplyGuyFromNH @finegentlemaninnh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Every day we stray further from God's light.
A package of oreo cookies, chicken and waffle flavor.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Ace of Spades on church bells. Happy Sunday. www.instagram.com/reel/DcDQ1n1...
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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 21/08/2026
This is the funniest shit. Florida allows religious exemptions for vaccines. Catholic schools in Florida: we require vaccines. Florida's attorney general, who is Catholic, is threatening to pull vouchers if they don't allow for religious exemptions The Bishops: separation of church & state
miamiherald.com
Catholic bishops remind attorney general about separation of church and state
“The government may not decide that Church teaching is insufficiently religious,” wrote the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The muscular Christians got some competition at the Muslim Man Camp right up the road in …checks notes… CedarRapids, Iowa!??!! www.instagram.com/p/DbTVX1Fu4y...
A digital poster for Muslim Man Camp which promises “2 Full Days Packed with Outdoor Skills, Competitions, & Islamic Knowledge!”
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Maybe it’s better this way. (Apparently, a West Coast server is down.)
A screenshot of my Bluesky stream showing that, while the GUI is visible, there is no content whatsoever.
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aohsu @aohsusometimesy.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Who is proud of being a "dogmatist"? Is it a philosophical school or political trend? If you're a Buddhist, Confucian, or contemporary "centrist," claiming you're a "pragmatist" essentially means you think the other guys are inflexible idiots who are insensitive to context, difference, or change
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Greg M. Epstein @gregmepstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Every executive, investor, marketer, and indeed even every user of an app so cynically and amorally trying to (further) gamify democracy and indeed our humanity itself...should be deeply ashamed. But many seem lacking in basic capacity for shame or thoughtfulness. So we must hold them accountable.
Picture of a large Kalshi ad suggesting that people in 1947 would have used the app to bet on whether baseball would end segregation.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Turn a movie into a linguistics article Some Like It Hot: Approximative Adverbs, Discourse Markers, Hedging, and Quotative Devices or Like Water for Chocolate: Approximative Adverbs, Discourse Markers, Hedging, and Quotative Devices
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Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
The Amazing World of Tomorrow
A comic strip titled The Amazing World of Tomorrow.
A food delivery robot cooler drives down a sidewalk.
It crashes into a rental scooter. 
It backs up.
It crashes into the rental scooter again. The scooter wobbles.
The scooter falls to the ground as the food delivery robot backs up again.
A driverless taxi crashes into both the scooter and the food delivery robot sending them flying.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Phenomenal!, and a super fun thread. Having seen the megachurch praise-and worship aesthetic and ethos make incursions into contemporary Hindu and Muslim music, this was more or less inevitable.
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The three branches of the United States government, as delineated in the Constitution, are the God Emperor, The High Council of the Six Ayatollahs, and the Federal Reserve
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Visiting Weed, California, specifically the local Grocery Outlet. I do not want to get into an argument with this korma! Also, I learned about a completely different definition of “retort” than the one I was thinking about when I made the above quip.
A photograph of a white semi-truck trailer parked on a small embankment. Large hand-painted red letters are displayed prominently across the trailer: Curry King, Indian Food, Mexican Food. A package of Hocco brand heat and eat Navratan Korma. The package includes a claim of “Advanced Retort Technology.”A jar of Zoup brand Chicken Potpie Soup. The label claims that this soup is “thoughtfully crafted.”A screenshot from the Merriam- Webster webpage for the word “retort.” The fourth definition is:

retort 4 of 4
re•tort
ri-tört 
'rē-tort
retorted; retorting; retorts transitive verb
: to treat (something, such as oil shale) by heating in a retort
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Pat Schmear @patomicbomb.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The lord is telling you it’s time for an icy cold beer outside in his creation yet sinners stay inside with the devil’s AC watching Netflix
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Just Lynn 💙🦋✌️🇺🇦 @shoredweller7.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Nobody’s sexed their last pistols yet??? (Fun thread if you’re looking for a few minutes of mindless diversion.)
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Maybe just paint the Strait blue instead
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Because the store had already sold out of toilet paper?
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
An Instagram ad for @songsforhorses.com
A screenshot of an Instagram ad. On the top quarter of the image a photograph of a hand playing a star can be seen. Below the image the company’s ad copy states:
“Ancient sound. Electric soul.
The electric setar blends traditional
Persian character with a completely modern atmosphere.
Listen with headphones.”
Below the ad copy there are various user comments. I highlighted one that states, “My horse wants one.”
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
@mpgphd.bsky.social and @profirmf.bsky.social I thought you might be amused to know that, as of this afternoon around 5:30, your book sits right next to Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism at the main branch of the Berkeley Public Library. Religious Studies canonhood achieved!
A library bookshelf featuring a variety of religion-themed book titles.
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I'm a progressive because I value diverse and multiethnic spaces with people from many different places and backgrounds intermingling and developing new cultural forms together. A certain kind of discourse of cultural appropriation truly borders on "blood and soil nationalism, but call it leftist."
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
however much you hate billionaires is not enough
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Perhaps the biggest yikesaroonies of them all is that there’s a guy out there pushing whatever “Chicago Studies” is when every self-respecting academic worth their weight in Old Style knows that it’s “Chicagoland Studies.”
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Melissa Stewart @lissajostewart.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This is actually the secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
My coworker in a staff meeting, said dismissively, “This whole obsession with what generation you belong to like the new astrology!” Agreed.
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Chris Dwan (he/him) @somershade.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I’m so frustrated that I have to argue 20th century philosophy about whether machines are people and 18th century science about whether germs are real and fucking 15th century colonial bullshit about whether people are human beings.
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Blatant, overt, and deliberate violation of the Establishment Clause by Hegseth here “In previous administrations, our Chaplain Corps was infected by political correctness and secular humanism," he said. "...Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care. We started correcting that drift”
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Jason Eric Bystrom @jasonbystrom.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This morning in downtown Berkeley I witnessed a flock of seagulls and a small handful of crows (too few to be a proper murder of crows) band together to chase away a single red-tailed hawk. It was impressive on everyone’s part.
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I'm not surprised but I am baffled that "whiny, self-absorbed, untrustworthy, amoral, clearly no principles or sense of duty" is routinely labeled as "masculine." It's like they read scholarly articles on the interwoven nature of masculinity and toxic masculinity and decided "just the toxic parts."
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Lurks-No-More @lurks-no-more.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Bouncy feudalism, to be replaced by bouncy mercantilism and bouncy capitalism, until (as described by Marx) the society achieves bouncy communism.
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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
encyclical against the machine
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