Sign in

Nicholas Payne

@kipenyan.bsky.social
406 followers 91 following 2K posts

A stately 72 kilos.

PostsRepliesMedia
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 10h
I now frequently hear “I’m anti-carceral but” and then they go on to describe a leper colony. There’s a range of views on restorative justice, but if the end state doesn’t ultimately involve being in community with people who have done terrible things, that’s retributive justice with nicer branding.
010
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Flora 🍓🏳️‍⚧️ @floramerigold.bsky.social · 13h
y'all crashed our website 😭 we're working on it!! in the meantime, it's archived below: web.archive.org/web/20261002...
web.archive.org
What Do We Do With Jacob Geller? - Epilogue Gaming
Earlier this week, a friend noticed Jacob Geller’s book, How A Game Lives, sitting amongst my living room shelves. Under almost any other circumstances, this would have been an exciting invitation for...
1119232
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 20h
Desperately wish as a society we took sexual violence seriously enough for there to be space for conversations about what rehabilitation looks like and what is and isn’t expected but it feels like because there are no systemic consequences we’re left to apply them ourselves and foreclose those paths
010
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I support a good number of independent sites and they’re all great but honestly Mothership’s hit rate is the highest and it’s not close. They hit the ground running and haven’t missed. Nearly every post is the best thing I’ve read in games that day and among the best in culture writing period.
030
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Maddy Myers 🏳️‍🌈 @midimyers.com · 01/10/2026
if you aren't already supporting @mothership.blog, you should be. support women and queer people in video game criticism and journalism. we deserve to exist in these spaces but, at least in the case of mothership, we can only exist and pay our writers and introduce you to new writers if YOU help us.
2456180
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I’m someone who tends toward a belief in the fundamental goodness of people, but there are some weeks where that is nearly impossible to cling to. Just absolute assaults on the human spirit
000
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 01/10/2026
The death penalty is a moral abomination. State-sanctioned barbarism pushed by incompetent morons and sanctioned by the Supreme Court. Absolute ghoul shit. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
The lone woman on Tennessee's death row was still alive after she was administered two lethal injections, her lawyer said in a motion seeking to halt her execution Wednesday night, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.
At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses said
"executioners had injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals and Pike is still alive and snoring," her lawyers said in a federal court filing.
They said Pike "has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat," and that curtains to the death chamber "have gone down twice."
11946761162
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Every time the state puts someone to death it makes me feel ill for days, and the circumstances of this case are as upsetting as any. In that context, the sentence “former journalist who now creates true crime coloring books” made me momentarily blind with rage.
“"When the piece of skull got out, that's kind of the death knell for Christa," a former Knoxville journalist who now creates true-crime coloring books told the "Unrestorable" podcast. "You're not coming back from that."”

Excerpt from https://theintercept.com/2026/09/27/christa-pike-execution-women-death-row/
210
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Probably a more “modern” list than the majority of these, but they’re all games that left me with a different understanding of what games could be after I played them.
My 9 Games:

Bioshock, Sekiro, Outer Wilds, StarCraft, Mirrors Edge, Control, Rock Band, Destiny, Gone Home
020
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“transplant” discourse is great because you get to see how easily people can swaddle their insular, reactionary beliefs with left-coded language
352110179
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This article and thread are excellent examples of how “be the change you want to see” can fall woefully short without any coercive mechanism. Everything might well be better if everyone chose this way, but it’s ultimately a prisoners dilemma where too many people take the other side for it to work.
171
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The people with a thousand excuses in response to this are *phenomenal* block candidates if you want your feed to start looking marginally less insane.
010
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 20/09/2026
everyone complaining about paywalls, one of the most easily manipulated barriers to knowledge ever created, desperately needs to consider taking some personal responsibility for their poor media habits
461393136
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Bluesky is the most learned group ever assembled of smart, funny people who will read a headline and then talk for two days about only the headline
543283388
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This has long been what I’ve called the catch-22 of AI workflows. AI can be useful with a diligent human alongside, but most diligent humans don’t see tremendous benefit from AI because they already did real work. Conversely, the people most enticed by it are least inclined to use it responsibly.
110
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I thought surely this had to be a pre-existing promotion that was being discovered with comically unfortunate timing. Nope, literally no web presence before today, and the rules say start date of 9/14. Even if it was, deciding to follow through *now* is genuinely insane.
000
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In my experience people love "man behind the curtain" narratives - Project 2025, Epstein, data centers, Flock. Everyone's a conspiracy theorist now so all you need to do is present the truth like it's a secret you're letting them in on
423343
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I think every concert I’ve been to in the last couple years has included varying specificities of “fuck ICE” and “free Palestine” at some point during the proceedings, so I wonder what the threshold for the giant blow up is. Being an artist someone’s grandparents may have heard of?
020
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Leslie Root @lesja.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"the gays were really polite and normal about it" no see what's happening here is that being gay feels normal to you now, so their activism seems reasonable in hindsight. trans activism feels egregious because you think trans people are grotesque
119655
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Seeing increasing amounts of people misidentifying human art as AI while simultaneously not recognizing AI art, and boy, does it suck. Everyone seems to have decided art I don’t like = AI, art I do like = real, and I don’t think they realize the very gross things that inadvertently justifies.
100
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
If a claude.MD is sufficient to relegate something to vibe-coded slop to avoid, I’ve got terrible (or great, depending on your perspective) news about how much software you can still use. It does not include the phone you’re currently reading this on, or any major web framework, for starters.
150
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It’s been said many times but nonetheless bears repeating: absolutely no amnesty. We have no future as a nation unless every one of these people face dire consequences.
010
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
What thing are we making illegal? The pervert glasses are functionally identical to people already doing the same shit with their phones; they clearly know they’re being filmed. We’ve got a gargantuan cultural problem that Zuck et al aren’t helping with but also cant save us via convenient scapegoat
110
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Marianne "Moth" Cassidy @mothshaped.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I think the popular conception of a boycott has been completely disconnected from unions at this point. People think of boycotts as morality tests, as "voting with your wallet," not as coordinated efforts to affect change in an industry or system.
3714
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I’m a broken record on this but I truly don’t know what to do about so many of the people on “my side” demonstrably not caring to verify what they’re saying or whether their understanding of a situation is accurate anymore. Feels like that used to be a point of distinction and it just isn’t now.
120
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Stellbound: Stellraiser II @antlervel.vet · 29/07/2026
If I had to describe the heart and soul of Bluesky it would the following: a guy who didn’t actually read Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s Odyssey movie defending it against a guy who didn’t actually watch Nolan’s Odyssey movie
443039335
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This Odyssey discourse is driving me mad, not because of the movie or the review, but because NOBODY FUCKING READS ANYTHING. I am seeing entire discussions on here between people who clearly just vibed what they imagine it said, and then opining at length about it. We’re so beyond cooked it’s unreal
110
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Almost everyone the general public now thinks of as a “STEM guy” is actually a business guy who makes his money exploiting actual STEM guys. The cosplay is a deliberate attempt to conflate them with people who are actually useful.
010
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Additionally, the form of a lot of those jabs betrays that the jabber thinks the concept of gender-affirming care is at least plausibly worthy of ridicule. You’re not getting one over on them by adopting the shape of their slurs, you’re just debasing yourself.
011
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
it's not an own to point out that all these fucking guys trying to deny trans people their hormones are so into HGH and whatnot. they don't care either way about 'gender affirming care.' they want to be he-men and they want trans people to die. to them the two projects are perfectly coherent
383991795
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Some of it was (and still is) genuinely heartwarming but it’s also abundantly clear that a lot of Europeans have discovered the meta that if you say “I thought America was X (derogatory), but it’s actually Y (laudatory)” the easily flattered Americans will absolutely blow it up on the algorithm
000
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The actual Gentrifier is a pretty rare phenomenon (it’s not just an upwardly mobile economic migrant), but even in cases where they actually exist and can cause harm, their ability to do so reflects a city’s preexisting failure to meet housing and development needs, the gentrifier didn’t create it.
010
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 01/06/2026
you're the same | patreon.com/lubchansky
PANEL 1: MATTIE and a GUY walking down the street. The GUY has a pin that says ALLY. He is pointing at a figure in the near foreground.
ALLY GUY: Can you believe it? That guy that hates trans people…is on testosterone and has had cosmetic procedures!
MATTIE: And?

PANEL 2: Close in on the figure, it's ANOTHER GUY with an exaggerated chad face.
VO: Don't you GET it? That's the same! Gender-affirming care!
VO: If you want to get really pedantic, I guess? Maybe. But it doesn't really change anything–
VO: He's the SAME as you!

PANEL 3: MATTIE: hands on her hips. The ALLY GUY walks away triumphantly.
ALLY GUY: That's right! The transsexual! Society's lowest creature!
ALLY GUY: Haha, he is so owned. I'm going to go tell him.

PANEL 4: MATTIE watches in the near foreground. Across the street the CHAD GUY is on his knees, crying. The ALLY GUY is turned towards MATTIE giving a thumbs-up and grinning huge.
232681477
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Sort of jarring that it seems like the Pope has a more cogent and informed critique of AI than most nominally technical reporters
100
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Thank god for the long weekend. There is something absolutely rancid in the vibes rn
010
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
It’s weird to treat Destiny ending like someone dying, but that’s what it feels like. People I haven’t heard from in ages asking if I’ve heard the news. Reminiscing about things that happened 5, 10 years ago. People planning reunions just to be around people feeling the same thing. What a game, man.
0174
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Introduce yourself with 10 bands / musicians you’ve seen live For bragging purposes I’m adding “in the past week” Snail Mail Father John Misty Japanese Breakfast Turnstile Feeble Little Horse Jane Remover Lucy Dacus American Football Hayley Williams Lorde
030
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
I see a lot of takes like this from a (no offense) particular age demographic and I think it misses the ubiquity of second screen content with younger generations. There’s a whole cohort who always has a Twitch stream or YouTube video going on the side, and video podcasts slot into that flow better.
020
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
This is definitely the thing I’ve become the most buzzkill about over time. I used to be very “oh what’s the harm in a little horoscope or personality test, they’re fun” to “superstition and pseudoscience are the mind killer, you are inculcating yourself with nonsense and I won’t be party to it”
050
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
There are many frustrating things about this phenomenon, but chief among them are people who will pontificate about the water waste of tech while casually eating beef. For reference, you’d need to spend a solid year talking to AI nonstop to come close to a single hamburgers worth of water/carbon.
121
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 05/05/2026
i think one day we'll wonder why this technology was dangerously rushed into every consumer facing product instead of quietly developed to fruition in academia or industry and the answer will be that the tech CEOs didn't know what to do with it so they asked the chatbot and did whatever it said
351441234
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
honestly a big part of the problem is that many people don’t care about being lied to as long as they like the lie. this is an actual both sides problem and it’s getting worse. watching all the paid dnc influencers and strategists spread conspiracies about the shooting is not a great sign
724143
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Maybe a hot take, but the death penalty is without exception one of the most heinous things we continue to allow to exist. That being the case, if it’s going to occur it shouldn’t get to hide behind the faux “humane” medical theater of lethal injection. A firing squad is at least honest about it.
010
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Kath Barbadoro @kathbarbadoro.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
the correct position is obviously to not give a shit if someone is stealing from a grocery store or something but "it's actually marxist praxis to steal" is something I have only ever heard rich people with email jobs say
422025
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I need a better writer than me to write something about how Pragmata is the apotheosis of the “parenthood without women” dream that has taken root among increasingly misogynistic disillusioned young men. People have written about Sad Dad games but not enough about their role as reactionary fantasy.
141
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
true crime brain has fucked people up so bad and they get really mad when you point that out. and also that the entire true crime industry is predatory and exploitative
793648457
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Beyond political conditioning (bc I’ve talked to plenty of left-of-center people from other parts of the U.S. who are a little leery of the subway!) I think this is the biggest reason for the disconnect in who perceives New York as inherently dangerous. Cars change your relationship to the world.
933720
Nicholas Payne @kipenyan.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I’m glad some lefties are finally letting go of the “the debt isn’t real” thing. The debt as an excuse for why the poor should suffer was never real, the debt as an impending freight train that will further immiserate the poor… extremely real!
131
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Can we get back to talking about all the insane ways this tech is being deployed and how bad it is that people are offloading their thinking to it now, or are we going to have to keep on having a proxy fight about the environment that has always been only about the tech itself anyway?
Graph comparing the costs of training GPT-4 to manufacturing other products
221319
Reposted by Nicholas Payne
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 14/04/2026
The index of consumer sentiment isn't broken; models that try to predict it just don't have the right input variables. I fix that and find that, yes, high nominal price levels explain why the vibes are so off. It's the prices, stupid www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-04-14...
gelliottmorris.com
It's the Prices, Stupid
Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low because prices are at an all-time high. Consumer sentiment isn't broken, popular government data is just incomplete
732330612