Reposted by trusted diet coke valetdisc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I usually try to explain it like this: picture Will Menaker as Cornell West. Now imagine they're Cuban. Doesn't look so much like the Brooks Brothers Riot was caused by adult Bluey fans floss dancing now, does it? 1478
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 11/10/2026He had strong moral and economic objections, and he'd switch between them depending on the audience. And yeah, he was a back-to-Africa guy (the term is a bit misleading bc he was also considering South America) right up until he died, although he knew there were problems with that approach. 020
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 11/10/2026Now, Lincoln was a canny fellow who knew how to talk out of both sides of his mouth, and he understood that his opponents could not de-escalate. So you can argue he knew where it all was headed, but at least in public he was pretty adamant that he was not a militant abolitionist. For instance, see:abrahamlincolnonline.orgAbraham Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley 160
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 11/10/2026Eh, not really. Lincoln had promised not to abolish slavery and merely to limit its westward spread (although many Southerners either didn't believe him or saw even that stance as existential). But the Civil War was 100% a Southern war of choice- they seceded and then fired the first shots. 170
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 10/10/2026This is fun timing bc I was just going through an old flash drive and I had forgotten how fun some of Neil's early stuff was Weirdly I don't have Ultimate Showdown memorized, but apparently I still know like ~90% of Word Disassociation? I'm sure the aides at the nursing home will love that trickyoutube.comWord DisassociationYouTube video by Neil Cicierega 000
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Got my foot tapping once it got into the "eagerly gobbles up the slop" of it all 020
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026refrain in these discourses and the side that you take issue with will always appear unreasonably large or extreme because that's just what these online discourses put in front of us. 000
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Maybe you can make an argument of special treatment by focusing on the prevalence of camps in one case vs. another or the specifics of each factional grievance, but "you're negatively polarizing the hoes by being too strident" vs. "if they're open to that take, they were always scum" is a constant- 100
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I don't have to imagine- I've seen center-to-leftist discourse-makers and poasters make all these arguments. I'm not sure what you mean when you say it's something "we're never allowed to discuss," except that you're aware of (and bothered by) a group online who will take issue w/ these claims. 100
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026That said, I don't think what I'm saying is at all relevant to the intended meaning of Mandami's statement except as a possibly intended smokescreen that gives plausible deniability for why it downplays Hamas's atrocities so severely while emphasizing the IDF's. 021
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I don't know that it is either! But there's at least a case to be made, especially given how Israel has insisted that 10/7 justified or demanded all their conduct in the war. Whether and how these things are entangled is a complex matter and I'm potentially open to a range of positions there. 111
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026That said, that point obviously requires a lot of care and nuance, Mandami is not the ideal speaker to make it, and this statement 100% steps over the line into victim-blaming while holding out some version of that (still fraught) point as a fig leaf for plausible deniability. 000
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I think there is a point you could make that civilians in Gaza have been made secondary victims of 10/7, that Jews (no matter how much we might wish it) cannot be the sole group to assign moral meaning to that day given all the horrors which came after that Israel directly tied to 10/7. 261
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026As you say, it's important to note *Algerian Jews with ancestors who had lived there for centuries* were also denied citizenship. As soon as Algeria won the freedom to define its own political community, it did so in a way that VERY clearly indicated Jews were not equal members of the nation. 010
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Especially if it's being cited as both a positive example for a just transition to a one-state system AND yet another time when those perfidious, rootless cosmopolitans fled rather than accepting equality in a multicultural society with equal rights for all. 130
Reposted by trusted diet coke valetUSER WAS BLOCKED FOR THIS POST @blockedforthispost.bsky.social · 07/10/2026It's a "read the room" thing. Everyone talking about this is talking about how how a lot of people are loosing their careers, facicists are talking control of the media, crossovers are less likely, I posted sad drunk Bugs Bunny, and you are asking about a project that was already dead 7468
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026If it's actual tragedy in its classic form instead of "these people live in a cold, mechanistic world where bad things happen for no good reason," the problems facing your blorbos are at least partially self-inflicted. That means you have to write the beneficial change from that starting point! 010
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Right, there's an instinctive response to tragedy that goes "that made me feel bad, so I reject it," and it's mostly independent from the actual artistic merits or faults of the story. You can do interesting things with that reaction, but you still have to be self-aware and say something interesting 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Yeah, it’s definitely true that these are fan works at their most dependent (or parasitic if you want to be mean), but I’ll admit that I’ve read and enjoyed one or two things like this. I think stories like this often go wrong by overstaying their welcome- 300k words of coffee shop AU, etc. etc. 120
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026It’s an overcorrection because there’s already a ton of genre fiction where you can safely guess that the characters will make it through in the end but the story still mostly takes the risks seriously. Downplaying from even that level of adversity just leaves featureless mush 99 times out of 100. 020
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I think the problem with a lot of those stories is that they’re so dead-set on Maximum Comfy that they suck out all the setbacks, tension, and drama that might make us care about the characters in the first place. (Especially true for fan works trying to deliver good endings for certain characters). 241
Reposted by trusted diet coke valetThe Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Sometimes my wife and I like to send each other text messages as though they’re democratic fundraising messages, and I believe she has produced the jewel of the form. 188111721872
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Yeah, this is something you'll see in a lot of dodgy apologetics. Only focus on the hits (which are the weaker claims), discount themisses, and claim that the entire package of claims is impossible to separate so the success of one prediction means that every other one will also come true. 180
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I think that poptimism is an alien phenomena to artists and art critics of a certain age, especially those who have the skills to set them apart from their targets (which Joyce absolutely does). Like... I'm sure she's thinking "why am I expected to act as if this trash is good, actually?" 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026To concede a bit on this, after thinking more I agree that it's a weaker proposition in the Israeli case but not by too much. I think both cases are unlikely to ever be fully tried in an international court that would apply a more exacting standard or use a full range of fact-finding powers. 120
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The drastic restriction of aid around the time this plan was proposed and the statements of generals commanding forces in this region who claimed that there were no civilians left all go to this idea. 000
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026For instance, I think it's likely that high-ranking IDF officials tried to implement Giora Eiland's plan to designate all Palestinians remaining in Northern Gaza as military operatives in order to lower targeting requirements and restrict the flow of aid. 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Ok. I think the IDF's conduct (and the rhetoric of IDF soldiers and generals) diverge far enough from that hypothetical that I am unconvinced. Since it seems unlikely that in the Russian case or the Israeli case any of this will be litigated in an international court, that's all I can go on. 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026"If that was actually what you were trying to do, I don't think it's credible that you would go about it like that" applies in both cases. 100
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Again, Russia has claimed that these operations are motivated by a desire to save orphaned and displaced children. It's a lie, but as far as lies go I find it about as persuasive as some of the more exculpatory justifications Israel has offered about the motivations for its conduct in Gaza. 100
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I don't find this fig leaf credible because of the larger pattern of Russian officials creating and enacting policies premised on the idea that Ukrainian identity is illegitimate. I think a similar claim is fair to make of Israel's consistent posture towards Palestinian identity. 020
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Fine. But Putin and Medinsky have both at times claimed (falsely) that the goal of these operations is to rescue orphaned and displaced children from a war zone. If the key factor is intent and a simple (if inconsistent) claim at non-genocidal intent is sufficient fig leaf for you, this qualifies. 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I can provide plenty of statements from Israeli officials making similar claims about the illegitimate nature of Palestinian national identity if it helps to give context to the crimes against humanity going on in Gaza and lends supports the genocide designation. 120
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I'm well aware of what Putin says about Ukrainian nationhood- that it is an artificial and illegitimate national identity that cannot be the basis for creating a state in lands that have a deep, historical connection to Russia. 110
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Certain *Russian officials* have made inflammatory statements, yes! But has an international court of law hasn't established that the state actors enacting the policy are acting on this motivation, and UN reports have only named Russia guilty of enforced disappearance and delay in repatriation. 120
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This is a level of naivety and special pleading that could be used to cast doubt on Russia's genocide, including "open-and-shut" measures like the abduction of Ukrainian children. 240
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Ok, that's fine, but I disagree. I don't think it's absurd to say "a state can conduct genocide on some subgroup of its own citizens, or on some people practically living under the state's hegemony who lack a state of their own." 000
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I don't think that follows at all? Lots of governments have conducted genocide against their own citizens or against conquered peoples who practically live under that government's authority because no alternative state can plausibly claim a monopoly on force in that territory. 100
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026If you don't consider Israel's conduct pre-Trump restrained enough, then you need to ask hard questions like "well, what other responses would be justified, politically possible, and (potentially) effective?" The issue is we can't see which of these determinations led to Biden's Israel policy. 121
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026FWIW- I think the question of whether it succeeded also depends a bit on "what level of restraining Israel do you consider 'good enough?'" 120
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026For instance- I don't think Biden would have done Midnight Hammer. But once Trump did so, Israel had substantial assurances that the US would join any war w/ Iran because Iran would assume the US was a co-belligerent in any future surprise attack and react accordingly. 020
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I don't know if Biden's strategy succeeded or if it's more accurate to say that Trump has another (foolish, haphazard) strategy of totally enabling Israel, and we're now seeing the results of that. 261
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Just as "pressuring Israel into a different course of action" is a different goal than "upholding the Leahy Law," so to is "pressuring Israel into a different course of action" a different goal than "pressuring Israel into a different course of action (without doing too much to infuriate them)." 141
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026But to return to your original argument, this was all supposedly about changing Israel's conduct. My argument is that the "placate Israel by enabling them" strategy was a failure in that regard, and Biden admin rejected other viable options because they would have hurt the US-Israel relationship. 141
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Sure. It also involves a lot of (bluntly) behaving like Trump- holding out the prospect of being bribed and then fucking over the people who opened up their wallets. The US, however, is in a unique position where we are basically never the junior partner who has to take that behavior lying down. 131
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Also- this point is independent from whatever you think of Israel's motives for and conduct in war. Making an ultimatum and then backing down from it just teaches the other party that your condition are empty, which in turn makes your "c'mon gang, just one more imposed condition" strategy worse. 141
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Once you see that this friend will take the offered rent money and spend it on drugs, will continue to neglect their kids, etc. etc., it becomes clear that they either cannot make rational decisions based on your ultimatum or they have made a rational decision to call your bluff. So what then? 141
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I think anyone who's tried to help an addict by lending money, cleaning up messes, etc. will understand this. "I'll do this for you, so you need me, so you'll stop acting like this" is a tempting path because it lets you hope for improvement without forcing any hard choices on your part. 151
trusted diet coke valet @litano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The problem is that from the outside, enabling an erratic, dangerous partner and pressuring them toward a different path often look identical and have the same effect. At some point you have to develop a response for the other party crossing your red line that isn't just "draw a new red line." 190
