iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

On the unwarranted certainty of conspiracy believers youtu.be/BxFnBDSLim8?...

youtu.be

Unwarranted Certainty

YouTube video by The Real

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It's absolutely wild that corporate Dems managed to alienate corporate America while also making no inroads at all with working people or progressives.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Literally the moderate white person MLK described: "more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with... the goal you seek, but [not] your methods..."

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It's hard to point to a clearer example of the moderate white person per MLK, "who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice..."

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Joining the “I always thought” club… I a thought it was Peter Scolari

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Sadly we are past the statute of limitations on many of the crimes that have and will come to light.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

My 14yo son’s latest obsession is Epic the Musical (adapted from The Odyssey) and I love that. youtu.be/jJ9vtKtilG8?...

youtu.be

EPIC: The Musical - FULL MOVIE (with Canon Animations and Subtitles)

YouTube video by Danneymation

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I just unironically made a comment to someone about the Jan 6 insurrection happening 20 years ago. I mean..,

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Mamdani streamlining government and trimming bureaucracy kind of trashes the narrative that socialism = big government

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Dallam Mochi … is a pretty 🔥 baseball name

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

(and I never “defended” Substack by any means)

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

And on here I’m… a Nazi for being on Substack

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

On Substack I’m an unlikable leftist…

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I launched a Substack a few years ago and subsequently came to understand how Substack sucks. I will get around to changing platforms at some point. But I don’t have infinite time in my days. Anyone who’s trying is still imperfect with one choice or another. That’s my point.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

No. I believe Naomi Klein didn’t make the perfectly ethical choice in this one area, just like all ethical people have areas where they are a little lax or less informed or just fail for whatever reason.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Klein choosing Substack likely has no great significance, except that she was slightly lazy about that one choice. I have a Substack since before I understood how Substack sucks. But I also have a lot going on in my life, and switching platforms will take significant time and effort. One day I will.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

But then there's certainly some other choice you've made that falls short on someone's ethical scale. And boom, you are morally bankrupt because of it, regardless of all your other virtues.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Naomi Klein, just like any good person, makes many ethical choices and also some less than perfectly ethical choices. Maybe you own an iPhone or subscribe to Netflix. If not that, then maybe you use Google to search, or you eat meat. Or maybe you're perfectly ethical across all those things.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Naomi Klein is one of the great leftist thinkers of our time. Also a vegan, among her other ethical choices... Yet she did not make the most ethical choice for her newsletter platform. Does that cancel out every other good thing about Naomi Klein? Is she a morally bankrupt faux-left winger?

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Reasons he might be correct: 1. Explosive diarrhea. 2. Food is too expensive. 3. He’s converting dollars to British pounds.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It’s the same reason not everyone is a vegan who commutes by bike or public transit. Those are the ethical choices, impactfully so. But real life pulls in the other direction. We all make ethical choices in some areas and not others, because they come with various costs.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

My point is that there’s probably nothing sinister about why Klein is on Substack. She’s not getting secret payouts. The inertia is on the side of these platforms. They have a strong gravitational pull, and often high switching costs. It’s an unsatisfying answer in terms of the ethics.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Ghost has a fine set of capabilities for creators and publishers, but it’s very weak on the audience/reader side. This is the issue. The alternatives in many cases are far inferior as solutions.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I would speculate that the reason the likes of Naomi Klein join Substack is the same reason most of us own an iPhone or Android phone, why we use Gmail, why we sometimes buy stuff on Amazon, etc Because techno-fascists own all the stuff.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

What’s the alternative tech platform that isn’t either run by techno-fascists (or wannabe fascists) or vulnerable to being acquired any day by a big tech company run by techno-fascists?

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I now think that all takes, on any subject, should be prefaced in advance like this.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Along with the fact that the Kentucky legislature is trying to change the law that empowers the governor to appoint McConnell’s replacement.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

“If you’d met him, then you probably would hold your tongue while his loved ones are grieving…” If I had a family member or personal acquaintance who was as devoted to (and responsible for) as much suffering as Lindsey Graham, I would say so at their fucking funeral.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I think the essence of why centrists are losing ground to the populist left has much to do with centrists’ inability to acknowledge basic truths with conviction and moral clarity, their inability to say out loud what people can plainly see.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

To self-styled centrists who are scolding leftists for dancing on Lindsey Graham’s grave, who are you pandering to? Who are you worried about offending?

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I think this is the most widely-corrupting thing about Trump and our current era.

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Reposted by Shawn Smith

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 09/07/2026

I'm in love with this style of reporting where the journalist doesn't actually ask any objective experts if anything being claimed by the CEO is actually true

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

In the ‘can’t count him out’ sense, but not in the ‘possibly the greatest athlete ever to play his sport’ sense.

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Opposite for me. I thought it looked like a penalty in real time but much softer in VAR.

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Reposted by Shawn Smith

ProPublica @propublica.org · 05/07/2026

We released a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,600 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who declined to identify former clients. Explore the database:

projects.propublica.org

Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,600 of His Appointees - ProPublica

Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their de...

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The offsides rule in soccer is broken. During active play, it should be up to the defense not to let attackers get open behind them.

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Reposted by Shawn Smith

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

90s scientists: “We cloned a sheep! We landed a robot on mars!” Scientists today: “Please stop drinking bleach and urine smoothies.”

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

“As awful as Bluesky is, it’s an irrelevance” [and here’s my two-thousand-word column about how and why it’s irrelevant]

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

His reasoning for staying on X is wild (basically: it’s mostly a cesspit of disinfo and bigotry that’s rife with Russian bots, “but if people like me leave, then that’s ALL it will be.”)

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Shawn Smith @metapede.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Constitutional emergency indeed given Kavanaugh’s response, which basically provides Congress with the specs for the bill that would flip him to the other side.

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