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Ben Novack

@titlecharacter.bsky.social
623 followers 477 following 1.6K posts

South Philadelphian, tech-skeptical tech worker, involuntary cider enthusiast, occasional woodworker. Descended from refugees. Never interested in zero-sum.

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Reposted by Ben Novack
Jessica Ritchey @jmritchey.bsky.social · 57m
It is something how a politician just doing "do things that improve the lives of your constituents" feels like somebody rediscovering Greek fire.
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Danny Lore @weredawgz.blacksky.app · 3h
if you are pro ai music, in the end you are anti karaoke and anti concert and anti fandom and anti fanmeet because you can't do that with weirdly individualized ai production and besides you don't wanna be anti karaoke
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Brad Reed @bwreed.bsky.social · 4h
Israel's current government is utterly loathsome but I always try to be super specific in my criticisms of it because once you start making blanket denunciations of 'Zionists,' it can take you to some dark places.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 4h
it's telling that instead of letting the free market decide who's labor is more valuable they are passing laws to mandate lack of freedom of movement for (young, black) players to put the thumb back on the scale for (older, white) coaches
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Lola Gayle @lolagaylec.bsky.social · 4h
Erin Reed - KY Gov. Beshear Has Message For Anti-Trans Dems: “We Don’t Throw Anybody Under The Bus.” The governor provides a counterpoint to those who believe red state Democrats need to capitulate on transgender rights.
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KY Gov. Beshear Has Message For Anti-Trans Dems: “We Don’t Throw Anybody Under The Bus.”
The governor provides a counterpoint to those who believe red state Democrats need to capitulate on transgender rights.
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 5h
Realistically, I don't think anybody is doing as much, as *consistently,* to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot nationwide. And he's not slowing down. Thank you, sir, for your dedication to the cause. We will never forget you. (We will try.)
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 6h
Easily 30% of our current age is an intense argument between "It is possible, therefore it is inevitable, therefore it is necessary" and "Wait, what? Why?"
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think about this interview with the distinguished philosopher Conan O'Brien a lot. I actually think this is a healthy way to live your life! www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/a...
Is this how you want to go out, with a show that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone?

Maybe that’s O.K. I think you have more of a problem with that than I do. [Laughs.] At this point in my career, I could go out with a grand, 21-gun salute, and climb into a rocket and the entire Supreme Court walks out and they jointly press a button, I’m shot up into the air and there’s an explosion and it’s orange and it spells, “Good night and God love.” In this culture? Two years later, it’s going to be, who’s Conan? This is going to sound grim, but eventually, all our graves go unattended.

You’re right, that does sound grim.

Sorry. Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think that’s what separates me from the other hosts.

I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 7h
When people in power deliver bad news to you, they expect you to just take punch, accept it, and move on. In these situations, we need to empower ourselves to reject the premise. I want you to look at three time points in the fight to save the academy of natural sciences with me. (Thread)
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💖gail 💖 🔜 Metaphor Chicago 🔜 GATEway @notgodzilla.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
can i also say any white text red hat joke is extremely unfunny and makes me uncomfortable - the context in which that hat exists is a problem that we're all still living through and to reduce it to a "joke" by trying to fit it into some fandom thing falls flat and is high key tone deaf
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 16h
BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think a not too insignificant amount of Trump voters really did buy the whole “he will not start wars” schtick
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
one area where i will actually concede messaging is hard for the dems (if they try) is the gop's actions are so inconceivably evil they sound totally made up. "we're trying to make it easier to pollute poor neighborhoods. we're pushing so kids get exposed to more lead."
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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 29/09/2026
They are shutting this down by the end of the day.
Can the president build a giant triumphal arch in Washington
DC without congressional authorization?

No. Not on federal park or public grounds in the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress. I
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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yea, foolish mortals, Noah’s flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 29/09/2026
the left has gotten sports, in its entirety, in the national divorce this is why bluesky is the official app of sports
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Democrats don't have any income" is an insane statement, but it's also an admission that he sees the money collected by the United States government as his personal piggy bank, to be raided as he sees fit.
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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New Democratic candidate talking point just dropped.
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sleepynaut @grovewalker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
photo of werner herzog with a speech bubble added so that it looks like he is saying the quoted post
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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There's a shit-ton of actual anti-Semitism in the world today, but Netanyahu's fraudulent misuse of the term devalues it dangerously. Hamas is anti-Semitic and murderous. Netanyahu is a cynical, murderous shitheel. Mamdani is an American politician with a perverse impulse to tell blunt truths.
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Bill Mudron @mudron.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 28/09/2026
mukhtar ibrahim, founder of the sahan journal, and ubah ali, a former WCCO reporter, have just launched the somali brief, an independent media outlet where somali americans can tell their own stories www.thesomalibrief.com
thesomalibrief.com
The Somali Brief
The Somali Brief is a digital-first media platform covering the stories shaping Somali American life.
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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
at least we made it to friday
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Boo-tros Boo-tros Ghoulish @dlbowman76.com · 28/09/2026
Everyone who has taken one semester of economics knows that Trump doesn't understand trade on even the most basic level. I'd go further and that he doesn't even understand the concept of money. He genuinely believes that exchanging pay for goods or services means *he's getting ripped off.*
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
like the german nazis, american conservatives have oriented themselves around a "return" to america that never existed. a whites-only wonderland where women were happily subservient and there was widespread prosperity with zero crime and straight white men at the center of the universe.
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I am both frustrated and amused by Philly sports culture, where many years of poor performance led to a perpetual underdog worldview among fans; we have not yet figured out that the Sixers, Phillies, and Eagles are perennial playoff teams now. We're not underdogs. We're the bad guys underdogs hate.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
My “Involved in Human Trafficking“ shirt has a lot of people asking questions that are making me want to stop wearing my shirt rather than reconsider my involvement in human trafficking
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Super Shoe @shoe.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You know the plot whenever there are different dimensions is always Dimension A vs Dimension B, but if the people and places in the dimensions are similar enough it would probably be like Meta-China vs. Omnimerica or something, the normal ties of politics don’t end don’t end at the portal’s edge.
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Just wanted to say I had not even heard of the country song the Rolling Stone writer thinks is inescapably popular until today. Sorry! We don’t really have a monoculture anymore! Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are the closest we get
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Corey Brickley * Blight's Hollow Dot Com @coreybrickley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
imagine if you were in the xmen and you found out gambit wasnt from new orleans it was just a voice he started doing
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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
so much of what's wrong with right now is rebranding things which were always understood as vice as being a type of virtue
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VoteHub @votehub.com · 28/09/2026
NEWS — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear criticizes fellow Democrats who say transgender athletes should be barred from women’s sports. “That is not the party that we are. We start as a party of compassion and empathy.”
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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.
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Butt Praxis @buttpraxis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I will vote, make calls, knock doors, take up arms for whoever destroys the online gambling industry
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Kevin Hearne @kevinhearne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
How do we incentivize people to paint wizards on their vans again I haven’t seen a wizard van in a decade and it feels like we lost something precious Can we offer up a tax credit? Little bags of shrooms? Start a wizard van painting program at vocational schools?
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slate @pleasebegneiss.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
iced coffee is junior level. the real power move is bringing a corn on the cob to your interview
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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
We've stolen a lot of young people's lives by telling them they have to be planning A Great Career when they're like 19
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Acting the Fulemin @actingthefulemin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
there are 70 million people for whom this is the biggest song in the world. they watch comedies called like "Wives of Jim" that have run for nine seasons. they're usually pretty affable in person. in 2024 they severed the fate of humanity because of egg prices
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
the "iced coffee at a job interview" discussion is obviously stupid but also a great representation of the fact that every single HR person/recruiter has their own different made up rules for candidates and all of them think they are absolutely correct
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conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sorry, but if you bring gypsum - or any damn mineral below 3 on the Mohs scale at all - to a job interview, you’re disqualified. It’s not hard, people.
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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The fact that we've gotten to the point where this man feels comfortable speaking his mind in public is such an indictment of the 21st century as a whole
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
it’s genuinely fascinating how establishment democratic politics in big cities has become so ossified and incompetent that they’ve created a huge lane for the left to embrace good government reforms and build a broad coalition of socialists and technocrats
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Emily Nussbaum @emilynussbaum.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Every week, the Muppets have to put on a show to salvage a new institution: the Kennedy Center, the Supreme Court, the No-Mask Lesbian Bar, the Wonka Experience, Kozmo Dot Com (this has a time travel dimension, à la Quantum Leap), Cafe Loup in the West Village, democracy, the third season of GLOW
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So much of schools "responding to rape" is preventing the legal system from doing so. This is a report on seven adults who committed serious felonies for which there is a legal system to remind them and their pals that they are felonies.
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
At this point I'm convinced I need to make sure I always bring a drink to job interviews, because any org or hiring manager that cares *that much* about this is not one I want to work for. It never even occurred to me to notice or care about this totally irrelevant thing!
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Having 80% of all discussions taken up by That Fucking Guy has been really bad for our brains and this is the core of my thesis that it's not as complicated as "impeachment vs 25th Amendment vs A Coup But Kinda Woke." We just want him to go away so we can go back to dumb fun shit. Just Go Away!
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Ben Novack @titlecharacter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I did an actual guffaw at this. I mean i do have a really dark sense of humor.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"Voting for my opponent makes you a chump and a loser so you're better off staying home" is an important type of persuasion, just the same as "vote for me instead of the other guy" is, and in a highly polarized electorate one that has a much larger audience than the audience of swing voters.
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