iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Looking over the end of Suzy Hansen’s From Life Itself, an up-close account of how Turkey’s state, democracy, and society were reduced to the broken playthings of a corrupt and completely unaccountable strongman

Photo of book page:

What happened to the opposition during these long two decades—at least in Turkey? How had they failed to protest or stop Erdoğan? What did they regret? When I asked this question to all kinds of people-women in the corporate world, leftist Kurdish academics, low-level bureaucrats, liberal journalists-they all said they regretted the same thing.

Photo of book page:

316
From Life Itself

It wasn't that they wished they protested Erdoğan more. Their answer wasn't about him at all.
They regretted that in the first years he came to power they had not, as individuals, worked to overthrow the leadership of the main opposition party, the CHP. For a time under Erdoğan, Turks still had functional elections; the opposition could have beaten him. But they failed to recognize early that when the charismatic populist authoritarian comes to power, only an entirely new politics or mode of political figure can defeat him, that the world in effect has been remade by his arrival and that it is incumbent on the opposition to imagine a new politics in response to it. When the Turkish opposition finally found Imamoğlu, they were a decade late. I won't say "too late" because if living in Turkey taught me anything, it is that no one should count that country out.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Buddy you couldn't even get into the bar you were sent to write about so you padded out the story by vamping about how people who mask on the subway have personality defects

Screenshot of text:

I try to be scrupulously fair, to seek out a variety of voices and opinions, and to take the time to understand the points of view of the people I write about. I keep my word and protect my sources. I

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is every bit as fragile, judgmental, and hostile as anything anyone said in the Globe piece!

Screenshot of text:

Patrons were required to wear KN95 or better masks, the face coverings ubiquitous during the heights of Covid-19, and which most of the country had left long ago to dental hygienists and [Highlighting begins] people who don’t want anyone to sit next to them on the train. [Highlighting ends]

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Literally touch some grass buddy

Screenshot of text under "The Washington Post / Democracy Dies in Darkness" banner and "Opinion Columns" header:

As I took in the views and breathed the fresh air, I also appreciated what has made hiking possible: industrialization. Hiking is often seen as a natural activity, but there’s nothing natural about it, and almost nobody did it before the industrial revolution.

There weren’t even words for it in English. According to Merriam-Webster, the word “hike” was first used as a noun meaning “a long walk especially for pleasure or exercise” in 1865. Google Books Ngram Viewer, which tracks word usage in English-language books beginning in 1800, shows that the words “hike” and “hiking” did not appear in writing with any kind of frequency until around 1900.

Screenshot of text:

'Teach me still more to wonder, more to know:
'Seed-time and Harvest let me see again;
'[Highlighted word] Wander
the leaf-strewn wood, frozen plain:
'Let the first Flower, corn-waving Field, Plain, Tree,
'Here round my home, still lift my soul to THEE;
'And let me ever, midst thy bounties, raise
'An humble note of thankfulness and praise!'—

APRIL 22, 1798.

Screenshot of Oxford English Dictionary entry

c1450 (?c1408)
To walke and romen vp and doun, In the forest.
J. Lydgate, Reson & Sensuallyte (1901) l. 3006
[Composed ?c1408]

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This does not accurately describe the posts that come up when you click on the trending link

Screenshot from Bluesky trending list:

[Up-graph arrow] Trending

1. El-Sayed dodges Watters' sports question

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The Twin Towers were knocked down by two of Charlie Brown's ladies fighting over me

Screenshot of text:

I remember when Gawker started the unforced path to self destruction by installing a disfunctional comment system explicitly intended to get rid of the existing reading/commenting communties and replace them w people who would click on ads all day, resulting in PROFIT!!!

They managed Step One…

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The paragraph before seems equally detached from events—this would-be stumper of a question about the Court overturning executive orders is a lot less of a stumper when the executive orders keep violating laws passed by Congress!

Screenshot of text:

The Supreme Court’s self-granted power to declare executive actions unconstitutional hardly appears in Bowie and Renan’s history. But [highlighting begins] it’s hard to see how this power could be legitimate by their logic. If the Court is trammelling democracy when it overturns acts of Congress, isn’t it doing the same when it overrules a popularly elected President? [highlighting ends]

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The Stairs is finished! The last chapter is accompanied by a full subway map of the Marble Municipal Allied Transit system. All chapters now here: www.indignity.net/tag/the-stai...

A detail of a hand-drawn subway map on graph paper, with red, green, purple, yellow, and brown lines variously meeting and crossing. Stops include Marble College, Willis, and Shroe Field, as well as Museum of Science, Broadwide Crossing, Kendrickton, Cathedral Sq., and Marble Common. The borough of Old Marble is labeled.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"Not included: Fees for optional services, such as baggage fees, seat upgrades, and selecting an assigned seat on the aircraft."

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

[Shakes hands with every NBA and ABA commissioner, alive or dead, and closes tab in an avalanche of spotlit confetti]

Screenshot of 82-0 roster:

OR
PG
Oscar Robertson

SAC · 1960s

29.7
PPG
8.7
RPG
10.5
APG
0.0
SPG
0.0
BPG
LJ
SG
LeBron James

CLE · 2010s

26.9
PPG
7.6
RPG
8.2
APG
1.4
SPG
0.8
BPG
TM
SF
Tracy McGrady

ORL · 2000s

28.1
PPG
7.0
RPG
5.2
APG
1.6
SPG
1.0
BPG
DN
PF
Dirk Nowitzki

DAL · 2000s

23.6
PPG
8.9
RPG
2.8
APG
1.0
SPG
1.0
BPG
BR
C
Bill Russell

BOS · 1960s

14.8
PPG
22.6
RPG
4.6
APG
0.0
SPG
0.0
BPG
123.1

PPG

54.8

RPG

31.3

APG

4.0

SPG

2.8

BPG

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Made an 82–0 team that gets bounced in the conference finals

Screenshot of list of 5 basketball players:

PG
Luka Dončić

DAL · 2020s

30.6
PPG
8.7
RPG
8.8
APG
1.2
SPG
0.5
BPG
PM
SG
Pete Maravich

UTA · 1970s

25.7
PPG
4.4
RPG
5.8
APG
1.4
SPG
0.3
BPG
JT
SF
Jayson Tatum

BOS · 2020s

26.5
PPG
8.5
RPG
4.9
APG
1.1
SPG
0.5
BPG
KM
PF
Karl Malone

UTA · 1990s

27.2
PPG
10.7
RPG
3.7
APG
1.4
SPG
0.9
BPG
W
C
Wilt Chamberlain

PHI · 1960s

27.6
PPG
24.0
RPG
6.8
APG
0.0
SPG
0.0

With totals of:

137.6

PPG

56.3

RPG

29.9

APG

5.2

SPG

2.1

BPG

Screenshot reading:

Projected Record

82–0

S
PERFECT
· 112.1 pts

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Reply guy vs. reposter/subtweeter

Screenshot of text:

In meetings, Mr. Vance frequently scrolls his phone, and he uses social media to fight with his critics. The president frequently posts to Truth Social, but he does not spend time replying to people online, as Mr. Vance does.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

🎶 "...That FLASH at the SOUND of LIES..." 🎶

Victor Wembanyama sitting on the bench in warmups looking off to his left with a brooding glare.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

OK about the showcase on legendary rivalries, this is more of a statement than a question but—

A showcase at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Along with sone other memorabilia, the case features a placard with the title “Righteous Rivals” and beside it hang a white No. 32 Boston Celtics jersey and a gold Los Angeles Lakers No. 32 jersey. Below that duo, given the same treatment, is a pairing of a blue New York Knicks No. 33 jersey and a white Houston Rockets No. 34 jersey.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Genuinely mistook this for an illo

Screenshot of story banner, text, and inline ad.

Banner reads: Intelligencer / Screen Time / My Adventures With 'The AI That Actually Does Things'

Text reads:
story: Here, they said, was a way to make AI do what you want, on your terms, using your devices and data; a tool for giving increasingly capable AI models the ability and permission to carry out real-world actions on your behalf and for your benefit.

Ad, a blue box from CapitalOne, has a black inset with white text reading "CapitalOne / We built a multi-agentic AI system to help buyers find their dream car / THAT'S HOW WE STACK"

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Curiosity-gapping a story that did $355 million in worldwide box office

Screenshot of headline:

‘It Was Survival Mode’: The 1970 Lunar Mission That Nearly Ended in Disaster

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Marilyn Monroe, the famous Hollywood actress, might have slipped me her hotel room key under the table

Screenshot of text:

Ambrose Bierce, the sardonic author of The Devil's Dictionary, [highlighting begins] might have observed [highlighting ends] that a "regime" is any government that one doesn't like. Those

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

OK where do they keep the option to kill this forever?

Screenshot of iPhone notes app with text reading “Hey get out of my face” followed by a cursor. Below is the virtual keyboard and above the keys, circled in red, is a line reading “faces face’s facebook”

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Every time this happens I remind myself that they do count "NOOB" as a word

Screenshot of a New York Times Spelling Bee board with the letters O, A, T, C, H, and R around a central I. Above it is the word TROCHAIC, and above that is the message "Not in word list"

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

They've been on real streak lately

Screenshot of the New York Times Spelling Bee board with the letters R, A, T, C, O, and N around a central M. Above the board is the word AMARO, and above that is a box saying "Not in word list"

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Not that "optimistic" is exactly what Schulz was going for when he made a young aspiring artist the focus of his strip as he closed in on his own end

A Peanuts strip.

Panel one: Rerun stands on Charlie Brown's doorstep holding up a piece of paper as Charlie Brown sticks his head out the door.
"How would you like to buy a picture I drew of your dog?" Rerun asks.
"Are you a salesman?" Charlie Brown replies.

Panel two, same scene:
"A what?" Rerun says.
"Salesmen are a dying breed," Charlie Brown says.

Panel three:
Lucy and Rerun sit side by side in a big armchair.
"Did you sell your drawing?" Lucy asks.
"I couldn't," Rerun says. "I'm a dying breed."

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Cool hey did anything happen *before* 1979 between the United States and Iran

Screenshot of text:

First, it’s a mistake to say that Trump got America into war on Saturday. What he did was respond to a war that Iran has been waging against the United States since 1979.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

It's important to consider Larry Summers' accomplishments on their own merits and not reduce him to his Epstein scandals

Screenshot under the Harvard Crimson online banner of the headline "Summers To Resign From Teaching Appointments, Relinquish University Professorship Over Epstein Ties," over a file photo of a younger Larry Summers, wearing a dark suit and tie and blue shirt, facing off camera and loosely grinning while slouching sideways in a tan leather wingback chair, with a crimson-painted wall behind him.

Screenshot of a photo of a glass-banded new building standing in a raw construction field next to a huge mound of dirt, with the tiny turquoise-domed clock tower of Eliot House in the distance, with the caption "Harvard's new Enterprise Research Campus in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. Photographer: Tony Luong" over a blurb reading:

Harvard's decades-long dream of transforming Boston’s Allston neighborhood into a Silicon Valley-like innovation hub has stalled. A biotech downturn and pulled federal funds have stymied the university’s property bet in the area—while nearby MIT has thrived.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Wait they’re giving participation trophies to winter storms now? The total accumulation is ZERO POINT BUPKIS so far, it’s 37 degrees, shovel crews could handle these opening hours with a sheet of Bounty.

Screenshot of text:

There has been 1.35" of wintry mix in the last 6 hours. Today's total wintry mix will be 6.3" In the next 24 hours, 15" is expected.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

🎶 Everyone's lookin' To see if it was you 🎶 🎶 Everyone wants you To come through 🎶 🎶 Everyone's hopin' It'll all work out 🎶 🎶 Everyone's waitin' They're holdin' out 🎶 🎶 🎶 Everybody's workin' for the weekend 🎶 Everybody wants a

The cover of William Gibson's NEUROMANCER, a green paperback with black text reading WILLIAM GIBSON over the shape of a head and shoulder rendered in what looks like a tangle of black magnetic tape, wearing a pair of white goggles spanned by the black text "NEUROMANCER," which repeates five times vertically

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Got the title for my single-song triple LP

Screenshot of Wikipedia page header reading "Blue Hole (Red Sea)"

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Celebrate a voice who was entirely lovely and entirely Philly by heeding this infographic of his he sent along when he found out we had the same bee in our bonnets

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Trump renewed his calls for America to own Greenland on December 22, 2024, before even taking office

[Highlighting begins] Over Trump’s past year, what originally looked like an effort to make the government his personal plaything has drifted distinctly toward doctrinal and operational fascism. [Highlighting ends] Trump’s appetite for lebensraum, his claim of unlimited power, his support for the global far right, his politicization of the justice system, his deployment of performative brutality, his ostentatious violation of rights, his creation of a national paramilitary police—all of those developments bespeak something more purposeful and sinister than run-of-the-mill greed or gangsterism.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

The George Floyd protests (or you could also say "the murder of George Floyd") would be not quite halfway up an already steep rise on the graph of the monthly homicide rate

Graph of a blue line moving down and then steeply up, almost as steeply down, and then jaggedly up and down afterward. A tag a bit below the halfway point of the big sharp upward spike reads "Homicide Rate / May-20: 1.51."

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Technically Douthat is only describing a chronology, rather than outright claiming cause and effect, but the chronology is false on its own

Screenshot of text:

By Ross Douthat

Opinion Columnist

It may seem hard to believe when you’re inside the social media cascade, but American society actually stabilized meaningfully across 2025. The homicide and crime rates dropped, finally erasing the [Highlighting begins] surge that began with the George Floyd protests in 2020 [Highlighting ends]. Life

Screenshot of text:

Homicide rates [bold] spiked by 68% [end bold] [highlighting begins] from April [highlighting ends] to July 2020 in a sample of 30 American cities.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

“It costs more, and the light is a little uncanny and watery, but it will last for years”

An LED bulb lies on a paper towel. The white plastic middle section between the base and the globe is dingy-looking and has at least two jagged cracks, one running almost its full length.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

[Adds a new line to the list of LED failure types]

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

writers-subtext-cowards dot jpg

Nicolas Cage (as John Travolta wearing Nicolas Cage's face) and John Travolta (as Nicolas Cage wearing John Travolta's face) point large automatic pistols at one another in a symmetrical standoff on opposite sides of a freestanding mirror. Cage, on the left in bluish light, wears a leather jacket and his pistol, held in both hands, is gold-plated; Travolta, on the right in warm-toned light, wears a three-piece suit and his pistol is normal steel.

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