on the one hand recognition only matters from someone who might decline to give it. on the other, them declining to give it is an outcome you want to avoid. so you generate these simulacra of genuine human connection, the *appearance* of the possibility of rejection with the reality of its absence

When you are pure of heart no amount of earnestness is Cringe. When you are a malevolent little freak no amount of sarcasm is enough to make you cool

It’s *still* treated as a scandal! Ezra Klein has, for some reason, made it the anchoring fact for his entire theory of electoral politics.

Being a Citizen in the Rubble of Institutions Kevin J Elliott Abstract What is the best foundation for democracy: citizenly habits sustained informally by the spontaneous effort of citizens themselves, or formal institutions and the law? C. L. Skach's How to Be a Citizen tells us how someone who dedicated her career to the importance of law and institutions lost her faith in them and came to see the habits and informal relations of citizens as the real site of democracy. Like many observers of politics in recent years, Skach has concluded that the regnant social order based on law and institutional mediation has fatally discredited itself. But giving up on institutions and law is no small thing. There are powerful reasons for, and immense social forces tied up with, coordinating modern societies by means of them. This review article explores the tensions between Skach's approach and some of these reasons and forces. Yet it does so not in the spirit of critique but rather as a challenge for those who view institutions and law as almost unquestionably fundamental to modern life. It seeks to explore what value there is in Skach's informal, anti-institutional approach for those who have not yet entirely lost the faith she once affirmed in modernity's legal and institutional workhorses. democratic theory, constitutionalism, modernity, judicial supremacy, institutionalism, coordination

New article out from me, in which I consider: what if I'm wrong about everything re: what's important for a flourishing democracy?

I use a recent book attacking institutions & advocating disintermediated localism to explore the limits of my view.

Get it free here: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...

peter thiel (clutching chrome plated human skull) tell me oracle... does the world end in fire, or ice? the passionate flames of the activist thunberg, or the frozen doom yudkowski demands?

chatGPT: ✨ What a great question, Peter! ✨

Let's break that tough Q down 🕺, in your favorite epic style:

White House staff should just make and show him an AI-generated video where he wins, fly him to Duluth and tell him it’s Oslo, and dare the New York Times to say anything more than “Experts disagree about whether Mr Trump was awarded the Nobel Prize”.

*Lil Jon Voice* States' Rights to What

Should they be accompanied by mechanisms strengthening Congress/making Congress more able to address policy over the short to medium term? It seems like a lot of Caesarism is vacuum-filling.

Everything the government does is for online clout because *that is the only thing that's actually real for them*

It's the golden rule of grievance politics: you will never be happy. You are a permanent captive to the infinity goalpost.

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 #𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 #𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬?

They face huge risks, especially during economic crises, when dictators choose to financially extort or #purge their business allies. And yet, despite their power to disrupt, business elites rarely switch sides.

My research shows why.

“Authoritarianism is wrong, murder is evil, corruption is awful, the law must be followed, America should not be brought to its knees for Trump’s benefit” - simple principles that somehow we struggle to rally around, because of our paralyzing fear that some silent majority will not approve of them

Yeah, this is just common sense. Cruelty is corrosive. Everyone who deals with people knows this. Once cruelty enters into your tree of options, it stays there. It's always there, waiting for a point where you stop granting sufficient moral consideration to deploy it.

Great job telling on yourself for raising a goddamn adult baby

heggseth's weird podcast rant (delivered to 800 generals and admirals for some reason) is just another sign of how this is a tv presidency. they don't really know how to do policy. their instinct is theater. encounter a problem? put on a spectacle

We need a bigger tent, that’s why we must betray and expel the following types of people:

The Dark Side of Fandom: Exploring the Association between Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities and Aggression With the rapid proliferation of social media, individuals who admire certain celebrities—i.e. fans—now have access to extensive and increasingly interactive means to follow their idols and engage w...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Forner, L., Lutz, S., Zheng, X., & Stein, J. P. (2025). The Dark Side of Fandom: Exploring the Association between Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities and Aggression. Media Psychology, 1–25.

#FanStudies

doi.org/10.1080/1521...

when an SEC game cuts to shots of the crowd:

More than anything, they want to be patted on the head and told they're a good boy by the liberal elites

“I’M THE TYPE of person where, like, if you push me I’ll push back. I don’t like to live in a mindset of despair and negativity. When these people do this shit, it just lights my fire. It makes me more fucking mad. This used to be the best job I’ve ever had, the best environment I’ve ever had, the best culture I’ve ever had—and they fucking ruined it. I will never ever forget how much they ruined it. I’m like, fuck these people. They can’t get me scared. I will not give them what they want. I will not just leave. I’m going to make it as difficult as possible for these fuckheads.” —FEMA employee

I love this person.

Vintage grape nuts cereal ad. An anthropomorphic box of G-nuts with thick sexy legs holds a man in a suit from behind.

Grape Nuts (holding me back): Whoa whoa whoa, hey man, just let it go! This asshole isn't worth it!

Chotiner's secret weapon is he has values while interviewing people who have none.

What would the world be like if he’d been willing to wear a hearing aid?

volunteering to run a program or help out a community org in your neighborhood or town is the best way to meet interesting people as an adult and have interesting conversations. it's annoying to read someone say this, but unfortunately it's true. also it's free. why not give it a shot

I'll say this again:

In my opinion, when companies and institutions cave to Trump despite the law being on their side, they are not misunderstanding the law; they are making an educated guess that the United States is heading in a direction where, in practice, the law won't matter.

Always a good day to remember this @nytimes.com