Nils Gilman

It’s important to distinguish between tradition and traditionalISM. Tradition is good and necessary, even (and perhaps especially) for modern, individualistic societies. Traditionalism, by contrast, is a self-conscious, totalizing belief system — a dogmatic and fervent commitment to a sacred past.

Romania’s Split Identity | Costică Brădăţan Romania’s divided loyalties between East and West help explain how a nerdy Sorbonne-educated mathematician was elected president.

“Because they come from an in-between space, where borders are porous and identities uncertain, they can be pretty much anything they like.... There is a serious argument to be made that such people, from the margins of Europe, make the best Europeans.” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Wanted: A Self-Draining Swamp - The American Interest Perhaps the most insidious threat facing Western democracies has been the progressive decline of elite accountability and responsibility.

You may enjoy this: www.the-american-interest.com/2018/01/01/w...

Is European AI A Lost Cause? Not Necessarily. | NOEMA If Europe wants to build a new AI Stack it should stop listening to critics who claim to lead the way but only offer resistance.

Europe is a crucial contributor to innovation, implementation and diffusion of many of the most significant platform-scale open source software projects: Linux, Python, ARM, Blender, Raspberry Pi, KDE, Gnome, etc. Alas, it's less a stack and more like "a messy pile." www.noemamag.com/is-european-...

They have an impressive capacity to continuously uncover new ways to combine creepy with cringe

Trump making plans to send billions in cash bailouts to farmers with taxpayer money The president has also said he wants to use direct tariff revenue for the payments, but that could trigger a major fight in Congress.

Trump’s theory appears to be that he can do whatever he wants with “his” tariff revenue, no Congressional approval necessary.

This is just laughably unconstitutional. Virtually all federal revenue prior to 1913 came from tariffs and Congress certainly controlled it. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Los Angeles’s imaginary is defined by endless tergiversation between utopian dreamscape & apocalyptic phantasmagoria.

This Eros/Thanatos dialectic animates Carey McWilliams, Joan Didion, Mike Davis, Kate Braverman & Octavia Butler, but is most memorably rendered in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive.”

I have a newfound respect for the Cato Institute. I mean, libertarianism is pernicious derp, but at least they’re consistent to their principles, not merely cynical worshipers of rightwing power in whatever form.

What the fuck do you mean I got a longer prison sentence than Diddy

In a nation of laws, political elites cannot do any lawless thing they want and face no consequences. Elite impunity is fundamentally at odds with the rule of law.

Reestablishing the rule of law will thus require that the current rulers be made to pay the steepest possible price for their crimes.

Best documentary: Hearts and Minds

I’ve watched both many times. I love them both.

The reason I give Full Metal Jacket the nod is because it is a direct commentary on the Vietnam War itself and the experience of the soldiers in it, whereas Apocalypse Now is a psychedelic, operatic masterpiece that uses the war as a backdrop.

Vietnam War movie Oscars:
- Best Picture: Full Metal Jacket
- Best Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Best Actor: Tom Cruise, Born on the Fourth of July
- Best Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now
- Best Actress: Jane Fonda, Coming Home
- Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter

“Let’s distinguish between chickenshit & cowardice…. Acts of cowardice can be provoked by genuine danger—think of a deserting soldier fleeing the peril of the battlefield. When you’re chickenshit, you capitulate to avoid the mere possibility of discomfort, let alone something resembling real risk.”

This is the tech equivalent of a Christian doomsday cult ca.news.yahoo.com/humanity-may...

Robert Morris, Texas megachurch pastor, pleads guilty to sexually abusing a child Under a plea agreement, Morris was given a 10-year sentence, but he will serve only six months in an Oklahoma jail.

This is why is MAGA is so obsessed with pedophilia: their own elites are the worst offenders www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Somewhere in UAE or Qatar or some such, 88 year old Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (AKA Baghdad Bob) is expressing admiration for Leavitt’s performance

Ironically, this will of course INCREASE the status value of such majors.

1. “Populism” is nothing less or more than anti-elitism; it’s not political as such
2. The political character of a particular populist movement depends on WHICH elites they hate
3. It’s one thing if it’s bankers, techbros, pedophile ministers, etc.; it’s another if it’s intellectuals, experts, etc

The motive here is dual: the techbros believe only STEM adds value, and the Christian nationalists believe the humanities have become nothing but woke indoctrination.

Both agree that disincentivizing the development of critical political thinking is key to saving “western civilization.”

As @historyned.bsky.social put it recently, "One of the overarching themes of contemporary politics is self-professed conservatives tearing down institutions that were explicitly created to prevent the repetition of some historical catastrophe."

Vibe: "Ein punktloses Abstraktum des absolut freien Selbsts... ist also der kälteste, ärmlichste Tod, ohne mehr Bedeutung als wenn man einen Kohlkopf abschlägt oder einen Schluck Wasser hinuntertut."

Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference

“The demands in the compact also include providing free tuition to students studying math, biology, or other 'hard sciences' if endowments exceed $2 million per undergraduate.” (Note that there are only 5 U.S. universities above this threshold.) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

I can’t believe I’m watching interviews of city mayors talking about how they are coordinating with other mayors to discuss how to protect their residents FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

I know we are “used to it” but it is absolutely insane

Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 - follow live The primatologist was a

A titan, R.I.P. www.bbc.com/news/live/c9...

An East African at the conference I am attending made a really striking point: that he recognizes the problems U.S. democracy is having because they are typical of a recently democratized country — and after all, the U.S. only became a proper democracy in the mid-1960s.

I should also add this for ppl who are rightfully put off by "atheism" discourse: it's not just about atheists. Trump has directed the FBI et al to target leftists for thought crimes. I talk about sociological research on how that went in the 1960s during "Cointelpro" and how this is so much worse 🧪

Homeowners denounce SB 79 vote - Beverly Press & Park Labrea News Legislation awaits governor’s signature

A bunch of toxic LA NIMBYs are whining about SB 79, the amazing housing bill the CA legislature passed recently.

It's on the governor's desk, and reportedly he's getting cold feet. Hey @gavinnewsom.bsky.social, please have some spine on the most important issue in your state. Just sign it.

J.D. Vance | Le vrai héritier du philosophe catholique René Girard ? Le vice-président désigné J.D. Vance invoque l’héritage d’un philosophe catholique dans son combat contre les élites libérales. Mais les spécialistes du penseur René Girard accusent le politicien de l...

“It’s difficult to claim Girard, who fundamentally believes that violence is linked to exclusion, and at the same time to accuse Haitians of eating dogs,” says Canadian philosopher Paul Dumouchel. “Either you didn’t understand Girard, or you’re a liar.” www.lapresse.ca/internationa...

Indeed…