David Driedger

I suspect loneliness is mostly *easier* than being in a durable inter-personal community. Intimate long-term relationships require frustratingly hard work. Which is why ‘easy’ community, whether IRL spaces of cult-like clarity or online echo chambers find success offering a ‘fix’ of communal need.

“Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific swindling was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud - a complete get-rich economy.” - Engels

Free speech, of all things, should be built from the ground up. Figuring out local platforms, limits, and accountability. Families and religious orgs still do some of this. But buying, bullying and manipulating the platform ain’t it.

"״הוֹדַע אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם אֶת תּוֹעֲבוֹתֶיהָ״ נִקְרָא וּמִתַּרְגֵּם. פְּשִׁיטָא! לְאַפּוֹקֵי מִדְּרַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר. דְּתַנְיָא: מַעֲשֶׂה בְּאָדָם אֶחָד שֶׁהָיָה קוֹרֵא לְמַעְלָה מֵרַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר ״הוֹדַע אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם אֶת תּוֹעֲבוֹתֶיהָ״. אָמַר לוֹ: עַד שֶׁאַתָּה בּוֹדֵק בְּתוֹעֲבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַיִם צֵא וּבְדוֹק בְּתוֹעֲבוֹת אִמֶּךָ. בָּדְקוּ אַחֲרָיו וּמָצְאוּ בּוֹ שֶׁמֶץ פְּסוּל. The Tosefta continues: The section of: “Make known [hoda] to Jerusalem her abominations” (Ezekiel 16:2) is read and translated. The Gemara comments: This is obvious. The Gemara answers: This is needed to exclude the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, who held that this chapter may not be read as a haftara, as it is taught in a baraita: There was an incident with regard to a certain man who was reading the haftara in the presence of Rabbi Eliezer, and he read the section of: “Make known to Jerusalem her abominations.” Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Before you examine the abominations of Jerusalem, go and examine the abominations of your own mother. The Gemara relates that they examined his lineage and found him to have a stain of illegitimacy. His mother had engaged in illicit sexual relations, and therefore he was of questionable lineage."

The Talmud has the original "yo mama" joke. (Megillah 25b:9)

Can’t even laugh at this. The idea of these meatheads skulking around my beautiful, glittering jewel box of a city, looking to tackle every non-white person they see, makes me sick to my stomach. This is the real domestic terrorism.

“Nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."

Assata Shakur

Don’t forget, last stop for Nuit Blanche is 10am at First Mennonite Church!

Every Monday morning I participate in a clergy-led prayer vigil outside of the Dallas ICE Administrative Office. This morning, a sniper stood at the top of an adjacent building and took aim. Press is reporting the victims are detainees being loaded onto a bus for transport to a large facility. 🧵

Finally watched Eddington, really enjoyed it. Thought it did a good job not collapsing the ideological binary into a moral one while acknowledging the larger structure that would recuperate both.
Really liked how Brian’s arc was handled.

I get that writing should be valued but are many of you paying for several substacks?

That makes sense!

Idk, I think it’s okay to accept some undecideability a la Spinoza in these matters.

Though the right in the US is doing incredible groundwork in terms of 'diversity'. They have money, a legitimate criticism of liberalism (as does the left), and an evangelical 'belong before belief' approach that is definitely working in areas.

A democracy, I suppose, must always be in process and must begin with a preferential option for the poor and oppressed as a material and political base for meaningful participation must be secured for all. Liberalism in its current form disavows this position.

May holy fools increase!

Hello from Winnipeg! Your first edition was critical for my own project. Great to have a powerful Canadian perspective!

I shouldn't be shocked, but I'm still always brought up short to realize how many people think "civility" means "white people speaking in relatively calm voices" no matter what vile shit they say.

Anyone written anything interesting on the poltics of debate culture?

if you’re an isolated, angsty, strange young man, please know that you can become a Kierkegaard scholar instead of joining fringe online communities

But the greatest of these is peanut butter and ice cream.

Today will be the second weirdest 9/11 of our lifetime for sure.

If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.

Solnit concludes *Paradise Built in Hell* with Hurricane Katrina. I remember watching the coverage. But I do NOT remember anything about the (well documented) white vigilante violence and murder.
Disaster remains revelatory, the compassionate spirit of most but also the demonic nature of power.

The Minority Voters Moving Right (w/ Daniel Martinez HoSang) Podcast Episode · Know Your Enemy · 2025-08-18 · 1h 27m

This all sounded so familiar until they made the connection of evangelical strategies of ‘belonging before belief’. Meet everyone where they are at, welcome them in, listen to their story, knowing the power structure will remain unphased.
Seeker sensitive fascism!

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/k...

Looks down south ... oh, right.

I CANNOT stand Winnipeg's trajectory right now. Hmm, people are acting out of more desperation? Let's increase security! Huh, people are taking even GREATER risks? More force! More security!

Ugh, let's keep raising the ante on conflict. Support fare free transit!!

Time, place and conversation partners now set!!