Jonathan Ladd

The political strategy of
1) don't resist Trump
2) wait for thermostatic public opinion to just happen
3) don't talk about unconstitutional ICE actions and violations of the 1st Amendment
4) wait for the Supreme Court to solve it
really doesn't seem to be working.

While political movements should be smart and strategic, that doesn't preclude a "try a lot of things" strategy, rather than being paralyzed by anxiety and circular firing squad criticism. You could make a case that Air-American is "dumb," but trying nothing would have been dumber.

So much is summarized by Steve Bannon's 2018 quote: "The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."

It's a widely known quote, but so much is captured in it. You don't need to do too much literal censorship. Just flood all the zones with shit.

Fighting Gives Democrats Stories To Tell It's easier to rally people when they have protagonists to cheer on.

@brianbeutler.bsky.social: Storytelling & driving narratives is essential to political success.

But the top echelons of the Democratic Party—& their cowardly consultants—have actively resisted their responsibility to be storytellers in favor of dry, emotionless policy discourse. That must change.

I am a *lawyer who practices federal law.* Several times a week I see a headline that makes me think "there's no way the President can do that, right?" and I look into it and it turns out that maybe he can because Congress ceded some of its power in the What's the Worst That Could Happen Act of 1983

I don't have a good answer for what the alternative looks like, but asking 18 years to bet their future on highly specified training for jobs based on which they think will be in high demand 5-10 years from now turned out to be a very bad way to structure higher education

On one level, use the bully pulpit to change the subject from one horrible story to the next horrible story--a playbook Trump's been running since 2015. On another level, flood all people's social media feeds with content where a substantial percentage is literally AI fabrication.

So much is summarized by Steve Bannon's 2018 quote: "The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."

It's a widely known quote, but so much is captured in it. You don't need to do too much literal censorship. Just flood all the zones with shit.

In media, especially, it's actually very hard to predict which people and formats will be successful. That's why the best description of Hollywood is "no one knows anything."

While political movements should be smart and strategic, that doesn't preclude a "try a lot of things" strategy, rather than being paralyzed by anxiety and circular firing squad criticism. You could make a case that Air-American is "dumb," but trying nothing would have been dumber.

For several years, one of the main reactionary centrist pundit positions was that liberals shouldn't abolish ICE. I'll let readers draw their own conclusions. However, I think the example illustrates how effective this method of political strategy is in practice.

Patrolling the safest location in one of the safest cities in the Union.

[Real DC residents hope that this is as far into real DC that these small-d trigger happy twats go.]

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

US higher ed basically started to copy the German research-university model in the early 20th century. Then Germany tore it down themselves.

Not unrelated, one reason Germany lost the race for the A-bomb is that Hitler thought theoretical physics was essentially Jewish

The dominant Dem consultants: “No compromise with the electorate. When voters say they want politicians who stand up for themselves, instead let’s pretend they mean they support our different agenda.”

this sounds insane on its face? voters do not closely follow legislation and policy but they are very aware of the image and vibes of the elected officials. if voters say “we think they are nerds who won’t stand up for themselves” that’s almost certainly what they mean

Is the coming American line going to be that Russia "earned" the parts of Ukraine they stole via an illegal invasion?

“That it is Christianity, the, you know, the main religion of the Western world. You know, it always takes the side of the victim and there’s something where it is like some kind of deformation or intensification, and maybe you should think of wokeness as ultra-Christianity or hyper-Christianity.”

By my calculations, this think piece has been written every three days or so since 2015. A full decade on top, as they say in wrestling.

I feel like I have to say this bc many people on Bluesky have no experience with political or community organizing irl:

a lot of it is eating shit day after day to achieve a goal and do some good in the world! It is decidedly NOT an exercise in feeling superior and exacting revenge on your enemies!

We've become so accustomed to lawbreaking that this probably won't ripple much, but it is important not to forget that firing the IRS Commissioner for refusing to break the law--if that's in fact what happened here--would and should prompt immediate articles of impeachment in any other presidency.

I hate to be a buzz kill (and repetitive). But once again, you can't ask people to predict accurately whether future things will persuade them.

If there's one episode of TV I wish I could force everyone to watch and internalize, it's the 30 Rock where Liz, who has always seen herself as a bullied nerd underdog, finds out she's actually been hated all her life because she's mean.

When I was kid, I really disliked tartar sauce. But now I kind of like it. Just goes to show you that at some point they improved tartar sauce.

The future is here, and it is annoying. genAI "saves time" for one person by wasting time for lots of other people

I'm always struck by the analogy between the tech/rationalist community and AI and the Evangelical Christian community and the end times. In each case, they, on some level fear what is coming, are obsessed with the topic, and are also constantly drawn to making catastrophe more likely.

Formal black and white portrait of a man in coat and tie.

Jeremiah Haralson was elected Unites States Representative in 1875. Born in Georgia, he was sold three times as a child, taught himself to read & write, & became one of the most powerful orators in the nation.

As end-of-empire scenarios go it is so much more dignified to get your capital city sacked by the Visigoths than to have a bunch of illiterate rich people in their 70s doing it through a series of incomprehensible tantrums because their brains were defeated by their phones.

I cannot imagine a way more likely to destroy an advanced economy than making IP rights liable to be set aside at political whim.

R&D, industrial development, technology, you name anything in which people invest, you react to this by taking it elsewhere.

I’m just gonna say it: I think there was a whole genre of academic pseudo-activism about how the university itself was conservative/colonial/needed to be abolished etc that was the political equivalent of ZIRP. Like it just feels absurd these days.