Fredrik Gunnarson

Weekly Roundup: The Death and Afterlife of Charlie Kirk Poddavsnitt · Straight White American Jesus · 2025-09-12 · 1 tim 3 min

Thanks to @bradleyonishi.bsky.social and Dan Miller for bringing us knowledge, clarity and sanity when ordinary media obviously can’t.

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3/
It will immediately fulfill exactly what you say you want — not what you deep down mean, not what you might later want to revise, not what you symbolically long for — but precisely what you articulate, in the world as it actually is.

2/
Imagine a thought experiment. You have a real genie in a bottle. It is literal, exact, and governed only by cold logic — indifferent to justice, to suffering, or to whether the result will nourish or destroy you.

Who could have possibly foreseen the world's two largest narcissists ending their bromance?

Tror Anna-Karin Hatt att väljarna är dumma i huvudet? Johannes Klenell förklarar hur du gör "en liten peng" på svenska marknadsskolan.

"Tror Anna-Karin Hatt att väljarna är dumma i huvudet?"

Tiopoängstext av Klenell! Jag är själv osäker på svaret på frågan. Hon är kanske van vid att det räcker med den här dimridån?
arbetet.se/2025/05/26/t...

När makten glömmer varför pressen finns Att ifrågasätta makten är journalistikens uppgift. När utrikesministern, i TV4, avfärdar vår pressetiskt granskade publicering som ”konspirationsteori” och ”desinformation” pekar det på något mycke…

Att Sveriges utrikesminister @utrikesdep.bsky.social @tv4.bsky.social anklagar @blankspot.se för att sprida konspirationsteorier och desinformation är oerhört allvarligt och ansvarslöst. Hon hade lätt kunna avfärda frågan och hänvisa till Åklagarmyndigheten. #pressfrihet blankspot.se/nar-makten-g...

Fixed my original Joy-Cons—the ones from my first Switch. Swapped both joysticks with a repair kit. They’d been unusable for years, but now they feel new. Haven’t tested them yet, but just holding them feels good.

There’s something about fixing instead of replacing.

And that made me think of an old favorite book on the theme of quality: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I just have to reread it — it’s always opened up my thinking whenever I’ve picked it up.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how the concept of quality in early childhood education, within a neoliberal system shaped by strong meritocratic norms, has become heavily skewed — shifting from care toward learning as a consequence of this framework.

16/16
Ethical action flows from attention and judgment. It’s often quiet, inconvenient, and hard. But it makes repair and dignity possible.
In a distracted world, it may be one of the most radical things we can practice.

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Ethical action isn’t about always being right. It means acting deliberatively—with awareness, conscience, and a willingness to bear consequences. A choice to stay present, not disappear.

14/16
They followed procedure. They obeyed. They did not think. This is the danger: when reflection stops, responsibility dissolves—and violence becomes routine.

13/16
3. Effect in the world
Banal evil ↔ Ethical action
In the end, it’s about what we do. Arendt’s banality of evil described how ordinary people caused great harm—not from hatred, but from detachment.

12/16
Arendt saw evil arise when judgment stopped and roles took over. Weil shows the path back: care begins in attention and deepens in judgment. It’s not enough to see—we must choose to act with care.

11/16
Care requires moral judgment—the ability to reflect, to see oneself as part of a larger whole, to weigh consequences and ask: What is right, not just what is permitted.

10/16
Carelessness doesn’t just mean being sloppy—it means acting without regard for others. When responsibility gives way to convenience, people become noise, data, background.

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2. Inner stance toward others
Carelessness ↔ Care
Once we begin to see, the question becomes: How do we relate to the other? What kind of presence do we offer?

8/16
Weil wrote: “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.”
Attention is a moral posture: readiness to meet the world as it is—not as we want it to be.

7/16
Simone Weil offered attention as the antidote: not just focus, but love—the decision to look at another person without trying to use, define, or judge them.

6/16
Arendt described thoughtlessness as the condition where evil becomes ordinary—when people stop thinking for themselves and let routines or roles take over moral judgment.

5/16
1. Orientation toward the world
Thoughtlessness ↔ Attention
This is where it starts: do we choose to see and stay present with what’s happening around us—or retreat into habit and numbness?

4/16
Weil saw attention as a form of love—a refusal to look away. From this contrast between Arendt and Weil, a 3-part ethical structure emerged. A way of thinking about how we disengage—and how we might return.

3/16
Evil that doesn’t scream or plot, but arises through thoughtlessness. Not ill intent—but the absence of reflection, responsibility, relationship. Simone Weil’s attention offers a contrast.

2/16
We stop paying attention. We excuse ourselves from care. We let things slide—"that's just how it works." The book’s title, Careless, reminded me of Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil.

1/16
While reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, I began reflecting on how moral collapse rarely comes as a single decision—but through a series of small steps.

YouTube video by KingGizzardVEVO King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Shanghai (Official Video)

Can’t get Shanghai by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard out of my head…
“Bye bye Shanghai, I’ve become a butterfly” — stuck on repeat.
Fly away with me: