brainsquig.bsky.social

I think you mean "taking up space in your mindshare"

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

no way

Complaining about cancel culture in Riyadh is one of the best examples I've seen of how "free speech culture" rots the brain.

i salute pete hegseth for ending woke and ensuring that the military will never use your "preferred pronouns." please make sure you call him the secretary of war and not use his deadname secretary of d*****e

I think the makkelijk should go before zinnen (or was that the joke?)

“Trans people have kitchen tables. People that love trans people have kitchen tables. Immigrants have kitchen tables,” Abughazaleh said. “Democrats have been messaging on this issue, which is basic human decency, wrong this entire time. It’s a two-pronged thing. When it comes to extremism, if you’re constantly ceding ground that trans people don’t deserve to exist, or that there are carve-outs for that … it never stops with the people that you deem inhuman, it will always come to you.”

19thnews.org/2025/09/kat-...

I don't think it's simpering praise. He was an interesting man. I didn't agree with much that he said, but he was interesting and he was growing, and his death is a significant loss for those who believe engagement can help bridge disagreements.

From an Atlantic editor.

I cannot get over how the entire centrist hivemind is attempting to wish into existence a person, and a movement, that does not exist. You are journalists, you are supposed to describe things as they are, not how you want them to be!

That was someone else and not the killer.

I know Charlie Kirk valued debate and free speech because he blocked me for fact-checking his lies on Twitter and then put me on his organization's Professor Watchlist for writing a book he didn't like.

I have a couple of comments about the "free speech hero" narrative about Charlie Kirk.

First, was Charlie Kirk really notable for supporting the free speech of people he disagreed with? I haven't noticed that, though I could have missed it.

/1

Photo of DOGE staffer Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old white man in a blue pullover, carrying a black backpack.

Photo of 53-year-old Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi. He is sitting, wearing white pants and shirt with a brown vest.

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout.

On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.

This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media.

Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Brad Lander: "I also need to thank some of the most important people in my life and on this campaign—I mean, of course, the NYT editorial board. Just kidding, of course: I love Wordle and Connections, but I really urge the Times to cancel their new feature 'Editorial Riddles.' No one likes those."

Why Won’t Zohran Mamdani Denounce a Dangerous Slogan? The New York mayoral candidate’s defense of “Globalize the intifada” is very telling. By Jonathan Chait

This entire attack line is so bizarre. It's not a phrase Mamdani uses, it's just something random people chanted at a protest.

All evidence indicates that the pro-Palestinian movement is not substantially motivated by antisemitism, it is motivated by moral revulsion at mass killing.

Donald Trump ran for President promising to end wars, not start new ones. Today’s unconstitutional military action represents a new, dark chapter in his endless series of betrayals that now threaten to plunge the world deeper into chaos. In a city as global as ours, the impacts of war are felt deeply here at home. I am thinking of the New Yorkers with loved ones in harm’s way. While Donald Trump bears immediate responsibility for this illegal escalation, these actions are the result of a political establishment that would rather spend trillions of dollars on weapons than lift millions out of poverty, launch endless wars while silencing calls for peace, and fearmonger about outsiders while billionaires hollow out our democracy from within. For Americans middle aged and younger, this is all we have known. We cannot accept it any longer.

My statement on the Trump administration's illegal military actions and the wars that must end.

our institutions are now formally broken and there's no going back. following the new norms established by the trump administration the next democratic administration is going to defund the pentagon and give all of the money to harvard to fund "force femme" research

A lot of the priming research seems iffy on its own, but yeah in this case the effects are also implausibly big. If seeing a tiny flag noticeably shift people to the right after months then the US should be a country full of psychopaths (moreso than it is ^^), ppl see flags almost daily.

While I agree with the premise of your blog, I would bet *a lot of money* on none of those studies replicating.

very cool that for ten years people at the heights of political commentary insisted to the point of rage that the paramount threat to free speech was “censorious” college students

Could be a Gricean norms thing where the mirror condition is so needlessly complicated to an average participant that they may think they must be misunderstanding and it's a gamble. When someone explains it verbally that's less of an issue.

Look, even if you otherwise tolerate Jesse, I don’t see how you can consume this as anything but blatant bad faith, given his focus on trans-related issues. Plus, it’s a stupid and dishonest point, because “trans athletes” have been the bloody flag the GOP has waved to cause rage and fear.

So long story short, under $200 for very basic pair of sneakers (remember we started with a $70 pair) seems doable even when cost of materials rises quite a bit. Fancier sneakers under $200 probably not.

You can and should!
I don't think you should take any of those numbers as a given but for me it helps thinking about how the cost would change. E.g., The US is a top leather importer and China is a top leather exporter, so the cost of leather would also go up.
For methods idk

So if you assume labor to cost about 10* as much, it would be $30 in labor per pair. If material-costs don't change, based on the linked page a pair of sneakers that would normally be $70 would go up to $130. If the materials need to be imported and are tariffed ofc. it would go up by more. 2/2

How much does it cost to make a sneaker? What is the shoe store profit? - How much does it cost to manufacture a sneaker?- Why does a shoe cost $100.00? - Here is how shoe pricing really works.

Your comment made me curious, there's no answer here, but it does specify all the current costs. It estimates $3 in labor for a pair of sneakers in a country where (based on quick google, maybe wrong) minimum wage is $150 per month.

shoemakersacademy.com/cost-to-make...

1/2

I have another metaphor. Imagine you are a kid in school and a bully comes up to you and says give me your lunch money or I'll punch you. Would you say the right call is to give the bully the money because it is the least harmful out of the two?

Have you considered that maybe your metaphor is just bad, and that if you had a good argument you wouldn't have to rely on bad metaphor?

I would just choose to not be in the burning building.

thanks!