And the everything-else of Kirk’s politics amounted to little more than a loathing of those whose mere existence provoked his ire.
"Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause", Ta-Nehisi Coates for Vanity Fair
Still working through the whiplash of Vanity Fair publishing this from Coates and days later announcing a plum job for Olivia "History of Wild Violations of Journalistic Standards" Nuzzi. Every day is a winding road!
Imagine your own brain, ceaselessly bathed in the delight of anticipation, without ever having to do anything.
"How to Flake Like a True Bay Area Local", Daniel Lavery for Coyote
Submitted by Erin.
There is, of course, no human life worth sacrificing to preserve a quill-scrawled line written three hundred years ago about forming a colonial militia.
"Charlie Kirk's Last Stand", Bess Kalb for her newsletter The Grudge Report
Submitted by Ed.
Bauwens developed "Ron Paul Maoism", a theory that asserts that propertarian libertarians are carrying out Karl Marx’s program of societal transformation.
Wikipedia entry for Michel Bauwens
This is "perfect" in the sense that I burst out laughing upon reading it and also made me go insane. It is the Color Out of Space of sentences. Fun, further madness-making detail: the Wikipedia citation for this sentence links to a paywalled Substack post!
Lest you think this is a mere and straightforward violation of free speech, don't worry: There's also an extortion angle.
"Charlie Kirk is a Means to an End", Barry Petchesky for Defector
Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence—one that was on intimate terms with the comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard.
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
Submitted by Nathan.
it’s important to do things for your teenage self every so often, as a way of staying on speaking terms with the person you used to be
Submitted by Alex.
What kind of world is it in which humans are on equal footing with garbage?
"The Poverty of Philosophy: Realism and Post-Fordism", Alexander Galloway
I sometimes struggle with Galloway's prose insofar as he can get very abstract and I'm a grimy little materialist, but I was looking for texts that engaged with Mark Fisher's framing of capitalist realism and rhetorics of open source software and well, guess who thinks a lot about software and capitalism? The Protocol guy. The text doesn’t really deal with open source in particular and Fisher's a very minor footnote—it's mostly about bitchy French philosophy discourse stuff. Still, it was helpful for some things I'm thinking through for the dissertation.
important to remember that apocalypse is a fantasy that absolves you of your responsibilities
Submitted by Kelsey.
An astonishing fact about Darcy: she once removed her own IUD with a pair of forceps she’d ordered on Amazon.
“Make Way for (22) Ducklings”, Carrie Frye for Flaming Hydra
Submitted by Ed.
At some point, the company decided to mandate “AI” usage across their organization, joining such august brands as Shopify, Duolingo, and Taco Bell.
"Against the protection of stocking frames.", Ethan Marcotte on his blog
The dumbasses are emboldened, and their ambitions are greater, but the nature of the fascists is, it turns out, nothing that we haven’t seen before.
"Getting Yelled at By Dumbasses", Hamilton Nolan for his newsletter How Things Work
Many of my colleagues reeked of money: hyphenated names, signet rings, private schools, Prada frames.
"House Arab", Ismail Ibrahim for Bidoun
Also a banger: