it's not great that we've built a world so susceptible to influence by the whims of some plutocrat that the quality of the country we live in and in some respects the fate of the world may meaningfully hinge on who he hires and fires.

[new draft post] Two kinds of representation https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/04/24/two-kinds-of-representation/index.html

he was outfoxed.

sorry.

"Living in the US is like having a super-dangerous job" by @johnquiggin https://crookedtimber.org/2023/04/23/living-in-the-us-is-like-having-a-super-dangerous-job/

// accounting for a reasonable risk premium given higher mortality ris in the US than comparable developed countries "would push the US down to the middle of the rich-country pack based on standard comparisons of median income." layer on much less leisure and lack of universal benefits and the US might land much lower than the middle of the pack.

@poetryforsupper “we’re not the theocrats. it’s just *obvious* that are adversary is satan and any appearance of old-school debate pretextual, so it’s incumbent upon us to counteract and act accordingly.” https://twitter.com/aimeeterese/status/1650096330407280643?s=46&t=5X4MlZRIpayL2Dl5w4-mFw

i look at the website, find a good deal. go to the app — same firm! — to buy it. but my good deal is almost twice as expensive in the app. back to the website and i hit the good deal.

am i supposed to feel savvy? lucky? happy?

what i actually feel is that i live in a barbaric casino where i might easily have shed about a hundred dollars bc i missed some arbitrary choice about how to interact with a firm i now think less of.

google's targeting is uncanny.

it's one of god's little ironies that after all our teenage idolizing and striving the coolest people we'll ever meet are our kids.

i really miss having a place where you could at a glance get a sense of what’s really going on in the world.

like, right now on the QSite, trends include “Because Elon”, “Even Elon”, “Musk”, and “So Elon”. along with “Matt Taibbi” and “Grimes” who are trending for their roles in dramas involving Elon.

you really can stay in touch with what’s important over there.

you have to love the people who are wrong about everything because otherwise you will just be too alone.

@Yaneznaiu welcome!

“the platforms always aimed to reconfigure sociality into something more consumable.” @robhorning https://robhorning.substack.com/p/identitatszwang ht @Jonathanglick

"The word 'neoliberalism' is much misused. We might, however, attach that label to the valorization of the goods of effectiveness over those of excellence - of winning at all costs over performing well." #ChrisDillow https://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2023/04/devaluing-excellence.html #ViaRSS

[new draft post] Two parties make us stupid https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/04/21/two-parties-make-us-stupid/index.html

i still spend about 90% less time in indoor public spaces than i did pre-2020.

which i don’t like, at all. i don’t work in coworking spaces and cafés anymore, i mostly restrict eating out to eating outside, etc.

i feel much more isolated and stuck at home than i used to. i want everywhere to verifiably provide to very good ventilation. i think of close indoor air now like untreated sewage.

an interesting observation in this piece by @radleybalko about GOP respect for localism and the rights of communities to govern themselves rather then be subject to the whims of some distant government is the attention paid to institutional design, ensuring accountability through clear targets for coercion and intimidation in the public interest. https://open.substack.com/pub/radleybalko/p/meet-the-nutty-tennessee-republicans

so over on the QSite i saw “big guy” trending and was curious. the two top tweets offer happy birthday wishes to the “big guy”, above slide shows cycling through adoring photographs of adolf hitler.

i mean, why on earth would advertisers be leaving?

basically the legacy elitist blue check was just made more elitist, it now goes a much smaller number of accounts, the celebrities that elon wants to impress.

maybe capital allies with those who would render the state oppressive on social issues not merely to attract electorally useful idiots, but also so that factions which otherwise might be inclined to support state power in order to address distributional problems become tempted to adopt a “fight the power”, adversarial view of the state.