Mutual A

Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera - Charlie's Diary So I'm chewing over the idea of eventually returning to writing far future SF-in-spaaaace, because that's what my editors tell me is hot right now (subtext: "Charlie, won't you write us a space opera?"). A secondary requirement is that it has to be all new—no sequels to earlier work need apply. But I have a headache, because the new space opera turns 30 this year, with the anniversary of the publication of "Consider Phlebas" (or maybe "Schismatrix")—or even 40 (with the anniversary of the original "Star Wars"). There's a lot of prior art, much of it not very good, and the field has accumulated a huge and hoary body of cliches.

www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...

see it would be worth it alone for "the story of how the guy who sorta founded occupy wall street ended up just hanging out talking to people at a fortune 500 company"

i really wish david graeber did for bullshit jobs what robert jackall did in moral mazes – basic fieldwork *within* corporations to see it for himself

NEW: Gavin Newsom's top senior staff met privately over Zoom with Jewish community leaders Wednesday. They called for a clear statement from the governor that Israel is not "an apartheid state" and to affirm support for U.S.-Israel ties. @jewishsf J jweekly.com/2026/03/06/new...

TBH this is actually a pretty big watershed moment and whether he bends or doesn't bend to this ludicrous pressure will actually tell us a lot about where things are headed in the party— will the centrist frontrunner say something that isn't true just because a few groups ask him to?

korean for lol, right?

this is all the while every other speech mamdani gives is about how he wants to undo the effects of reagan and thatcher

mamdani becomes the surprise fave of /r/neoliberal after he helps get technocrats in who can implement a bunch of the wonky yimby small technical change -> massive social impact policies

going to write A Gulf War Is Taking Place

a high modernist military plus diplomatic statecraft *enabled* a postmodern media spectacle of total victory, but these clowns think you can skip the first part and just meme it into existence

actually i think that this is a dark inversion of The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. The fact it could be a media spectacle was a consequence of US technical supremacy, plus relatively limited objectives, plus international buy in which meant it was incredibly one-sided

worth noting that the "fascism is the final form of capitalism" thesis comes in part from the Marxist-derived notion that ideology is simply an expression of class interest

you saw dan olson's video on the suicide penguin memes right?

"how to blow up a pipeline 2"

"DONALD J TRUMP ANNOUNCES FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR MEDIA STUDIES GRADS"

"grok make me a sigma male video edit interspersed with airstrikes on iran"

you might have heard of this small thing called the 19th century and the conflict between capital and labor, thanks 🙏

some old hippie needs to whisper in RFK's ear about permaculture right now

Renewable energy defies Trump’s attacks, reaching a new record Renewables account for 26% of all U.S. electricity made last year, up 10%, despite Trump policies slashing wind and solar incentives and gutting clean-air rules.

www.latimes.com/environment/...

Napoleon low key the funniest guy in European history because he was like “what if I promoted officers based on how good they were at army and recruited troops who actually liked my country“ and it was basically the same as unleashing Godzilla.

if newsom starts talking like this on his podcast

if you were to write a prophecy of the future back in 2000 that "in 2026, President Donald John Trump has launched a war on Iran with Israel after previously attempting a coup to stay in power in 2020", people would think you've gone insane

particularly because there's a history of figureheads having some leftist overlap in NA hitchens was a former trot and dawkins coming out of the british biology which was fairly leftist until lysenko, while in EA peter singer was once sympathetic to marxism and will macaskill was around the SWP

i will give them a small amount of credit for that!

the car is on fire and there is no driver at the wheel

i could well be wrong, in which case hey I nonetheless uncovered some history and made some arguments (while also, you know, writing a book) but i don't think so and if you think that EA ideas are going to be used to justify bad things it makes sense to try peel off as many as you can ideologically

so one reason i currently have ~125 pages for this book is that i've found that the rank-and-file of effective altruism is far more open to leftist ideas than what you'd expect if you just looked at what big names and institutions put out and i think doing outreach to such people is Good Actually

Nano Banana 2 prompt: Modify the typical circular red/black „Antifaschistische Aktion“ Logo replacing the flags with two overlayed light bulbs, one red, the other black, on a white background. IMPORTANT: Both light bulbs lean to the right and are filled with one flat color each. On the front light bulb there are three white arrows that point to the bottom left corner. The axis of the arrows is aligned with the axis of the leaning light bulbs. Write on the border of the circle at the top: „EFFECTIVE ANTIFASCISM“ and at the bottom „EVIDENCE-BASED ACTION“. Maintain the minimalist flat design aesthetic with saturated colors, full opacity and no gradients.

Ready for this

aiming a little higher here

peak

forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dgnCab...