nostalgebraist:

The core feature of any sophiarchist state is that suffrage is not universal, but reduced to a pool of certifiably able applicants – importantly, this is based on some measure of governing ability, not wealth. At this time, the best available (but by no means perfect) certification of governing knowledge is the possession of a PhD in the social sciences.

I’m really really tired and can’t come up with an interesting to express the sentiment “wtf’ about this paragraph I just read on the internet but, uh, wtf

The first sentence is rewarmed republicanism. Americans always sorta meh on the republican/democratic distonction. In Europe republican’s just non-monarchist.

The way the democracy/republic distinction played out at the American founding I’d liken to our modern “liberal”/“progressive”. As in, they’ve meant various things at various times, but as used the distinction’s mostly a branding decision – to get distance from the formers’ abominable reputation for catastrophically empowering the lower orders, and implicitly promise not to make the same mistake again.

The second sentence, eh at least kinda defensible, handwave handwave liberal arts, handwave handwave cursus honorum.

Sitting here listening to Dragonforce lyrics, realizing that there’s no obvious basis to insist they aren’t Christian rock.

Damn man, never even heard of that one. Lot of the classic dive bars closing, as gentrification and redevelopment pushes up to 82nd. Division’s completely unrecognizable from *last year*, they’re starting on Foster now.

Yo I noticed the links on my old posts have been appended t.umblr.com/redirect?z=

1. (indignant voice) what the fuck is that?

and

2. (web structure/economics voice) what the fuck is that?

2006: “Look at all these pompous NYT and WaPo pundits whose only understanding of the world outside their elite bubble comes from brief smalltalk with the peasant class. No wonder they don’t understand anything!”

2014: “We don’t talk to anyone outside our bubble but it’s ridiculous to think you could understand things by asking people, anyway.”

The counterculture seemed to have it all: the unconnectedness which would allow consumers to indulge transitory whims; the irreverence that would allow them to defy moral puritanism; and the contempt for established social rules that would free them from the slow-moving, buttoned-down conformity of their abstemious ancestors. In the counterculture, admen believed they had found both a perfect model for consumer subjectivity, intelligent and at war with the conformist past, and a cultural machine for turning disgust with consumerism into the very fuel by which consumerism might be accelerated.

kontextmaschine:

You know what my favorite piece of reactionary media is?

Ghostbusters.

Hear me out, I’ve mentioned this before, but forever ago. It’s a movie about a bunch of guys who, in the go-go ’80s, give up on academia to found a startup based on cutting edge technology. They settle in gritty New York City, specifically rehabilitating decaying public safety infrastructure, and their job description is literally “drive around town with the siren on, rehabilitating once-glorious locations by imprisoning vandalous spooks”.

They clean the city up, create jobs for the black and white ethnic working class, but face resistance from pointy-headed bureaucrats. (The dickless EPA guy manages to represent both “overregulation” and “safety-threatening prisoner releases” with admirable efficiency.) Ultimately though, the meddlers have to relent in the face of their success at making the city safe for innocents, as represented by yuppie singles in their 30s.

(Ghostbusters II is about the guys making the city a safe place for those yuppies to raise kids by cleansing cultural institutions of evil influence using the power of American patriotism, while the judiciary and mayor come to accept that whatever the law or political elites might say, busting is both necessary and popular.)

Meanwhile, it’s fucking Ghostbusters.

1994: Boxers or briefs?

2016: Which pony is best pony?

popculturediedin2009:

Taylor Swift Myspace comment, October 2005

“listen my queer fellow”

“drive over in your sex van and come pick me up”

Highlander, or as I like to think of it, ‘Mall Katana: The Movie’

Person at Disney Animation Studios: We should make a buddy cop movie
Other person: Did you say "bunny cop" movie?
First person: ...Yes.

Show us your tits!

serkentsi-deactivated20180207:

tru

im gonna turn into fucktheory and write long ass index card essays on how all u need to know abt plato is that he loved to fuck dudes up the butt. just u wait

I remember when I was at Cornell it was one of the last redoubts (with UC Irvine) of capital-T Theory and a friend reported that a professor had dismissively rebuffed an undergrad’s challenge to his understanding of Foucault by saying that he’d had his hand up the man’s ass.

If Trump gets it, the Republicans will have nominated a drinker only once since 1996.

davidsevera:

I’m pleased to announce my brand new product line of makeup for nerds, anoRAKISH:

• Batman Wore Eye Shadow. Are You Saying You’re Better Than Batman?: It’s Eye Shadow for Nerds!
• Gloss in the Shell: It’s Lip Gloss for Nerds!
  
• Damn, There Really Aren’t Many Male Characters We Can Reference for This One: It’s Lipstick for Nerds!
  
• Mascara on Eden Prime: It’s Mascara for Nerds!
• /b/lush: It’s Blush for Nerds!
  
• Don’t Tell Your Aunt What You Think of The Big Bang Theory, It’s Just Not Worth It: It’s Concealer for Nerds!
  
• The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov: It’s Foundation for Nerds!

Please buy something. I stuck my neck out on this and if I can’t convince a bunch of you geeks to defy gender norms my bosses at Maybelline say they’re going to break my thumbs.

spacetwinks:

“some people call me the space cowboy” is definitely the kind of thing said by people who make up their own nicknames

mormonfacts:

uh