More Writing 2

[jfz9580m]

6. I just want to be clear on this

Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2026, 07:23 AM - Edit history (4)

This doesn’t apply blanket across the board. And if you shattered my ear drums it almost definitely doesn’t apply. I don’t have my sensitivity pegged at the level of people who need yelling. It is at the other end of the spectrum.

Anyway, I do mean this selectively, but well..




Oh and Sam Miller MacDonald, don’t write an entire oped defending your write to be fashionable you person who has issues with purity and nuance that I never have had!
An entire oped Sam? When you clearly have so much more of value to contribute, this:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/05/can-the-love-of-menswear-be-justified-in-a-time-of-global-crisis

Can the Love of Menswear Be Justified in a Time of Global Crisis?
Can there possibly be any value in caring about something as seemingly frivolous as personal style and taste in clothing? As it turns out, Yes!
Samuel Miller McDonald

filed 29 May 2023 in UNCATEGORIZED
The various tubes and vessels that everyone slides their body parts into everyday—clothes—are broadly considered to be, at best, the domain of the frivolous and unserious—at worst, the preoccupation of the narcissist. But even a passing reflection on the facts reveals this popular notion to be absurd. Clothes have enabled human beings to colonize virtually all of the Earth.

Sam..as a supporter and an acolyte (fan is a bit sketchy due to OnlyFans connotations), but herein lies an infectious problem. I am glad this is all you have to worry about. But as someone who is comfortable with strict standards you can see why sometimes your judgement can seem confusing.
The same goes to Ciara Moloney. How about something about these douchebags. Somehow? Look at the turds of the NyT justifying this with their cheery Scarlett Johanssen from Her tone:

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/17/data-crunching-is-coming-to-help-your-boss-manage-your-time.html

The reason it is important to find a balance is that it should never be bullying or discrimination, but lax immigration laws can also help out the Mitesh Bohras, Shalab Kumars, Ragy Thomases, Vincent Palathingals etc. And yes they are Indian, but you will find people in all groups that are shitty in group specific, context specific ways.

You are not doing a good job of being “multicultural” with the care and thought it takes to say these are cool dynamics in these societies and these are the shitty ones so a clearly deranged ass like Trump cannot exploit cognitive dissonance.
Many of us pick the least shitty option often.

But one day you find yourself unable to avoid a conversation and you try Boxer from Animal Farm’s strategy as much as you can till in the July of 2025 your eardrums can’t take it anymore and you are sick of being labeled a schizophrenic who won’t get treatment. Ffs.

And more seriously on page 282 of your book Sam, why would you choose Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald Sam? Yes I joke sometimes (“Nastikoff Yah, Sovietski Bah..but it is merely a nod to the human grace we all need for our biases and prejudices) about people I consider and always will, superior to all the riff raff out there (like my main mentor).

There is someone honest and decent who is not an ego driven ass who makes the same points, while risking being called a “Russian plant” or other truly scurrilous things: Yasha Levine.
I suppose it is positive that Glenn Greenwald attacks factory farming and that Taibbi wrote one good piece recently trashing Robin D’Angelo. But as with this guy I really dislike Musa Al Gharbi, there is more to being left than the ability to be catty about obvious Darwin Awards candidates though popular like Robin D’Angelo (I apologize to Beverly D’Angelo. Some of my rants confused my ex who asked why a random actress was annoying me).

This is a daily issue for me not a joke and I have to go eat lunch with my dad.

I would not just hog time and space (though technically in every real way I am in this position out of an unwillingness to do so in any material way than not).

There are people who are hated for things that are no fault of their own. Then there are people who are hated for not giving a shit and not thinking very deeply about anything.

I can seem out of it (probably a defensive mechanism when outright invisible is harder), but mostly I am trying to figure out what the hell I am thinking and trying to go about life less clunkily than of yore (a Friends joke Sam! And one that fits pretty well).

My main mentor took every part of his job seriously. It is why I have so much regard for him.
I have some lines in the sand- you attack Paul Ehrlich or Dr. Fauci - you are dead to me. I saw an ugly little twat called Brian Keegan blame Paul Ehrlich (not Julian Simon mind you - that Mises parasite of an economist) from the left as “anti immigrant”.

That is the type of person I genuinely hate.

(Same with my best friend or main mentor. I can’t see anyone attacking my ex-husband since he is not a pi. And pis get attacked more as attacking people who represent the best bet for human evolution is the trend of the times.)

See I can’t tell what is going on the right side of the aisle. I tend to me more polite with people who are different and where conflicts can get serious.
And sometimes I do the dreariest exercise I have ever done which is calculate which conservative elite one can extend a slim olive branch to. Like even I hate the embrace of TikTok and trash like that as somehow awesome. And as someone who had a happy childhood and parents she could always rely on to be supportive while not making any demands, I do feel sorry when I read about people with awful parents.
But I am more for laughs than tears so it is funnier to throw together eclectic mixes that might net cancel out. Is that what fantasy football is? I have heard of such things.


And except that EarlG/elad/MIRT and DU (where aware at least somewhat) are too sane to see this as getting drafted into the GOP or being a Russian plant (it is just that I am very sympathetic to Ukraine and admire Zelenskyy, but I don’t buy people Malcolm Nance much. I buy very few people including myself - I should be working on a paper. Am I lazy? Or is it actually true that while I am not depressed or suicidal, all this killed my already fairly slender will to live? Science was already hard. It is the only thing I will ever earn an income from.
What future can there be? Things I ponder and which also make me hesitate about anything that would be considered intrusive. But I do think scientists especially have to be honest at least about who they are once inadvertently drafted into something from hell).

But sometimes it is not bad for difficult and unpopular women to weigh in.
I do value all the people I have followed over the years. I rarely burn real bridges. But I receive the right to exit rather than engage with the Brian Keegans or other pushy types.
Otoh I am fond of Nathan Robinson and Current Affairs as an important alternative to what The Jacobin/Freddie DeBoer/Casey Phillips/ that atrocious Ben Wray (it is between him and Brian Keegan for worst oped ever) represent. And Yasha Levine always in spite of these dubious characters he knows such as Anthony Galluzzo (another Ehrlich attacker)/Fergie Chambers.

People like me are being driven out of civil society by many forces. But normally one tries not to say that to avoid the style of the endlessly querulous and out of sympathy for many who endure a lot without complaining much however ignored or unseen they feel. Maybe it is about them.

I don’t have much to say if people stare at me. Bah…what you looking at..twat.
But I do have a lot of deep sympathies and so I am out there and thinking about you.
You can never be mechanical in yer humanism.
The thing I am sensitive to is the dynamics of bullying. I can hold my own, but I never join groups to survive where someday I have to bully people or lie.
Purity versus sane nuance I peg at around Sam MacDonald and his opeds about finding a left defense of menswear. (🙄 . I love Current Affairs, but jokes aside it is a problem among honest humans I see in science and on the left, which is blatantly exploited by bad people.
And like another person I am fond of Troy Farah, one day I frown over this and go, what now? I am a “finger wagging environmentalist” Is it?
I like people with planning skills that match mine. Real nice Troy:
https://www.salon.com/2026/04/04/maybe-its-time-to-give-elon-musk-control-of-the-sun/

You are all a disgrace! Look how you look to one of “your own”. No.. kidding.
Still..Sam..worst oped ever! Ever!

I can’t ever dial in anything. I am Hindu to the extent that I was born into a Hindu family and Indian military conservative with some pro Israel views so I don’t bother much with that as an atheist. But I have had so many Muslim and Christian doctors or other allies over the years that I make sure to never come off as someone who would ever be a jerk. It is symbiosis. I have needed their assistance often. And the way I think it is always about specific humans. It is why any crowds weary me and make me want to stay away.

Otoh separately I am more comfy with the Freedom from Religion Foundation. I thought they did a good job with addressing anti-Muslim bigotry honestly while also holding Mayor Mamdani to the same standard.

I cannot imagine seeing the lazy patterns so prevalent in society. I am not saying I don’t have petty things I notice (I can’t stand Mira Nair’s movies. And that is how I assess people. There is programming all humans have and then there is who you are and “Monsoon Wedding” was pretty terrible. The type of shallow social commentary that makes this society hell. It is also popular. It is why I fake joke curmudgeon but celebrity culture makes me give up glumly thinking okay this is a lost cause. Of course affordability is important, but mass messaging is increasingly outright kicking women’s rights and the environment, except narrowly and freedom from religion away and often embracing Utopianism vs Extreme compromises. The promise I see is in older left of centre like DU -it is why I will stay here until EarlG boots me out which is unlikely. But outside DU I follow newer left specifically like Nathan Robinson’s Current Affairs and Yasha Levine.).

Oh and Sam! Knausgaard is a creep and a bore! What is wrong with you all. How does this atrocious creep fly in this unforgivingly stupid society that never supported Dr.Fauci adequately (that was terrifying..he is a role model. It is why I have to forgive two very annoying labs I mostly can’t stand. But they pull their weight in society and I cannot really believe that they are more than annoying and awful and that’s most everyone -minus this same knowing far too many people and making foul compromises. And I support humane league via ACE despite my loathing of EA. What makes Beaglegate so shameful is how ventilation shutdown and factory farming are normalized by this society that peddles trashy conspiracy theories like “Lab leaks!!!!l” while Dr.Fauci gets attacked by douchebags.
I worked in science. I know how hard it is. It is not like being Douchey Mac Douchebag and then embracing Knausgaard.)
John Crace is funny. No more soup! Go away ai Oliver Twist! No more soup!
Why god why? All this for a bit of pot?
What about all the creeps and frauds?????

I collect these since it is impossible to find sanity in this bleak universe. I hate information being destroyed. It should at least exist in its original form somewhere. I am okay by now with mine. I thought I would never return to normal:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/21/a-man-in-love-digested

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/16/the-triple-package-amy-chua-digested-read


I had a craven temptation to say “alright price gougers” and resisted it. I reserve the right to be thin skinned! Mostly by now only because I don’t want to adjust and maladapt. You cannot expect everyone to be like you and socialized to a sort of collective form of survival, when I don’t get it, but I never told anyone what to do. Because I don’t think it works outside of straightforward stuff. You have to change people’s minds and you could never change mine. Why would I be able to change yours or have some universal solution? But coexistence does mean not doing all this shit and then blaming the wrong dynamics as all people do. I liked publicly funded science because except for me everyone was truly pulling their weight in even my most annoying lab which I grudgingly give credit to. I always registered them as annoying and quarrelsome and Sam Miller adjacent in priorities.
Not falling for this again:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/27/autumn-by-karl-ove-knausgaard-digested-read

Huh?
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-really-weird/
Hmmm. It might not be possible to outwit all these jerks. I don’t feel like laughing at myself or groveling anymore otoh..maybe there are other options..what are those?
I can’t possibly be wrong about what irks me most. Can I?