constans's profile picture. hard scrabble, yet privileged, NJ flotsam. “pedantic plonker”. GenX hegemonist constans@constans.bsky.social if you need to find me elsewhere

constans

@constans

hard scrabble, yet privileged, NJ flotsam. “pedantic plonker”. GenX hegemonist [email protected] if you need to find me elsewhere

Pinned

The people on this website are deeply troubled.


constans reposted

An optimistic take: the media will not pussyfoot around about Vance’s racism the same way they did with Trump’s because there’s nothing else fun about Vance. The best way to drive clicks on Vance will be to point out what a sick fuck he is.


I don’t know this account well enough to make a judgment on him, but stuff like reveling in Libs of TikTok content and making Facebook posts about fake outrage-of-the-day shit has been a source of joy for right wingers for decades and it’s part of who they are. Not an accident

Maybe the culture wars felt good at the moment, but had real consequences long term. Maybe it was a mistake to mainline "libs of tiktok" every minute of every hour of every day, and convince ourselves that kids were using litter boxes and coming home from school magically turned…



constans reposted

Look this is obviously bad because it’s proof Bari Weiss is at CBS to shut down critical coverage of the Trump administration but it’s also proof she’s so bad at it that she’ll run headfirst into a Streisand Effect without realizing what’s she’s doing.

Bari Weiss responds: "My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason—that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices—happens every day in every newsroom. I look…



constans reposted

DOGE proved once and for all this is true. We got amateurs to fix the deficit with plain old American common sense and now the deficit hasn't changed but a million Africans are starving to death.

The people in charge made a lot of mistakes here, but the lesson people like polymath need to take is that they are actually worse at decisionmaking than the people in charge and should therefore question whether “the people” are actually better at running things than the elites



constans reposted

It just pains me that this was always obvious. Many of us pointed out at the time that not all of these folks were credible “free speech” absolutists and we were called hysterical.

They were never free speech warriors - they just didn’t like being out of power.



You used to be able to get a white Cadillac with red leather interior. I used to be partial to black cars but the advent of uber means that it just looks like you’re a rideshare driver

This is not a bad point and happened with car colors )interior and exterior) about ten years prior, starting in the 90s suddenly every car was painted white, black, grey. Very, very occasionally blue or red. Ditto interiors except it’s even worse just literally black gray and…



This is the kind of RETVRN content I can get behind


Yikes. There is a significant number of graduates who work retail or other service worker jobs before they “break in” to white collar work. Whereas they could’ve been doing to service work the whole time while getting a degree part time and it would’ve worked better for them

Only about half of US workers with a bachelor’s degree secure employment in a college-level job within a year of graduation; the other half end up underemployed, typically for about 10 years, per Deloitte.



The thing was that soon after the OJ trial, it came out that the LAPD *WAS* planting evidence in criminal cases. And I can’t even say for sure that the LAPD didn’t plant at least a little bit of evidence in the OJ case, figuring it’d make extra sure he was convicted

Folks, since this got so much pushback, a CNN poll in 1995 showed that 30% of the public believed the LAPD planted evidence against Simpson. The story that everyone actually knew he was guilty and just wanted to punish LAPD is a retcon.



Around the country, people are finally echoing my battle cry: The Theater Kids Must Be Stopped

I wrote about the latest go-to political insult, mostly on the right: "Theater kid." nytimes.com/2025/12/21/us/…

SopanDeb's tweet image. I wrote about the latest go-to political insult, mostly on the right: "Theater kid." 
nytimes.com/2025/12/21/us/…


constans reposted

It's because they're degrowthers -- importing cheap Chinese EVs doesn't serve their goal of reducing living standards, but stymieing fossil fuel production does.

One thing I don’t understand about this weekend’s arguments is why the people who are mad at me aren’t pushing for an end to tariffs on Chinese EVs — seems like that would be an easy win for both climate and affordability. Why not do it? A few reasons.



The question is whether Vivek is wiling to call out people questioning his (and Indians’) Americanness to their face in an interview or whether he becomes quiescent and compliant in the face of direct questioning like he did with Ann Coulter


Vance, as expected, latches on to an idea a little too loudly and also right after it has fallen out of style and the moment has passed

JD VANCE: "In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore."



constans reposted

JFK's AirTrain is an example of fully automated transit which already exists in New York City. Is the AirTrain less safe without conductors?

Very brave indeed for @GovKathyHochul to side with the neo-liberal out-of-town gobshites by vetoing a bill that blue collar New Yorkers (aka Voters) overwhelmingly support . It’s a futile veto though because the @transportworker Conductors are and always will be performing…



constans reposted

This is obviously *technically* his job, but you’re not supposed to say it out loud as a union leader, because your job is also good PR by aligning the (perception of) public interest with union interest. Failing to do so turns the public—and elected officials—against them.

just pretty remarkable to see a transit union leader explicitly his goal is to increase jobs for his members, not to improve transit service

ArmandDoma's tweet image. just pretty remarkable to see a transit union leader explicitly his goal is to increase jobs for his members, not to improve transit service


constans reposted

Omar Fateh was born in the United States. He is an American. I don’t share his politics, but I tend to think it’s better to challenge him based on his ideas, not his race. This is so gross.

JD Vance: "They are not sending their best. Omar Fateh was Ilehan [sic] Omar's candidate for mayor of Mogadishu-- I mean Minneapolis. Little Freudian slip there."



Teaching is a craft and ability at teaching correlates to experience and adherence to best practices, not whether you have a master’s

“The fact that teachers with master’s degrees are no more effective in the classroom, on average, than their colleagues without advanced degrees is one of the most consistent findings in education research.  In a study published in 2011, Paul Peterson and I confirmed this finding…

karenvaites's tweet image. “The fact that teachers with master’s degrees are no more effective in the classroom, on average, than their colleagues without advanced degrees is one of the most consistent findings in education research.  In a study published in 2011, Paul Peterson and I confirmed this finding…


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