I was asked in anonymous comments to say something about the debate around the Royal Spanish Academy. This is an institution that exists to ensure the preservation of the Spanish language. It was created in the early 18th century and was one of the very first institutions of the Spanish nation-state. The RAE is the reason why we can read any text in Spanish from 250 years ago and understand it with ease.

Recently, however, RAE has been experiencing problems. Some of the people on its decision-making body have been infected by the fear of seeming elitist. They have pushed to make language more inclusive by normalizing stupid, uneducated things. Dumbing down instead of preservation started happening.

The people arguing against RAE’s tendency towards dumbing down are hobbled from making an honest argument by the same fear of looking elitist and not inclusive. So they speak vaguely about the dangers of social media, and this makes their argument hard to understand.

In short, this is another foundational institution of the nation-state that is falling apart under the pressure of globalizing forces. These forces have found out that name-calling is their best way to victory, and they are deploying it successfully here and everywhere else.

Words can’t describe how incredibly off-putting I find the author of this tweet:

A friend reviewing Harvard applications remembered one student clearly: he had dropped out of high school, joined a Buddhist monastery for a year, then finished school. Great academics, yes. But among hundreds of applications, that's the one she remembered and recommended.

When…

— Michael Strong (@flowidealism) January 16, 2026

This whole approach to life is making me want to vomit. The applicant (whether real or apocryphal) and the man gushing over him are very unpleasant people.

Horrible, nasty individuals who are eating up everything that’s good in the world.

The Sunday Times has obtained a new report from doctors on the ground [in Iran] which says at least 16,500 protesters have died and 330,000 have been injuredhttps://t.co/Kbd9a6K0lB pic.twitter.com/ufnpUZiKIa

— Faytuks News (@Faytuks) January 18, 2026

It is very very important for the US not to get involved in any way, shape, or form. Iranians should be completely in control of their fate and decide what regime they need. Any involvement from outside forces will severely undermine the next regime because it will forever be seen as an imposition from colonizers. The US already interfered to remove an evil dictator from a country in the region and created a mess of incalculable proportions. We clearly don’t understand these people and shouldn’t be messing with them.

If we haven’t learned even this, we have learned nothing.

I have a friend who recently received a stage four metastatic cancer diagnosis. She’s young, this is so unfair. But she’s a deeply religious person. She’s luminous in spite of the diagnosis. Looks incredibly elegant, has an unquenchable interest in others, her life is full and interesting. Being around her is a joy.

Yesterday I visited another acquaintance at her place. She’s completely healthy and, unlike my friend, is blessed with three children. But being at that house was so taxing that Kara wept for an hour after we came back. The house is bombed out, looks like a dump. The bank is taking it for debts. This is not an issue of poverty. The husband has a PharmD and managed to get to this place of devastation from a salary of $120,000. The hopelessness and squalor engulfed these good people. And I promise, these are good people. But there’s no philosophy of life and no grounding in reality. I feel great sadness over this. 

We are in the stage of parenting where we segue very seamlessly from “You are making split pea soup, Mommy??? You know that I hate split pea soup!!!! If you loved me you’d never make split pea soup!!! I do not feel loved in this family!!!! My life is not fun any more!” into “Mommy, can I have a fourth bowl of split pea soup because it’s my favorite soup?”

It is excellent soup, by the way.

This is an excellent idea:

https://twitter.com/i/status/2011726621007626743

I don’t know who can possibly think it’s a bad idea and why. I especially don’t understand people who agree that Russia is an enormous threat to world peace and hates the US but are opposed to this security move. For years, they were repeating that we need to do something about Russia. Finally, Russia is being kicked in the teeth, and they are still unhappy.

Alaska was acquired, and it turned out great. I’m not seeing any downside at all to acquiring Greenland. People are being defeatist for no reason.

I also have to mention that the post-WW2 world order fell apart in 2014. People who are  hand-wringing about it in 2026, like they only just noticed, sound either clueless and dishonest. Russians are sending drones to one European airport after another. It is conducting aggressive sabotage in most European countries. The authorities of those countries know that, say it openly and… do absolutely nothing. Europe has been funding Putin’s war against itself with oil and gas purchases for 12 years. This is the Europe to which we are supposed to leave our security. Nah, thanks, doesn’t look great.

Only an absolute moron refuses to see that Russia is preparing to do to the US what it’s been doing to Europe. Testing the waters first and then being more and more aggressive is the strategy. If there’s a plan in place to prevent it other than the Greenland Purchase, let’s hear it. There was over a decade to unveil it.

It’s very annoying that everybody has a long-term strategy except the West. We are supposed to be sitting there, feeling guilty for existing and not developing a plan at all.

Women choose men who are skilled and successful. Men must BECOME someone worthy of a woman desiring sex with him. This has created an evolutionary dynamic where men's sense of self worth and accomplishment is very much tied to a woman choosing him sexually.

When a woman wants… https://t.co/u7kG3CdQng

— LIZZY💥 (@LizzyStarrrdust) January 16, 2026

No, not all women are prostitutes. Become worthy of sex? Lady, are you mental? What if he loses his job, becomes sick, becomes disabled? You’ll drop him? In that case, it should go both ways. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, unwell, have a bad hair day, he should feel free to sleep with other women?

What a pathetic, impoverished reality such people inhabit. She must have never felt any actual physical desire or loved anybody.

Our saga regarding the department secretary is unfolding. The Dean decided to do something nice for me and assigned me a secretary he poached from elsewhere. And I’m supposed to be getting her for 5 days a week instead of 3 like the current secretary. I’m sure he’s trying to be nice but, dude, I was looking for a couple of months of freedom to go to the bloody toilet without having to announce where I’m going to anybody.

This move deprives English and PoliSci to benefit me because those departments are led by sweet, quiet women while mine is led by me who makes the most atrocious stink about everything. I didn’t save French )whose director got hired and is getting promoted this year thanks to me) by sighing sadly in the corner.

There is great irony in all of this.

I tried Grok for the first time yesterday and, yes, it’s enormously better than ChatGPT or Copilot. I don’t mean anything ideological. In terms of basic practicality, it’s better.

My only question for AI is: what are the current bestsellers / new releases / upcoming releases in Spain / Mexico / Chile, etc. Not translations but originals, literary fiction only. ChatGPT failed this task most dramatically every time I asked. It kept giving me endless translations of Coleen Hoover and insisted that it’s just not possible to isolate the Spanish-language originals. It invented non-existent books. It was such a hassle that I gave up.

Grok, on the other hand, provided great lists of exactly what I asked and avoided adding mountains of unnecessary explanations. It took me 5 minutes to find a new book by a Colombian writer that I’m already loving. I also asked it a couple of vocabulary questions, and also received great, clear answers with zero ideology. The results are better organized visually. The tone is a lot less obnoxious.

Great job, Elon Musk. This shit actually works.

There are now incels, crunchy moms, yoga pant moms, lookmaxxers, groypers, personal growth entrepreneurs, vision coaches, trans flag activists, MRAs, BLMers, and “decolonize everything” leftists everywhere. It’s extraordinary. You find them in Guatemala, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Chile, Russia. Countries can be at war with each other but they have all these American-style groups, speaking in calques from English. They don’t try to create their own language, rituals, memes, and grievances. No, the point is to follow the American example without departing an inch from the model.

True dominance is being able to impose your culture on everyone without even trying.