Of course, after reading Tony Tulathimutte’s new novel Rejection, I had to read his first book Private Citizens. I’m only 1/3 in but I can already say that it’s eminently worth reading. It’s not as narratively adventurous because it was his first novel, and writers grow. But that makes it easier to read.

Private Citizens points to the huge gaping hole in the middle of the neoliberal worldview. It’s the conflict between the productivity-maximizing entrepreneurial self and the indulgent, ego-flattering desiring self. The persona that gets up at 5 am to do gratitude journaling and prepare for a productive day is not the same one that is dedicated to humoring one’s every identitarian whim. How can you be hard enough to impose yourself on life while simultaneously so soft as to constantly flow and mutate?

The characters of Private Citizens are trying to bridge this gap and mostly failing. Tulathimutte is great at diagnosing the problem but he’ll never provide a solution. He’s trapped by his political beliefs and will circle around the issue endlessly without noticing the obvious solution. He’s still a great writer, though. These are excellent novels that I’m enjoying greatly.

Guess what I’m supposed to be doing on October 16th?

Yes, traveling to Spain.

Fuck these stupid bastards and their stupid solidarity with stupid Gaza.

🇩🇪 Germany has proposed raising the retirement age to 73 to prevent the collapse of the pension system

A new scientific advisory board under the German Ministry of Economy stated that there is almost no time left for reforms. According to experts, Germany’s economy has been… pic.twitter.com/8XLIKc8SG5

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 6, 2025

Wait, wasn’t the importation of millions of Muslims supposed to solve precisely this problem? What happened?

A new page with the most extensive documentation the October 7th Massacre has been created ahead of the 2nd anniversary of the attack.

Operation orders, maps & documents from Hamas show that years of planning went into their murderous campaignhttps://t.co/395ddbMSse

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 6, 2025

OK, but years of planning leaves us with two possible scenarios. One is that the famed Mossad is the most incompetent organization in human history. Another is that Mossad is not incompetent and the massacre was allowed to proceed for political reasons. There is no third scenario. The level of incompetence needed to miss a large-scale operation that was years in the making is truly stunning. It’s possible that such incompetence exists. But two years later, it’s time to start looking into it and at the very least removing everybody who failed at their job to such an extraordinary degree.

I took a couple of minutes to listen to Bad Bunny to see what the fuss is about. Its funny because his is exactly the kind of music we listened to in our youth in 2001. There was this dance club in Montreal called Salsathèque, and it was very popular, with exactly the stuff that Bad Bunny does. It’s nice, harmless. Definitely better than Taylor Swift because at least there’s rhythm and melody here.

It’s funny that the aesthetic hasn’t changed at all in a quarter century. Pop music is stuck in a long rut. Other than that, I have no idea what there is to discuss here. Students are writing research project on Bad Bunny when he’s one in a trillion completely identical artists in a genre that by definition can’t come up with anything new.

The Trump invasion must have caused it.

Or indigenous mass graves.

It must have been one of these things that are the biggest problems faced by Canada.

Preschoolers with LGBTQ parents or who identify as LGBTQ can’t be shut out of religious preschools that are part of Colorado’s state-funded preschool program, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kunc.org/news/2025-10-04/appeals-court-rules-for-colorado-and-lgbtq-rights-and-against-catholic-parishes-in-state-preschool-case%3f_amp=true

Only a total pedo could say the phrase “preschoolers who identify as LGBTQ.”

Terrible, disgusting people.

I will need a vacation to recover from this weekend with its endless to-do list and scheduled events occurring in rapid succession. I have no idea what happened but this whole semester is unusually intense with four trips still to happen and a mountain of work and social obligations.

Next Fall, on the other hand, is my sabbatical, and I’m looking forward to not seeing anybody and not answering any emails for months.

I’ve done barely any reading this weekend, which just goes to show how insane it’s been. But the church picnic went extremely well. My shrimp salad was a big hit, and our family won at bingo 4 times.

How is everybody doing? Any important news? Exciting developments?

In a groundbreaking development for family law in Quebec, a throuple—comprising three men in a polyamorous relationship—has been granted legal adoption of a three-year-old girl from the province’s child protection services. This marks the first instance in Quebec where an all-male polyamorous trio has been recognised as legal parents of a child.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/in-a-first-three-men-in-a-relationship-adopt-3-year-old-girl-in-quebec-13585479.html/amp

This is very much in tune with what we’ve been discussing here yesterday. If no hard limit is placed on the self-indulgence of adults at the expense of children, this kind of thing begins to mushroom and take ever-uglier proportions.

A human mind recoils in horror when encountering this.

Amy Bradley Is Missing is a documentary about two young people in their twenties who went on a cruise with their parents. One of the adult children, Amy, disappeared during the cruise. She was smoking on the balcony at 5 am after drinking heavily all night. Nobody saw her after that.

In all likelihood, Amy fell into the water and drowned. She was extremely drunk, and the ocean is cruel. But the parents attached to the idea that she was somehow still alive and spent the next 25 years looking for her.

Everybody grieves in their own way, and this would have been fine if the Bradleys didn’t have another child, a son. Their toxic grief cannibalized his life. He’s now nearing fifty, never had children, never had much of a life, and attributes it to his parents’ all-consuming grief that ate up his life.

They turned grief into a hobby, trailing from one TV show to another. I wanted to feel compassion but it was hard because the miserable son whose life had been turned into a footnote to the Amy drama was always lurking in the background.