So. How is everybody feeling aside from disappointed and duped?
Anybody got any unexpected takes?
The Brink
Youthful Beverages
For her teenagers, soda and energy drinks occupy a unique role. “It’s a kind of social currency for them,” she says.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Olivia, confirms this dynamic.
“ I feel like when you walk into first period in the morning, everyone has like a Red Bull, an energy drink — it’s a social construct for sure,” says Olivia.https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/16/nx-s1-5432809/trump-snap-food-assistance
This is supposed to be in the Portland, Oregon area. I don’t deny people’s capacity to behave in weird ways but this is not the fashion where I live. Red Bull is what 50-year-old contractors in the construction industry drink. I have not seen it among students since 2011. Very rarely there is a Propel but other than that it’s either Starbucks or a water bottle. Americans all must carry a water bottle. It’s right there with the driver licence. I’ve gotten so Americanized that I also feel weird if I haven’t had anything to drink for over 30 minutes.
New Video
In the meantime, a new video:
People in the comments say I sound like a song.
Stages of Liberalism
Liberalism can’t stop asking for more after achieving reasonable wins. Because the moment it stops, it becomes its own opposite. It becomes conservatism.
Liberalism is a fight for human freedom. Once reasonable freedoms are achieved, it will fight for unreasonable ones. It’s unavoidable. It’s in the name.
In its initial stage, liberalism fought for the liberation of humans from religion.
In the next stage, it pursued the liberation of humans from society.
When these goals were achieved, it started fighting for the liberation of humans from biology.
It’s not a mistake or malfunction that liberalism today demands things that are insane and irrational. It couldn’t have possibly gone in any other direction.
Potemkin Roads
I wish Tucker Carlson was there to report on this excellent new road:
What a stupid country, God.
Evolutionary Attraction
An interesting post about how a lack of physical dexterity in men kills physical attraction in women.
I maintain that a strong enough physical attraction can’t be killed off by a nuclear explosion but the irritants the poster lists (rolling dice off a table repeatedly, walking into a screen door, wearing lip balm, dropping coins out of a wallet) definitely do downgrade a man in terms of attractiveness.
In the opposite direction, a woman is always rendered more attractive by needing help. Men love to help women. If you are searching for a dude to date, simply stand somewhere in a public place with a somewhat despondent, helpless look.
The Weirdest Thing
Partner. A two-year-old child of partners.
The AI addiction is not the weirdest thing about these people.
Book Notes: The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
This is the only other novel Agustina Bazterrica has published so far, and of course I had to read it, too. The Unworthy doesn’t have a very original premise or a shocking ending like Tender Is the Flesh. But it’s so beautifully written. I especially recommend listening to it on Audible narrated by Maru Drozd. She does a phenomenal job with the author’s hypnotic language.
Bazterrica’s books have been translated into English but I can’t comment on the quality of the translation.
The Unworthy is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the only form of civilization that remains is an anti-Christian religious cult. Yes, this setting has been done to death, I know. But check this out. There’s a scene where bad people kill a dog, and I was brought almost to tears by the description. We all know that I’m not a fan of dogs, to put it mildly, so imagine the power of Bazterrica’s talent to get me to feel it.
Bazterrica writes despondent, depressing books. Be forewarned if you are not in the right place for descriptions of misery and depravity. But she’s exceptionally talented. These are excellent books.
If you teach Spanish literature, these books can be great for your classroom. The students who won’t be moved to discuss these books vigorously will need to have their vitals checked because they probably expired.
Denial of Reality
Speaking of denying reality, here’s a real fact that goes against the “it’s because of the NATO expansion” narrative:
Let the pouting begin.
Gone Too Far
“There are a lot of conversations happening right now,” said Dana Beyer, a physician and longtime trans activist in Maryland. “People know the movement is stuck. They know we’ve gone too far. They know we’ve lost the thread.”
I like this useful self-awareness. This is a step in the right direction.
The L.G.B.T.Q. movement drove itself toward a cliff — and took the Democratic Party with it, chaining the Biden administration to one of the most divisive issues in American politics.
Yes. But there’s a reason why this happened and, of course, the article was published in the NYTimes, so it would be futile to expect it to go beyond superficialities. The real problem is that the entire Democrat agenda is at odds with reality. Liberals don’t have a working theory of the mind. They can’t make their ideas coexist with the laws of nature. Their understanding of how individuals and groups function is grounded in almost childish myth-making. People who control academia should be able to produce ideas with ease. Yet they are signally incapable of coming up with anything beyond the hubristic tantrums of the modern Left.
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