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Nosideism

A collection of 72 issues

On the Shoulders of Ogres

I. The Article, the Share, the Machine The article didn’t arrive dramatically. It appeared the way most things do now: as a link in a feed, shared by a sociology professor I follow on Bluesky. A long-form piece from The Atlantic about Ammon Bundy—once a symbol of armed

The Death Star Will Not Be Exploded

With apologies and respect to Gil Scott-Heron The Death Star will not be exploded. The Death Star will not be brought to you by Fox News in between segments on ICE surges and Taylor Swift's wedding. The Death Star will not be exploded. The Death Star will not

An Ode to a Prius Driver

On illegibility, bumper stickers, and the refusal to be sorted I was behind the Prius for three miles on Northeast Sandy, long enough to inventory the contradictions. "Don't Tread on Anyone." "Oregun Infidel." "Truth Is the New Hate Speech." These sit alongside

The Great American Fondue Pot

On experiential coating, operational machinery, and the motion that keeps us from burning or freezing solid I. The Dipping You get dipped whether you consent or not. This is the first thing to understand about being American, or being in America, or being adjacent to America in ways that pull

Look What Got Flattened in the Mail

On Numbers, Portability, and What Survives the Slot My wife subscribes to the Tate museum's membership magazine. It arrives from London in a protective envelope—or it's supposed to. The last issue emerged from its transatlantic voyage looking like it had been fed through a shredder.

When the Holy Fools Leave the Stage

Young bones groan And the rocks below say “Throw your skinny body down, son” — The Smiths "Shakespeare's Sister" I. Opening: The Question Nobody Builds For Many cultural and political systems depend on people who could leave, but don't. People with jobs that offer paid

When the Gearbox Slips

Except When It Briefly Re-Engaged A recent Guardian article on the efficacy of public protest makes valid points. Protest has mattered. It has bent U.S. history. It has moved elections, forced legislation, built movements, and sustained people through long arcs of struggle. From abolition to suffrage, from civil rights

The Soggy Kindling

Or: The Claims That Cannot Survive as Slogans What does it mean when you can sense that something will end badly before you know how? Earlier in the week, a headline drifted past: a large federal immigration enforcement surge, thousands of agents, a city with a long memory of police

The Politics of Friction: You Wanna Be the Brake Pad?

On Systems, Sacrifice, and the Distribution of Cost Introduction: The Seduction of Simple Numbers A piece of equipment from manufacturer A has a failure rate of 1 in 100,000 cycles. Manufacturer B's equivalent fails at 1 in 50,000 cycles. If your use case requires 20,000

A "Scandal" in Minnesota

When a Systems Failure Fuels a Tribal Morality Play What This Essay Is About The Minnesota childcare "scandal" is not primarily a story about immigration, welfare fraud, or partisan failure. It is a systems failure story about how American institutions handle emergency money, allocate friction, and preserve legitimacy