Senior Director of Liberal Projects at @theihs.org, where I lead @Liberalism.org and host The Liberalism.org Show. Views my own. ☸️ Co-host of the Inner Life of Liberalism with @uncanonical.net www.aaronrosspowell.com
The internet once encouraged us to build entire identities around our weirdest, deepest fascinations. Then metrics and distribution flattened those obsessions into fungible content.
Marginalia on the internet turning bad, platform extraction, and existential restlessness.
A roundup for the week of September 30
Communities are different online and off, and pluralism that thrives in the real world can turn toxic in the digital world.
On the fantasy of masculinity without accountability.
And no one's excited to buy insurance.
On Bluesky, user numbers, and the silliness of endless growth.
We should get rid of the former, if we can, but we should absolutely keep the latter.
But it definitely can be better.
How the cost of housing undermines creative dynamism
Liberal virtues and right-wing vices.
Skill is a combination of good intent and sufficient knowledge to act well.
Anti-growth rhetoric sounds appealing, but it privileges the present over the future.
On MAGA canon and cosplay.
The first episode of The Inner Life of Liberalism podcast.
Subscribe now in your favorite podcast app.
Let a thousand mutually suspicious communities bloom.
Speaking with intent to harm trains the speaker in habits of hatred. The cost of online cruelty isn't only to the target.
An early Buddhist text gives us four questions to ask before posting—and most of what we post fails the test.
Two short Buddhist essays from Thanissaro Bhikkhu on karma as feedback loop, identity as inheritance, and intention as a skill you can practice.