Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, May 16, 2026
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13 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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BlueSky.
After much procrastination, I revived an old Vista PC. It dates from 2007, and was sued until 2012 or 2013. You can see a photo of the desktop here.
It’s funny how memory works. Notice the dozens of program and folder icons scattered on the desktop. I was puzzled when I saw this yesterday, then remembered it was because the start menu was sloooooow opening folders and running programs.
And see the Blackberry desktop, ICQ, and Rollercoaster Tycoon? That’s like a software museum 🙂
This is good:
http://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-golden-statue-bible-idolatry
So is this:
http://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-iran-uranium-necessary-public-relations
I have the feeling that both Woke and Anti-Woke are running on fumes. This is good. Both sides seem to be learning the limits of their efforts, or maybe they just wore themselves out. I don’t recall seeing a new neologism from the Left since the patently idiotic, ‘unhoused.’ And at the same time the cleverer of the YouTube anti-woke cranks are reducing their anti-wokedness in favor of broadening their appeal. The attempt to shut down Nolan’s ‘woke’ Odyssey does not appear to be succeeding. Black Helen of Troy may be less of an issue than Matt Damon, Tom Holland and the word, “Daddy.”
My wife was recently approached to act as a spokesperson to counter anti-woke forces in the literary sphere. We discussed and quickly rejected the idea on the obvious grounds that a wealthy writer with a book sitting at #1 on the NYT kidlit list is maybe not the person to whine about mistreatment. She’s getting some flack because the main human character in her latest has two mommies, and there’s been some review bombing, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of heat behind the effort.
Culture should define politics, not the other way around, and I think we’re seeing that politics cannot in the end define culture. Short term damage? Yes. But culture is creation and politics is very much, not. In the end creation is more powerful than destruction as evidenced by the fact that there used to be just a handful of homo sapiens wandering the savannah, and now there are 8 billion of us.
@Michael Reynolds: This morning I read that Roots by Alex Haley just got banned in Tennessee. Out of curiosity, I looked at other titles on the banned in Tennessee list; I was quite amused to find Calvin and Hobbes on the list. The anti woke people still have some gas in their tank.
@Slugger:
And let’s not forget that the Roberts court has just killed the VRA.
Still, let us rejoice! Oberlin students have now stopped shoving “LatinX” down our throats. What a relief from systematic oppression!
Calvin and Hobbes
I’m spending a week in the Faroe Islands. This time I have two friends with me (I normally travel alone). We’re staying in a *tiny* boat house that overlooks a narrow sea channel between islands. The view is absolutely amazing.
I laid down the rule that there will be no talking politics this week. And today, I handed them the keys to the rental car and told them to head out without me–what I needed was an afternoon to half-watch YouTube videos I’ve watched a dozen times before, gaze out at the glass-smooth water, watch the clouds envelope the small “mountains” across the channel, and just forget about life.
Other than a sore ass from sitting in a dining room chair to watch stuff on my laptop (the logistics of outlet positions and cord length conspired against me), this has been the best day I’ve had in… I don’t know how long.
I’d forgotten how much I love being “nowhere”.
Mike Johnson does away with the notion that congressional insider trading is a bad thing.
As if the US public will approve… Wow.
I find amusing the notion that wokeries like LatinX are so trivial no one should object to them, and yet so important we should keep pushing them.
It’s ridiculous to pretend that the enemy is not motivated by something they keep telling us is motivating them. Leftwing cancel culture and speech policing was a political mistake that disarmed our efforts to confront Rightwing cancel culture and speech policing. Grown-ups acknowledge error and try to learn from it.
@Michael Reynolds:
It is pretty trivial, you can object all you like, and whether you want to push it is entirely up to you.
Worst thing that can happen is that very few people with very little real power might disagree with you and be obnoxious about it.
The horror…
Let’s be real: how many people have actually lost their jobs because they didn’t want to do LatinX?
You’re tilting at windmills again.
@drj:
You know, I’m just not sure your theory of, ‘let’s annoy the fuck out of people whose votes we need’ is the best way to do politics. But hey, the results speak for themselves. Look at all the success progs have racked up.
Dude, only losers double down on stupid.
@Michael Reynolds: Woke = anything lazy, washed-up, reactionary men don’t like. Fortunately, the older of this set will be dead sooner rather than later, and the youngest can’t get laid enough to outreproduce Americans who aren’t weak, whiny bitches.
“Somebody used Latin X and unhoused online and it hurt my fwagile wittle Amerikkkan feewings so much I voted to cut my healthcare and bankrupt my farm.”
How’s that workin out? Dumb, masochistic losers.
Nobody who unironically uses “woke” — a word invented by black youth, stolen, and then bastardized by the worst white people imaginable — especially as a pejorative should be taken seriously. And fortunately, we aren’t taking them seriously atm. We have real problems.
It’s absurd to take at face value anything said by childish, racist pathological liars — let alone ones who insisted their Republican votes were motivated by high prices, Epstein, and no new wars, but who now still support a Republican party causing higher prices, worse wars, and pedo coverups.
Did their motivations change or have they just been full of crap the whole time? Ain’t nobody censoring themselves no more to cater to deluded deplorables.
@DK:
Oh bullshit.
When people hate you, and tell you exactly why they hate you, and then kick your ass, only a fool with a political death wish reacts like you. Your defensiveness reduces your analysis to drivel.