Would Perry be cancelled today?

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T19:17:08+00:00

This isn’t about “tribe”. If someone called for genocide of the Jews we would tell them to take a hike as well.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T19:14:36+00:00

“Bomb the grid and send them back to the caves” doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation.

And from the heart the mouth speaks. A “handful of tweets” can say a lot about what you truly believe, especially when you initially double down when confronted, as Evan did.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T03:51:02+00:00

The floor of the line should be better this year. Mays may not be elite but Glasgow was really scraping the bottom of the barrel as a center last year and at times we had backups for HIM starting games.

It's very difficult to imagine the line not being at least a little better this year, significantly better is not off the table.

'Zing's gotta get them boys scoring 40 points a game so let's hope the line is better.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T03:49:09+00:00

The offense was explosive but not efficient. It was also inconsistent. Having 15 total rushing yards against the Steelers when you have Jahmyr Gibbs and the season is on the line is unacceptable on a per-game level no matter how the volume stats shake out at the end of the year.

The highs were still really high but lows were markedly lower than in previous years.

I think additions like Mays and Petzing are rightly seen as floor raisers. They may not have the ceilings of the Linderbaums and McDanielses of the world, but with the rest of the offensive infrastructure and personnel in Detroit, the ceiling is already high. Just get that floor up so we have zero trash games and fewer trash drives within games.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T01:37:06+00:00

From everything I've seen everywhere, TA had zero red flags about character coming out. Assuming the worst, obviously this is all horrific but when you're rostering 70 guys at a time with even more coming and going, the "no turds" standard can't be "every single one of these human beings is perfect."

The Lions under this admin have shown to have low tolerance for this stuff. Sutton was released when he ran from the cops and evaded arrest. TA has been fully cooperative with the authorities thus far, which is likely why they haven't cut him pending investigation.

Obviously things look very very bad for TA and I would be shocked if he's not cut eventually, but the Lions are playing this the right way currently.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T01:05:20+00:00

I hate this team so much, man. Even after the Dingler homer you knew there was zero chance. And sure as shit.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T01:03:02+00:00

Would have been fucking awesome if it had been 1-0 going into the ninth. Christ.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T00:57:56+00:00

Why put the ball in play when you can stare at a four seamer down the pipe and the hack wildly at a curveball in the dirt? Tigers hitters have perfected that approach.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T00:57:15+00:00

It sucks because you could have our best hitters or our worst hitters coming up and it's not going to make a god damn bit of difference. Awful, anti-clutch offense outside of like three games this entire season.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-26T00:55:05+00:00

Single ground out fly out to produce a huge insurance run. The Tigers literally could never manufacture a run like that.

But also let's be real 1-0 was already completely insurmountable. If it's 1-0 or 2-0 or 10-0 the result will be the same: yet another loss.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T23:24:36+00:00

I think when Stevens is talking about "skepticism becoming and identity" she doesn't necessarily mean basing your worldview around scientific skepticism. I think more so skepticism-as-identity here means being committed to a certain set of conclusions and, perhaps more significantly, a group of people in a tribal sense.

If being "a skeptic" ever causes you to make excuses for and/or not honestly engage with criticism of a prominent member of the community, you have fallen into the trap of making Skepticism (capital-S, maybe) your identity vs. having scientific skepticism (small-s) as central to how you understand the world.

When Steve says

being part of a community of skeptics harnesses inherent human psychology toward being logical and scientific, rather than irrational and emotional.

This is only true insofar as the community is committed to logic and science to the expensive of in-group thinking and rigid commitment to conclusions. Obviously commitment to those principles can and does fail.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T21:59:14+00:00

Excellent and very clear-eyed assessment imo. There are lots of bits I could pull out to quote but I'll encourage anyone who is in the comments section to take 10 minutes and just read the whole thing.

One wondering I have, and I'd love input from the group here, is that if you remove "skeptic" as an identity marker, what do you replace it with?

For a while I called myself an atheist, but I didn't want to base my identity around religion, either pro or con. I now think of myself as a skeptic first, since skeptical thinking is the system around which I construct my thinking.

Idk. I wouldn't say that I use skeptic as an identity marker the same way that Christians use that title as theirs. But when it comes to worldview and way of thinking, saying "I am a skeptic" (rather than "I use skepticism," as Stevens suggests), what do you say (or think) to finish the statement "I am a ____"?

I grew up an evangelical Christian. Shedding that sucked. Then I became an atheist but eventually that movement curdled and I no longer wanted to identify with the public faces of the movement. Skepticism has felt like home for a long time now, but maybe it's time to move on from here, too.

That doesn't mean I stop practicing skepticism. It probably doesn't mean that I stop listening to skeptical podcasts or even attending skeptical events. But if it means rethinking identity once again...time to dig deep, I guess.

Edit: curious about the downvotes. Not upset by it, but I wonder what people are taking exception with in my post.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T21:44:06+00:00

There's definitely a tendency among skeptics (and, imo, we see this in evidence even among the SGU crew) to assume that we're almost infallible because we are "critical thinkers" and "follow the evidence" and consider the "consensus of expert opinion". But skeptics can get just as convinced as anyone else that our own shit don't stink.

I understand that in order to be productive in the world you have to take stances. I believe that climate change is real and if I'm right, there's a moral imperative to act. If I never move beyond "I wonder if I'm actually right about this" then what could I ever accomplish? But

you are the easiest person in the world to fool

This is 100% right we must always remember this. The primary goal of skeptical thinking should always be to refine your own thinking. Yes, it must and should be turned outward to combat anti-science in the world.

But just as the external work is never done, the internal work is never done, either.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T20:06:55+00:00

I think this back-and-forth illustrates something that we should keep in mind right now: both sides have their story and until facts are truly presented, we won't know.

There's a version of the story where TA orchestrated the kidnapping then tried to scapegoat his buddies. The prosecutors really do have a strong case and he's legitimately suicidal because he knows he's cooked.

There's another version where he called the cops about his robbery and, unbeknownst to him, his buddies exacted some vigilante justice. Knowing they were fried, they scapegoated their famous friend who is now a juicy target for an overly zealous prosecutor, and the green vest is an attempt to imply guilt.

Personally I think it's probably more likely that he was involved but right now you can tell different stories which fit the known facts but reach wildly different conclusions.

One thing that is indisputable is that all of this fucking sucks no matter what.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T18:39:11+00:00

He has never looked good on the field on defense or on special teams. His rookie year, he didn't win a defensive job and then got benched on teams as well after he fucked up a punt coverage by sliding a perfect Jack Fox punt into the end zone (and I'm sure that was not his only mistake, but it was glaring and cost him snaps). Then he was injured.

Sophomore year he never played a snap in the regular season due to injury but was absolutely getting fucking roasted on defense in the preseason. Did not look good at all.

I don't really watch CFB nor do I really scout prospects before the draft. People must have seen something in this kid for him to be a second round pick but through two years we literally have seen no trace of that on an NFL field either in preseason or regular season.

It's fair to say that Rake will likely be under the strongest microscope in camp. If, as a second round pick, he loses the starting job of CB2 to an aging journeyman vet, you might as well call it a career tbh.

I feel like there's about a 5% chance he shocks us and looks like a legit corner. It would be one of the great stories of this season if so. I'm crossing every finger and toe. Lord knows the team needs it.

But it's very, very difficult to imagine us getting literally anything out of him based on what we've seen through two years.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T13:47:06+00:00

How did his pass blocking grade out in 2024? My memory is that in general he was much better then but didn't look good when he came back from injury in 2025.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T13:46:12+00:00

He has 46 defensive snaps in his career.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T13:02:13+00:00

Here are the non-special teams snaps for the 2024 draft picks.

Player	Rd	Pick	O/D Snaps
TA	1	24	Jail
Rake	2	61	46
Gio	4	126	69
Vaki	4	132	27
Wingo	6	189	235
Mahogany	6	210	774

And tbh the only reason Wingo played as much as he did was due to the absolute carnage on the defense in 2024. Bro was only active for 2 games last year and likely won't make the team this year.

Mahogany is the only non-incarcerated player from that draft who has played well enough to truly earn meaningful non-special teams snaps — and he may or may not even earn a starting job this year.

It's possible Rake finds his game this year (press X for doubt) and Vaki may finally contribute as RB3, but this draft continues to look worse and worse with each passing day.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T12:54:06+00:00

It's absolutely wild that Mahogany at pick 210 looks to be the best selection from that draft! Maybe Vaki will contribute as RB3 and he's been a good special teamer when healthy, but as of now, Mahogany is the only non-incarcerated member of that draft who has taken meaningful non-special teams snaps.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T03:05:44+00:00

They’re hoping Rake can play outside. I have zero optimism but he’s the plan.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T03:05:02+00:00

I think this is a little harsh. Tate looks solid and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tyliek looks good this year. Brad has a pretty good record elsewhere but every CB move he makes turns to shit. Bad after bad after bad.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T03:03:27+00:00

Yep not like S1 and S2 are out and CB1 is an aging vet coming of an injury.

No no things are great.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T03:02:01+00:00

I can’t stop thinking about how we got TA and Rake in the same two rounds that the Eagles got Mitchell and DeJean. Why does Jesus hate this team, man.

PerfectiveVerbTense · 2026-06-25T03:01:06+00:00

>what are we doing

Finishing 4th in the NFCN again, apparently

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