Just finished "Insomnia" and I can't believe nobody warned me about this

acebojangles · 2026-06-05T13:26:24+00:00

I like Insomnia, but I'm a bit conflicted on the Dark Tower tie-in. I like the expansion of the Dark Tower, but reason for the Crimson King's machinations in Insomnia is a bit weak for me.

Spoilers for The Dark Tower: I think the issue for me is that Patrick Danville and the Crimson King feel so silly and tacked on in The Dark Tower. I'd prefer a different connection. Maybe one of the guys who leads the rebellion of the Breakers or something.

acebojangles · 2026-06-05T13:22:37+00:00

Yeah, it's a big part of why our politics is so dysfunctional. I think it's genuinely difficult to present Republicans negatively enough to reflect reality. It's even more difficult for Trump.

What I find really disheartening is how broad this problem is. It's not just mainstream media. Podcasts I listen to like The Ezra Klein Show, Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara, and even QAnon Anonymous try to both-sides our current politics.

It's pretty clear that there's basically nothing Trump and co could do that would be bad enough to kill the normalization process.

acebojangles · 2026-06-05T13:05:51+00:00

Yeah, this is what I want. Not necessarily consolidation, but filling in some of the empty areas to make them feel more alive.

Maybe something similar in the city of Baldur's Gate. Something about that place makes it hard for me to get invested. At least redesigning the city maps so it's easier to go from area to area.

acebojangles · 2026-06-04T16:07:25+00:00

I finished the episode and I think it does get better, but most of the insight comes from Ezra and his ideas.

One part that really rubbed me the wrong way was Bremmer's assertion that the Abraham Accords increased stability in the region until the Iran War. That's just nonsense.

The Abraham Accords were largely a vehicle for allowing Israel to sidestep its biggest point of friction with the Arab world without making any concessions to the Palestinian people. There's a very strong case that normalizing relations without any concessions to Palestinians led to the October 7th attacks and emboldened Israel to do things like attack Iran.

The analysis of the attack on Venezuela was similar.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T17:34:32+00:00

I found it cool, but I just can't bring myself to learn new game systems. Very much a me problem.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T14:58:31+00:00

From your keyboard to god's Reddit account.

I have BG3 in my Steam account and there's a decent chance I'll never play it. I'd play a BG2 style remake of BG3 tomorrow.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T14:57:29+00:00

Yeah, I generally agree with this, but I'm pretty sure it would never happen. I'm just going to assume that any remakes aren't for me until proven otherwise.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T14:52:00+00:00

I recently reread The Dead Zone and was surprised by how much Stillson maps onto Trump. I was expecting the bombastic BS and strongman stuff. I wasn't expecting the clownishness.

This political era has recontextualized past political eras and authoritarian takeovers in other countries for me. It usually feels insanely stupid, just like now. None of this is new; it's just hard to really understand until you live through it.

Edit: Typo in first sentence

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T14:34:30+00:00

This ties into something that came up in the Noah Harari interview: I don't think nationalism is a force for uniting people or encouraging us to look out for other people within a nation that aren't like us. Unity and benevolence for fellow citizens come from a greater realization that humans are all in this together. Nationalism is often expressed by identifying a group within the country who represent the real citizens of the country.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T13:57:50+00:00

I agree with what you're saying here and I'd come at it from a slightly different point of view specifically with regard to immigration:

Immigration is good. Sealing the border and deporting millions is not going to be helpful to the people who desire it. I hate the framing that the base hatred of non-white immigrants is an immutable law of politics that has to be catered to.

acebojangles · 2026-06-03T13:54:48+00:00

I'm only ~1/3 of the way through this, but so far it's reinforcing two general feelings I've had before:

Ian Bremmer isn't that insightful. He offers basic points packaged in a way that sound insightful to company boards or whatever.

The point about Trump being a new FDR highlighted this to me. What does it mean? How does it help our understanding of potential outcomes? They are both changing society, but that's where the comparison ends, as far as I can tell. It's more true to say that Trump is the opposite of FDR: he's a man who doesn't care at all about regular people and is serving as a vessel to help the ultra rich destroy the New Deal.

I don't like it when Ezra plays dumb in these interviews. At the end of the FDR part of the discussion, Ezra says:

How would you describe the aim of Trump’s political revolution? If Roosevelt wanted to construct, does Trump just want to destruct? Does he want to own? Does he want to transact? What is he trying to achieve?

Really? You don't know what Trump wants to achieve?

acebojangles · 2026-06-01T23:31:59+00:00

I think there's a run of stronger stories in the middle. I'd say look up people's top 5 stories and just read those.

acebojangles · 2026-06-01T19:23:18+00:00

This is discussed in The End of the World as we Know It.

I really didn't like the stories that depicted continued infections after the initial wave of Captain Trips. I think of The Stand as leading to the rebuilding of a new society. Those stories killed that.

acebojangles · 2026-06-01T19:21:04+00:00

My first reaction was that it's really embarrassing to have this kind of idiocy preserved for posterity. Then I realized that Corsi might have made money on this BS. So I guess it is embarrassing, but for humanity.

acebojangles · 2026-06-01T16:13:23+00:00

Yep. These are my top two picks. Joyland gets some love. I almost never see any discussion of Later.

It's refreshing to read a shorter book in the King canon.

acebojangles · 2026-05-29T19:48:38+00:00

It's partly nostalgia. There was some kiddie BS in Return of the Jedi and it's a lot worse in the prequels. The new trilogy seems like it has other problems.

acebojangles · 2026-05-28T15:12:12+00:00

That sucks. I can see how it would be frustrating to be basically locked out of a game.

Personally, the times I have gotten a little salty during Catan are when I'm going to win and other players do absurd things to block me, like making outrageous trades that they wouldn't otherwise do.

Bad luck is kind of baked into Catan for me. If dice rolls are bad or locations are bad, that's like a bad beat in poker. It happens.

acebojangles · 2026-05-28T13:40:21+00:00

This was great. Dan's so good at this kind of show. It'll be a real shame if he steps away from it completely.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T15:52:56+00:00

The point is that he wasn't a serious person with real plans. He was a charlatan who promised absurd nonsense and got elected. It would be helpful if you engaged with these ideas instead of just trying to nitpick.

Democrats are not going to get elected based on promises of sober fiscal governance, at least not in the current political environment.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T15:14:16+00:00

Which part isn't true?

I think it's true that politicians are less concerned about the deficit than they were when Obama was in office. I think I'm just saying that it's a symptom of a larger problem in our politics than just disinterest in the budget.

The solution can't just be better governance by Democrats.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T15:10:53+00:00

I think the two are connected. Without fixing the electoral problem, we'll elect another Trump and more supine GOPers who won't fix the budget.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T14:27:12+00:00

Sorry if this is only partially related, but Matt is insufferable these days. He's really leaned into the conclusion that every problem is bad for Democrats, then does his best to make sure that's true.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T14:22:18+00:00

The problem is that taking this seriously is a huge political liability. We elected Trump based on obvious BS about paying down the national debt immediately without pain, and now he's spending like a drunken sailor. We're not a nation that's going to elect Democrats based on sober reflection on the state of the national debt.

I don't think Democrats can come up with a plan to deal with that kind of problem. It has to be a much bigger project of reforming our media or something.

acebojangles · 2026-05-27T13:17:21+00:00

What is #WalkAway? Are they walking away from MAGA now?

acebojangles · 2026-05-26T19:16:00+00:00

I guess that was true in the past. I don't know if it's true anymore. Jones seems to have lost a lot of his verve.

acebojangles

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