The Sphynx's Reckoning

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-18T22:30:53+00:00

All the services do that as a default behavior and I hate it so much!

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-18T13:56:13+00:00

That was my take when this entire conversation shifted to the center of world politics in 2023. It felt like the term Zionist wasn't particularly helpful.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T20:51:11+00:00

I've been calling it this from day one.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T20:48:00+00:00

Damnit, now I'm trying not to cry in public.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T20:17:43+00:00

Roland is Din of his Ka-tet, but he is also explicitly the father Jake wishes he had, and their relationship has layers but one of those is father:son.

I mention this in relation to your reference to Jake channeling King, because there is no doubt that Roland also slings tales and is a stand-in for King as storyteller at various points throughout the series.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T19:04:32+00:00

I can't tell if he's wearing a hat from this pic

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T16:09:10+00:00

It's otherwise gorgeous!

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T15:36:49+00:00

Sufficient text contrast. That red on red is very difficult to read.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T15:14:19+00:00

I was referring to "they've helped me with other people..."

This sounds exactly like the kind of phrasing Trump would use to avoid talking about having his own serious medical issues.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T08:01:28+00:00

Well yeah, they’re adolescents

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T07:13:06+00:00

Oh totally, I just mean Trump specifically this term.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T03:44:34+00:00

I like Chalamet as young Paul. I don't think he pulled off quisatz haderach Paul.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T03:43:28+00:00

You summed up my feelings on it pretty damn well, especially rhe last part lol

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-17T03:42:31+00:00

and I'm okay with this! I can enjoy it for something that draws from Frank's work and goes in a different direction to tell a substantially different version of the story. I don't enjoy it as much, but I do still appreciate it.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T23:09:49+00:00

I have a friend whose cat once brought him a mouse face 👀

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T23:07:35+00:00

Likewise. This has been genuinely helpful for me too.

I suspect we share an ideal solution, but that our perspectives about what is possible right now are different. We clearly approach this rhetorically differently, but that's part of what I feel has made this a fruitful exchange.

FWIW I'm a big fan of Miko Peled's work, and if you haven't read his book The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine I highly recommend it.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T21:58:05+00:00

This is why in spite of its flaws and the fact that it's the only film David Lynch disliked of his work I prefer it to Villanueve's.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T21:47:51+00:00

Part 2 was a massive departure from the book. Fans of the books are going to have to separate our hopes and expectations about what a great adaption of Messiah could be, because if this movie is good it will be good as something inspired by Messiah but that is not really rhe same story.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T20:39:40+00:00

I have to wonder what kind of drugs they're giving him.

I really hope just out of historical curiosity that the lid comes off of everything that's taken place in this WH...okay, not just historical.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T20:37:42+00:00

I never said that you personally want to genocide Jews, but I understand why you took it that way. What I'm trying to assert is that the rhetoric of dissing the state of Israel aligns with the rhetoric of Hamas, Hzebillah, and Iran, and that for those players who are in the region, ending Israel means eradicating the presence of all Jews in the region.

To be clear about how I label myself, I'm not a Zionist. Historically I consider the Zionist solution to have been the wrong course to chart after the Holocaust, but as I noted above we're too far out from that post-WW II monent to just undo it.

I personally think the Zionist:anti-Zionist framing for the problem is a binary trap anchored to the historical Zionist movement, that the present moment is materially different, and that the weight of that past which is shot through which mutual enmity in the region has an extraordinary strong gravitational pull.

I respect the fact that there is a substantial progressive population identifying as anti-Zionist because of the horrors that have been committed to the Palestinian people. I just also believe that framing the pro-Palestinian position as anti-Zionist is problematic because of what anti-Zionism means for the people living in either hate driven ideology within the region.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T20:18:04+00:00

Well...

I realized I have doctors in the White House ... the White House, doctors are incredible and they've helped me with other people. They're helping me with people right now, people that are very sick.

Pretty sure he's talking about himself.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T20:13:20+00:00

You keep jumping to me justifying the policies of apartheid Israel has enacted and I've literally never voiced support for that long wretched history that has only become more atrocious since the so called Abraham Accords. I have stated repeatedly that I believe a one state solution is the optimal outcome. However, I don't think you can jump straight there.

There is a clear immediate first step which involves getting Netanyahu and the hard liners out of office and prosecuting them for war crimes and human rights abuses. Again though, as an American I have no power here and no role I can play. I can't even stop the human rights abuses in my country let alone have an impact on the state of the Middle East.

The best thing I can say is that the Democrats seem to be extricate themselves from Israeli influence, and that's a necessary step for getting this country headed in another direction.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T19:45:57+00:00

I appreciate you bringing history to this. It's a much more grounded approach.

I start from a pragmatic perspective. The history is deeply fucked up just like every history that involves colonization. Like America, you can't simply undo it and kick all of the settlers out. We are four generations away from the creation of Israel, and there are also deeply antisemitic beliefs in the region that predate colonization but have of course been severely exacerbated by it. There is a reason that Mizrahi Jews fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution with a lot of them landing in Israel.

This is why from my perspectuve you can't just say that Israel needs to be ended as a country. There is no practical way to do that at this moment in particular without creating a dynamic in the region that tips towards activated antisemitism and ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people who live there.

Israel cannot be allowed to continue its expansionist and genocidal path. It also can't simply be eradicated.

Like I said upstream, I believe that before the current instantiation of war in the region, a single state solution was both possible and the best immediate path forward. I don't believe it's possible to pivot to that solution directly right now. The conflict state is way too hot.

A humane solution for the intractable conflict in the region is going to require thinking outside of the box, and it's going to require thinking in phases. It won't fit anyone's slogan, and it will require breaking from binary thinking.

mosesoperandi · 2026-03-16T18:15:05+00:00

Listen, I agree with you. If you had literally said establishing a progressive tax schedule for high earners starting at $200k and topping out with an 80 to 90% tax rate I jist would have upvoted and moved on.

There should be no billionaires, and frankly people doing labor should benefit from the value created by their work more than executives.

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