Imposing Modern Progressive Morality On The Odyssey... and On Christopher Nolan
Nolan's film portrays Odysseus as a figure of conventional contemporary morals in much the same way cinephiles erase the conservatism from Nolan's work
Culture
Freddie deBoer.
Media criticism, politics, and social commentary.
Recent essays
30 of 48I Wouldn't Say Pangram is Broken, But I Would Say That It's Brittle
it seems way too easy to provoke Pangram into contradicting its own results
Yes, David Ellison's Merger is Bad, But a Netflix Takeover of Warner Bros Isn't Much Better
The future of Warner Bros is again up in the air.
The Bear Fell a Little Too Deeply In Love with Itself
The lasting image of the now-completed FX series The Bear, for me, will always be the fourth season spectacle of the entire cast sitting under the world’s largest banquet table.
Subscriber Writing, July 2026
Hello folks!
Let's Avoid the Language-Policing Fingertrap In the Future, OK?
the more you forbid transgression, the more they want to transgress
Do the YIMBYs Want to Do Politics or Not?
with his YIMBY cap on, Matt Yglesias acts just like the DSA types he abhors
Call for Subscriber Writing, July 2026
It’s that time again!
Fat Acceptance : Ozempic :: Heteropessimism : The Right Guy
we're only human
Recovered Memories Aren't Real
non-falsifiability and life-altering accusations are a bad match
Toy Story 2 is the Best Toy Story Because It's Actually For Children
and Toy Story 3 was critically acclaimed because it was made for critics
Google Made a Sad Boomer Mark Out of Me and There's Nothing I Can Do About It
I hate writing this so much
Like All Good Things, Sports Are Owned by the Rich Now
the Knicks have brought joy to a city that's being eaten by the worst people alive
The Watch's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald in... True Detective Season One
a loving teleplay parody
There's No Such Thing as "The Trades"
broadening the potential professional pathways for young workers = great, conflating a bunch of disparate jobs with very different conditions = not great
Of Course This is a Coordinated Ratfucking of Graham Platner
let's be adults here, please
You Can and Should Blame Young People When They Act Like Lazy Cheaters, Actually
fear of "old man yells at cloud" has become a culture-devouring virus
LLMs Were Mostly (But Not Entirely) Useless at Extra-Textual Tasks Involved in the Composition of My Next Novel
"Claude, get me a contract with a healthy advance but not one so large that the book will surely fail to earn out, causing deep emotional pain and professional doom"
Why Pose Thought Experiments About Fake Versions of History?
it's true: if you misrepresent people's behavior, it's easier to defend that behavior
Raj Chetty's Just-So Stories
don't ever say I don't take reader requests
LLMs and the Library Card Fallacy
the LLM tutor story is the Khan Academy story is the MOOCs story
One More Time: The Average American K-12 Student is Doing Fine Relative to the International Baseline
and problems relative to the historical baseline are happening around the world
You Can't Defend a Policy By Getting Angry at the Suggestion That It's Benefitted People
progressive diversity programs are caught in a hellish hall of mirrors
Subscriber Writing, May 2026
Hello folks!
The Vicious, Potentially Fatal Anti-Public School Propaganda Cycle
The New York Times discusses the enrollment crisis that’s hitting American public schools.
It's Time For Some People to Let Me Go
set it free, guys, set it free
Call for Subscriber Writing, May 2026
NEW SUBMISSION FORM AND NEW LINK, PLEASE READ
The Machine God's Existence Would Insist Upon Itself, Wouldn't It?
if AI forever changes human life, you won't have to persuade anyone it's happened
Inherent Vice is PT Anderson's Best Film
as with Raising Arizona for the Coen Brothers, Anderson's funniest, most humane film is also his greatest achievement
It's "Mental Illness Doesn't Do That" Season Once Again
wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen