Josh Zancan

Josh Zancan

@joshzancan.com

joshzancan.com - where I occasionally write essays and release music

62 followers31 following505 posts

The Kirby Star Crossed Land DLC feels like when your favorite band puts out a deluxe edition of your favorite album but the bonus tracks are just half-mixed demo versions where the guitar sounds like it was recorded in the shower and you can hardly even hear the lyrics.

“Clearly they can’t” in an episode where they go to a Dora the Explorer live show and indiscriminately arrest everyone.

Acyn@acyn.bsky.social

Noem on South Park: It’s so lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look. It’s only the liberals and the extremists who do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t.

Josh Zancan reposted

If you're not getting laid, it's not the left's problem or the right's problem. It's no one else's problem. It's something you're gonna need to work on yourself. Conflating your sex/romance struggles with the conditions of our democracy is very weird.

Every once in a while BlueSky will decide that I’m really into a certain topic and then just flood me with that one particular thing even though I have no association with it. For a while it was 75% wrestling posts, now it’s something I don’t even wanna type for fear of it enabling the system.

The Epstein files is the single issue - literally the only thing - that both parties of voters, regardless of where they are on the political spectrum, agree on both what needs to be done, and how to achieve that goal. And it’s really as simple as “tell us.” Let us know what you know.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Nancy Pelosi characterizes the Epstein scandal and seeming coverup as "a distraction" from kitchen table issues

Josh Zancan reposted

Very striking how every right-wing conspiracy freakout was just a prophecy of what they planned on eventually doing - whether it was Jade Helm or FEMA camps, the moment they had the opportunity to make these imaginary monstrosities they came up with come to life, they did

I was sort of dreading Wizard and Glass because I knew it was essentially one big flashback, but damn it was good (albeit, like the entire Dark Tower series) in need of some good editing, although not nearly as much as since if the other ones.

Trevors (1990) starring Kevin Bacon@slimyswampghost.bsky.social

I've finally arrived at Wizard And Glass, the 4th book in the Dark Tower series. I didn't care for this when i last read it, at 16, as i wanted more weird fantasy-horror shit like giant bears and malevolent trains, not a character-driven western romance, but now that's EXACTLY what i want.

I’ve finished my rewatch of Chibnall’s first season of Doctor Who, which I’ve always been down on. I think for me it’s a season of cool, interesting stories and excellent production, marred by terrible scripts. There’s some really great stuff in here that’s unfortunately just dead on arrival.

The stuff that reaches the audience’s attention first I think often made them unwilling to look closer, like a good song with a screeching guitar that makes people turn away before they appreciate the vision behind it. Even if you do get there, it doesn’t take the guitar out of the track.

Trump: there’s a ceasefire! Iran: news to us. Iran and Israel: pewpewpew Trump: what the fuck are they doing didn’t you hear me tell people I told you guys to stop. Vance: we used to have dumb presidents and now we have a smart guy.

I thought the quote here was a joke.

Ken Klippenstein@kenklippenstein.bsky.social

Vice President JD Vance: "I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East. I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents"

Rewatching Doctor Who and I’ve gotten to the Chibnall era. I usually rate it a point higher than most (which is still very low), but I think the thing that stands out to me the most now is how much dialogue there is explaining what’s happening on screen. The show has always had exposition, but 1/

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What gets me are the moments where the Doctor will be doing something, and a companion will ask what she’s doing, and she stops everything to give this thorough explanation, *even when in a rush.* The show constantly interrupts itself. Maddening.

Rewatching Doctor Who and I’ve gotten to the Chibnall era. I usually rate it a point higher than most (which is still very low), but I think the thing that stands out to me the most now is how much dialogue there is explaining what’s happening on screen. The show has always had exposition, but 1/

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It’s just stating intent before doing. And this is *everywhere.* Little alien eats the sonic screwdriver? “He ate my sonic!” Sonic screwdriver very clearly short circuits? “They short circuited my sonic!” Also, every character gets a say. Conversations often aren’t fluid, people just take turns 3/

Talking, like they’re sitting around a boardroom table. And on top of that, the dialogue is rarely brief. Cut out all this nonsense, you could fix so much of the pacing. It wouldn’t fix nearly all my problems with it, but it would at least make for a more enjoyable experience.

Rewatching Doctor Who and I’ve gotten to the Chibnall era. I usually rate it a point higher than most (which is still very low), but I think the thing that stands out to me the most now is how much dialogue there is explaining what’s happening on screen. The show has always had exposition, but 1/

This isn’t that. *Everything* gets dialogue only there for context, to the point where characters are practically saying stage directions out loud. “I’m taking that.” *takes object*. But it’s totally separate from the action. Not like “I’ll take THAT” while snatching something away. 2/

Josh Zancan reposted

Replying to @joshzancan.com

They need to make up their minds. You cannot simultaneously hold the belief that the left is guilty of perpetual wokescolding while also completely incapable of self-policing. The reality of the situation is that the Right would literally embrace Satan so long as he had an R by his name

Josh Zancan reposted

Replying to @joshzancan.com

Is the Left's problem "purity tests" or is it a lack of inward facing criticism? Are they allowed to kick people out for dangerous rhetoric or is that not "Big Tent" enough? Depends on the day and the argument.

The article quote says it’s good “if” we can police people on our own political side, but have they ever spent time with people on the left, even in online spaces?? Self-policing and inner-arguing happens so frequently lots of people want to do it *less* because it’s become a distraction.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social

I truly believe we will look back at this attitude as *the* sickness of our political era. It is an extremely basic fact, and has been for decades, that the vast majority of political violence in the US is committed by the right! You cannot solve a problem if you refuse to identify it.

Josh Zancan reposted

It's pretty irritating how many pundits would hear the ideas "I want to shove 100 live scorpions in your mouth" and "I want to shove 0 live scorpions in your mouth" and sagely declare: "The wisest course of action is to let someone shove 50 live scorpions in your mouth."

1) Agreed. 2) Sometimes a random post on social media will hit with this like Hunter S. Thompson level of effective writing and it really catches me off guard.

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Here’s a joke: A conservative guy walks up to a liberal guy and punches him in the face, breaking his nose. Liberal guy says “hey man, fuck you!” The media guy says “Whoa, sir. There’s no need for that kind of language.” 1/2

Then the police show up and the media guy says “I saw the whole thing. Liberal guy told the conservative guy to go fuck himself, so he kind of had it coming.” 2/2

Liberals once again being blamed for the actions of a Republican administration, even when the liberals’ behavior came second in the order of events.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social

They know exactly what they're doing

The federal government there to liberate a city from the state government. Truly insane stuff, and of course from the “states rights” party. Obscene.

Mother Jones@motherjones.com

WATCH: Sen. Padilla pushed to the ground, handcuffed for demanding DHS not lie

Trump: “Water is dry.” WaPo: “Trump Makes Unlikely Claim About Water”

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ousting all members of a key CDC vaccination advisory committee and replacing them with his own picks. The move appears to contradict a pledge he made during his confirmation process.

I’m watching Doctor Who again for the billionth time. I’m on season 8, and there’s something I was never quite clear on. Was Danny Pink in the military or something? Was he a soldier? They sort of imply that he is but they never make it explicitly clear. I hate when shows are super subtle like this.

I accidentally clicked on a profile belonging to a fighter in that one scripted sport that everyone keeps going on about and oh my god are those posts ever going to end why does Bluesky keep insisting on showing them to me do they have a fucking endorsement deal or something fuck its every 3rd post.

Listen I’m all for digging into the greater meanings of otherwise broad concepts, but I’ll never forgive Jordan Peterson for popularizing the trend of pretending you don’t understand something in order to appear smarter.

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This is right up there with “you know calling out racism is racist is actually the racist thing.” Except worse because this would be like saying calling out racism *causes* racism.

jamelle@jamellebouie.net

one of the strangest phenomenons in political commentary over the last decade is people treating trump purely as an epiphenomenon of liberal discourse norms they don't like foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/09/p...

What’s with all the think pieces and Dems coming out all at once saying Biden is responsible for Trump’s win? We’re six months past the election, how about they focus on what’s happening now?

Sometimes I’ll only know an actor from one or two things and think “man they’re really great, why don’t they get more work and recognition,” and then I’ll go to their IMDb page and they’ve been nominated for multiple Oscars. I’ll also hear about an actor leaving a tv show because of a 1/2

Jesus, how does this keep getting even bleaker?

The Daily Beast@thedailybeast.bsky.social

Kristi Noem has been working with the producer of “Duck Dynasty” to pitch a reality TV show—titled “The American”—where immigrants will compete in a string of challenges across the country “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship,” according to a new report.

Republicans were the ones talking about these things! Liberals on Twitter talk about this stuff a lot, but Democratic politicians mostly stick to the economy and “Trump bad.”

jae holzman@jael.bsky.social

Haven’t seen this reported yet: in a speech to supporters posted to TikTok last week, NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo said he believes that Democrats lost in 2024 because “we’re talking about bathrooms and who’s gonna play in what [sports] team”

Tantrum might be strong but semantics aside, seriously wtf is going on here?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

RFK Jr starts having a tantrum as Chris Murphy details how he lied during his confirmation hearing about his anti-vax views