Justin Khoo

Justin Khoo

@justinkhoo.com

I teach philosophy at MIT; philosophy of language, metaphysics, meta-ethics, aesthetics, film. Web: justinkhoo.com Movie podcast: @cowspod.com Movie reviews: http://letterboxd.com/blobcat/ Photography: https://instagram.com/juskhoo

1.4K followers238 following196 posts

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Tax these people for the love of god

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Elon Musk is expected to spend $100 million to $120 million in at least eight states to help GOP candidates in November, according to people briefed on the plans.

nyti.msElon Musk Plans at Least $100 Million in Midterm Spending to Help RepublicansElon Musk, a year after a huge blowup with President Trump and the Republican Party, is said to be planning to spend in at least eight states to help them in November.
Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Third year in a row proving that there’s a massive supply of tax revenue just sitting there doing nothing which can help shore up the federal deficit 👇👇👇 www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/25/m...

bostonglobe.comThe ‘millionaires tax’ was pitched as a $2 billion revenue source. It’s blown past that, yet again. - The Boston GlobeThe state’s so-called millionaires tax has already generated more than $3.1 billion in revenue from Massachusetts' highest earners this fiscal year.

Justin Khoo reposted

Cows in the Field
@cowspod.com

I have (no joke) written the sentence "The Shining debuted on Wednesday, May 23, 1980" in an academic paper, so this is particularly meaningful. Thanks Jason for having us on to talk about one of THE GREATEST FILMS ever!

Jason Bailey@jasondashbailey.com

Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING was released on this day in 1980. Our GUIDE FOR THE FILM FANATIC discussion about it, with @cowspod.com: youtu.be/ZcpXBtisvAk?... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

youtu.be“The Shining” with Justin and Laura KhooJustin and Laura Khoo’s podcast “Cows in the Field” explores the philosophical, aesthetic, and cultural themes in popular movies, high and low, “good” and “bad,” which aligns them clearly with Danny…

Justin Khoo reposted

Aaron West
@awest505.bsky.social

The book is almost out! I'm getting 27 boxes shipped probably next week. Meanwhile I've been recording a few podcast episodes. Really enjoyed this Ex Machina conversation with @justinkhoo.com on Cows in the Field! cowspod.com/2026/05/09/e...

cowspod.comEX MACHINA (2014)We take a trip down A24 lane to discuss our first AI movie of the miniseries, Alex Garland’s EX MACHINA, with Aaron West (of Cinejourneys.com and The A24 New Wave). Auteurs, tech bros, trophy…

Justin Khoo reposted

Cows in the Field
@cowspod.com

Cows are exploring representations of AI in movies with a short miniseries, including May 8: EX MACHINA (w/ Aaron West) May 22: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (w/ Matthias Michel) June 5: BLADE RUNNER (w/ Zed Adams)

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Congress can put an end to this RIGHT NOW. By doing nothing, they are complicit

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will … We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end”

Justin Khoo reposted

Keith E. Whittington
@kewhittington.bsky.social

Available instantly on kindle, in case you’re in a hurry The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool a.co/d/0gWO8Rie

a.coThe Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional ToolThe Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool - Kindle edition by Whittington, Keith E.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool.
Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

I looked at his "truth" social account for the first time. Even knowing his proclivity for bullying and lying, the amount of naked taunting, mockery, and obvious propaganda is quite astonishing...

Justin Khoo reposted

inthefade 👻
@ihavethatonvinyl.com

there is no such thing as cancel culture. there is only people being found out then making the rest of their career about being a victim of the fallout

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Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Five years ago, I noticed a connection between the work I was doing on non-factuality regarding conditionals and what I've come to call "reactive predicates" like "scary" (or "elegant," "lovely," etc). I thought I had a new argument that there's no fact of the matter whether a movie is scary... 1/

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Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

one about the non-factuality argument, one about the 'acquaintance inference' for reactive predicates (it's odd to say "The Shining is scary" if you've never seen it), and one about the relationship between the attitudes of finding The Shining scary and believing that it is scary... 3/

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Five years ago, I noticed a connection between the work I was doing on non-factuality regarding conditionals and what I've come to call "reactive predicates" like "scary" (or "elegant," "lovely," etc). I thought I had a new argument that there's no fact of the matter whether a movie is scary... 1/

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

I wrote this up in a paper called "On Scariness" which I presented here and there, and then tried unsuccessfully to publish for three years. During that time, I realized that I was trying to do too much in one paper, so I split it into three parts... 2/

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Doh!

Michael Caley@michaelcaley.bsky.social

this is a rollicking great read it's a story of a bunch of tenured idealists who believed that they were building a university dedicated to free speech and free inquiry, but then lost control of their project to... the right-wing megadonors who funded the university www.politico.com/news/magazin...

politico.comThey Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.

Justin Khoo reposted

Brian Galle
@bdgesq.bsky.social

Yet more misinformation about the #CaliforniaBillionaireTax is circulating on X, drawing on highly misleading analysis from the Tax Foundation. We have posted a short document explaining why that analysis is false. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.comExpert Report on Valuation of Controlling Shares of Publicly Traded Companies Under the California Billionaire Tax Act (CBTA)This short memo addresses concerns that have been raised under the proposed California Billionaire Tax Act (CBTA or Act) about the valuation of "voting&quo

Justin Khoo reposted

Halloween III: Season of the Ben
@franzferdinand2.bsky.social

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

Steve Herman@w7voa.journa.host.ap.brid.gy

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Same same for “the cat is on the mat”

Nvidie@dervine7.bsky.social

it’s funny that when people need an example of a declarative sentence they go for “it’s raining” when that’s a really weird declarative sentence

Justin Khoo reposted

Juan Murillo Vargas
@jimurillo98.bsky.social

Happy to announce that my paper "How Language-Like is the Language of Thought?" is forthcoming at Ergo! Thread with a TL;DR below! philpapers.org/rec/MURHLI-3

philpapers.orgJuan Murillo Vargas, How Language-Like is the Language of Thought? - PhilPapersThe language of thought hypothesis (LoTH) claims that thoughts are underpinned by language-like vehicles. A central motivation is that there is a relevant similarity between language and thought expla...

Justin Khoo reposted

Kenneth Black
@kennethblack.bsky.social

Pleased to announce that my paper, “Common Ground, Conditionals, and Ceteris Paribus Pragmatics,” is forthcoming in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy! 🧵

philarchive.orgKenneth Black, Common Ground, Conditionals, and _Ceteris Paribus_ Pragmatics - PhilArchiveIn conversation, we make use of shared information in order to communicate. But what shared information? In theorising about conversation, it’s popular to allot a privileged position to a single body ...
Justin Khoo
@justinkhoo.com

Just let AI see the movie, form an opinion for you, talk to your friends about it, that'll free you up to spend all your time doing... what? working in your meaningless job?

Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com

Really a sad way to go through life www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/b...

Justin Khoo reposted

Cows in the Field
@cowspod.com

Did you watch Ritchie Rich a lot as a kid too? Tune in to our episode with @authorizedpod.bsky.social where we discuss non-transactional relationships and FILM NOVELIZATIONS wutttt ⬇️

Authorized Novelizations Podcast@authorizedpod.bsky.social

OUT NOW! @cowspod.com joins to discuss the novelization of Richie Rich! Hannah goes gaga over John Larroquette, and we discuss Richie foe Timmy Time, the time-traveling Timmy. Listen: shorturl.at/lDZ45