Robert M Brown

Robert M Brown

@rmbrown.mrbadexample.com

Writer of fantasy and alternate history. Dad. Historian-ish (BA). Fueled by caffeine and rage. Sorry ladies; I'm taken. Dad jokes, not flirting.

95 followers19 following1.2K posts

Read it. 😀 The Art of War, too.

beforecast.bsky.social@beforecast.bsky.social

Beforecast Episode 6 with @adapalmer.bsky.social is now live on Youtube, and everywhere you get podcasts! In this episode, we discuss Machiavelli's other, lesser known work, The Discourses of Livy. Youtube: youtu.be/oGVivcZEuJI RSS feed for the show: feeds.libsyn.com/622815/rss

'Centrist' Democrats think by being the lesser evil they can get trans people's votes and then throw them under the bus. "We might be bad, but the other guys are EVEN WORSE." I say we all stand together, or all go down together. None of us are free until all of us are free.

This post is unavailable.

AI. It's AI. Funny, though, how they never explain why the Nazi bar with CSAM on the menu as the only place where they can have a nice conversation about AI with like-minded people.

dan sinker@dansinker.com

An Open Letter To The People Writing Lengthy Posts About 'Why I'm Going Back to Twitter' dansinker.com/posts/2026-1...

There was a time when a reasonable person could believe the 'clean Wehrmacht' myth, but that ended decades ago. Far from being immune to it, the Army was actually the source of the antisemitism that spread through Germany in the 1920s.

This post is unavailable.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to come to this conclusion about fraternities, but I haven't seen anyone yet make the point so I'll do it. Fraternities are one of the gateways to elite status in the US, and they're the way they are for a reason. The sadomasochistic initiations and gang rapes /

are all part of the filtering process, to make sure that only the 'right' sort of people bubble up to the top. It's not, as some have said, a matter of participating in criminal activity together so everyone 'has something' on everyone else and can trust each other. US elites don't work on that /

sort of egalitarian structure. They're top down. The whole point of the system is to make sure that only abusers and sociopaths make it through. Anyone with empathy will probably be filtered out. It's all the Epstein Class, and fraternities are one of the ways in.

Constantly voting for 'the lesser evil' just gets you more lessers and more evil.

Top Pop@authorjosephduncan.bsky.social

Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. Actually, I wouldn't even call it evil. Talarico backpedaling a bit is just him trying to snatch a few more conservative voters from his opponent. These ridiculous Democrat purity tests is what got us here. I suspect agent provocateurs.

Human rights are not negotiable, and anyone who thinks they are is a god-damned fascist. Fight me. None of us are free until all of us are free.

Crip Dyke@cripdyke.bsky.social

I've written about anti-trans Dems and how cis ppl should respond repeatedly over the last few weeks. I have multiple threads recommending this action by BHF. Some have taken to yelling at trans ppl who lash out in pain and grief and betrayal. That's not helpful. This is.

There are weird conclusions and decisions people make that I can kind of understand, if not agree with. I can see a thought process, even if it's based on bad assumptions. Then there are the weird conclusions and decisions people make that leave me wondering, wtf? This is one of those. /

I stopped wearing my Tom Petty shirt in public, one I got from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, bc it became an exercise in subjecting myself to pop quizzes by men (once at the post office) about albums/band members. They get to just enjoy music, but I have to become an encyclopedia of minutiae.

View full thread

to go astray when you get into fandoms and hobbies. There's no money on the line. The logic gets more twisted and the assumptions required to get there get weirder. There's obviously some kind of self-worth thing involved, which is threatened by the intrusion of 'inferiors.' /

But who puts that much of their self-worth into a hobby or fandom. Especially a MUSICIAN. What logic brings someone to think that the manliness of Tom Petty fandom is threatened by women? I certainly believe Nicole, this shit happens. But I'm damned if I can understand it.

There are weird conclusions and decisions people make that I can kind of understand, if not agree with. I can see a thought process, even if it's based on bad assumptions. Then there are the weird conclusions and decisions people make that leave me wondering, wtf? This is one of those. /

I stopped wearing my Tom Petty shirt in public, one I got from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, bc it became an exercise in subjecting myself to pop quizzes by men (once at the post office) about albums/band members. They get to just enjoy music, but I have to become an encyclopedia of minutiae.

I understand, if not agree with, men who gatekeep professions, things were money is on the line. That's all about reducing competition. That's how men took over the computer field, when it starting growing and becoming more lucrative. That's why men who didn't own slaves still fought... /

to defend slavery. To maintain their status and avoid competition in the labor market. This is especially true for men who believe that women are inherently inferior, so if they lose out to a woman it must be because they're being treated unfairly. But even the wrong-headed logic starts... /

Not long ago I was called racist for saying that the Supreme Court is important and Democrats should have been doing more to defend it. The Constitution means whatever the Supreme Court says it means. The Court has the power to overturn EVERYTHING.

Technically, the loser usually pays the winner, regardless of who was the actual aggressor. See WWI. Sometimes the winner pays, to 'purchase' land that was beaten out of the loser, to avoid the appearance of aggressive conquest. See the Mexican-American War. That's not what's happening here, though.

Michael A. Stackpole 🇺🇦@michaelastackpole.bsky.social

This is, practically speaking, the definition of reparations the losers pays the victim they attacked, just saying. (see World War I, World War II, et. al.)

Not looking forward to all the people telling me I can't comment on Texas politics because I fled the state after living there for 30 years.

Asher HELLbein@asherelbein.bsky.social

One thing I am not looking forward about this campaign season: the people online who don't live in Texas reflexively commenting on every Texas politics post how the state is an utterly disgusting hellhole that you couldn't pay them to live in or move to

Whenever people say something like, "Why don't X just do Y?" I answer--usually to myself, because I don't reply to EVERYTHING on the Internet--"Because they don't want to." And that's usually the answer to any policy question. Why don't they? They don't want to.

Sam J Miller@sentencebender.bsky.social

I spent 15 years fighting for low-income housing in NYC, and if I had a nickel for every time a politician (or a bureaucrat or even a housing activist) told me that a pied-à-terre tax was impossible… I could afford a pied-à-terre.  And Mamdani just... made it happen.

People should know more about the 1876 Presidential Election.

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social

Yes. It's been clear that we've been in this disintegrating moment since Bush stole the 2000 election — a massive norms-busting escalation that blew up the 20th century political system. Democrats have now had two chances in power since to repair or reform the system and punted both times.

I would be interested in knowing how many fled right before the 2024 election, anticipating the outcome or reacting to measures already enacted in their state. I know the number is well above zero.

This post is unavailable.

Man, toxic optimists. "If good things don't happen it's your fault, for not wishing hard enough. I genuinely believe this; it's not just an obvious way of diverting blame from the powerful to the powerless."

A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social

Every time someone states what ought to be, people rush to the mentions to explain that it won't happen, and now I am talking to those people, and I want to be very clear: YOU are the reason it won't happen. Every time you say that you are taking energy away from "should" and reinforcing "is."

So, the cellphone company that keeps funding these far-right candidates ("Patriot Mobile") has to be some kind of money-laundering operation, right? There's no way this little, niche, MVNO has that kind of money from operations.

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social

RESULTS from Texas: The school district of Grapevine Colleyville, near Fort Worth, drew national attention after conservatives running on an explicitly Christian message took over the board (archive: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...). Voters just ousted 3 conservative incumbents tonight.

While we don't know much about the debates and processes on the segregationist side, we have extremely detailed knowledge of what was going on in the civil rights movement. Not just because so many in the movement wrote memoirs but also because of all the wire taps and FBI recordings.

Robert M Brown@rmbrown.mrbadexample.com

Reading WAGING A GOOD WAR and making a lot of notes. The contrast with our current time and conditions is remarkable.

One reason--not the only reason, but one of them--why the US is cooked is that Democrats spend a lot more time telling people NOT to support them than trying to get people to support them. After 40 years of this I'm about done.

I don't understand why people lie about this. No one hates prologues and epilogues. The hate is all from authors, directed at the people who skip prologues and epilogues.

The prologue and epilogue hating fudwumps should be tied to a log and floated down the nearest river. Ideally one with a huge waterfall

April 1st, when all of the people with no sense of humor make their best effort to show that to the world.

Naomi Kritzer@naomikritzer.bsky.social

Just a helpful reminder to everyone: Wednesday is April 1st. If you see a news story or something that looks like a news story that makes you think "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!??" ...the answer is probably yes, yes they are, that's it exactly.

It's amazing how some people will get up one day and decide to show the entire world how stupid they are.

David H Feldman@dhfeldman.bsky.social

This is a serious question, not snark. Do you listen to Richard Wagner? Do you think there is no ethical way to include Wagner in the arts?

Fun fact: The Roman Senate existed throughout the period of the Roman Empire, and in the west actually regained some authority after the fall of the western Empire.

Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social

I was just helping my kid with their high school Gov homework, and was astonished to learn the United States has a Congress.

(Yes, technically the Senate gained some authority under the Empire, in that the legislative powers of the Assemblies were transferred to it--though the Assemblies continued to meet--but it couldn't actually do much without approval of the Emperor.)

Normalizing fascism is what the news media is for. It's what they've done every day for more than 10 years now.

Radley Balko@radleybalko.bsky.social

Trump: I’m going to put ICE in the airports, where they will target and arrest all the illegals, especially Somalis, because I hate the Democrats Headlines: Trump puts ICE officers in airports to ease long lines, provide relief for weary travelers

Not a new idea, BTW. "The primary and necessary object of all existence is to be happy, but happiness cannot be obtained individually; it is useless to expect isolated happiness; all must partake of it or the few will never enjoy it." -- Robert Owen, The Book of the New Moral World, 1836

Robert M Brown@rmbrown.mrbadexample.com

Even if there was no poem, and they weren't coming for anyone else, speaking up would be the right thing to do. None of us are free until all of us are free.

My assumption when I see someone dismissing any possibility that the Federal Government is even capable of influencing elections is that that person is a fascist operative trying to preclude opposition.

This post is unavailable.

This is completely missing the point, which isn't that the books have only sold 37 copies because they're bad, but that she's LYING about how many books she's sold, and how much money she's made.

Practically every time I meet someone in a professional context I'm asked, "Do you go by, Bob, Rob, Robert?" And I tell them and they respect that. Every-damn-body understands the concept of preferred names. Some people just pretend not to in certain contexts.

August Brown 🏳️‍⚧️@skullamity.bsky.social

Baffled by transphobes insisting that the name on your birth certificate is Your True Name Forever when it was common in my grandparents' generation to just...pick a name you like and use that, nbd. I literally found out both of my grandma's birth certificate first names FROM THEIR OBITUARIES.

What the Federal goon squads are doing now isn't anything new; it's just the current state of policing in the US, following the trend of the last 50 years. They're just open about it. That's why the Democrats won't do anything; anything that disrupts ICE would also disrupt local police.

Clara Jeffery@clarajeffery.bsky.social

This is literally what CURRENT LAW requires. It’s in the Constitution! www.politico.com/news/2026/02...