For a brief moment I thought about just not showing up to my classes so I could help the government deregulate my students’ education. But that would be irresponsible and contrary to the purpose of a university education.

From previous years, three books I read from the IBP were “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang (she won the Nobel Prize most recently) and “Heaven” by Mieko Kawakami, which I still cannot shake off. Bora Chung’s “Cursed Bunny,” translated by #antonhur, was also great if you’re into speculative fiction.

The longlist of the #internationalBooker2025 was released today. These are works of fiction selected by judges of various artistic/cultural backgrounds that were translated into English this year. Support diversity by reading some great books by authors with different experiences than your own!

This feels like an en extremely “refined” version of prosperity gospel theology—wealth is bestowed by God upon the most faithful. The most faithful are of course the most selfless and altruistic. Musk is the wealthiest, so Musk is the least selfish, most altruistic guy around.

Sorry, correction: speech was 2/14.

“Sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception.”

Pair this with JD Vance’s speech yesterday in Munich—Munich, the center of Hitler’s Germany—in which he claimed the EU’s democratic institutions are being undone from corruptive forces from within. You can connect the dots.

I’m not saying Trump’s quotation of Napoleon (which is troubling enough) was intended as a reference to Schmitt. But, the intellectuals who associate with Trump are certainly deeply familiar with Schmitt’s thought.

This reminds me of Carl Schmitt’s definition of sovereignty: “Sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception.” Carl Schmitt was the philosopher and legal expert who served the Third Reich.

Yesterday, Trump posted to Truth Social, “He who saves his Country violates no law.” This is apparently a quotation by Napoleon Bonaparte, as some people have pointed out.

I was just looking at Kobo’s website, and they do have audiobooks on there. I don’t know how they are, but it seems worth checking out!

Trying to de-Meta my life as much as I can so I figured this would be a good place to go. I’ll mostly be keeping up with friends and philosophy/philosophy adjacent academics.