David Benfell, Ph.D. (he/him/his) / is on Nostr

Ph.D. Human Science (Saybrook University, 2016), vegetarian ecofeminist (#vegan and #libertariansocialist) scholar, #anticapitalist.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-2641-962X
Academia: https://saybrook.academia.edu/DavidBenfell
Substack: https://substack.com/@benfell
Not Housebroken: https://nothousebroken.substack.com

Last Notes

2024-09-16 11:35:36

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You might be looking for the term "soft focus." ;-)

2024-09-16 00:48:54

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You're trying to make sense of the senseless. I studied conservatism for my dissertation, so trust me: This is a hopeless endeavor.

2024-06-16 02:00:56

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come to think of it, I might have my terminology confused. I suspect what you call table spoons is what I was thinking of with soup spoons. And in that case, yeah, that’s exactly how I used them.

2024-06-16 01:50:15

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if you want to shovel it down, wouldn’t the larger spoon be advantageous?
I used to *always* use the soup spoons because I thought the regular spoons were just too dainty. (In answer to, “tell me you have a big mouth without telling me you have a big mouth.”)

2024-06-15 20:22:35

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As I peruse my pinned post and the additions to it, it appears something is missing.
It's 2024, an election year in the U.S., and this year we are treated to the choice between a war criminal (Joe Biden) and a fascist (Donald Trump).
I will be writing in LESSER EVIL.
Let’s be clear: Neither Trump nor Biden is even remotely acceptable. Both belong in prison for life. I will not vote for either.
And I will not tolerate being told “the other guy is worse” because the reason we face this terrible dilemma is that people have been acquiescing to “the lesser evil” for decades; the Democrats moved rightward to try to entice so-called “moderates” in response to landslide defeats in 1972 (George McGovern vs. Richard Nixon) and 1984 (Walter Mondale vs. Ronald Reagan), driving Republicans further rightward, yielding the white Christian nationalist madness we face today.
Democrats don’t even bother hiding that they take the progressive vote for granted, counting on progressives to be horrified by Republicans. The #VoteBlueNoMatterWho crowd are nothing more than apologists for neoliberalism.
You will be blocked if you argue “the other guy is worse” or advocate voting for “the lesser evil.” ‘Cause I’m not here for that.

2024-06-15 12:54:39

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It’s actually my plan to write in LESSER EVIL.
Because that’s precisely how we have wound up with these horrible choices: People kept voting for “the lesser evil,” and the parties responded accordingly. And while it might be “the lesser evil,” it is still evil. And the evil accumulates and intensifies.
The privilege of being able to tolerate the status quo is the privilege that tolerated Donald Trump and now tolerates Joe Biden. It underlies the garbage about “the economy being better than people think” (when I haven’t been able to get a real job in 23 years).

2024-06-15 12:39:53

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None of this excuses voting for either of them.

2024-06-15 12:38:47

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*and* to the war criminals.

2024-06-15 00:56:51

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it’s about saying no to both fascists and war criminals. Neither should be even remotely acceptable. And when the system leaves us with this kind of a choice, it’s past time for another system.

2024-06-14 01:31:50

Democrats are different from Republicans? On reproductive rights, be cynical, very cynical https://disunitedstates.com/2024/06/13/democrats-are-different-from-republicans-on-reproductive-rights-be-cynical-very-cynical/

2024-06-12 19:59:09

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with the Democrats, there is *always* an excuse. And on this, as on so many issues, it is ludicrously obvious that Democrats strongly prefer sitting in opposition where they can complain about Republicans and where no one will expect them to actually accomplish anything.

2024-06-10 02:04:30

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Kids (hint: you’re *all* kids) today have a particularly apt phrase for this: first world problems.
I’ve had some hard talks with my mother about this. I honestly doubt she quite wraps her head around the dilemma of a fascist versus a war criminal to prop up a constitutional oligarchy.
She finally understands that voting for either is, for me, completely morally unacceptable. But she’s weighing domestic issues—not least abortion. I simply can’t do that. Both these candidates are beyond the pale.

2024-06-08 02:21:59

So I’ve got an off-the-wall question that occurred to me as I was turning over, trying to sleep:
Does anyone still use adding machines?

2024-06-06 11:34:44

So I finally watched the series finale in #StarTrek #Discovery.
It was a tear-jerker, which is fine. But I have some questions. Why are they sending Discovery into deep space and abandoning her? How was Discovery able to use the spore drive if Michael Burnham was the only person on board and the spore drive requires a empathic sentient being for an interface?
It’s conceivable they solved the spore drive issue in the years while Michael Burnham married Cleveland Booker and raised a boy to adulthood. But there’s no explanation whatsoever for sending Discovery and Zara—the ship’s sentient computer—into exile.
The episode has the feel of, oh, we’ve just gotta wrap up the series now, who cares about continuity?
@npub17zn…z5e5 #allstartrek

2024-04-24 12:25:34

So I've been trying to figure out what to make of these “log cabin”-style homes and these houses built from rough-hewn timber with ludicrous amounts of mortar between each piece.
First, they’re butt ugly. I’m pretty sure no real log cabin ever looked anything quite like these modern imitations with perfectly even logs stained a very, very dark brown. And I’m sorry, but that mortar just ruins it for me with the rough-hewn timber. If there was ever anything for homeowners’ associations to get up in arms about, these houses should be it.
So, given that they’re butt ugly, who’d want to live in them and why?
My hypothesis follows:
Fairly obviously, they hearken to the 17th and 18th centuries and the colonization of North America. So who’d want to live in a pathetic imitation of something ancient, uncomfortable when authentic, and butt ugly? Who would want that perception?
I think this isn’t about patriotism, though the people who have these homes built probably rationalize them that way. I think it’s about “if I had built my own house, this is what it’d look like because I’m Paul Bunyan the lumber man.”
Which is to say, masculinity desperate to prove itself and therefore toxic rather than masculine.