gil, a finite mode

@gilmorejon.bsky.social

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philosophy PhD. historical materialist. free Palestine. trans rights. Chicago based. all takes my own. podcast @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social https://leftofphilosophy.com/ https://gilmorejon.wordpress.com

a tweet reporting that former NYC mayor Eric Adams is now officially Albanian.
screenshot of a tweet relaying Bloomberg reporting that the Republican Party's midterm message will be framed around a "massive defense buildup, paid for by cuts to domestic agencies and Healthcare entitlements"
a tweet from Elon Musk from Feb 4 2026 reads: 'Whoever said "money can't buy happiness" really knew what they were talking about 😔'
two books: volume one of David Ricardo's Works and Correspondence, the Principlea, edited by Sraffa; and On Ethics & Economics by Amartya Sen
someone says that there is a chance that one of the most important contemporary texts of anti fascist resistance will turn out to be some thing from a star wars TV show.
A screenshot of the world's worst website, petersinger.ai.
screenshot of a NYT post promoting a new article: "Their Superpower? Holding Things." the post reads: "Purses? Pockets? Not necessary when you can palm a dozen items. The phenomenon, in which women are gripping their necessities without the aid of pockets of bags, is called the claw grip, and on social media, it has been crowned as a secret superpower."
Now doesn’t that video, for all its absurdity, express precisely what Spinoza means when he says that the common people [81] ‘classify any phenomenon whose cause is unknown ‘divine’ or a work of God?’ This video is all about things we might classify as everyday things or mundane occurrences: they seem to be very natural, not miraculous at all. So what’s going on here? “Hot lava, snow, rain, and fog” are miracles, according to Violent J. But don’t be fooled: they’re speaking a language of violence, but their faith is unshakeable; from 2002 onward they’ve been explicit about the fact that their music has always had the esoteric message of encouraging belief in God. Insane Clown Posse’s soteriology is centered on the idea that we must atone for our sins and reject immoral ways of acting before the end of the world, an eschatological reckoning that they call the Dark Carnival of Souls. Here’s a direct quote from a 2011 interview: “We just want to see good people hopefully go to heaven, which we refer to as Shangri-La.” Suddenly this doesn’t sound strange at all; it’s very familiar theology using slightly tweaked language and some face paint. Spinoza is trying to show us that the first thing we need for this kind of theology to get off the ground — on with a world apart, an afterlife of punishment or reward, with a God outside the world, in short, with all these separations — is that we remain ignorant of natural causes. Spinoza writes: [81] “The common people therefore call unusual works of nature miracles or works of God and do not want to know the natural cause of things, partly from devotion and partly from zeal to oppose those who pursue natural philosophy.” Or as Shaggy 2 Dope puts it, “I don’t wanna talk to a scientist/Y’all mothafuckas lying, and makin’ me pissed.” You have to desire ignorance first, and then move from there to supposedly positive but spurious theological ideas based on your lack of understanding.
Delirium Tremens
pictured is a bottle of Topo Chico mineral water, whose obvious greatness needs not even be defended
screenshot of the cover page for our translation manuscript of Zourabichvili's Spinoza: A Physics of Thought, along with some stats: 125.5k words; 1550 paragraphs; 4009 sentences; Fleisch-Kincaid Grade Level 13.4
This is probably also the place to discuss the issue of generative AI, or Large Language Models (LLMs). For the purposes of this class, the use of these models is strictly prohibited in all cases. These models are predicated on (a) what I consider to be the illegal theft and usage of copyrighted materials in an inhuman approximation of authentic human creativity, and (b) extraordinarily environmentally damaging practices, which would make their use in this particular class ironic in the extreme. Besides this, preliminary studies—and this is also obvious from even the most casual observation—the use of these models leads students to be increasingly less capable of critical reading and writing, and robs them of the real benefits of institutional education, which all derive from actively working through the difficulties involved in grasping complex topics as a genuinely engaged and caring thinker. I will be happy to talk about this issue for what some might consider to be much too long.
a meme depicting a futuristic utopia with the caption 'society if John Rawls' A Theory of Justice Manuscript had been destroyed by students'
a bunch of small bottles where infusions are taking place.
the glorious eyes of the noble mantis shrimp.
New Perspectives on Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise: Politics, Power, and the Imagination. Edited by Dan Taylor and Marie Wuth