justinthoby.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Finished Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s excellent Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. It’s a fairly quick read. A meticulously researched look at authoritarian rulers from all over the world for the last century that puts the typical falsehoods and violence into perspective for a modern American audience.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Wooo! First rejection came so fast!

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

I submitted queries for my novel to five agents today. And it was harrowing.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

I started watching LAID on Peacock last night as a way to break my trend of watching shows 5-7 years after they end. I struggled to get into it and stopped watching halfway through the first episode. There’s a weird blend of tone deaf selfishness and secondhand embarrassment in both main characters.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks, Joe.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

I say this with love, if you have nothing but W-2 income, you do not need to hire a tax preparer. They are ripping you off.

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

While I will definitely miss TikTok and the community there, I’ve got to say that the privacy concerns with Red Note, and my understanding that it was very much a space we invaded without much regard for its prior user base, have convinced me that for now I’ll have to just do without.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

I want to live in a brighter world.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

The institutions I’ve chosen to defend are taxes and public services. Taxes aren’t popular anywhere but Americans in particular seem to have an almost comedically combative relationship to them and I think it’s important we remember their proper use and function in providing for the people.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve been increasingly nostalgic for the early internet or even the early social media age around 2001-2009 (give or take), and as someone who isn’t generally prone to nostalgia this about sums up why I’m so burnt out on the modern internet. Everything feels so slimy and intentionally shitty.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Substack is, frankly, the most confusing fucking newsfeed I have ever seen. Why do I see things from today mixed in with posts from 180 days ago? It’s like crazy whiplash.

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

I’m about 35% of the way through WIND AND TRUTH and so far I’m really enjoying the structure of the novel and the way characters are opening up to one another and having frank, vulnerable conversations. And the backdrop of apocalyptic war is pretty intense too. #windandtruth

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

I worked on Monday and Friday last week. I’m off Monday and Wednesday this week. I feel like I absolutely should have just called off today.

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

I had every intention of doing something productive today, but I got back from Pilates and now productivity can eat a bag of dicks.

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

I’m thinking about writing today. I’m not going to do any writing today, but I’m going to think and then feel like a piece of shit rather than do anything.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

🚨 ONLY 364 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS 🚨

submitted 61 days ago • 1508 comments

Merry Christmas to all and to all a yee-yee!

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Getting tired of sacrificing my blood to this little machine every day to learn whether I’m just normal cranky or cranky because I ate a piece of candy.

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

It’s an excellent time to remind everyone that it’s only two days until Christmas.

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

Having an ugly sweater party when it’s warm enough for shorts just…doesn’t hit the same.

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

I'm going to post this video every day so we never forget

submitted 67 days ago • 550 comments

A part of me wants to go back to blogging, because pithy social commentary in easily-digestible memes and social posts don’t help anyone or convey enough information. And part of me really likes the power that comes with people reading stuff I fired off without thinking.

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

When I was a teenager my dad told me I’d only be politically left-leaning until I had a little bit of money in my pocket. Then I’d be looking at social programs as a drain and trying to avoid taxes. As an adult making way more money than him I’m staunchly pro-taxes. Get fucked, dad.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

My Discover feed and my Following feed are just the same few dozen posts from the same five accounts in different order. Which is weird, right?

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Playing my first Soulslike (Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn) and, like, what the fuck is so fun about dying over and over until you get so frustrated you just give up and go to bed? I mean, sure, I slept all night and-wait, is THAT the point?!

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

Considering going back to get my master’s degree in tax accounting. Or something.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

Senate Republicans want Trump to end the IRS free e-file program on day one. You know, so you HAVE to go back to using the outrageously priced products and “tax pros” at Intuit and H&R Block that funnel millions of dollars to lobby these dickheads.

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

While I feel that people should be nicer on the whole, and I have worked very hard on my personal growth toward being the type of person I admire, sometimes I want to remind people that I started out as a petty, pedantic asshole.

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

I’m gonna be honest, I’m fine with the whole Hunter Biden pardon thing. And the pearl clutching that’s probably happening on the other side is none of my concern. Once more, fuck ‘em.

submitted 84 days ago • 2 comments

Anyone else remember collaboratively writing/playing RPGs on MSN Groups like 25 years ago?

submitted 86 days ago • 1 comment

I went to my third Pilates class tonight and for the third time I was the only guy there. And for the third time the class full of women was exceptionally friendly and welcoming. They encouraged me and each other and were overall made it a really great experience.

submitted 89 days ago • 2 comments

I’m still waiting for the pendulum in fiction to swing back from the “dark and gritty is realistic” toward something where characters are actually complex instead of different shades of asshole.

submitted 91 days ago • 0 comments