
David Ottlinger
5.7K posts

David Ottlinger
@DavidOttlinger
Politics and culture, sometimes at ArcDigital, formerly of The Electric Agora. Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.




Something we rarely consider about Star Wars (1977): imagine being an older moviegoer and seeing Alec Guinness (born today in 1914) as Obi-Wan Kenobi. What the hell was this titan of stage and screen doing in a “B-movie” sci‑fi flick? Being awesome, that’s what.


There's a reason Iran hawks call Iranian leaders "the mullahs"—-to frame them as zealots who must be crushed rather than rational actors who can be dealt with. This is part of a larger problem, I argue in @NonzeroNews: nonzero.org/p/why-we-keep-…



I’ve written about the backlash to Adult Braces: “I do feel great sympathy for Lindy West. How was she to know that the great omertà of Millennial Feminism—that we had to take whatever people said about their life stories at face value—had broken?”



Who is on your Mount Rushmore of Roman Emperors?


Barbara Stanwyck and director Billy Wilder on the set of DOUBLE INDEMNITY [1944]







Are there no longer any world renowned philosophers? I can’t think of anyone in their 50s or 60s now that has the influence of a Rawls or Habermas— neither of them were as influential as Foucault. Of course, I’m not that familiar with the state of philosophy in China or Africa.


Medicaid has a billing process for literal witch doctors. We waste so much money.


Have you ever been chased by geese? Frightening animals








