"did not include an author from Chengdu (population 21m)" is about 1/3 worse than "did not include an author from Palestine (population 14m)"
Replies
I like posting a list of Chinese cities and seeing how far people get before finding a city they’ve never heard of. Usually it’s Hangzhou, metro population 10 million, somewhere between Chicago and LA
aug 31, 2025, 1:26 am • 47 0 • view
damn Zhengdong CBD looks sick as hell
aug 31, 2025, 4:22 am • 2 0 • view
anyway it's Dongguan for me, although I do feel like the PRD is kicking my ass the way non US-residents probably have a better shot at SF than San Jose or Oakland
aug 31, 2025, 4:24 am • 1 0 • view
Hangzhou's a weird-ass place, regardless.
aug 31, 2025, 4:26 am • 1 0 • view
My favorite thing is how startled I am every time I look this up that Chongqing, a city the existence of which I am only very vaguely aware, is the most populous city in China, and not by just a little.
aug 31, 2025, 1:57 am • 5 0 • view
Chongqing is weird because it only came into existence as a province 28 years ago and was linked with the construction of the 3 gorges dam. Most of the province is rural or not part of the Chongqing city urban area. The urban area is about 22 million people. Shanghai’s is larger.
aug 31, 2025, 2:14 am • 7 0 • view
China is fucking huge
aug 31, 2025, 1:47 am • 13 0 • view
aug 31, 2025, 1:53 am • 57 4 • view
It's less that China is huge and more that China is more urban than most Westerners would dare imagine. It's more urbanized than Austria, Ireland, or Poland.
aug 31, 2025, 2:05 am • 11 0 • view
Tbh you need 1.4 billion people to have cities of 20 million that most people couldn’t find on a map. Although China has a strange lack of a city over 30 million.
aug 31, 2025, 2:39 am • 16 0 • view
It’s an intentional choice to cap their populations
aug 31, 2025, 3:39 am • 6 0 • view
Communist encouragement of displacement of working class communities is a very funny idea
aug 31, 2025, 6:20 am • 5 0 • view
Broke: Evicting the working class Bespoke: Relocating “the low-end population”
aug 31, 2025, 6:33 am • 4 0 • view
In fairness, this is true of every country on Earth except Japan (depending on your math). Tokyo is just weird.
aug 31, 2025, 3:07 am • 2 0 • view
and he was right!!!
aug 31, 2025, 2:12 am • 2 0 • view
People really do not get that Palestine is neither large nor especially influential!
aug 31, 2025, 4:01 am • 4 0 • view
Not sure his point. Obama may or may not have read a book written by a Palestinian , but he reads regularly, and reads a wide variety, while Trump can barely read, and needs name tags for his own cabinet he picked at his little dictator praise meetings.
aug 31, 2025, 1:24 am • 1 0 • view
it's also like. uh. Obama doesn't personally write those lists or his playlists. They're gentle encouragements for adults to read. I think there was a Colleen Hoover book on there once
aug 31, 2025, 1:26 am • 10 0 • view
aug 31, 2025, 1:36 am • 1 0 • view
“If AI is accurate” unbelievable tell
aug 31, 2025, 1:27 am • 51 0 • view
What a joke
aug 31, 2025, 1:53 am • 9 0 • view
The funny thing about this is that Nguyen is exactly the kind of writer who would end up on one of Obama's lists.
aug 31, 2025, 2:11 am • 1 0 • view
I'd check if he has, but like the professor said, I just don't have the time or inclination to check.
aug 31, 2025, 2:12 am • 1 0 • view
Ok, so I went and checked and, funnily enough, The Sympathizer wasn't listed. AI did get the year of publication right, though.
aug 31, 2025, 2:25 am • 2 0 • view
There's probably a lesson here somewhere.
aug 31, 2025, 2:28 am • 2 0 • view
It's honestly a tough call whether the muckraking or the using the shiny new tool in precisely the way experts tell you not to that's more infuriating.
aug 31, 2025, 1:57 am • 3 0 • view
"I heard it from a drunk guy on the Purple Line."
aug 31, 2025, 1:30 am • 6 0 • view
tbf I'm pretty sure there are no Palestinian authors on the lists ofc the conclusion that he draws from that is ridiculous and the claim that there is nothing on the list dealing with settler colonialism would be false, there's a book by Nelson Mandela
aug 31, 2025, 1:47 am • 23 1 • view
I mean it’s saying right up front that this is an argument that he couldn’t be arsed to back up!
aug 31, 2025, 1:49 am • 25 0 • view
It’s such a graceless pivot into what passes for a point of that post
aug 31, 2025, 1:52 am • 17 0 • view
yeah it's "I felt like doing a gotcha and didn't feel like engaging with the actual lists" which contain some real crap! and other stuff too!
aug 31, 2025, 2:17 am • 5 0 • view
It gets worse believe it or not lol because he complains about being asked to check the actual list
aug 31, 2025, 1:31 am • 10 0 • view
It’s like a parody
aug 31, 2025, 1:33 am • 6 0 • view
50% worse, surely, since 7/14 as the point of comparison for the increase?
aug 31, 2025, 2:03 am • 3 0 • view
Not a SINGLE AUTHOR from Uttar Pradesh (population 241m)
aug 31, 2025, 2:02 am • 8 0 • view
Is this a safe space to admit that The Sympathizer wasn't good?
aug 31, 2025, 3:45 pm • 0 0 • view
different age distribution pushes it even further towards Chengdu I think
aug 31, 2025, 1:51 am • 41 0 • view
I feel like if you scratch the surface of how Israel is connected to capitalism you won't like it
aug 31, 2025, 1:54 am • 5 0 • view
What is this supposed to mean?
aug 31, 2025, 3:51 am • 6 0 • view
He's saying Israel controls banks/foreign policy .
aug 31, 2025, 2:40 pm • 4 0 • view
Wasn't Israel quasi-socialist for a *sizable* chunk of its history? It certainly had a lot of kibbutzim until recently.
aug 31, 2025, 10:55 am • 3 0 • view
In our sans-serif age, I feel bad for the rare guy named Al.
aug 31, 2025, 2:29 am • 6 0 • view
“Weird AI Yankovic” seems like a usable bit.
aug 31, 2025, 10:49 am • 0 0 • view