{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Politics on Canned Dragons", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2026/30/1612628.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://www.canneddragons.net/", "feed_url": "https://www.canneddragons.net/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://canneddragons.micro.blog/2026/08/06/jokes-from-truth.html", "title": "Jokes From Truth", "content_html": "

Bluesky CEO, Tony Schneider, was interviewed by Nilay Patel on a recent episode of The Decoder podcast. I like Patel’s interview style and thought he brought a good selection of questions to the discussion.

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After much business strategy and technical discussion, Patel asked Schneider about the common perception that the network is full of left-leaning users. Schneider acknowledged that as an issue and mentioned several times that he wanted to expand the user base. It’s certainly true that the social network is home to many emotionally dysregulated political progressives. I know several people who don’t use it primarily for that reason.

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When some users on Bluesky heard the interview, they were frustrated with Schneider’s comments, feeling like they were the ones that made the service what it is rather than holding it back from what it could become.

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Personally I would love to see Bluesky expand. 

It shouldn’t just be the app for leftists who can’t stand Matt Yglesias!

It should also be the app for liberals who can’t stand Matt Yglesias. And apolitical folks who can’t stand Yglesias. And, yes, even conservatives who can’t stand Matt Yglesias!
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Dave Karpf riffed on an incident in which political pundit Matt Yglesias was driven from Bluesky by a torrent of hate and users threatening to beat him with hammers, apparently because he’s too politically moderate. Karpf was joking of course, but jokes are often funny and appealing because there’s a kernel of truth to them. Many users on Bluesky are proud of this sort of mob mentality. Like the Tumblr diehards who want to keep the platform from appealing to the masses, they feel a sense of ownership and prefer that the user base not grow. This is of course, counter to the interests of Bluesky itself and certainly of Schneider.

", "date_published": "2026-08-06T18:00:00-04:00", "url": "https://www.canneddragons.net/2026/08/06/jokes-from-truth.html", "tags": ["Tech","Politics"] }, { "id": "http://canneddragons.micro.blog/2026/07/10/in-another-in-a-seemingly.html", "content_html": "

In another in a seemingly endless supply of misguided moves, the administration is putting in place a new federal rule under which a college program must prove that it’s gradautes earn more than if they had never enrolled or lose access to federal loans. This administration is so focused on money it’s inconceivable to its leadership that there could be any other purpose to an education.

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“We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators,” he said. “We don’t know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally.”

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It’s amazing that we could devalue and disincetivize these professions even more, but here’s a way to do it as well as adding to the bureaucratic load.

\n", "date_published": "2026-07-10T22:00:00-04:00", "url": "https://www.canneddragons.net/2026/07/10/in-another-in-a-seemingly.html", "tags": ["Politics"] }, { "id": "http://canneddragons.micro.blog/2026/05/30/six-flags-white-house.html", "title": "Six Flags White House", "content_html": "

Kevin D. Williamson writes for The Dispatch about the spectacle of setting up a UFC match on the White House lawn.

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It does not matter whether you live in a trailer park or a brick ranch house or something more grand and getting grander, it is all the same: Tornado bait is tornado bait. When the Trump administration announced that it was staging a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House, I knew what I was seeing. It is as familiar to me as the taste of canned Ranch Style Beans on cornbread or the smell of cigarette smoke soaking into Dacron-upholstered office furniture and slick tallowy well-yellowed linoleum in the grim waiting rooms outside those weepy Al-Anon meetings my mother dragged me to for a while because she couldn’t afford a babysitter. I know my people. My people know what they like. And they will have what they like even if it harelips the pope—especially if it harelips the pope.

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My son is graduating from middle school next week.1 He tells me about the kids who get in trouble at school for bullying other kids and using racial epithets. Those kids are loud and proud supporters of the president and they emulate his style. Like our president, they are pugilists and punching people, or the verbal equivalent, is what they love. Perhaps that’s why the UFC thing is so fitting for the White House lawn.

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This is a far cry from the Easter Egg Rolls I used to attend as a child there. Bring back a guy dressed up as Spider-Man and Teen Titans comics where Speedy is hooked on heroin and warning kids off of using hard drugs.

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The president at a UFC fight, courtesty of The White House
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  1. \n

    He gets his first full summer vacation since starting his school career due to switching from the year-round calendar to traditional for high school. ↩︎

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", "date_published": "2026-05-30T07:45:11-04:00", "url": "https://www.canneddragons.net/2026/05/30/six-flags-white-house.html", "tags": ["Politics"] } ] }