It should be required for any English literature student, and I’d also say that Pen of Iron by Robert Alter should be assigned as a companion for anyone studying American literature. The King James version is easily the most influential English language work of all time even though its influence got off to a slow start (the first edition’s spelling and punctuation were crucified by critics), and the release of the 1769 update is maybe the biggest single watershed moment in the history of the language. A translation can be a work of literature of course, but the King James Bible is also more of an original work than most translations (with a pro-monarchy slant). Not only do we use hundreds of idioms that are lifted directly from the text, but in reading it you will notice obvious and subtle references in everything from Moby-Dick to The Silence of the Lambs.

Richard Dawkins, whom I’ve never seen accused of pro-religious bias, wrote an editorial all but railing against not forcing absolutely all students to read it. Largely because of its literary value, but also because he believed that critical study of the Bible itself would loosen its grip on social mores.

*It can be turmeric, but usually annatto.

???

The opps wish they could get the drop on me

For this bad advice I am sentencing you to spend a full summer in the rural American south, where it’s 38 C with 100% humidity in the middle of the night, with no ability to feed yourself other than baking bread and cooking. I’d love to see you eschewing your dryer to hang your clothes out on a clothesline, in air that has more water in it than the wet clothes do.

You’re right, it’s not, but to be honest your form needs work if recoil bothers you that much.

Skill issue

Do you think we should try to comprehend what we read?

Did you use your AI to generate some stigmata on your body too? Get over yourself.

I don’t know, I think I’d rather they beat a chld than throw them into a shredder.

You’re singlehandedly undoing years of hard-won progress by those who argued we should stop beating schoolchildren.

Big dog that is straight up untrue, I was there when it launched and it was nothing but nakedly transparent ad reads. Hobbyist journalism is all captive PR

Uh oh! Somebody get this cat 50 CCs of SOURCE before they go into SOURCE WITHDRAWAL

Get your corny ass off the computer and go do something real.

Ironically, you’re proving my point in asking this question.

I’m unaware of these, but I’ll take you at your word

You got lost in the sauce because your critical thinking skills are already eroding. The LLM brainlet effect is real, the neurodegeneration has already set in.

that’s which the series will end with “To Kung Fu, Thanks for Everything! Neo”

there aren’t people like that anymore

Paternalistic racism and the White Man’s Burden are both alive and well, couched behind various euphemisms, in most performative faux-progressive spaces and pretty much the entirety of the tankieverse.

None of the above, I just don’t suffer fools.

It’s not realistic to expect no AI assistance in coding in 2026.

Pathetic. You have a serious skill issue, that much is true, but you need to keep it to yourself instead of sharting it out into society. Code better or go get a job you’re more qualified for, like operating a tollbooth.

A while back I made a spoof account called Universal Crunk. It used his same avatar but photoshopped to be flashing cash in front of the Raytheon HQ, wearing Ray-Bans and a Yankees hat, and smoking crack; the profile bio was the standard one he uses but his the language was changed to be praise of crypto, defense contractors, and hedge funds. I made one comment and within about 2 minutes it was nuked.