Welcome to The Space Politics Duality! A blog about politics (and maybe sometimes space) from a planetary sciences graduate student.

Why are we here?

I basically have three main interests: My obsessive following of American politics, my work studying asteroids, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. Try as I might, I couldn't figure out a way to reasonably combine all three into a career path (I don't think there's a lot of demand for using space-based D&D campaigns as a tool for solving political conflict, or professionally DM'ing political intrigue campaigns for astrophysicists), so I decided to settle for two interests, and start working towards a career in science policy.

And that's why I made this blog. I wanted a space (Haha, get it? Space.?) where I could practice my writing, refine my political opinions, and maybe start getting my face out there.

What is "here"?

If you're here looking for new and interesting political takes that you've never seen any where else, I'm sorry to say this is not the place for you. I will be upfront that most of these posts will be about takes I've digested from the multitude of political punditry and political science podcasts I listen to. Usually it will be some amalgamation of these, Frankenstein-ed together, and shoved through the lens of my own worldview. But, there will definitely be no straight copying of other people's work (hot take alert: plagiarism is bad) and no blind regurgitation. Everything I post will be something I have thought about carefully, researched well, and (hopefully) written up in an insightful way.

Despite the blog name, I actually anticipate that most of the content will be politics related, but if I get an itch to, some space related posts might find their way on here as well. We'll see. I get plenty of practice strengthening my science chops in my day-to-day, and this blog is mainly an opportunity to develop some political writing muscle.

The initial goal will be to post about once a month about something relevant to the current political climate. But the cadence may change as I come to grips with the reality that I am a graduate student and my time has no value.

My primary focus will be putting out writing that I feel good about, and not about amassing as big of a following as possible. To be perfectly honest, I am terrible at social media self-promotion. Seriously, I have like six Twitter followers, and I can't stand to be on Facebook or TikTok. So, if by some happenstance you have found this blog, and you are enjoying it, please share it with someone. Because I honestly don't know if I'm capable of doing that.

So, whether this blog ends up being well read, or you're just here to get a writing sample because you saw my name on a job application, or if I'm just screaming into the void.

Welcome!

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