Is It Indian Culture or Hindu (Brahmin) Culture that creates excellence?

June 1, 2025 X.T.M 71 Comments filed under Popular, X.T.M

On Faizan Zaki, Spelling Bees, and Civilizational Osmosis

Another year, another Spelling Bee crown for an Indian American. But this one, the 100th Scripps tournament, is different.

Faizan Zaki—young, brilliant, and by name Muslim—just became the latest in a long line of Indian-origin champions of America’s most idiosyncratic intellectual ritual. Faizan is the 32nd Indian American to win—meaning they’ve claimed 32 out of the last 40 Spelling Bees. But he is very likely the first Muslim American to do so.

Which raises an old but essential question: Continue reading Is It Indian Culture or Hindu (Brahmin) Culture that creates excellence?

Flame Thread Protocols: Honey Kabir

June 1, 2025 X.T.M 81 Comments filed under Open Thread, Popular, X.T.M

A Note from the Editor

Flame thread warning: Honey vs. Kabir.

Last night’s open thread surged past 50 comments—most of it orbiting the now-familiar friction between the two.

Let me be clear: I’m inclined toward Kabir. He’s often overwrought, sometimes hyperbolic, but he’s a known quantity. He’s been part of this space for nearly a decade. He is a “real person.” We know how he argues, where he lands, and the limits of his provocations.

Honey is harder to read. Multiple handles. No clear background. No track record. And a rhetorical posture that feels less like engagement, more like carpet bombing—especially when it comes to Pakistan. There’s a difference between critique and hatred, and it’s usually in the tone. “Pakistanis under-endowed”—LOL, happy to disprove that.

Moderation is evolving. I no longer think of it as refereeing an online debate. I think of it like hosting a discussion in my living room. That means: Continue reading Flame Thread Protocols: Honey Kabir

Jet Lag: India, Pakistan, and the Theatre of the Air

June 1, 2025 X.T.M 71 Comments filed under Open Thread, Popular, X.T.M

Since the commentariat can’t resist a good Indo-Pak exchange—especially when it involves fighter jets—here’s a fresh contribution to the theatre. Personally, I’m much more interested in Concord cafés and JD Vance’s selective memory, but one must feed the algorithmic gods. So here’s what S. Qureishi gleefully shared:

A day after Subramanian Swamy accepted 5 jets were down in a Hindi interview, Indian CDS Gen Chauhan accepts jet losses in the recent encounter to Bloomberg. What’s more he accepted that the Indian planes did not fly after May 6-7 and were grounded,

Take that as you will. Fog of war, political spin, or just belated candor—either way, the skies are louder than the silence.

As an aside, I’ve always found Pakistani commentary on India—the civilizational motherland, however estranged—to be oddly fixated. It’s like staring into a mirror with the lights off.

Anyway—comment away, and please play nice. After all, xperia2015 has author privileges and can selectively void what he likes.

“A Foreign Class of Servants” — JD Vance and the Great American Amnesia

June 1, 2025 X.T.M 10 Comments filed under X.T.M

Vice President JD Vance recently declared that America doesn’t need to “import a foreign class of servants” to remain competitive. “We did it in the ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “We put a man on the moon with American talent. Some German and Jewish scientists who had come over during World War two, but mostly by American citizens.”

The line is memorable—not for its nationalism, but for its breathtaking amnesia.

The moon landing was not the product of some closed, white-bread meritocracy. It was powered by German engineers, Jewish refugees, and immigrant scientists—many quite literally “imported.” Wernher von Braun, the face of NASA’s rocket program, was a former Nazi, repurposed by America for its Cold War dreams.

Today, the immigrant pipeline Vance sneers at includes his own in-laws—his wife’s parents, Indian-born academics. I’ve highlighted this problematic tendency before. They weren’t servants. They were scholars. Like hundreds of thousands who have powered this country’s universities, tech firms, hospitals, and labs. America doesn’t run on pedigree. It runs on brains. And yes, those brains often have accents.

America First doesn’t mean America stays first Continue reading “A Foreign Class of Servants” — JD Vance and the Great American Amnesia