I haven’t been paying attention so I’m hoping someone can catch me up: why we pretending we’re going to mastodon now?

Starting a series of ambivalent posts designed to help me and other Humanities and related academic types develop a healthy working relationship with AI

At campus-novel, I begin a series in which I try and bring AI down to earth, if only for my own sanity. campus-novel.ghost.io/towards-a-hu...

Not one of these companies has to settle. As private companies, Internet companies can deplatform whomever they want. They are settling soley to pay tribute and signal their obeisance.

I was filled with despair before it was cool

Academic freedom comes with the responsibility to convey field consensus on a range of topics. In the case of the distinction between sex and gender, it’s clear across many fields: social sciences, biological sciences, humanities, and more. No threats can make us stop teaching this or any knowledge

Thank god for books, the only escape from this horrid timeline I’ve got left now that alcohol, drugs, and mania are off the table

I think about digital security in the age of autocracy a lot. This thread from 7 months ago needs some updating and grain. I am especially concerned about folks working in higher education, most of whom are still in denial as to the degree to which they are being surveilled.

Ambivalence is the engine of thought. But also sleepy-making.

So... social media under an autocracy. How exactly is that supposed to work? Asking for a friend

Every now and then I like to check in on what the democrats in congress are doing to fight the accelerating encroachments of populist autocracy. Always inspiring

Faculty and university senates are dying. At Campus Novel I try and make the case for why everyone—and not just faculty — should be freaking out

I just read about the Trump administration canceling a $14 million federal grant to end raw sewage seeping into yards and spreading hookworm in Alabama's Black Belt, and not one headline will refer to this as "political violence."

At Campus Novel-- my jeremiad on the attack on university and faculty senates and why all of higher education—and beyond—stands to lose.

Looks like the remaining handful of us can divvy things up now. I’ll take Radio City Music Hall and that weird ass place at the end of Nashville where everyone sang “It Don’t Worry Me.”

wrote on charlie kirk for the newsletter this weekend

Usually this corner is occupied by old hippies protesting as old hippies do. But every 9/11 this guy shows up and everyone lets him have his own stage.

I used to do a lot of stand up. But in my later years I have discovered it is better for everyone if I do it sitting down

I always dreamed I would be the first millennial saint. It's been my dream since 1972

I cannot decide what I feel about this movie. I love body horror and thought the leads and script were terrific but … the end. Is the film ultimately celebrating this as a happy ending? I fear it is 😬 #filmsky

And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again

Why anyone would seek out anti-aging products in 2025 is beyond me. I'm looking for whatever will speed this shit up.

Sooner we realize AI isn’t going to allow companies to fire workers the sooner we can crush Silicon Valley valuations and get down to work understanding what these tools can actually accomplish that aligns with OUR goals and values.

Quitting Duolingo was almost as tough as kicking booze and nicotine. But dang it feels good to be free from that rapidly degenerating time trap

Let this be a lesson to all you kids. Goggles are cool

After 35 years as a humanities scholar, I can share one piece of wisdom. Each year you'll become more aware of how much you do not know. A lifetime of study atomizes intellectual hubris. It is something akin to enlightement, I suspect, & easier if you surrender fantasies of "mastery" at the door.

Never remember!

“Aw crap, guys: they’re on to us! “

They are talking about 300,000 paying customers and 5 billion in revenue—NOT profits. This valuation and the venture cash pouring into this is insane and can only end one way. And we will be left bailing Big AI out

Please subscribe to my onlyfans where I share the dirty bits … of higher education policy and governance 🥵

The main British gambling company is called Ladbrokes, which I think displays a truth in advertising US sports betting companies should adopt. DraftPaupers, for example, would be a lot more accurate than DraftKings

Do we ever learn where the boys were before they were back in town?

The Jurassic Park of pedophiliac resorts. "This time it'll be great, guys! Trust me!"

Posting this gif for no reason 😂

What’s the movie you tell yourself and anyone who asks is your favorite? And what is the one you actually return to time and again because it never lets you down? For me it is WILD STRAWBERRIES. And SNATCH

I miss the old cracker

I’m ready to become a prepper. What do I need to do to prepare to prep. Cisterns are involved, I believe? Perhaps burlap, duct tape, and lotion?

Have I got a mosquito joke for you! It’s malarious 😂

Long after universities have crumbled to dust beneath the boot heel of authoritarianism, this tradition will persist— a candle forever lit to remind us all that, well, faculty were truly annoying

First they came for the fake civil war statues erected in the 30s to defend segregation. Then they came for Cracker Barrel’s ol’ Cracker. American culture is under assault.

How did I not know Chumbawamba wrote this anti-fascist anthem?: So if you meet with these historians, I'll tell you what to say
 Tell them that the Nazis never really went away
 They're out there burning houses down and peddling racist lies
And we'll never rest again until every Nazi dies

I’m also so old I remember when the Democrats were good at politics. JK. No one is that old

I’m so old I remember when the GOP was against tariffs and loathed the idea of government ownership of private corporations and anything that might increase the debt, and the idea of the federal government sending troops to occupy cities was their worst nightmare. Seems like only yesterday

Wanna know what it’s like to be an English Professor and secretary of the university senate in 2025?

Send me anonymous messages. Just be sure to sign them with funny names like Pip or Lucky Pierre

If you think your chatbot is your friend you are delusional. If you don't say please and thank you to it, you are a monster

Please god let me live long enough to spit on some graves. A whole lotta graves.

Fuck growth.

Searched the libgen database to see how much of my writing was hovered to train OpenAI and Anthropic’s LLMs—and there were two books and a score of essays. For me this is fine. I am an academic and my scholarship is subsidized by my state institution and should belong to the commons. 1/3

I am not against AI. I am against: 1. Calling it "AI" 2. Silicon Valley snakeoil & bullshit hype 3. The drive to make models ever bigger with no concern for environmental impact or evidence that "more, faster, bigger" is making the models better 4. Silicon Valley technofascists & their fantasies 1/∞