This is a major theme of the current trump presidency. We are still digging out of the damage done by his first era. We are still digging ourselves out of the damage done by previous eras. This administration has made the hole several magnitudes deeper

I know the NY Times is a large organization, much of which does critical work, but they are encouraging and laundering a witch-hunt against some of the most vulnerable people in society. Their anti-trans bias is blatant and persistent and, frankly, evil. They are doing harm to real people.

Going to reshare this again for no real reason whatsoever. www.vox.com/policy-and-p...

Here is first of three personal highlights from the script. I like the idea that after regeneration the Doctor's previous personas retire and spend time in a 'temporal cul-de-sac'

Stirring video by Zelenskyy here, showing the bunker for the first time. www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

It’s great (derogatory) that you can work very hard to find out something incredibly important, and the main response you will get is a derisive “Gee, I’m shocked.” Somebody has to ACTUALLY DO THIS WORK! You can’t pursue justice by going “Your honor: I mean, duh.”

Had an actual fever dream including melting cake, Twitch streamers, and the ghost of my maternal grandmother.

When the big breaking news finally comes, before they even have the chance to lower the flags to half-mast, the entire world will be like...

One thing the rise of AI content has revealed is that a LOT of famous content creators (to use a loathsome term) don't actually know why their viewers like them. Especially online, personality is the key, not just generic content. People will consume the latter, but they will seek out the former.

It's like he's trying to become the textbook example of "projection."

"Don't engage, just block" is part of what makes Bluesky awesome

Yglesias is one of the shallowest and least principled media figures I can imagine. His philosophy is essentially "Poll people and just do what's popular." Not only does that not address the difficulties of polling -- it fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of representative government.

This picture is so crazy that if you had this as a scene in a made-for-TV dystopian scifi movie in like 2014 people would switch channels because you’d ruined the suspension of disbelief.

ChatGPT confidently bullshitting incorrect answers gives strong 'public schoolboy at Oxbridge interview' vibes

Talking with people who love ChatGPT feels like I’m at a party where boring people play Cards Against Humanity and convince themselves they’re funny.

Frankly, Obama and his team unfortunately believed their own PR and were always bizarrely blind to how the GOP was realigning itself solely around opposition and grievance. They were constantly criticized for it at the time, and it was one reason some preferred Hillary.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t journalists who don’t want to be writers. There are probably people where this is their dream job, just talking to people and taking notes and then on to the next. But treating writing as pointless drudgery nobody enjoys is such a tell of soullessness.

Fingers crossed she does it again.

When we talk about the ~ozempic discourse~ it's easy to think about that as a kind of broad social or marketing pressure that's applied equally to everyone with a body. It's worth noting that it shows up in more acute & targeted ways, too. I'm getting more emails like this one than I have in years.

DIRTBAGS AHOY maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/epis...

Studies keep showing AI doesn't help, often does things worse than humans, and in fact, makes humans worse. All this and -- as a bonus -- it's going to absolutely destroy the environment and people who support it think there will be servers in space. We still can -- and should -- say no.

It’s true that human cognition is poorly understood and the question ‘what makes us human?’ has changed a lot over time as various technologies have emerged. But the fact that thinking and speech can now be simulated doesn’t call into question thinking and speech themselves.

Watch this ->

This is true, and even if we get rid of Trump, we still have to reckon with the fact that a substantial proportion of US economic and political elites were *eager* to jump on the fascism train. They will still be the same people when Trump is gone.

15%?!??? Only if it crashes into absolute chaos and desolation first. Which sounds pretty Trumpian, to be fair.

who runs the world | patreon.com/lubchansky

The Anthony Perkins/Stephen Sondheim script for The Last of Sheila features James Mason as a quite charming character who is also a paedophile. All of his rich, elite friends know this about him, or at least suspect. I always thought that felt unlikely. Turns out, I was incredibly wrong.

It's kind of amazing how the worst consequence many of our most powerful people can conceive of is someone being mad at them online, to the degree that they are driven to distraction about it even in the abstract.

I really wish the Bluesky Nothing Matters Committee would keep its opinions to itself.

Long thread: I was so devastated by the news about the Washington Post this morning that I did not get out of bed until well into the afternoon. I worked at the Post — on the digital side first before print and digital merged — for more than a decade. It's been my hometown paper my whole life.

If you spend even a few minutes a week complaining online about media or food or whatever that you aren't being forced to endure or paid to review, reconsider your life choices. Complaining about a thing and finding others to complain with won't make anything better, and it won't make you happy.

INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

The Washington Post dies in broad daylight.

always bears repeating that this is NOT a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post

Astonishingly, gratifyingly, and often, over the years, by-the-skin-of-its-teethingly, my old stomping ground, the WCP, abides and endures. Get on that.

1. Build huge subscriber base by telling them their $ supports democracy. 2. Don’t establish other revenue sources. 3. Rug-pull subscribers by pushing opinion side to the right. 4. Subscribers leave, revenue falls. 5. Enact crippling newsroom cuts.

I’ve a new Doctor Who story out in April! The sixth Doctor, Peri, and Turlough navigate political shenanigans in the aftermath of Agincourt in A Crucible of Queens!

In a normal peace process, Ukraine would walk away from talks because it would be obvious that Russia isn't serious about deescalating. But Trump would take that as evidence that Ukraine doesn't want peace and retaliate, so they continue.

What's especially ironic about this is that their experts are representatives of conservative non-profits who almost certainly have a vast network of questionable donors. On the right, everything is about who's paying you. They can't actually imagine people doing things for free.

What is wildest to me is that both Spielberg and Jennifer Hudson have the Tonys in their EGOTs because they produced A Strange Loop.

Just think about the amazing Epstein scoops the new CBS Evening News contributors will have just by interviewing each other.

I also think the drumbeat of anti-intellectualism/anti-academia a lot of these kids grew up with (along with changes in higher ed itself) has probably understandably made them more likely to go to college but see it as strictly transactional and not be particularly inclined to struggle.

Highlight of my career, probably

RIP Catherine O'Hara, who managed to steal every scene she was in

Even if Putin follows Trump's request not to bomb Ukraine's energy sites for a week, it doesn't change the fact that he's bombed them for months, severely degrading the power system and leaving millions without heat, water, and power.

Emperors of Rome is now an inpdepenent podcast and looking for listener support on Patreon. Thanks to everyone who's listened to the show over the years! To find out more, check out here: www.patreon.com/romepodcast

It was possible to know that the DHS secretary was comfortable with provable lies for some time now. substack.com/@johnfdicker...

ugh why is everybody calling my masked armed death squads who kidnap kindergartners the gestapo

The AI philosopher getting dunked on does, in fact, have a PhD in Philosophy from NYU and has published and been quoted many times. The title is not (entirely) self-given. For those who aren't familiar, philosophy is not immune to faddism, trends, and absolutely nonsensical bullshit.