Thank you to @economist.com for the chance to write this week about philanthropic freedoms -- the freedom of expression, the freedom to give, the freedom to invest. These rights are enshrined in the First Amendment. They have been bedrock for more than 2 centuries. And they are now under attack.

I said something last week that is more broadly applicable today: Calling for empathy is not neutral or apolitical when only one group of people have been socialized and brutalized into having empathy.

Long-held freedoms—the freedom to give, the freedom to invest, the freedom to speak—are in question. But we can and must stand firm in our values and build a more inclusive future. Read more in my annual essay for @macfound.org: www.macfound.org/about/reflec...

Friends in philanthropy: let's Unite in Advance. #CourageIsContagious #UniteInAdvance nonprofitquarterly.org/unite-in-adv...

This is right. The fact that they’re doing this to “innocent people” is not irrelevant, but it’s ultimately not the point. People convicted of crimes have rights too. And you can be damn sure that if they want to convict them - or me, or you - of something, they will.

"We’ve seen this before in American history and across the globe. Weaponized oversight. Intimidation dressed up as transparency. It is not new. But our response must be." @macfound.bsky.social

A) Everyone should have protected free speech. No one should being kidnapped, imprisoned, and/or sent to a country that is not their home. B) There are millions of American citizens who can't prove their citizenship. It's not a longshot. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

"A country that has pushed one group out of its political community will eventually push out others. The Trump administration’s barrage of attacks on trans people can seem haphazard, but as elements of a denationalization project, they fall into place." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/o...

You need to understand the damage & horror a disgruntled or bigoted border agent can cause you, EVEN IF YOU HAVE CITIZENSHIP. The status of being in a country is just a category on a system: It doesn't become magically protected even if you have a BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

This has been rattling in my brain recently. Whence ambiguity? (excuse the egregious umlauts of the New Yorker, to wit: "Rather than allowing us to reëxamine history, this obsessive reënactment in factsevers us from it.") www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...

Thank you @drwolfe.bsky.social for holding up this important debate: how much, not if, to increase how much we give away -- as foundations, families, individuals???

"What’s happening in the US is some sort of weird hybrid of the kind of power grabs we’ve seen in the tech industry, combined with a more traditional collapse of democratic institutions. The destruction is far more systematic and dangerous than many realize.”

Actually basing choices on 'merit' and 'competence' wouldn't result in the leadership they think it would.

A new intervention in @macfound.bsky.social headquarters asserts the continued presence, resilience, and vibrancy of Native peoples in Chicago and the Midwest. We invited a few collaborators on the project to share their experience and reflections: www.macfound.org/press/perspe...

AI is fixin to have more rights than people. What if we weren't afraid of regulating tech? apnews.com/article/pari...

Just overhere looking up Sword of Damocles to make sure I'm using it correctly.

If the US gov is bringing back empire and colonialism, make the territories states. Change the flag. Expand voting rights. Hand out passports like candy.

Illegal, dangerous, unnecessarily expensive, and no one benefits from any of it. What a time for doomscrolling

"Okay, but we can't automate everything" -me, when I cleaned my litter robot today. www.superhuman.ai/p/saturday-t...

I think there might be an easier solution, than automating *appeals* for insurance denials www.cnbc.com/2025/01/13/h...

A little dose of AI realism for ya: "this technology is based on [hidden] work, on precarious work, on the exploitation of millions of workers." Milagros Miceli from @dairinstitute.bsky.social english.elpais.com/technology/2...

"What I am experiencing is something more like the constant mundanity of dystopia that surrounds the direct horror but is decidedly also bad." www.404media.co/were-fine-lo...

Coming back to the office after a long break, feeling both refreshed and confused by the acronyms I wrote on my to-do list before the holidays! Cheers to a new year of decoding jargon, for yourself and others 🥂

Love how *extremely online* and also very mainstream this whole thing is

so what is that silly man going to *do* with his private pyramid time

Fascism isn't coming, fascism is here, and has been www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024...

"I believe that everyone, at least once in their life, should know the joy of being locked in a byzantine financial struggle to own InfoWars" I'm listening.

“…there’s something troubling about a highway running down the middle of a park system…especially a park system that established the idea that a waterfront should be recreational space,” “We invented the idea—and then we threw a highway at it.”

You know it's a good week when the work texts are: "who needs coffee when you have chaos?!"

People don't want pink slime content!

I'm so into this interview. Featuring the question: "Why do you write even though you don’t like to write?"

the internet, where irony goes to die

'AI' does not designate a coherent set of technologies. It's a marketing term. So when they say they're using 'AI', they might be using a spreadsheet or they might be misusing an LLM. Calling their 'AI' 'responsible' doesn't clarify that either. medium.com/@emilymenonb... >>

See this film!! If you're in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, or Washington, D.C.: this Saturday at 10:30am there is a free screening near you! www.eventbrite.com/e/origin-x-s...

One unexpected thing in my qualitative study w natural scientists (one-hour interviews) is how deeply, deeply sad the climate scientists are. They say things like "you have enough information from us, why won't anyone act?" -- the psychological distress these people are enduring is very great.

It's marathon week in Chicago, and I had the opportunity to share my thoughts in the Chicago Sun-Times on why we need to be more inclusive of transgender women in sports. chicago.suntimes.com/2023/10/6/23...

It's MacArthur genius day! youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Today's happy hour discussion: Do you like your hobbies / work or are you still just trying to get a good grade?

I'm not personally into dnd, but so many of my friends are, and this story is just a beautiful gut punch www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/m...

English edition of a very fun interview discussing surveillance, AI, and why Signal is so important👇 https://schweizermonat.ch/when-ai-systems-are-used-they-are-usually-used-for-surveillance/#

Every day is Halloween, Space Unicorns! Uncanny Magazine Issue 54 Part 1 is LIVE ON YOUR INTERNET! www.uncannymagazine.com

A set of lights went out in my office and about 10 people were like "the power is out! Do we go home???" But someone had simply bumped a switch. People really don't know how the lights work in an office, and also I love that "do we go home?" energy

guy: i’m not gonna buy into woke gender ideology same guy: this cup is a girl

Seems plausible

"Sometimes the proper place for something is the past, and the thing just does not yet know it." In Alabama, White Tide Rushes On www.nytimes.com/2023/08/22/o...

bro the Vatican is literally a 15-minute country

the entire internet is gonna be this stuff by the end of the year and youll have to like, call a librarian on the phone in order to find reliable information again

Had a construction meeting for a project today that was 100% women, and never have I been more of a Barbie.