really good thread

By retreating only to "kitchen table issues" to avoid being labeled "woke," Democratic leaders have left an open goal for the GOP. When you treat the harassment of vulnerable communities as a "distraction" rather than a crisis, you're not avoiding a fight: you're just forfeiting it.

"Mamdani walks in an older Jewish tradition. Not that of ritzy Upper East Side synagogues, but of so many of our great-grandparents: the socialist sweatshop workers who fought for a better and more beautiful world." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I used to think X had no public utility but it is developing into some sort of monument to billionaire hubris. It's a living museum of paranoiac mania, a Grey Gardens situation.

I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...

I've been tracking the spread of nonconsensual deepfakes on X for more than two years. Here's a timeline of how Musk's leadership allowed the practice to flourish from a once-underground market to a viral trend, with little recourse for victims or legal enforcement. spitfirenews.com/p/grok-csam-...

This is the "testing the waters" phase of the playbook. The GOP ecosystem targets groups like Somalis, Haitians, and trans people specifically because they've calculated that the average person's passive disapproval won't ever turn into active defense. They're exploiting public apathy.

new WHT ... just another round of Nice Stuff ... whats-helping-today.beehiiv.com/p/nice-stuff...

Honestly? If you email or message me today I consider it an act of aggression. Your name goes on a list. Sure, no one is COMPELLED to open messages when you send them but also? Read the room.

"There was a protest outside the offices, and the Times’ response was to run a story defending J.K. Rowling [“In Defense of J.K. Rowling” by Pamela Paul, Feb. 16, 2023]. They ran that story the next day. That was their attitude towards it."

On X this week there were a bunch of viral posts about how Bluesky sucks and now because of the Grok CSAM trend (ugh) there are a bunch of viral follow-up posts being like actually maybe the Bluesky people are right

An absolutely perfect piece from @mollycrabapple.bsky.social "To be a socialist meant to be a human, to affirm that there was more to life than the brutish quest for coin. Not just wages, but dignity. Not just bread, but roses too."

Definitely hope some outlets do some follow-up reporting on the claims in this interview.

Re-upping this @coyotemedia.org article from November for my fellow Californians for reasons that speak for themselves.

yup. as many including myself have long observed: our nation's largest psychiatric providers are prisons

There have been no good reasons for staying on Twitter for years now, but at this point you will have to follow up any of your remaining excuses with “…and I don’t care about the child pornography.”

Early transing for a few years you see and experience gender everywhere and then you realize "wait I'm bored of this and this can't be my whole personality" and THEN years later it comes back around when you realize ppl who haven't gone through that rarely have any personality at all so fuck it

Same thing with that obnoxious "Grok apologized!" screenshot that was going around yesterday. It was specifically asked by a user to do that! It's something that just tells you whatever it is you want to hear. Stop acting like it has insights into company policy and stuff.

In 2026, manifesting a column about AI and mental health for myself, somewhere ...

I wrote about why this is terrible journalism a few months back www.readtpa.com/p/stop-prete...

if an ikea product doesn't have a name like this i just don't fucking trust it

this is worth reading. a longtime NYT insider confirms that the paper's abrupt turn into seething anti-trans bigotry came directly from the top: AG Sulzberg and his 2 deputies, Joe Kahn and Carolyn Ryan transnews.network/p/a-directiv...

as a journalist whose focus has long been psychiatry (as it intersects with industry and such): lemme as ever repeat, it's sure familiar, this playbook ...

This brainrot is more responsible for the rise of authoritarianism in the US than any of the wokeness it will not shut up about

Maybe I'm a little too online. I just referred to clicking a link as "going to a second location."

also, everybody else: signal boosts appreciated ...

STOP. PUBLISHING. STORIES. LIKE. THIS.

Anyone wanna share anything? Maybe this will become a WHT ...

I want to keep a joy thread this year. This'll be all about the things bringing me joy or fun in 2026, both big and small. Hopefully it's a reminder for myself through the tough times, as well as maybe even inspiration for you, too.

Anyway, if your definition of "men" doesn't include trans men, please fucking work on that. Yes even queer folks, I'm including you.

one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!

This interview with a retired editor from the NYT who is transgender is really indightful and worth your time

you’d only need to fire/black list a dozenish people but so many are senior plus ag

Almost cute, when the times suddenly cares what readers think, once in a while. Imagine if the times gave a fuck what trans people think, just saying ...

There are multiple national political commentators who earnestly predicted that Eric Adams would be a legitimate presidential candidate and a national figurehead of the Democratic party by now and those commentators still have careers somehow.

Did a billionaire write this?

I made a site that's a hub for LGBT+ resources on moving to relatively friendly nations (including as refugees). It's not much, and I hope no one needs it, but if they do, it's here. I named it something ambiguous so people without their own device wouldn't be outed by the name greenbicyclehub.me

Trans people, tell me something good that's happened to you recently? Or something you are looking forward to in this new year? The world is depressing as fuck ... I could stand to hear some positive things ...

scientific classification, lol

I did a TON of "straight" dating back in the day ... I don't know if being on the apps as a trans man is better or worse per se than it was for me back then ... but it sure comes with a whole host of new headaches.

Yeah. My profile says like 'no chasers, no TERFs, no straight men' and all such things and nonetheless ... these people persist ...

I have likewise met partners on apps! I'm aware it *can* work! Hence I continue the misery of swiping and smalltalk ...

I put out a public playlist a month ... this month's: "between no things" ... open.spotify.com/playlist/6ZS...

I mean, I don't go on dating apps because it's fun! I don't think anyone alive does. I do so because I'm single and live rurally and am lonely as fuck ...

it sure frustrates me when TERFS are queer, just saying this aloud ...

Genuine question ... for whoever's on this website at this time of day .... Is there a word for people on online dating apps who are like 'I DON'T DATE MEN EW' and who nonetheless pursue trans men? Other than TERF?

So glad her husband got that job so at least one cartoonist in New York can have health insurance.

First meme of 2026 just dropped

may 2026 be the year political journalism is shot behind a barn and replaced by thorough investigative reporting

i didn’t know you could have an entire week of sundays