I think (??) Tressie McMillan Cottom used the phrase "beneath analysis" for some of the bs happening right now in the AI space. And that's how I feel about data center discourse these days. It's cartoonishly evil and extractive -- and it's like what more can be said?

I find it very embarrassing for our field that we've been having to repeat this about "AI" and writing instruction since I was one-year old (from an article by Fred Kemp in a 1987 issue of Writing Center Journal)

As a fan of both Sylvia Wynter and Gabriela Raquel Ríos, this is def on my to-buy/read list uapress.arizona.edu/2026/04/exce...

Michigan Governor caught on hot mic with Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, discussing citizen opposition to AI data centers, bragging how she ignores their concerns: “We’re used to people saying 'f*ck no,' & doing it anyway.”🇺🇸

the signs say it all: un mundo mejor es posible / a better world is possible

It's really frustrating to have to spend time swatting at shitty articles like this when the developers of the data center we're protesting IN THE PHOTO has permits to drill wells and extract up to 31 million gallons of groundwater each year. www.vox.com/future-perfe... archive.is/DqPNZ

Stealing this conference bingo from a different #RSA26

Really grateful for this article, but also unsettled with the Jacobin piece referenced. It's clear (to me) that the author hasn't spoken w/ communities who are organizing in astounding ways to slow, stop, or question the buildout of data centers. This is a profound coalitional movement — +

The anti-data center movement isn’t just about limiting local development—it represents a new front in the fight against tech-enabled authoritarianism. Where else can people push back on job-eating algorithms, distorting deep fakes, and autonomous drone strikes? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Life comes at you fast. Over the weekend, I received a royalty check for sales on my book (a nice steak dinner, lol!). On Monday, I see I have one review on Amazon (one star, lolsob).

after a pretty busy spring semester, I'm delighted to announce that I am planning on taking more naps, reading more to my kids, and enjoying longer walks.

Looking forward to talking with folks at UMD this week! My talk is "Accelerate or Die? Digital Damage After AI Acceleration"

All this to employ maybe 200 people and emit more carbon that the whole state of New Mexico. I hope the bubble bursts tomorrow.

researching the financial arrangements (shell companies, political consultants, law firms) of the Stargate Project (openAI/Oracle) has me wrecked

can't a guy (me) go to a coffeeshop without seeing another guy vibe code on claude ?

The fight for the living world is upon us... back to writing!! 😰

"If the data centers we rely on are built on the infrastructural remains of colonial and imperial ideologies, we must interrogate how these spaces and histories shape our engagement with the newest manifestation of these ideologies."

I think part of the problem, at least in rhetcomp, is too many people never took comparative, BIPOC, and global nonwestern rhetorics and rhetorical histories seriously. Planning to present on this at RSA.

Cameron Tonkinwise thank you for transcribing my sick burn "I see most people being obsessed with [...] your H index or how many papers you've published. This is all nonsense. And it's completely radical to say, I don't care about this. And what I care about is doing a good job at my actual job.”

I'm still laughing that that lady's change dot org campaign has like 8 signatures

"People are afraid they'll be criticized if they talk about AI at Cs" man, none of you would last a second as a transsexual woman

Phew, problem solved

We've had the rise and fall of both the metaverse AND crypto crypto within the last 5 years. This isn't just bad history; this is a concerning lack of short-term memory.

It's wild to me that one the repeating themes against refusal as a framework is iterations of "we never responded this way to technology in the past."

IMO, this is one reason (of many) why milquetoast AI literacy lessons are such a failure: they don't engage students with questions like, "Should 'robot dogs' be deployed to protect the sprawling infrastructure of AI?"

We're in hell

I admit my patience for polite discourse with genAI hypers is dwindling. When scholars who should know better insist on false dilemmas ("face the future or get left behind") and generally bad faith reasoning, I start to find the "ridicule as praxis" approach pretty appealing.

People asking for decorum about genAI need to get a grip. Billionaires are poisoning our planet for slop. We should be more RUDE.

Writing Faculty Push for the Right to Refuse AI www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in... Very grateful for Kathryn Palmer's reporting and the opportunity to speak with her about this topic.

Reporting in @insidehighered.com on the CCCC Resolution on Academic Freedom and Upholding Students' and Teachers' Right to Refuse Generative AI in the Writing Classroom that was passed at the #4c26 Annual Business Meeting.

V much looking forward to delivering new work & visiting folks at WVU next month! Hyperscaling: Policy and Protest in the AI Supply Chain wvu.libcal.com/event/157334...

Yeah, man, it’s an absolute mystery why so many people are going all in on AI refusal. Maybe they absolutely do understand the ways in which AI is “useful” to the people hawking AI in the words of those very people.

I've seen it all (and it's not good)

Heard the good word that my article, "Weathering the Rhetorical Climates of AI," received an honorable mention for the Richard Braddock Award in the journal College Composition and Communication. publicationsncte.org/content/jour...

Last week, I had the immense honor (and responsibility) of facilitating a dialogue about organizing against AI data centers in the US-Mexico Borderlands. I am very pleased to share a recording of the event www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E43...

"I don't want to shame students. I want to shame Jeff Bezos" is something I said during a presentation I gave today. But really that's my politics when it comes to GenAI: recognize the social and cultural force of AI boosterism. Soft on people, hard on structure (and billionaires).

Data centers are everywhere these days, so what better time to announce that @melhogan.bsky.social, @dustinedwards.bsky.social and I are expanding our #CriticalDataCenterStudies article into a book at @routledgebooks.bsky.social! Here’s our article for a teaser: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Here's one thing we can do: share this video w the folks on our campuses who need to hear it the most! "Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers"

In this episode of The Data Fix, Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus, Gilberto Manzanarez and I discuss on-the-ground opposition to two data centers being built against the will of local residents:

Felt so honored to host this dialogue yesterday! What I couldn't help but think, however, is that the people on my campus who needed to hear this most did not attend. A strategic choice to keep AI environmental concerns abstracted.

Let’s play a game. Which of these are data centers, and which are ICE detention centers?

Every so often you get to do really cool things at universities. This is one of them. Can't wait to facilitate a dialogue on Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers on Feb 24th.

Every so often you get to do really cool things at universities. This is one of them. Can't wait to facilitate a dialogue on Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers on Feb 24th.

I took a close look at the latest Department of Homeland Security AI use case inventory, which details over 200 applications across DHS component agencies, including CBP and ICE. DHS is rapidly deploying these tools in US cities, while increasingly engaging in violence and defying court orders.

The problem is that blue states are fully committed to “return on investment” analysis and are fully committed to undergrad business degrees and whatever the latest tech trend is. There is no theory of holistic education supported by democratic leadership.

In the most desolate, American techno-fascist story one can imagine: ICE descends on a data center construction site in Louisiana to abduct workers. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The vibe I bring to the function: week 9: addressing technologies of distortion and control week 10: SPRING BREAK 😜

I deeply regret having those big fall 2025 plans to reimagine my spring 2026 class.

Excited to be headed to Toronto for MLA where I will be presenting with great folks on GenAI Refusal. I will be presenting "After Accelerationism: A Collage of Community Testimony from the AI Supply Chain."

"We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....