dionne brand, from “hard against the soul” (1/2)

I've begged @dailybeanspod.com and @johnfugelsang.bsky.social to please stop helping to fund Nazis. They both do SUCH good every day, their decision is heartbreaking and harmful. I'll support them on their new platform and they will give the movement against Nazis (and defunding them) so much hope!

My take on it If youre still using substack, folks i your life under threat are definitely questioning where your interests and priorities lie as all our lives are on the line. Youve already lost some if youre STILL there, tbh.

And for anyone who is held back by simply not knowing any alternatives, here are a few.

I've asked so many people to please quit substack, and if I see a substack link, I rarely, if ever, click on it. and I know amazing people that I love and respect and learn from are on there and it makes me so sad. in case it helps you to finally quit that place: www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

when I talk to teachers about this, I tell them I don't blame them for reaching for chatgpt -- they are underpaid, overworked, and unsupported. I encourage them to fight for *those* things instead of using something that will continue to ensure that they are underpaid, overworked, and unsupported.

really hating the "being anti-AI is privilege" discourse that's starting to bubble up more and more sigh

The colonial imperialist west shouldn’t be forgiven for a lot of things, and the crimes against Haiti and her people are one of them.

(the wind in Toronto is intense tonight I had a hard time walking home from the bus stop. also, with windchill, it’s going down to -31°C 🥶 be careful out there!)

sickos meme

I suck at pottery! yet I do it! the point is to get into my body and do something different with my mind! also it means 3 hours of not being on soul destroying technology! husbs and family members love my disgusting pots! I even gave some terrible but lovingly made items to my students!

Encouraging to see some members of the US Olympic team wearing masks to protect their health ahead of competition.

OK, *ongoing* thread of books to read on Palestine. Some recent, some not at all so recent.

First Nation students from grades four to eight are getting ready for the annual Anishinaabe Winter Games in Whitedog, Ontario later this month. Sports like volleyball and archery will be played, as well as the topical water boil relay race.

Authority is contextual. Academic librarian Raina Bloom @mmelibrarian.bsky.social on how “AI” developers ignore how people actually become informed. From Ep. 51 of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, “The War on Knowledge”. (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

I’m not going to quote-skeet the account saying being anti-AI is privilege and colonizer shit, and invoking Fanon in the service of AI??!!! like… where to even start

is there a golden snake account here yet that used to happen on twitter a lot

is there a golden snake account here yet that used to happen on twitter a lot

From @acyn.bsky.social (posted on X) "Reporter: Do any of you have a favorite animal? Child: My favorite one is a gold snake that can move. It has gold eyes, and it has a super-duper tail… Reporter: Mr. Mamdani, the second question for you. Mamdani: Yes. It’s also the golden snake."

I’d love to hire a local Toronto org to do live captioning for an event. any recommendations?

No excuses for this. It incensed me so much I wrote not one, but two articles linking to millions of free to use public domain images. world.hey.com/jordanacosta...

A friend who runs a blog had the nerve to tell me that he uses ChatGPT art because he respects artists so much and can't afford to pay them what they deserve. I told him to pretend it's 2010. There was a time recently when we didn't have this technology. Do the work yourself or don't do it at all!

How about the Kaatza Historical Society here on Vancouver Island.: $45k for Digital Access to Forest Worker History. Or the National Youth Orchestra - they received $10k for a project titled “Preserving the Sounds of Canada.” Seems worthy to me

In Thunder Bay, the Friends of Grain Elevators received $50k to create a project titled: Voices of the Grain Trade Oral History: Preservation and Increased Access. Or the group History of Disability Rights Nfld & Labrador got $31k for a project Preserving the Disability Rights Movement there

Thanks to the DCHP that Carney has axed, many Indigenous nations were able to record and preserve oral histories and upgrade and conserve their archival collections. For example, the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation received $32k over 2 years for an oral history project

The thing about ending the Documentary Heritage Community Program (DCHP) is that this is not big savings for the Carney government. The program gave out about $1.5m annually across the entire country. $1.5m! Peanuts! Just $15m in 10 years. But its impact was huge. I’ll post some examples below:

bad.

Death Camp For Cutie over here

Happy 45 anniversary of the Toronto bathhouse raids to all who celebrate. Our current police chief was one of the officers behind the 2000 "Pussy Palace" lesbian bathhouse raid. History is not so old.

I forgot to tell you that I was back on my bullshit

This is the Yale professor's explanation for why he described the physical attractiveness of a student in an email to Epstein. He explicitly says he regrets nothing about their association. Again, I'm so happy Yale hired David Brooks to restore trust. yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...

Funny how germane our series on the white possessive is

I’d love to hire a local Toronto org to do live captioning for an event. any recommendations?

Well. You learn something new, heartbreaking and racist everyday.

A food scientist making claims that people should be drinking raw milk should not only be persona non grata to reputable media outlets; his academic institution should be looking into whether his communications endanger public health.

(so grateful for the wonderful colleagues who agreed to be on a panel with me to push back against some of the genAI bullshit at my institution 🥰)

no disrespect, but I'm not subscribing to your Substack for reasons that should be obvious if you google words like "substack" and "nazis"

In our world, $5 is easy to lose. In theirs, it is hope. Food for an empty stomach, medicine for pain, or warmth on a cold night. Small acts of generosity can protect fragile lives. @savasavasava.myatproto.social @kyrarogers.bsky.social

“Feeling incredibly frustrated and put-upon in my job with the Totenkopfverbände.”

argh the exhibit I wanted to take my visual culture and technology class to ended before I thought it was ending! Toronto folks: any suggestions/ideas for exhibits/shows around town that might be good for this context?

I reskeeted this and it doesn't have alt text which I don't usually do, sorry! alt text: a sign hanging in the window of what appears to be a bookshop, with bold white sans serif all caps lettering on a black background that says, FUCK SOCIAL MEDIA. MARRY BOOKS. KILL AI.

If we care about polarization, public discourse, and trust, understanding who’s actually making the content is as important as what they’re seeing.

New fuck/marry/kill list just dropped

I just used "kowtow" in a text #boomer

I'm in an info session about campus safety, considering moving to a "special constable" model rather than our current "security" set up, and all these people keep using the term "trauma informed" and I really want to ask if they think "being a cop" can be a trauma informed position

After a lengthy appeals process and productive discussion with the Blue Sky safety team I will no loinger be sending George Thorogood lyrics to beautiful women on here via DM. Thank you all

(someone I know was doing a research project with art students asking them to use image generation AI stuff for their art class and I told them they couldn’t force students to use it and so they changed the research design on my insistence and EVERY SINGLE STUDENT REFUSED TO USE IT AHAHAHAHAHA)

Nature discovers a level below Nature Scientific Reports archive.today/2026.02.03-0... > The vision of human-level machine intelligence laid out by Alan Turing in the 1950s is now a reality. Eyes unclouded by dread or hype will help us to prepare for what comes next. you fucking idiots

There’s still a ways to go before doctors and scientists fully understand pediatric long COVID, but three upcoming clinical trials are on the horizon. This article was published with @thesicktimes.org, a nonprofit newsroom covering long COVID:

US diplomats warned that Israel was turning Gaza into an “apocalyptic wasteland” with “catastrophic human needs.” Then the US government armed and funded the effort and watched it happen. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...