ericano

Getting to our 7th prime minister since 2016 I wonder if anything happened back then that so destabilised our constitutional and political order?

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

Nigel Farage Listens to the News

This might be the best video ever

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

Great essay, worth reading. We are "ruled" by sociopaths. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Kevin, Jesus most likely was a Pharisee. Invective explained through this. (The real textual examples get rolling in part two, linked at the end of the piece.)

“viewpoint diversity” is a right-wing political project, as lisa siraganian explores in great detail here: www.aaup.org/academe/issu...

pretty convincing secretaryrofdefenserock.substack.com/p/america-as...

It's funny to me when people who love to go on about second order effects of economic policies and the challenges of central planning without local knowledge suddenly drop all of that when it comes to foreign policy.

As a professional military strategist, I just wanted to make sure everyone has a full understanding of the American strategy in Iran, thank you for your attention to this matter

Short and to the point. An independent team of virologists and experts, most of the SAGO group assembled after the WHO disbanded the original inquiry, finds no reason to favor any hypothesis above zoonosis for the pandemic. Buries the DEFUSE distraction in a few paras. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

the main reason to go after the rich is that if you don’t the entire structure of your society is predicated on the whims of people who are entirely disconnected from ordinary life billionaires are simply too dangerous to exist, and any budgetary stuff that comes out of it is just a bonus

There is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well. buff.ly/cAvzilr

There is something deeply obscene about the way the blockchain bros ("the data is correct, and therefore immutable") pivoted to being AI bros, in which the foundations are fundamentally broken due to bad data. In the words of Paul to Timothy "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

🗃️ Tyler Austin Harper’s insane Andrew Mellon Foundation hit piece, which of course @theatlantic.com was happy to print, has rightfully pissed off everyone in the Humanities. As someone who works in higher education funding, here is a 🧵 on why this article is even more infuriating than you think.

Another very smart data post from @mtkonczal.bsky.social on inflation and affordability. Conventional calculations of real income or wages miss the fact that prices of "essentials" - food, shelter, utilities, transport - rose faster than overall prices. newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/why-afford...

I love libertarians

My latest, with a big lift from @wbmosler.bsky.social stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/warren-mos...

After a provocation from Todd Kashdan I wrote up some frustrations I have with "wellbeing science", specifically the idea that it was born with life satisfaction scales. I think this belief is untrue and unhelpful. profmarkfabian.substack.com/p/airing-my-...

Everybody should watch this and see this woman, who has a baby in her arms and is thrust into basically a standoff, develop courage in real time.

saw someone say JD Vance is defending this ICE killer more than he defended his own wife and kids from racists and that's real

This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

whenever you get stuck behind a paywall, just plug the link into archive.ph

Necessary piece on the insanity of pursuing ‘price stability’ through sky high rates during a massive deflation in a developing country that depends on heavily on volatile food and energy imports. (by @jwmason.bsky.social et al). open.substack.com/pub/jwmason/...

🚨new article🚨 "Polarisation" has become one of those terms commonly used to discuss the dire state of politics and democracy today Here @juanroch.bsky.social, @daniel-balinhas.bsky.social and I argue that this simplistic framing is counterproductive 🧵Thread🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Australia just recorded zero cervical cancer cases in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982. The amazing result of HPV vaccination.

This new report from the Grantham Institute is crucial. And it's quite striking to see it published... it seems to indicate people are willing to consider policy ideas long treated as taboo. www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...

Before Trump began his coup plotting, U.S. companies had already been looting Venezuela of billions for years. Now the State Department wants to install a leader the majority of Venezuelans dislike. Maureen Tkacik reports: trib.al/oEszvvE

This one really is useful because you won’t see a more clear demonstration of one of the most damaging political phenomena of the era: the reactionary professional mind rejecting unacceptable reality, only able to process and comprehend it via something close to conspiracy theory.

New art video just dropped! The 7 Trillion Dollar Seance 🔮 This is meant to be performed live, recited in front of the video at conferences, museums, public events. It got a standing ovation at Tech Together in NYC. Your phone works but best on your largest screen. vimeo.com/1116289621 🧵

The richest man on earth owns X. The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok. The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post. See the problem here?

www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-politi...

'There is an element of self-fulfilling prophecy as many people start accepting that immigration is indeed a major concern for ‘the people’, if not for them. As such, they stop protesting or asking for better as they are made to feel their views are marginal' aurelmondon.medium.com/the-people-l...

It's only possible to argue that Merkel's "We can do this" moment directly led to today's rise of the anti-liberal far right if you ignore the fact that all the movements he cites suffered a precipitous drop in popularity in the 2017-2022 period. Of course Bret Stephens does just that.

We need to know what humans do before we argue that machines can do it just the same. There can’t be AI literacy without a literacy in being human: how we make meaning in work and life, distinguishing the artificial from the imaginary from the true. mail.cyberneticforests.com/human-litera...

New today: "Why does the US support Israel's crimes?" jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...

1. The philosophy of science sometimes gets an unearned reputation as a purely academic exercise that offers little by way of concrete tools for advancing research. This is wrong. And today, as we grapple with how AI is changing the nature of scientific activity, it's desperately wrong.

“Pedocon theory does not involve secret networks of underground tunnels where adrenochrome is harvested for reptilian overlords. Pedocon theory is not hiding beneath twelve layers of misdirection. Pedocon theory is rooted in the basic politics of the reactionary right.”

When Ezra Klein told Jon Stewart about out-of-control regulations ruining Biden's rural broadband program, the clip went viral, with Elon Musk’s help. But the story wasn’t true—and the telecom monopolies who were the real saboteurs are still laughing. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/09/t...

If the government wants to find the money (£7bn or so) to make up for its welfare U-turn, there's an easy answer - just don't implement the Immigration White Paper. ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration_...

In an age of failing economies and a neofascist backlash, what we need is Marxism. To free ourselves from our technofeudal overlords, we must think like Karl Marx. The corporations are asset-stripping our brains, but we can take back control. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Providing homeless people with housing reduces crime, increases employment, improves health, and does not increase reliance on social benefits. 80% of costs are offset by the benefits in the first 18 months. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

🧵 As a cult journo, I study toxic forms of charisma and their effect on followers. I have some thoughts about how #Mamdani wields this magic in the opposite direction, and how this seems to embody his socialist platform and accelerate the movement logistics around him. /1