Bronwyn Clarke
@bronwync.bsky.social
Dress historian and historical dressmaker esp. 19th-early 20th centuries every day dress | Spinner, weaver, knitter, quilter, maker of things | Also novelist (as Bronwyn Parry | Australian | Social justice matters
stitchinghistory.com
bronwynparry.com
stitchinghistory.com
bronwynparry.com
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
A man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark.
January 6, 2026 at 7:10 AM
A man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
Anyone think this would actually distract a person from realising they can no longer afford health care?
Whenever you hear journalists talk about a thing being a distraction, it is *they* who are the ones being distracted.
Whenever you hear journalists talk about a thing being a distraction, it is *they* who are the ones being distracted.
Chris Murphy: "At some level he's winning tonight because clearly part of his intent here was to distract the American people -- you and I -- from what's happening here at home. You have 20 million families who are getting massive increases in their healthcare premiums. People will die."
January 6, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Anyone think this would actually distract a person from realising they can no longer afford health care?
Whenever you hear journalists talk about a thing being a distraction, it is *they* who are the ones being distracted.
Whenever you hear journalists talk about a thing being a distraction, it is *they* who are the ones being distracted.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
there are endless headlines about "grok apologizes" or "grok says it will be fixed" after it generated CSAM using pictures of minors and zero headlines about "grok being shut down" or "musk and xAI in big legal trouble" and I think something fundamental has broken here
January 2, 2026 at 6:59 PM
there are endless headlines about "grok apologizes" or "grok says it will be fixed" after it generated CSAM using pictures of minors and zero headlines about "grok being shut down" or "musk and xAI in big legal trouble" and I think something fundamental has broken here
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
Seeing a lot of "Ai is good but it's being used wrong! It could cure cancer!!!" bullshit that can be unraveled with a simple thought experiment: If it could cure cancer PFIZER WOULD NOT LET YOU USE IT, EVER.
If it could make good games they wouldn't be selling it to people, they would be making it proprietary and secret and making good games with it to sell you
January 2, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Seeing a lot of "Ai is good but it's being used wrong! It could cure cancer!!!" bullshit that can be unraveled with a simple thought experiment: If it could cure cancer PFIZER WOULD NOT LET YOU USE IT, EVER.
A fascinating thread!
Looking for something else, I got sidetracked by an April 1919 issue of "Aussie: The Australian Soldiers' Magazine," produced for ANZACs in France.
Specifically, I wondered about Pte. V. McFarlane, the soldier who did the sexy "Salome Dance" in the 2nd Division spring concert.
Who was he?
Specifically, I wondered about Pte. V. McFarlane, the soldier who did the sexy "Salome Dance" in the 2nd Division spring concert.
Who was he?
December 29, 2025 at 11:13 PM
A fascinating thread!
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
As people start reflecting on what they accomplished this past year, if you are feeling less than, remember that capitalism wants you to compete with others. Your worth is in being human, full stop. That’s it. Anything else is a bonus.
December 27, 2025 at 5:46 PM
As people start reflecting on what they accomplished this past year, if you are feeling less than, remember that capitalism wants you to compete with others. Your worth is in being human, full stop. That’s it. Anything else is a bonus.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
But when we crave power over life—endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality—then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.
December 23, 2025 at 9:00 AM
But when we crave power over life—endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality—then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.
December 22, 2025 at 8:55 PM
I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
"I only use it for summaries" is the new six word tragedy
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 21, 2025 at 3:30 AM
"I only use it for summaries" is the new six word tragedy
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
Just want to share with my American friends how the Australians respond to a shooting tragedy. Action, rather than thoughts and prayers.
December 15, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Just want to share with my American friends how the Australians respond to a shooting tragedy. Action, rather than thoughts and prayers.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
December 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
The fact that we're letting a bunch of men who can't feel happiness or wonder or curiousity decide how everyone else has to live IS REALLY A PROBLEM!
December 10, 2025 at 5:24 AM
The fact that we're letting a bunch of men who can't feel happiness or wonder or curiousity decide how everyone else has to live IS REALLY A PROBLEM!
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
All of the companies that make the software I use are increasing their prices, to account for an "investment" in AI.
I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".
I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".
December 4, 2025 at 8:41 AM
All of the companies that make the software I use are increasing their prices, to account for an "investment" in AI.
I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".
I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
It can literally be caused by poverty. Literally just subjecting your caregivers to financial stress causes it.
We should dream of a world where the first 10 years of a child's life is filled with happy, calm, kind adults. Even just three years changes everything.
We should dream of a world where the first 10 years of a child's life is filled with happy, calm, kind adults. Even just three years changes everything.
I think a lot about how profoundly unfair childhood trauma is.
It gives you a disability for effectively the rest of your life, AND can make you underearn, struggle with stability, become abused later in life, on top of impacting your physical health for years.
It gives you a disability for effectively the rest of your life, AND can make you underearn, struggle with stability, become abused later in life, on top of impacting your physical health for years.
November 26, 2025 at 7:06 PM
It can literally be caused by poverty. Literally just subjecting your caregivers to financial stress causes it.
We should dream of a world where the first 10 years of a child's life is filled with happy, calm, kind adults. Even just three years changes everything.
We should dream of a world where the first 10 years of a child's life is filled with happy, calm, kind adults. Even just three years changes everything.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
What I have learned in recent years as I’ve begun to read more and more romance—and you already know—is that romance writers are MASTERS of structure. Tension. Internal conflict. External conflict. I thought I knew what those things were.
Nah, buddy. Not a clue.
Nah, buddy. Not a clue.
November 14, 2025 at 8:38 PM
What I have learned in recent years as I’ve begun to read more and more romance—and you already know—is that romance writers are MASTERS of structure. Tension. Internal conflict. External conflict. I thought I knew what those things were.
Nah, buddy. Not a clue.
Nah, buddy. Not a clue.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
I think the hardest part of grasping craft is paying attention to what your are consuming. Read everything you can get your hands. Watch everything, but while you’re doing that pay attention the story that’s actually unfolding beginning to end. What works, what doesn’t.
November 14, 2025 at 8:17 PM
I think the hardest part of grasping craft is paying attention to what your are consuming. Read everything you can get your hands. Watch everything, but while you’re doing that pay attention the story that’s actually unfolding beginning to end. What works, what doesn’t.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
I mean I don't mind it as marketing, tropes are great marketing! Like tell me, as a reader, what tropes are in your books!
But I do think that on the writing side, people have lost the understanding of how they work and that tropes are shorthand for an exploration of a certain dynamic/scenario.
But I do think that on the writing side, people have lost the understanding of how they work and that tropes are shorthand for an exploration of a certain dynamic/scenario.
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
I mean I don't mind it as marketing, tropes are great marketing! Like tell me, as a reader, what tropes are in your books!
But I do think that on the writing side, people have lost the understanding of how they work and that tropes are shorthand for an exploration of a certain dynamic/scenario.
But I do think that on the writing side, people have lost the understanding of how they work and that tropes are shorthand for an exploration of a certain dynamic/scenario.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
'An epistemic crisis is a crisis in the production and delivery of knowledge. It’s about what we know and how we know it, what we agree to be true and what we identify as false. We face, alongside a global threat to our life-support systems, a global threat to our knowledge-support systems.'
Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage | George Monbiot
The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:45 AM
'An epistemic crisis is a crisis in the production and delivery of knowledge. It’s about what we know and how we know it, what we agree to be true and what we identify as false. We face, alongside a global threat to our life-support systems, a global threat to our knowledge-support systems.'
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
A lot of people when talking about Gough's economic record seriously underplay how beyond comprehension the 1973 Oil Crisis was.
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
November 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
A lot of people when talking about Gough's economic record seriously underplay how beyond comprehension the 1973 Oil Crisis was.
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
It was an Issue on which serious people were expected to have opinions.
Over and over again we’ve seen the media refuse to create Issues out of anything related to right-wing radicalization. If they get any mention, they’re in stories about ‘polarization,’ a misstatement of the actual problem.
Over and over again we’ve seen the media refuse to create Issues out of anything related to right-wing radicalization. If they get any mention, they’re in stories about ‘polarization,’ a misstatement of the actual problem.
October 24, 2025 at 7:29 AM
It was an Issue on which serious people were expected to have opinions.
Over and over again we’ve seen the media refuse to create Issues out of anything related to right-wing radicalization. If they get any mention, they’re in stories about ‘polarization,’ a misstatement of the actual problem.
Over and over again we’ve seen the media refuse to create Issues out of anything related to right-wing radicalization. If they get any mention, they’re in stories about ‘polarization,’ a misstatement of the actual problem.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
Melbourne: ever helpful
October 19, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Melbourne: ever helpful
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
As long as the loudest folks on the left insist tone-policing, compromise on human rights, and acquiescence are our only options for a unified country, they will continue to lose the faith of the marginalized. And even when they win, they’ll just be waiting to lose the same way again.
October 2, 2025 at 2:45 PM
As long as the loudest folks on the left insist tone-policing, compromise on human rights, and acquiescence are our only options for a unified country, they will continue to lose the faith of the marginalized. And even when they win, they’ll just be waiting to lose the same way again.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
Billionaires Are The Most Dangerous Minority…..
Elon Musk spent $277 million to buy the presidency last election. It's the same as someone who makes $60,000 spending $43 to buy the presidency. WAKE UP: This isn't left vs. right. This is the billionaires vs. the rest of us.
Elon Musk spent $277 million to buy the presidency last election. It's the same as someone who makes $60,000 spending $43 to buy the presidency. WAKE UP: This isn't left vs. right. This is the billionaires vs. the rest of us.
September 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Billionaires Are The Most Dangerous Minority…..
Elon Musk spent $277 million to buy the presidency last election. It's the same as someone who makes $60,000 spending $43 to buy the presidency. WAKE UP: This isn't left vs. right. This is the billionaires vs. the rest of us.
Elon Musk spent $277 million to buy the presidency last election. It's the same as someone who makes $60,000 spending $43 to buy the presidency. WAKE UP: This isn't left vs. right. This is the billionaires vs. the rest of us.
Reposted by Bronwyn Clarke
frankly, it still seems like the only job AI replaces is idea guys who don't know how to make things and the investor class is just frothing at the mouth for it because they're all idea guys who don't know how to make things.
September 9, 2025 at 5:11 AM
frankly, it still seems like the only job AI replaces is idea guys who don't know how to make things and the investor class is just frothing at the mouth for it because they're all idea guys who don't know how to make things.