Erik Schuckers
@erikjs.bsky.social
Queer writer. Eldergoth. Fan of horror, torch songs, & fried mushrooms. He/him. https://sevenkitchenspress.com/keystone-chapbook-series/erik-schuckers-pretty-boys-in-trouble/
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
every shot-on-video, made-with-a-camcorder horror movie that's just some teenage friend group fucking around in the woods with some fake blood and a monster mask contains more artistic merit, human joy and creative light than anything AI has ever made or will ever, ever make
February 17, 2026 at 2:22 AM
every shot-on-video, made-with-a-camcorder horror movie that's just some teenage friend group fucking around in the woods with some fake blood and a monster mask contains more artistic merit, human joy and creative light than anything AI has ever made or will ever, ever make
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
I can't trust politicians who are anti-trans. Not because I'm "only searching for perfection" which is what centrists will be accusing me of for the rest of my life, it's because if you're not pro-trans you'll be garbage on lots of other issues too. Being anti-trans NEVER exists in a vacuum.
January 17, 2026 at 9:42 AM
I can't trust politicians who are anti-trans. Not because I'm "only searching for perfection" which is what centrists will be accusing me of for the rest of my life, it's because if you're not pro-trans you'll be garbage on lots of other issues too. Being anti-trans NEVER exists in a vacuum.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
An early January poem from Tenderness, nearly a decade old
January 11, 2026 at 4:45 PM
An early January poem from Tenderness, nearly a decade old
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.
In the video that the shooter took, which I believe was leaked to be exculpatory, he appears to yell “fucking bitch” after he shoots Renee Good.
January 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM
they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
Oh and btw 2026 is for art, for craft, for direction, for growth, and for creation. With these, we nourish ourselves
January 1, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Oh and btw 2026 is for art, for craft, for direction, for growth, and for creation. With these, we nourish ourselves
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
Whether you loved City Paper or loathed it (and those of us who worked there often did some of each) this is a goddamn shame. But the fact that Pittsburgh's alt-weekly survived so long is a testament to its community, and to its staff and contributors over the years, including those let go today.
Well folks, some news. Ownership is folding @pghcitypaper.com. I wish I could say this was more surprising. I'll be on the lookout for new roles while I continue to teach and hopefully find places to publish some stories I haven't finished. In the meantime, I'm all ears for opportunities.
December 31, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Whether you loved City Paper or loathed it (and those of us who worked there often did some of each) this is a goddamn shame. But the fact that Pittsburgh's alt-weekly survived so long is a testament to its community, and to its staff and contributors over the years, including those let go today.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
One of my new favorite prose poems has entered the chat
Hedgie Choi, from her debut collection Salvage (2025)
Hedgie Choi, from her debut collection Salvage (2025)
February 9, 2025 at 11:02 PM
One of my new favorite prose poems has entered the chat
Hedgie Choi, from her debut collection Salvage (2025)
Hedgie Choi, from her debut collection Salvage (2025)
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.
December 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM
James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social.
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
Read about Commonsense Guardrails for Using Advanced Technology in Schools aiinstruction.org/sites/defaul...
aiinstruction.org
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social.
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
these comparisons of Erika Kirk with Tammy Faye Messner do TFM deep injustice. yes, an affinity for glitter and makeup. but TFM was complex and compassionate, words that do not in any way describe EK.
December 22, 2025 at 6:22 PM
these comparisons of Erika Kirk with Tammy Faye Messner do TFM deep injustice. yes, an affinity for glitter and makeup. but TFM was complex and compassionate, words that do not in any way describe EK.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
1/ At bargaining yesterday, @propublica.org management said that they should have 100% discretion to replace workers with AI and would not commit to labeling future AI-generated content.
December 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM
1/ At bargaining yesterday, @propublica.org management said that they should have 100% discretion to replace workers with AI and would not commit to labeling future AI-generated content.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
Amazon is making money off AI copies of books - and putting the onus on authors to prove they’ve been plagiarised.
Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Amazon Is the World's Biggest Online Book Marketplace. It's Filled With AI Knockoffs
Authors say Amazon's knockoff book problem is leaving them frustrated — and making the internet worse in the process.
www.rollingstone.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Amazon is making money off AI copies of books - and putting the onus on authors to prove they’ve been plagiarised.
Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 3:40 PM
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
tech bro: i have made Artificial General Intelligence
programmer: you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
programmer: you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 5:12 PM
tech bro: i have made Artificial General Intelligence
programmer: you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
programmer: you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety
You say blob. I say rat king.
AI companies, funders, and government are all intertwined in one big heaping trillion dollar blob. Here's what it means. www.wired.com/story/ai-ind...
There Is Only One AI Company. Welcome to the Blob
As Nvidia, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft forge partnerships and deals, the AI industry is looking more like one interconnected machine. What does that mean for all of us?
www.wired.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
You say blob. I say rat king.
Only 364 days til Halloween
November 1, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Only 364 days til Halloween
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
the truth is that this isn't a theocracy and jesus isn't my fucking king
Chip Roy: "The truth is the marxist, radicals, and Islamists the Democratic Party promoted this weekend, they cannot handle the truth. The truth is that there is a king and that king is Jesus. And the president has been willing to say it, & Charlie Kirk was willing to say it & he got killed for it."
October 20, 2025 at 3:37 PM
the truth is that this isn't a theocracy and jesus isn't my fucking king
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
This morning outside the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh!
October 18, 2025 at 1:07 PM
This morning outside the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh!
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.
It’s dinner time for the police. Appears to be pizza from a Salvation Army van.
Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.
Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.
October 11, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.
"This country would not exist if Black women had not birthed it from their wombs on the blood-soaked earth of Native people. Enslavement, lynching, Jim Crow, genocide, the prison industrial complex aren’t footnotes in American history. They’re the main text." Yes.
"Black people are tired. Not metaphorically tired—actually tired. The kind of tired that turns every group chat into a mix of gallows humor and emotional triage."
I write about white ignorance and how exhausting it is to hear white ppl insist "this isn't who we are, when it's ALWAYS who we've been.
I write about white ignorance and how exhausting it is to hear white ppl insist "this isn't who we are, when it's ALWAYS who we've been.
White People’s Performative Ignorance Is Exhausting—Opinion
Disbelief over authoritarianism in America isn’t a cutesy personality trait. It’s a confession: You haven’t been paying attention.
rewirenewsgroup.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
"This country would not exist if Black women had not birthed it from their wombs on the blood-soaked earth of Native people. Enslavement, lynching, Jim Crow, genocide, the prison industrial complex aren’t footnotes in American history. They’re the main text." Yes.
Like John Wayne Gacy was just "bucking tradition" and clowning precedent.
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump's power to deploy National Guard, explained
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
n.pr
October 7, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Like John Wayne Gacy was just "bucking tradition" and clowning precedent.
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
On this, the birthday of Clive Barker, one of the great Patron Saints of the Subversive, let the power of queer horror guide you.
October 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
On this, the birthday of Clive Barker, one of the great Patron Saints of the Subversive, let the power of queer horror guide you.
Happy 50th, Rocky. My first time was 1991 at a summer arts program at Mercyhurst. We had to improvise outfits last minute because we didn't think the campus nuns were going to let us screen it. (Tbh this wasn't much different from how we usually dressed.) Don't dream it...
September 27, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Happy 50th, Rocky. My first time was 1991 at a summer arts program at Mercyhurst. We had to improvise outfits last minute because we didn't think the campus nuns were going to let us screen it. (Tbh this wasn't much different from how we usually dressed.) Don't dream it...
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
I'm going to start calling all staircases "fatal funnels."
"Do you want to take the elevator?"
"Nah, I'm going to go up the fatal funnel instead."
"Do you want to take the elevator?"
"Nah, I'm going to go up the fatal funnel instead."
September 24, 2025 at 10:59 PM
I'm going to start calling all staircases "fatal funnels."
"Do you want to take the elevator?"
"Nah, I'm going to go up the fatal funnel instead."
"Do you want to take the elevator?"
"Nah, I'm going to go up the fatal funnel instead."
Reposted by Erik Schuckers
"When my guests come over, it’s gonna be like BLAMMO! Check out my shellacked decorative vegetables, assholes."
It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers
First published on October 9, 2009, this classic by Colin Nissan is our most-read article of all time. We’re celebrating the 16th anniversary of th...
buff.ly
September 24, 2025 at 1:40 AM
"When my guests come over, it’s gonna be like BLAMMO! Check out my shellacked decorative vegetables, assholes."