Pinned
Davey
@historicaloracle.bsky.social
· Sep 29
As an old Cockney anarchist once said, "Nations are load of crap, innit"
It has seemed to me that this is a root issue going back to the beginning Trump's second term: there are no good things! There seem to be no value accorded to anything at all, really, except their own exaltation
I've been struck by that: for all Miller's stamping his foot and Dort doing tough guy posturing and various Sephiroth speeches they're giving - they're not actually explaining why this is a good thing to do even by their own cynical light. The mere exercise of dominion is taken to be self-ratifying.
January 6, 2026 at 11:20 AM
It has seemed to me that this is a root issue going back to the beginning Trump's second term: there are no good things! There seem to be no value accorded to anything at all, really, except their own exaltation
Reposted by Davey
kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life
January 6, 2026 at 2:00 AM
kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life
Reposted by Davey
I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.
June 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.
Reposted by Davey
OpenAI is now facing a total of 8 wrongful death lawsuits from grieving families....who claim that ChatGPT, in particular, the GPT-4o version, drove their loved ones to suicide. Soelberg’s complaint also alleges that company executives knew the chatbot was defective before it pushed it to the public
He put his complete trust in a chat bot that turned him into a savage murderer.
Disturbing Messages Show ChatGPT Encouraging a Murder, Lawsuit Alleges
A lawsuit against OpenAI reveals the chilling ChatGPT messages that drove a middle aged man to kill his 83-year-old mother.
trib.al
January 4, 2026 at 2:06 PM
OpenAI is now facing a total of 8 wrongful death lawsuits from grieving families....who claim that ChatGPT, in particular, the GPT-4o version, drove their loved ones to suicide. Soelberg’s complaint also alleges that company executives knew the chatbot was defective before it pushed it to the public
Reposted by Davey
There has never been a moment when ending the oil industry has been more urgent or important. Here is a thread of seven tools that can help.
Brief, readable 2-pagers, and a 30-page overview from @michealpodgers.bsky.social at @clicabedu.bsky.social.
Brief, readable 2-pagers, and a 30-page overview from @michealpodgers.bsky.social at @clicabedu.bsky.social.
Transportation 101 Policy Guides - Climate Cabinet Education
Transportation 101 Policy Guides by Climate Cabinet Education: practical, accessible guides on transit planning, active mobility & multimodal policy for climate action.
climatecabineteducation.org
January 4, 2026 at 12:52 AM
There has never been a moment when ending the oil industry has been more urgent or important. Here is a thread of seven tools that can help.
Brief, readable 2-pagers, and a 30-page overview from @michealpodgers.bsky.social at @clicabedu.bsky.social.
Brief, readable 2-pagers, and a 30-page overview from @michealpodgers.bsky.social at @clicabedu.bsky.social.
Surprise level: 0
NEW: Plans for secret U.S. raid to capture Maduro leaked to the Washington Post and New York Times before it happened, but both decided not to publish to protect U.S. troops - Semafor
January 4, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Surprise level: 0
Reposted by Davey
Read this thread. I don't know what to say, other than we can't live like this anymore.
I‘m discontinuing my social media use for the foreseeable future and I want to explain why.
I woke up in the new year to discover that some guy on here had saved photos I took on New Year’s Eve and used Grok to remove my clothes. I know this because he showed me.
I woke up in the new year to discover that some guy on here had saved photos I took on New Year’s Eve and used Grok to remove my clothes. I know this because he showed me.
January 4, 2026 at 3:02 AM
Read this thread. I don't know what to say, other than we can't live like this anymore.
Reposted by Davey
Cannot recommend more highly @thomaszimmer.bsky.social latest essay especially this part on why returning to pre-Trump status quo is not enough, we need larger transformation steady.page/en/democracy...
January 3, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Cannot recommend more highly @thomaszimmer.bsky.social latest essay especially this part on why returning to pre-Trump status quo is not enough, we need larger transformation steady.page/en/democracy...
Reposted by Davey
Again. We need to crush these sites when we take power.
These are evil people.
These are evil people.
This person went on a buying spree over the past 24 hours. Fresh wallet. Only existed since Dec 27th and has only bet on Venezuela-related markets.
polymarket.com/@0x31a56e9E6...
polymarket.com/@0x31a56e9E6...
January 3, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Again. We need to crush these sites when we take power.
These are evil people.
These are evil people.
Reposted by Davey
The media wants the war and likes Trump and so will not report on this war as if it is unpopular, despite overwhelming polling showing that it is. Covering things as if they are unpopular is for things they want to stop and they want the war and want it to succeed.
Most Americans say President Trump should seek congressional authorization before using force in Venezuela.
(@dhmontgomery.com @today.yougov.com)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251224-free
(@dhmontgomery.com @today.yougov.com)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251224-free
January 3, 2026 at 8:17 AM
The media wants the war and likes Trump and so will not report on this war as if it is unpopular, despite overwhelming polling showing that it is. Covering things as if they are unpopular is for things they want to stop and they want the war and want it to succeed.
Reposted by Davey
The world must boycott the World Cup and the Olympics.
It is both the only moral choice and will actually get the attention of these dead-eyed clout demons.
It is both the only moral choice and will actually get the attention of these dead-eyed clout demons.
January 3, 2026 at 7:22 AM
The world must boycott the World Cup and the Olympics.
It is both the only moral choice and will actually get the attention of these dead-eyed clout demons.
It is both the only moral choice and will actually get the attention of these dead-eyed clout demons.
Reposted by Davey
I'm deeply sorry to the people of Venezuela. There is no opposition party in the United States to counter the fascist regime's actions and the population is easily demagogued.
January 3, 2026 at 7:53 AM
I'm deeply sorry to the people of Venezuela. There is no opposition party in the United States to counter the fascist regime's actions and the population is easily demagogued.
Reposted by Davey
oh my going theory for a while has been that every llm inevitably becomes a synecdoche for the entire company because the process of training them inevitably leeches the personality of the stakeholders into it
January 2, 2026 at 6:15 AM
oh my going theory for a while has been that every llm inevitably becomes a synecdoche for the entire company because the process of training them inevitably leeches the personality of the stakeholders into it
Reposted by Davey
I can’t make bad history videos go away but I can fail my students for using them.
Academics literally cannot make Gen AI go away. As in it is not possible to make it happen on a political, legal, and technical level. We do not and will not command the massive violence necessary to make chatGPT or Claude disappear. Responsible pedagogy grapples with the fact!
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
December 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I can’t make bad history videos go away but I can fail my students for using them.
Reposted by Davey
so this senseless, murderous, criminal, unconscionable, hemispherically chaos-inducing madness is really happening isn't it
Trump: "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled ... It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the USA all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."
December 17, 2025 at 12:01 AM
so this senseless, murderous, criminal, unconscionable, hemispherically chaos-inducing madness is really happening isn't it
Reposted by Davey
According to a WaPo spokesperson, “This is how products get built and developed in the digital age: ideation, research, design and prototyping, development, and then Beta.”
Washington Post Says It Will Continue AI-Generating Error Filled Podcasts as Its Own Editors Groan in Embarrassment
The Washington Post said it will continue deploying its error riddled, AI-generated podcasts, because "this is how products get built."
futurism.com
December 16, 2025 at 9:36 PM
According to a WaPo spokesperson, “This is how products get built and developed in the digital age: ideation, research, design and prototyping, development, and then Beta.”
I saw an awful lot of the same things described here, having started my history PhD in 2007. Definitely some broad patterns across the profession
This has reminded me of an ugly time. I was in grad school at the U of Minnesota in 2008 when the financial crisis hit. Prior to that the norm in the dept I was in (history) had been that people could stay in grad school on assistantships until they finished the degree but the university introduced
December 17, 2025 at 12:32 AM
I saw an awful lot of the same things described here, having started my history PhD in 2007. Definitely some broad patterns across the profession
Reposted by Davey
Ethical AI is an oxymoron, like automated science
December 16, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Ethical AI is an oxymoron, like automated science
Reposted by Davey
It's fitting that the cover on AI mindlessly apes an earlier creation and also displaces workers while elevating Silicon Valley plutocrats.
December 12, 2025 at 3:40 AM
It's fitting that the cover on AI mindlessly apes an earlier creation and also displaces workers while elevating Silicon Valley plutocrats.
Reposted by Davey
I continue to have no sympathy left for whinging about how the public are rude about AI and feel threatened by it when the biggest players in the AI space have spent years very vocally and constantly *threatening the public*
December 9, 2025 at 11:59 PM
I continue to have no sympathy left for whinging about how the public are rude about AI and feel threatened by it when the biggest players in the AI space have spent years very vocally and constantly *threatening the public*
Reposted by Davey
The way the mainstream media cleans up Trump’s racist tirades has long passed the “they’re just making mistakes” phase. This is actively aiding and abetting a racist, tyrannical regime. The ‘mainstream media is the enemy.
December 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM
The way the mainstream media cleans up Trump’s racist tirades has long passed the “they’re just making mistakes” phase. This is actively aiding and abetting a racist, tyrannical regime. The ‘mainstream media is the enemy.
Reposted by Davey
This is completely and utterly false. The exact opposite is true.
Stephen Miller: "If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of the sudden our test scores skyrocket"
December 9, 2025 at 10:18 PM
This is completely and utterly false. The exact opposite is true.
Reposted by Davey
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Reposted by Davey
not sure how to square ‘no one person can be reasonably expected to pay for every media subscription’ with ‘sorely underpaid writers need to make a living’ but my inclination is not to locate that problem with any of the broke ass people on either end of the complaint
December 8, 2025 at 5:21 PM
not sure how to square ‘no one person can be reasonably expected to pay for every media subscription’ with ‘sorely underpaid writers need to make a living’ but my inclination is not to locate that problem with any of the broke ass people on either end of the complaint
Reposted by Davey
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
December 5, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵