Democracy Dies in Dorkness
@lizamazel.bsky.social
(Banner and thumbnail are both from Remedios Varos' painting "Paraiso de los Gatos")
Therapist, writer type, armchair activist, kvetch. Raised from early adulthood by Internet wolves. Warning: squees at cats.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I also like cute doggos
Therapist, writer type, armchair activist, kvetch. Raised from early adulthood by Internet wolves. Warning: squees at cats.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I also like cute doggos
Pinned
a cartoon of a duck with a swirl in the background and the letters netflix on the bottom left
Alt: Daffy Duck losing his entire shit and tearing the room apart in "Duck Amuck"
media.tenor.com
Me, when disagreeing with someone who seems to be able to hear and respond and modify: generally do the same, sometimes end up with a great discussion and even a new follow.
Me, once I have decided someone is an obdurate fuckhead:
Me, once I have decided someone is an obdurate fuckhead:
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
this is just alternate universe anti-bedtime club fantasy. is kathy hochul, the sitting governor of new york, somehow *not* part of "the establishment"? because she's been pleased as punch to get on camera with mamdani any time she can.
February 13, 2026 at 5:31 PM
this is just alternate universe anti-bedtime club fantasy. is kathy hochul, the sitting governor of new york, somehow *not* part of "the establishment"? because she's been pleased as punch to get on camera with mamdani any time she can.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
at least carville has actually run winning campaigns, the pod saves bros have spent the last decade behaving as if one of the most singularly gifted politicians of the 21st century was actually their creation as his employees
February 13, 2026 at 5:51 PM
at least carville has actually run winning campaigns, the pod saves bros have spent the last decade behaving as if one of the most singularly gifted politicians of the 21st century was actually their creation as his employees
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
it's deeply funny that the author of this piece spends at least half of it taking shots at "power brokers" and people like james carville only to pivot to the pod save america bros as if those guys aren't wannabe power brokers who will *be* james carville in 20 years
there is no sin that cannot be cleansed as long as you agree to forget about the tattoo
February 13, 2026 at 5:48 PM
it's deeply funny that the author of this piece spends at least half of it taking shots at "power brokers" and people like james carville only to pivot to the pod save america bros as if those guys aren't wannabe power brokers who will *be* james carville in 20 years
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
🫠
at this pace we'll have to rename the next game to cyberpunk 2027
February 13, 2026 at 3:50 PM
🫠
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
again, not great, but I will emphasize to people that most states have incredibly simple opt out procedures for vaccines. They literally hand you a one page form and you sign it and you're done.
The ship sailed here awhile ago.
The ship sailed here awhile ago.
Longtime allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, have launched a new effort to repeal laws that for decades have required children to be vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases before they enter day care or kindergarten. nyti.ms/4tPTU7E
RFK Jr. Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schools
Proponents of vaccines warn that the efforts will further dismantle the immunization infrastructure and lead to more outbreaks of disease.
nyti.ms
February 13, 2026 at 4:42 PM
again, not great, but I will emphasize to people that most states have incredibly simple opt out procedures for vaccines. They literally hand you a one page form and you sign it and you're done.
The ship sailed here awhile ago.
The ship sailed here awhile ago.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
The FBI literally doesn't work anymore. May be problematic.
Far-right podcaster Trump appointed to lead FBI bungled the Kirk investigation and blamed others. Looks like he's bungling the Guthrie investigation and blaming others too.
www.miamiherald.com/entertainmen...
www.miamiherald.com/entertainmen...
Sheriff Hits Back at Claims of Blocking FBI From Nancy Guthrie Evidence
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is hitting back at claims that he is blocking the FBI from accessing key evidence in the search for Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie. In an interview with NBC Tucs...
www.miamiherald.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:05 PM
The FBI literally doesn't work anymore. May be problematic.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
if someone is saying shit like "it's lowkey biphobic that you support AOC even though she won't legalize cannibalism" or "you realize that expecting your room to have windows a luxury belief right" what you're seeing are the charged particles being shot off from polycule fission
February 13, 2026 at 5:15 AM
if someone is saying shit like "it's lowkey biphobic that you support AOC even though she won't legalize cannibalism" or "you realize that expecting your room to have windows a luxury belief right" what you're seeing are the charged particles being shot off from polycule fission
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Resurrecting this meme
February 13, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Resurrecting this meme
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
OpenVibe just added Tumblr to their support, too, so I can now see BlueSky, Mastodon, and Tumblr together on the same feed. It'll help break containment of each of the sites. PARTICLES EVERYWHERE! :-D bsky.app/profile/open...
You can now connect your Tumblr account to Openvibe! Enjoy a unified timeline and cross-post to Tumblr, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr—all at once.
More big things are coming!
More big things are coming!
February 13, 2026 at 1:18 PM
OpenVibe just added Tumblr to their support, too, so I can now see BlueSky, Mastodon, and Tumblr together on the same feed. It'll help break containment of each of the sites. PARTICLES EVERYWHERE! :-D bsky.app/profile/open...
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
i saw a tiktok about how serving tea in childhood is a sign of exposure to Coronation Street and i can't stop thinking about it
February 13, 2026 at 1:20 PM
i saw a tiktok about how serving tea in childhood is a sign of exposure to Coronation Street and i can't stop thinking about it
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
I'm here you fuckass bitch
February 13, 2026 at 1:18 PM
I'm here you fuckass bitch
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Come at me bro. I’m in Carcosa.
February 13, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Come at me bro. I’m in Carcosa.
you mean, other than disc horse bot
February 13, 2026 at 7:24 PM
you mean, other than disc horse bot
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
The neat thing in all this is that the actual progressives in the party seem to be very interested in governing, more than either the reactionary centrists or the "attack AOC from the left" keyboard warriors.
Like I feel like we do not need to choose between competence and good ideas!
Like I feel like we do not need to choose between competence and good ideas!
February 13, 2026 at 7:39 AM
The neat thing in all this is that the actual progressives in the party seem to be very interested in governing, more than either the reactionary centrists or the "attack AOC from the left" keyboard warriors.
Like I feel like we do not need to choose between competence and good ideas!
Like I feel like we do not need to choose between competence and good ideas!
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
It is objectively true, as some of these posts highlight, that because publications have been gutted and have laid off fact checkers and editors, they are now way more vulnerable to running AI generated stories from artificial freelancers. this perpetuates a slop ouroboros.
February 11, 2026 at 8:18 PM
It is objectively true, as some of these posts highlight, that because publications have been gutted and have laid off fact checkers and editors, they are now way more vulnerable to running AI generated stories from artificial freelancers. this perpetuates a slop ouroboros.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
anyway, as I think “Andrew Frelon” is attempting to say, the only way to arrest this is for publications to become way more rigorous about screening this stuff out.
we also need a new way to fund journalism to provide the resources needed to do this, but ah, ain’t that the eternal question
we also need a new way to fund journalism to provide the resources needed to do this, but ah, ain’t that the eternal question
February 11, 2026 at 8:26 PM
anyway, as I think “Andrew Frelon” is attempting to say, the only way to arrest this is for publications to become way more rigorous about screening this stuff out.
we also need a new way to fund journalism to provide the resources needed to do this, but ah, ain’t that the eternal question
we also need a new way to fund journalism to provide the resources needed to do this, but ah, ain’t that the eternal question
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
perhaps this is another way Fukuyama will be proved right: you CAN sort of end history if you impoverish and lay off pretty much everyone tasked with both reporting on current events and contextualizing those events into coherent form.
another way uncontrolled LLM use will eat up the seed corn.
another way uncontrolled LLM use will eat up the seed corn.
February 11, 2026 at 8:35 PM
perhaps this is another way Fukuyama will be proved right: you CAN sort of end history if you impoverish and lay off pretty much everyone tasked with both reporting on current events and contextualizing those events into coherent form.
another way uncontrolled LLM use will eat up the seed corn.
another way uncontrolled LLM use will eat up the seed corn.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Of course, it is also true that historians jobs may in practice be vulnerable to AI, because a lot of people who control the money for historian jobs probably haven’t thought much about where history comes from, either.
February 11, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Of course, it is also true that historians jobs may in practice be vulnerable to AI, because a lot of people who control the money for historian jobs probably haven’t thought much about where history comes from, either.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
When Musk said the "cumulative sum of human knowledge has been exhausted" for training AI, what he was really saying is that he would not pay for digitisation, and had reached the limits of useful data he could scrape for free. The GenAI house is built on sand.
Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.
it's literally impossible for an LLM to do a historian's job
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
it's not even LLMs sucking it's that they need data input to do anything and where's that data supposed to be coming from without historians
never met a computer that can dig through a thousand year old book in a library
February 12, 2026 at 9:15 AM
When Musk said the "cumulative sum of human knowledge has been exhausted" for training AI, what he was really saying is that he would not pay for digitisation, and had reached the limits of useful data he could scrape for free. The GenAI house is built on sand.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
This pops into an earlier discussion. High-quality digitization takes time & money. Even when required, many try & determine what the lowest quality scan & tagging they can get away with to comply.
Machine Learning can address the latter but ONLY IF the scan quality is there. #InfoGov
Machine Learning can address the latter but ONLY IF the scan quality is there. #InfoGov
A lot of people really don’t realize that there is a vast amount of information out there that is not online and plausibly never will be, or can’t be.
I think that's a point that will surprise a lot of people. There's a lot of calling the internet capable of accessing "the sum of all human knowledge" and such that I think gives people the impression that any and all records exist online somewhere.
February 12, 2026 at 8:36 PM
This pops into an earlier discussion. High-quality digitization takes time & money. Even when required, many try & determine what the lowest quality scan & tagging they can get away with to comply.
Machine Learning can address the latter but ONLY IF the scan quality is there. #InfoGov
Machine Learning can address the latter but ONLY IF the scan quality is there. #InfoGov
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
right, the internet has infrastructure. which LLMs/AI are incredibly dependent upon for "survival."
people are also surprised when they learn the internet doesn't literally float about in the cloud but is made of physical infrastructure and can be banjaxed by strategically fucking up some submarine cables
February 12, 2026 at 8:39 PM
right, the internet has infrastructure. which LLMs/AI are incredibly dependent upon for "survival."
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Despite having written thousands of lines of poetry, only one complete Sappho poem survives.
A lot of people really don’t realize that there is a vast amount of information out there that is not online and plausibly never will be, or can’t be.
I think that's a point that will surprise a lot of people. There's a lot of calling the internet capable of accessing "the sum of all human knowledge" and such that I think gives people the impression that any and all records exist online somewhere.
February 12, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Despite having written thousands of lines of poetry, only one complete Sappho poem survives.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Sometimes websites are around so long they actually become 'archeological sites' where all the new and updated pages get built on the old while leaving them in place. Nintendo of Japans website is like that. You can click around to get to the pages promoting n64 games, still preserved.
February 12, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Sometimes websites are around so long they actually become 'archeological sites' where all the new and updated pages get built on the old while leaving them in place. Nintendo of Japans website is like that. You can click around to get to the pages promoting n64 games, still preserved.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
Wayback Machine helps some, but it's not enough by far.
February 12, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Wayback Machine helps some, but it's not enough by far.
Reposted by Democracy Dies in Dorkness
And yet, as improbable as it is, someone still maintains the Heaven's Gate website. See www.heavensgate.com.
Heaven's Gate - How and When It May Be Entered
How
and When Heaven's Gate, the Door to the Physical Kingdom Level Above Human,
May Be Entered. Organized Religions Are Killers of Souls. UFOs and
Extraterrestrials - Sorting the Good from the Bad....
www.heavensgate.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:53 PM
And yet, as improbable as it is, someone still maintains the Heaven's Gate website. See www.heavensgate.com.