Luke Stark
@lukestark.bsky.social
🏳️🌈 just a simple country AI ethicist | Assistant Professor, Western University 🇨🇦 | Co-Director, @starlingcentre.bsky.social | he/his/him | | no all-male panels |#BLM | 🏳️⚧️ ally | views my own
https://starkcontrast.co/
https://starlingcentre.ca/
https://starkcontrast.co/
https://starlingcentre.ca/
Reposted by Luke Stark
CBC News is still active on the Network Formerly Known as Twitter, but not on Bluesky. CityNews has Montreal, Winnipeg, and Edmonton handles, but has yet to post. The Canadian Press has posted, but not since December 23rd.
Instead, consider following @english.lemonde.fr.
Instead, consider following @english.lemonde.fr.
The return of the US's predatory imperialism
EDITORIAL. The US military attack in Caracas, Venezuela, and capture of Nicolas Maduro show that Washington now claims full rights over what it considers its backyard.
www.lemonde.fr
January 4, 2026 at 9:54 PM
CBC News is still active on the Network Formerly Known as Twitter, but not on Bluesky. CityNews has Montreal, Winnipeg, and Edmonton handles, but has yet to post. The Canadian Press has posted, but not since December 23rd.
Instead, consider following @english.lemonde.fr.
Instead, consider following @english.lemonde.fr.
Reposted by Luke Stark
Cannot be emphasized enough how clairvoyant @swin24.bsky.social’s reporting has been on many of the horrors unfolding today — before any others had picked up on them.
Please do support our work @zeteo.com
Please do support our work @zeteo.com
have been on the “trump in a second term is very likely to invade Mexico” beat since at least early 2023: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Subscribe to @zeteo.com to keep reading/supporting our coverage of trump expanding his wars at home and abroad:
Subscribe to @zeteo.com to keep reading/supporting our coverage of trump expanding his wars at home and abroad:
New: Trump admin officials tell Zeteo that Trump is “very interested” in secret plans drawn up last year to send US Special Forces into Mexico.
One official even says Trump recently asked for updates on preparations for a possible operation.
One official even says Trump recently asked for updates on preparations for a possible operation.
January 4, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Cannot be emphasized enough how clairvoyant @swin24.bsky.social’s reporting has been on many of the horrors unfolding today — before any others had picked up on them.
Please do support our work @zeteo.com
Please do support our work @zeteo.com
Reposted by Luke Stark
Just a total, comprehensive failure of every societal institution, including our most prominent media outlets, who soiled themselves completely in how they covered this & the Canada nonsense:
A reminder, as Trump is illegally attacking other countries & musing about occupying & taking territory from them, of how mind-blowingly unserious the Paper of Record’s coverage of this has been in the last twelve months:
“We asked investors how they’d approach Saddam Hussein’s demands for Kuwait” 🤷♂️🤦♂️
January 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Just a total, comprehensive failure of every societal institution, including our most prominent media outlets, who soiled themselves completely in how they covered this & the Canada nonsense:
Reposted by Luke Stark
It's also wild that this hasn't ended Trump's presidency immediately. We used to be a serious country, where things mattered. Or maybe we never were, & it's just the mask being fully ripped off. Hard to tell, frankly. Observationally equivalent.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.
January 4, 2026 at 9:25 PM
It's also wild that this hasn't ended Trump's presidency immediately. We used to be a serious country, where things mattered. Or maybe we never were, & it's just the mask being fully ripped off. Hard to tell, frankly. Observationally equivalent.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Reposted by Luke Stark
When the Globe and Mail editorial board is warning that the Venezuela invasion represents a threat to Canada you know how serious the menace is from the gangster fascist regime.
January 4, 2026 at 8:00 PM
When the Globe and Mail editorial board is warning that the Venezuela invasion represents a threat to Canada you know how serious the menace is from the gangster fascist regime.
Let's bring the word "vainglory" back
January 4, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Let's bring the word "vainglory" back
![Screen shot from the show Andor. Someone says to Mon Mothma “They [meaning the Empire] don’t even bother to lie badly anymore.” Mon replies “I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ny5w2k6brb2kdubxnevke6li/bafkreibrxbmhwrnkwo2ztnczubpnzpup3uf6dpyhs7mk2uxpeoeynhjo2q@jpeg)
Reposted by Luke Stark
Tell me we should trust AI to give us the facts. Tell me it's a future we can put our faith in. Come at me. I'm right here, waiting.
January 4, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Tell me we should trust AI to give us the facts. Tell me it's a future we can put our faith in. Come at me. I'm right here, waiting.
Reposted by Luke Stark
Content was gone.
All the good work was quashed. We were undone.
The breath of God had carried out a planned
and sensible withdrawal from this land
Robert Lowell, "After Surprising Conversions," 1946
All the good work was quashed. We were undone.
The breath of God had carried out a planned
and sensible withdrawal from this land
Robert Lowell, "After Surprising Conversions," 1946
January 4, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Content was gone.
All the good work was quashed. We were undone.
The breath of God had carried out a planned
and sensible withdrawal from this land
Robert Lowell, "After Surprising Conversions," 1946
All the good work was quashed. We were undone.
The breath of God had carried out a planned
and sensible withdrawal from this land
Robert Lowell, "After Surprising Conversions," 1946
Reposted by Luke Stark
This is absolutely intolerable. At least George W. Bush had the graciousness to only lie to us about why we were going to war. He didn’t pretend the war never happened while we governed Iraq. Total disrespect for the people of this nation.
January 4, 2026 at 6:28 PM
This is absolutely intolerable. At least George W. Bush had the graciousness to only lie to us about why we were going to war. He didn’t pretend the war never happened while we governed Iraq. Total disrespect for the people of this nation.
Reposted by Luke Stark
👇
For the past year I've had the feeling that the Trump administration's primary goal is the creation of content, and I expanded upon it here in the wake of our excursion in Venezuela
The Trump-Flavored Content Administration
Understanding the administration as a content mill
cooperlund.medium.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:55 PM
👇
Reposted by Luke Stark
Saturday marked the formal debut of an imperial America, led by a president who recognizes no law, save that of the jungle…Every country in the Western Hemisphere should be worried, particularly this country, which Trump so obviously covets as a 51st state.”
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
Globe editorial: The Sunday Editorial: Venezuela’s fate is a warning for Canada
U.S. military action to seize Nicolás Maduro marks the formal debut of an imperial America
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Saturday marked the formal debut of an imperial America, led by a president who recognizes no law, save that of the jungle…Every country in the Western Hemisphere should be worried, particularly this country, which Trump so obviously covets as a 51st state.”
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
Reposted by Luke Stark
He is absolutey going to try and take Greenland and all the soft words from leaders are telling him it will be OK.
January 4, 2026 at 5:56 PM
He is absolutey going to try and take Greenland and all the soft words from leaders are telling him it will be OK.
Reposted by Luke Stark
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 Luke Stark
Compliant!
Marco Rubio: "It had to be done. And it's been done. And I assure you the people left behind in Venezuela now that are in charge of the police and everything else, I assure you they are gonna probably be a lot more compliant than Maduro was as a result of this."
January 4, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Compliant!
Reposted by Luke Stark
They wanted Cuomo to win and now they want to make Mamdani a failure
NYT returns to character assassination. Note the framing, which implies Mandani targeted Israel exec orders when in fact, it was all orders after Adam’s was hopelessly compromised by indictment and bending a knee to the Trump admin.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
Mamdani Revokes Executive Orders That Adams Signed to Support Israel
www.nytimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:44 PM
They wanted Cuomo to win and now they want to make Mamdani a failure
Reposted by Luke Stark
Yup. They know how to punish a politician they don't like and this is what it looks like bsky.app/profile/shah...
January 4, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Yup. They know how to punish a politician they don't like and this is what it looks like bsky.app/profile/shah...
Reposted by Luke Stark
Running multiple stories on the same subject - the type of "drumbeat" and "full court press" coverage that they do not give to lawbreaking by trump and republicans but did give to "biden is old." they know how to do it when they want to bsky.app/profile/shah...
They went ahead and made their framing into two stories www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
Israeli Government Accuses Mamdani of Antisemitism Over Canceled Orders
www.nytimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Running multiple stories on the same subject - the type of "drumbeat" and "full court press" coverage that they do not give to lawbreaking by trump and republicans but did give to "biden is old." they know how to do it when they want to bsky.app/profile/shah...
Reposted by Luke Stark
My current assessment is that Trump does not intend to "run" Venezuela directly but rather intimidate its leadership into serving his/US interests as a puppet regime under the constant threat of military force.
Abducting Maduro was merely a demonstration of US willingness to intervene militarily.
Abducting Maduro was merely a demonstration of US willingness to intervene militarily.
January 4, 2026 at 3:46 PM
My current assessment is that Trump does not intend to "run" Venezuela directly but rather intimidate its leadership into serving his/US interests as a puppet regime under the constant threat of military force.
Abducting Maduro was merely a demonstration of US willingness to intervene militarily.
Abducting Maduro was merely a demonstration of US willingness to intervene militarily.
Reposted by Luke Stark
So one of the things pll should be taught in grad school is that if you see the same supposition or phrase repeated in every publication on a topic, see if you can track it back to an antiquarian. Bc, more often than not, those guys were full of shit. Don't get caught out by the Chortlemuffin Effect
October 1, 2023 at 10:28 PM
So one of the things pll should be taught in grad school is that if you see the same supposition or phrase repeated in every publication on a topic, see if you can track it back to an antiquarian. Bc, more often than not, those guys were full of shit. Don't get caught out by the Chortlemuffin Effect
Reposted by Luke Stark
Best as I can tell the plan seems to be to keep the same regime in place, sans Maduro, and allow a seamless pivot from being an anti-American dictatorship to a pro-American dictatorship?
It’s straight out of 1984: We’re at peace with Venezuela. We’ve always been at peace with Venezuela.
It’s straight out of 1984: We’re at peace with Venezuela. We’ve always been at peace with Venezuela.
Venezuela's state apparatus appears very much intact and independent you can't conquer another country with a speech act
a man with white hair and a beard is talking about taking crazy pills .
Alt: a man with white hair and a beard is talking about taking crazy pills .
media.tenor.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Best as I can tell the plan seems to be to keep the same regime in place, sans Maduro, and allow a seamless pivot from being an anti-American dictatorship to a pro-American dictatorship?
It’s straight out of 1984: We’re at peace with Venezuela. We’ve always been at peace with Venezuela.
It’s straight out of 1984: We’re at peace with Venezuela. We’ve always been at peace with Venezuela.
Reposted by Luke Stark
For all that the media has spent years freaking out about what social media does to our brains, I don’t understand why there appears to be little effort to grapple with the fact that these chatbots are, for some not insignificant portion of the population, literally psychosis machines
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 1:32 PM
For all that the media has spent years freaking out about what social media does to our brains, I don’t understand why there appears to be little effort to grapple with the fact that these chatbots are, for some not insignificant portion of the population, literally psychosis machines
Reposted by Luke Stark
Don't forget folks: allowing yourself a vision of the future you'd want for our country and planet - not the one you'd settle for, not the one you fear, but the future of your dreams - isn't naive, it's a vital cognitive skill. That's how we articulate what we most value. What's worth fighting for.
Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.
January 4, 2026 at 2:34 AM
Don't forget folks: allowing yourself a vision of the future you'd want for our country and planet - not the one you'd settle for, not the one you fear, but the future of your dreams - isn't naive, it's a vital cognitive skill. That's how we articulate what we most value. What's worth fighting for.
Reposted by Luke Stark
Wrote this before yesterday but it gets at what undergirds that (and lots of other things in politics).
"The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity. … We have reverted from acting on what we *know* to acting on what we *think*."
"The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity. … We have reverted from acting on what we *know* to acting on what we *think*."
Opinion | How the internet fractured the information ago — and drove down regard for actual facts and education
Philip Bump: We have reverted from acting on what we know to acting on what we think.
www.ms.now
January 4, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Wrote this before yesterday but it gets at what undergirds that (and lots of other things in politics).
"The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity. … We have reverted from acting on what we *know* to acting on what we *think*."
"The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity. … We have reverted from acting on what we *know* to acting on what we *think*."
Reposted by Luke Stark
I’m not sure “allies” is still the best word to describe the European Union, the UK and Canada’s relationship with the US.
January 4, 2026 at 1:11 PM
I’m not sure “allies” is still the best word to describe the European Union, the UK and Canada’s relationship with the US.