Matt Seybold
@mattseybold.bsky.social
American Vandal Pod | Prof of AmLit & Twain Studies + Director of Media Studies, Elmira College | Resident Scholar @MarkTwain.bsky.social | Political Economy of Mass Media
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
Pinned
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
I watched a bunch of AI sessions at the WEF so you wouldn’t have to.
But you should read this.
But you should read this.
Did a Twain seminar at Université de Paris yesterday with another Twain scholar & the French translator of Everett’s “James” for students prepping for the Agrégation exam. Today Vandal is racing up French pod charts.
Don’t know how I’d be doing without this little reminder that it’s not just US.
Don’t know how I’d be doing without this little reminder that it’s not just US.
February 1, 2026 at 2:33 AM
Did a Twain seminar at Université de Paris yesterday with another Twain scholar & the French translator of Everett’s “James” for students prepping for the Agrégation exam. Today Vandal is racing up French pod charts.
Don’t know how I’d be doing without this little reminder that it’s not just US.
Don’t know how I’d be doing without this little reminder that it’s not just US.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
I hope this book sells a billion copies. It is designed to. Lucid. Funny. A little salacious. Like using an Eminent Victorians style biography to smuggle materialist history.
January 31, 2026 at 4:49 PM
I hope this book sells a billion copies. It is designed to. Lucid. Funny. A little salacious. Like using an Eminent Victorians style biography to smuggle materialist history.
Proud to say I’ve been boycotting Brett Ratner’s films since 2001.
February 1, 2026 at 1:35 AM
Proud to say I’ve been boycotting Brett Ratner’s films since 2001.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
when there’s a panic about something, opportunists seek to standardize and test
February 1, 2026 at 1:25 AM
when there’s a panic about something, opportunists seek to standardize and test
It wasn’t all bad. This episode shaped American Vandal as much as any ever has.
February 1, 2026 at 12:05 AM
It wasn’t all bad. This episode shaped American Vandal as much as any ever has.
Leave it to the Libertarians to stumble ass-backwards into the most utopian vision of the near future espoused by any US political party.
January 31, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Leave it to the Libertarians to stumble ass-backwards into the most utopian vision of the near future espoused by any US political party.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
after reading this article I spent a lot of time fantasizing about starting a podcast where I ask men from a variety of backgrounds to talk about books they loved as children. counter-programming for the trad podcast this article mentions.
Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age
www.nytimes.com
January 31, 2026 at 9:33 PM
after reading this article I spent a lot of time fantasizing about starting a podcast where I ask men from a variety of backgrounds to talk about books they loved as children. counter-programming for the trad podcast this article mentions.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Important thread
Students can't watch movies because they don't watch television.
January 31, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Important thread
Reposted by Matt Seybold
I am sure that everyone who answered this reporter's email did so in an effort to understand the issue, convey the complexity of the situation, and steer the public conversation toward better ends. But that wasn't why the ask went out, and we all need to be more attentive to the frame.
January 31, 2026 at 8:12 PM
I am sure that everyone who answered this reporter's email did so in an effort to understand the issue, convey the complexity of the situation, and steer the public conversation toward better ends. But that wasn't why the ask went out, and we all need to be more attentive to the frame.
Twain was right, Horseradish Salad edition.
January 31, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Twain was right, Horseradish Salad edition.
Nepworking, pass it on.
"Networking" is just fancy speak for "get hired because you're buddies with the CEO/middle manager" just like "lobbying" is fancy speak for "corruption".
For the record, henceforth if you describe “networking” to me as a necessary professional skill, just know, in my head, I’m thinking of Jeffrey Epstein tremendous “networking” acumen. Fair warning.
January 31, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Nepworking, pass it on.
Some of the common denominators of speculative crises are the “foolish indifference to legal constraints” by those in closest proximity to transactions & the mistaking of debt for “financial innovation.”
Microsoft owns a major stake in OpenAI, which had $20 billion in TOTAL revenue last year, yet…
Microsoft owns a major stake in OpenAI, which had $20 billion in TOTAL revenue last year, yet…
January 31, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Some of the common denominators of speculative crises are the “foolish indifference to legal constraints” by those in closest proximity to transactions & the mistaking of debt for “financial innovation.”
Microsoft owns a major stake in OpenAI, which had $20 billion in TOTAL revenue last year, yet…
Microsoft owns a major stake in OpenAI, which had $20 billion in TOTAL revenue last year, yet…
I hope this book sells a billion copies. It is designed to. Lucid. Funny. A little salacious. Like using an Eminent Victorians style biography to smuggle materialist history.
January 31, 2026 at 4:49 PM
I hope this book sells a billion copies. It is designed to. Lucid. Funny. A little salacious. Like using an Eminent Victorians style biography to smuggle materialist history.
One thing AI has definitely revolutionized is the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It’s now just a vertical line tilted at an obtuse angle.
January 31, 2026 at 2:06 PM
One thing AI has definitely revolutionized is the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It’s now just a vertical line tilted at an obtuse angle.
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college.
African-American Culture & The Korean War
7 Lamps of Literature
Poets of The Interregnum
Physics For Artists
Mark Twain
African-American Culture & The Korean War
7 Lamps of Literature
Poets of The Interregnum
Physics For Artists
Mark Twain
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college.
Jewish American and African American Literature
Constitutional Theory
The Enlightenment
Revolution and Romanticism
and... an early Cultural Studies course!! ✊
Jewish American and African American Literature
Constitutional Theory
The Enlightenment
Revolution and Romanticism
and... an early Cultural Studies course!! ✊
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college
Race and Identity in LatAm
Stalinism
German Philosophy from Kant to Freud
Post-Soviet Russia
Classics of American Literature
Race and Identity in LatAm
Stalinism
German Philosophy from Kant to Freud
Post-Soviet Russia
Classics of American Literature
January 31, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college.
African-American Culture & The Korean War
7 Lamps of Literature
Poets of The Interregnum
Physics For Artists
Mark Twain
African-American Culture & The Korean War
7 Lamps of Literature
Poets of The Interregnum
Physics For Artists
Mark Twain
For the record, henceforth if you describe “networking” to me as a necessary professional skill, just know, in my head, I’m thinking of Jeffrey Epstein tremendous “networking” acumen. Fair warning.
January 31, 2026 at 2:58 AM
For the record, henceforth if you describe “networking” to me as a necessary professional skill, just know, in my head, I’m thinking of Jeffrey Epstein tremendous “networking” acumen. Fair warning.
I have been in college classrooms continuously for almost 30 years now & I sincerely don’t believe the aggregate student commitment to “doing the reading” or watching the whole film has changed much at all.
January 31, 2026 at 1:26 AM
I have been in college classrooms continuously for almost 30 years now & I sincerely don’t believe the aggregate student commitment to “doing the reading” or watching the whole film has changed much at all.
lmao learn to closeread
among everything else this week dunno if you heard but coding is over. huge opp for humanities folks. should be megaphoning 'learning to think never goes out of style'
January 30, 2026 at 10:16 PM
lmao learn to closeread
Reposted by Matt Seybold
To understand the logic behind these warehouses and this new horrific carceral regime, you can’t do better than Ruthie Gilmore’s The Golden Gulag.
It is fitting that the US edition of concentration camps are going to be situated in disused warehouses (former data centres?): www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US
Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.
www.bloomberg.com
January 30, 2026 at 4:33 PM
To understand the logic behind these warehouses and this new horrific carceral regime, you can’t do better than Ruthie Gilmore’s The Golden Gulag.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.
January 30, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
We have some real C-suite fascism going on. Executives decided that frictionless isn't just what they want in tech. It's what they want in humans, which requires subservience.
"It’s no wonder AI entrepreneurs and investors are flirting with authoritarianism. The technology they are developing creates the same kinds of bubbles of sycophancy and narcissism which are inevitably constructed around tyrants.”
‘They are no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption by those who come to recognize the technology’s utility by electively applying it to the problems they face. They are planning how to cross the chasm by forced adoption.’
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
January 29, 2026 at 12:08 PM
We have some real C-suite fascism going on. Executives decided that frictionless isn't just what they want in tech. It's what they want in humans, which requires subservience.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Here's a gift link:
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed
Go to a small liberal-arts college if you can.
www.theatlantic.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Here's a gift link:
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Can’t literacy ourselves out of this one, I’m afraid.
"there’s no way that we can become more savvy ... this is not a problem that developing the right skill set is going to solve" @tressiemcphd.bsky.social speaking the things I think some librarians may be afraid to say out loud, but are true nonetheless. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/o...
Opinion | The Internet May Look Different After You Listen to This
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Can’t literacy ourselves out of this one, I’m afraid.