Nate Ledbetter
@nhledbetter.bsky.social
ABD, Princeton, East Asian Studies. Instructor, Asian History, Rider University. Perpetually writing my dissertation (warfare in 16th C. Kyushu, Japan). He/Him/あいつ/"That Nagashino Guy." At some point I'll start posting useful stuff here. Maybe.
Pinned
Since I've got double the followers from a week ago, guess it's time for an intro thread. A post per topic I habitually post about:
I'm a PhD candidate at Princeton, very slowly working on a dissertation on 16th C. warfare in southern Japan (centered around the Shimazu family). 1/
I'm a PhD candidate at Princeton, very slowly working on a dissertation on 16th C. warfare in southern Japan (centered around the Shimazu family). 1/
Because everything is dumb, they will implement this in the least nuanced, most evil way possible, and my (very white) 2 children born in a US military hospital in Japan will be at risk. Not that whiteness means my kids deserve better than children of color, ofc, just that’s how dumb it all is.
cool, cool. so we are sort of like citizens, but not really?
February 13, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Because everything is dumb, they will implement this in the least nuanced, most evil way possible, and my (very white) 2 children born in a US military hospital in Japan will be at risk. Not that whiteness means my kids deserve better than children of color, ofc, just that’s how dumb it all is.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Apologies to my neighbors, my dogs and anyone who walked past the house as I screamed: ‘I don’t want a fucking app for my fucking hair dryer!!’
February 12, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Apologies to my neighbors, my dogs and anyone who walked past the house as I screamed: ‘I don’t want a fucking app for my fucking hair dryer!!’
Dude at least cite the Imperial Japanese Army for the idea you're stealing.
Fuentes then fantasizes about “breeding gulags”: “So just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists, you know, all of his political rivals, we have to do the same thing with women… They go to the breeding gulags. The good ones will be liberated. The bad ones will toil in the mines forever.”
February 12, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Dude at least cite the Imperial Japanese Army for the idea you're stealing.
I remember my section at (place) briefing a DoD official once on Japan's "will they or won't they" anxiety over the US honoring the alliance commitments and they couldn't understand why Japan would ever question our commitment.
"lol"
and or
"lmao"
"lol"
and or
"lmao"
Actually there's this from Ambassador Glass in November. But completely undermined by Trump telling Takaichi to tone things down with China
February 12, 2026 at 5:22 PM
I remember my section at (place) briefing a DoD official once on Japan's "will they or won't they" anxiety over the US honoring the alliance commitments and they couldn't understand why Japan would ever question our commitment.
"lol"
and or
"lmao"
"lol"
and or
"lmao"
Who's the most famous alum of your high school?
Todd Grisham, UFC/ESPN announcer (same yr as me)
Brian Patrick Wade, Actor (2 yrs after me)
Kat Cole, Hooters Girl->Hooters EVP->Pres of Cinnabon->CEO of own company (2 yrs after me)
Sahel Kazemi, killed NFL QB Steve McNair in a murder-suicide.
Todd Grisham, UFC/ESPN announcer (same yr as me)
Brian Patrick Wade, Actor (2 yrs after me)
Kat Cole, Hooters Girl->Hooters EVP->Pres of Cinnabon->CEO of own company (2 yrs after me)
Sahel Kazemi, killed NFL QB Steve McNair in a murder-suicide.
Who's the most famous alum of your high school?
I'll go first: David Draiman of Disturbed
I'll go first: David Draiman of Disturbed
guys i just found out i went to the same high school as howard lutnick. please respect my privacy at this time.
February 12, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Who's the most famous alum of your high school?
Todd Grisham, UFC/ESPN announcer (same yr as me)
Brian Patrick Wade, Actor (2 yrs after me)
Kat Cole, Hooters Girl->Hooters EVP->Pres of Cinnabon->CEO of own company (2 yrs after me)
Sahel Kazemi, killed NFL QB Steve McNair in a murder-suicide.
Todd Grisham, UFC/ESPN announcer (same yr as me)
Brian Patrick Wade, Actor (2 yrs after me)
Kat Cole, Hooters Girl->Hooters EVP->Pres of Cinnabon->CEO of own company (2 yrs after me)
Sahel Kazemi, killed NFL QB Steve McNair in a murder-suicide.
THE DOW IS OVER 50,000iii
February 12, 2026 at 3:19 PM
THE DOW IS OVER 50,000iii
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Please enjoy our research paper on how Bluesky is the preferred home of academics of all stripes, including professors of rare moths. (Yes, we actually have lots of entomologists here).
academic.oup.com/icb/article-... 🧪
academic.oup.com/icb/article-... 🧪
February 12, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Please enjoy our research paper on how Bluesky is the preferred home of academics of all stripes, including professors of rare moths. (Yes, we actually have lots of entomologists here).
academic.oup.com/icb/article-... 🧪
academic.oup.com/icb/article-... 🧪
What have you people done to me that I immediately assumed this was a dort quote?
"I have a WW1 trench knife embedded in my bedroom wall just in case. 1917 edition. More useful than a gun in close quarters."
February 12, 2026 at 3:07 PM
What have you people done to me that I immediately assumed this was a dort quote?
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
I feel like we should be more worried about the fact that lots of big business owners really don’t seem to understand that there’s a difference between doing a job and doing it correctly.
February 12, 2026 at 2:15 PM
I feel like we should be more worried about the fact that lots of big business owners really don’t seem to understand that there’s a difference between doing a job and doing it correctly.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
5. The real hack to getting into college is fully funding public schools, moving away from an emphasis on test scores, lower teacher-student ratios, trusting teachers more, more parental involvement, and less screen time in the classroom.
1. No it doesn't give you an edge
2. There is no such thing as a hack for getting into college. Why is NYM doing Buzzfeed journalism?
3. F*ck your careers, women, just go home & teach algebra to your kids & make a sandwich
4. Even if you have a PhD in something, you are not equipped to teach it all.
2. There is no such thing as a hack for getting into college. Why is NYM doing Buzzfeed journalism?
3. F*ck your careers, women, just go home & teach algebra to your kids & make a sandwich
4. Even if you have a PhD in something, you are not equipped to teach it all.
Looking for an edge in college admissions? Just pull your kid from school. Homeschooling, long associated with hippies and religious conservatives in the U.S., is in the middle of a rebrand and a boom.
February 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM
5. The real hack to getting into college is fully funding public schools, moving away from an emphasis on test scores, lower teacher-student ratios, trusting teachers more, more parental involvement, and less screen time in the classroom.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Nothing prepares you for college like never leaving the house or developing social skills or being exposed to how other people think.
February 12, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Nothing prepares you for college like never leaving the house or developing social skills or being exposed to how other people think.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Also having an “edge” in college admissions is such brain rot rich people shit. Send your kid to a community college and state school, where they’ll get a reasonably priced education and do fine in the world.
February 12, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Also having an “edge” in college admissions is such brain rot rich people shit. Send your kid to a community college and state school, where they’ll get a reasonably priced education and do fine in the world.
For all these idiots think they're the pinnacle of evolution (lol. lmao) they really do not understand the "selection" part of natural selection.
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org
February 12, 2026 at 2:40 PM
For all these idiots think they're the pinnacle of evolution (lol. lmao) they really do not understand the "selection" part of natural selection.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
God forbid humans hate the thought of the soul of their artwork being stolen by a machine.
God forbid we don't want to hear your "logical, rational, pragmatic" bullshit arguments about how wonderful it is.
Make it mow my lawn.
Make it work the mines.
Stop stealing my art and replacing it with slop.
God forbid we don't want to hear your "logical, rational, pragmatic" bullshit arguments about how wonderful it is.
Make it mow my lawn.
Make it work the mines.
Stop stealing my art and replacing it with slop.
February 12, 2026 at 2:21 AM
God forbid humans hate the thought of the soul of their artwork being stolen by a machine.
God forbid we don't want to hear your "logical, rational, pragmatic" bullshit arguments about how wonderful it is.
Make it mow my lawn.
Make it work the mines.
Stop stealing my art and replacing it with slop.
God forbid we don't want to hear your "logical, rational, pragmatic" bullshit arguments about how wonderful it is.
Make it mow my lawn.
Make it work the mines.
Stop stealing my art and replacing it with slop.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
The devil sure has a lot of advocates.
February 12, 2026 at 3:39 AM
The devil sure has a lot of advocates.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
The Final Solution was a horrifying plan B that the Nazis devised when they realized they couldn't deport Jewish people and other undesirable groups fast enough
February 12, 2026 at 3:52 AM
The Final Solution was a horrifying plan B that the Nazis devised when they realized they couldn't deport Jewish people and other undesirable groups fast enough
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
My doomer-worry about AI is not that the LLMs become omnipotent and take over the world but that the wealthy and powerful use it as a means to consolidate power and marginalize or lay off skilled workers and also everything about our technological and political and social life gets worse
February 11, 2026 at 8:20 PM
My doomer-worry about AI is not that the LLMs become omnipotent and take over the world but that the wealthy and powerful use it as a means to consolidate power and marginalize or lay off skilled workers and also everything about our technological and political and social life gets worse
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Every time someone describes a somewhat useful feature of these text and image generators, they should have to follow it with "...and that's why I don't mind if people post fake nudes of your children on the internet."
June 12, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Every time someone describes a somewhat useful feature of these text and image generators, they should have to follow it with "...and that's why I don't mind if people post fake nudes of your children on the internet."
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
"its hard to talk about a complex and multi-faceted subject that's also one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet that potentially touches many aspects of everyone's lives" yeah man this is the About Forty Words app. why're you trying to do all that on the About Forty Words app
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
February 11, 2026 at 11:41 PM
"its hard to talk about a complex and multi-faceted subject that's also one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet that potentially touches many aspects of everyone's lives" yeah man this is the About Forty Words app. why're you trying to do all that on the About Forty Words app
Y'all.
When students tell you about another prof's class being awesome and you're excited for it and it opened new worlds for you, make sure you go tell that prof.
Had a colleague stop me in the hallway to tell me several of his students have talked that way about my classes, and it's so cool.
When students tell you about another prof's class being awesome and you're excited for it and it opened new worlds for you, make sure you go tell that prof.
Had a colleague stop me in the hallway to tell me several of his students have talked that way about my classes, and it's so cool.
February 11, 2026 at 11:21 PM
Y'all.
When students tell you about another prof's class being awesome and you're excited for it and it opened new worlds for you, make sure you go tell that prof.
Had a colleague stop me in the hallway to tell me several of his students have talked that way about my classes, and it's so cool.
When students tell you about another prof's class being awesome and you're excited for it and it opened new worlds for you, make sure you go tell that prof.
Had a colleague stop me in the hallway to tell me several of his students have talked that way about my classes, and it's so cool.
SO MUCH THIS.
You fucking morons have tried to push this since my days in a small intel office in Tokyo, asking why we needed translators to handle documents instead of just using Google Translate, and MOTHER FUCKER, because machine translation, even with improvements over time, is still SHIT.
You fucking morons have tried to push this since my days in a small intel office in Tokyo, asking why we needed translators to handle documents instead of just using Google Translate, and MOTHER FUCKER, because machine translation, even with improvements over time, is still SHIT.
Professional translators cannot be replaced by AI. Your attempt to translate a menu, sure, but actual translation is an art, translating things not just across languages but cultures and idioms. Only monolingual dickburgers could think it's all the same.
February 11, 2026 at 10:45 PM
SO MUCH THIS.
You fucking morons have tried to push this since my days in a small intel office in Tokyo, asking why we needed translators to handle documents instead of just using Google Translate, and MOTHER FUCKER, because machine translation, even with improvements over time, is still SHIT.
You fucking morons have tried to push this since my days in a small intel office in Tokyo, asking why we needed translators to handle documents instead of just using Google Translate, and MOTHER FUCKER, because machine translation, even with improvements over time, is still SHIT.
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Tech executives have finally amassed their ultimate, long dreamed-of power: to summarily fire anyone who speaks ill of their desire to have sex with robots
OpenAI fired one of its top safety execs, on the grounds of sexual discrimination, after she voiced opposition to the controversial rollout of AI erotica in its ChatGPT product.
OpenAI told her the term was related to her sexual discrimination against a male colleague.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
OpenAI told her the term was related to her sexual discrimination against a male colleague.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
February 11, 2026 at 10:33 PM
"It's really unfortunate that people don't share my near-religious faith in the robot god, and bog my evangelism down with concerns about the robot god being an uncontrollable demon, and, like, it's totally not, I don't know why you won't just believe, no I won't address your concerns at all."
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
February 11, 2026 at 10:31 PM
"It's really unfortunate that people don't share my near-religious faith in the robot god, and bog my evangelism down with concerns about the robot god being an uncontrollable demon, and, like, it's totally not, I don't know why you won't just believe, no I won't address your concerns at all."
Reposted by Nate Ledbetter
Staff officer.
No, I won’t explain further.
5/🧶
No, I won’t explain further.
5/🧶
February 11, 2026 at 10:20 PM
Staff officer.
No, I won’t explain further.
5/🧶
No, I won’t explain further.
5/🧶
Gave them a geography quiz and the scores are...rough. Seriously, doesn't everyone know where the Taklamakan Desert and Amu Darya river and the Kopet Dag mountains are? Who confuses the Tian Shan and the Altai Mountains? 🙃
(they'll have plenty of chances to improve this, don't worry)
(they'll have plenty of chances to improve this, don't worry)
February 11, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Gave them a geography quiz and the scores are...rough. Seriously, doesn't everyone know where the Taklamakan Desert and Amu Darya river and the Kopet Dag mountains are? Who confuses the Tian Shan and the Altai Mountains? 🙃
(they'll have plenty of chances to improve this, don't worry)
(they'll have plenty of chances to improve this, don't worry)