Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Hey Bluesky I don't ever want to save a draft. If I highlight the text in this little box and press delete it means I looked upon my words and chose instead to be a better man. Not because I wanted to save a draft like some kind of draft saver saving drafts for the winter.

February 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

It's Mandatory Monday and AI is clearly the future.
mandatoryrollercoaster.com/post/8081046...

three panel webcomic
1st panel: one man says to another "we invented a robot that answers questions"
2nd panel: he continues "we just have to feed it 10 baby giraffes a day"
3rd panel: the other man asks "but it answers the questions correctly?" and the first man replies "oh my goodness, no. no no no no no."

February 9, 2026 at 8:27 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

Aram Sinnreich

@aramsinn.bsky.social

Privacy is patriotic!

Use a VPN. Install an ad blocker. Quit Google and Meta, use privacy-forward alternatives like Proton, Duck Duck Go, and the fediverse instead. Throw out your “smart” devices. Use Permission Slip to request data deletion from corporations.

If not for yourself, then for America

ICE takes aim at data held by advertising and tech firms

: Agency looks to understand the extent of identifying information available to its masked agents

www.theregister.com

February 9, 2026 at 4:03 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Continuing my journey building a Midcentury Modern home in Minecraft.
www.patreon.com/posts/under-...

Under Construction | Aram J. French

Get more from Aram J. French on Patreon

www.patreon.com

February 9, 2026 at 5:43 AM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

There's a reason every advertisement for chat gpt is someone standing in front of a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of jelly going wHat sHouLd i mAke fOr luNcH?

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · Mar 19

i feel compelled to remind everyone that chatgpt/LLMs are functionally the *opposite* of an actual expert.

the more your problems are unusual or novel, the more likely LLMS are to be wrong. they are least helpful when it's most important

a table labeled "How common is your problem, how helpful is the response?"

There are three columns labeled common, rare, and novel and two rows labeled Actual Human Expert and LLM.

Common problem, human expert: helpful
Rare problem, human expert: more helpful
Novel problem, human expert: most helpful
Common problem, LLM: helpful
Rare problem, LLM: unhelpful
Novel problem, LLM: harmful

February 8, 2026 at 11:44 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

The pandemic really destroyed my sense of the passage of time. My laptop strains if I have more than two tabs open and the battery life has dropped to about an hour and a half. I'm upset, because I only bought it a year ago... in 2020.

Oh. Right.

February 8, 2026 at 8:38 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

My mom just sent me this pic. Her cat trying to wake up Ted Lasso.

A chonky cat sits in front of a television, raising her left paw to tap Ted Lasso, who is laying down on a sofa onscreen.

February 8, 2026 at 7:44 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

Ed Zitron

@edzitron.com

In England they call him Naughty Rabbit

February 8, 2026 at 5:10 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

If you use Substack you are helping fund nazis
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

www.theguardian.com

February 7, 2026 at 6:48 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

There's no such thing as AI art
etsy.com/listing/4451554347/anti-ai-art-t-shirt-hand-printed-gildan

I am pictured holding a pair of scissors up to a phone, as if to cut it in half. My t-shirt says "there's no such thing as AI art" a glitch affect of semitransparent vertical lines has been applied to the photo

February 7, 2026 at 6:19 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Not using AI is in fact very easy. We've done without it for 99.9999% of human history.

February 6, 2026 at 7:09 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

This is how I make my magic

mandatoryrollercoaster.com
patreon.com/mandatoryrollercoaster

a wizard in purple robes is hunched over a DJ setup of turntables and a mixer. he says "this is how I make MY magic!"

February 6, 2026 at 6:29 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Speaking as someone who is both poor and an artist, I can comfortably say I draw "bad" all the time because guess what, that's part of the process.

I will die before I ever use AI because AI is

1) shit

2) an instrument of fascism

3) environmentally ruinous

4) shit

February 6, 2026 at 6:06 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Loot that drops after defeating me:

- canned iced coffee
- wired headphones
- extra wide tip sharpie marker (not for graffiti)
- anxiety
- a handful of cool rocks

Aram @aramvartian.com · 5d

Loot that drops after defeating me:

- SD card
- one fingerless glove
- chilled Dr. Pepper
- prescription bottle containing five pills, none of which are on the prescription
- assortment of cables

Valiant 🏳️‍⚧️ | pre-order BOOM Goes the Bride on Backerkit! @valwrites.ca · 5d

Loot that drops after defeating me:

- a single earbud playing ambient electronica
- weed gummies
- a bunch of tote bags and carabiners
- a solid fart
- prescription orthotics

February 6, 2026 at 2:44 AM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

This person is claiming to have access to my voting record which if true, is a federal crime.

Mephisto @oiyou.bsky.social · 5d

Not voting blue got you Trump but speak your truth king

February 5, 2026 at 8:50 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

Olivia Lind, not a US Attorney

@notrightolivia.bsky.social

Yay! So cool to see one of my shirts out in the world.

I don’t have a ton in the shop right now. If you want one and I’m out of your size (or if your size isn’t listed), DM me and I’ll make one just for you. notrightstudio.etsy.com

February 5, 2026 at 7:01 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Thank you @notrightolivia.bsky.social and notrightstudio.etsy.com for my new favorite tee!

I am wearing a black tee with orange text in Cooper Black that reads "there's no such thing as AI art." I am raising double middle fingers to AI slop

February 5, 2026 at 6:55 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

Emperor Joshua Norton II

@joshuanortonii.bsky.social

Since nazis don't want us to do anything not approved by them, anything we do that they don't like becomes a protest.

February 5, 2026 at 6:21 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Sometimes I can feel pretty down as I toil away on my weird little comics while literal jackbooted thugs are kidnapping people in the streets.

But then I remember one of the first things the nazis did in Germany was censor art. And I'll be damned if I self censor because of the nazis here.

February 5, 2026 at 6:19 PM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

Joanne Freeman

@jbf1755.bsky.social

This is an important point.

Empathy—in and of itself—is anti-fascist.

The arts—and the project of higher education as a whole—teach empathy, enabling you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.

So to a fascist, they must be destroyed.

Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 6d

The war on empathy and the war on the arts are part of the same project.

www.liberalcurrents.com/none-more-wo...

It's unsurprising that the Nazis waged a relentless war on creativity, especially the modern and the avant-garde, in everything from architecture and design to painting.
Hitler himself was a failed painter whose work was most notably deficient in his inability to realistically capture human subjects. As Charlie English writes in his account of the Nazi war on art,
In this sense, Hitler's painting supports Arendt's theory of National Socialism-that it was defined by its banality and lack of empathy. The Nazis relied on the ability of people not to imagine themselves in someone else's shoes.
The lack of a connection was very much the point.
There is a right-wing war on empathy that observers like Bradley_ Onishi have been cataloguing for months and that was most recently documented by Hillary_ Clinton for The Atlantic. But I don't believe you can decouple this from the war on art and artists.

I share the belief that the arts are central to the cause of human freedom. This isn't only because of the expansive potential of the imagination. It's also because of the well of universal feeling and experience from which art draws in order to evoke something in its audience. And this experience pulls us—as listeners, viewers, observers, whether the medium—into a cycle of mutual edification. Art helps us to know one another better and to know ourselves more honestly. And it helps us to process our awe and terror at the world and our existence. It's why those with authoritarian impulses always want to control it, to limit what it shows us, and to silence its practitioners. What they fear most is the plain truth of being human.

February 5, 2026 at 4:03 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

"'A game should look fun to play' sounds like the most obvious of obvious advice, but in reality turns out to be one of those things that is far easier said than done."
www.patreon.com/posts/toy-bo...

Toy Box Design | Aram J. French

Get more from Aram J. French on Patreon

www.patreon.com

February 5, 2026 at 6:15 AM

Reposted by My Name Is Aram

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

New newsletter is up! French McDonalds, antifascist art, an Office Space cameo, and more. Free, even if you're not subscribed.
www.patreon.com/posts/januar...

January 2026 | Aram J. French

Get more from Aram J. French on Patreon

www.patreon.com

February 1, 2026 at 6:43 PM

My Name Is Aram

@rawfishandbeer.bsky.social

Being a comic creator means I'm also an advertiser, a marketer, a social media manager, a tax preparer, and a publisher, among other things. Drawing comics is about 20% of my job.

Charlie Stickney/ White Ash Comics @charliestickney.bsky.social · 7d

Why do comic creators self-promote all the time?

Because we have to.

Even working with a publisher that's supportive, press only goes so far. The rest of the success falls on the shoulder of the creator rallying their fanbase.

So here's mine. I'll RP yours.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/whi...