Rob Danisch
@robdanisch.bsky.social
Professor of Rhetoric and Communication, University of Waterloo, lover and defender of democracy
This is incredibly stupid. The enshitification of the new york times continues:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | A.I. Is Already Intelligent. This Is How It Becomes Conscious.
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
This is incredibly stupid. The enshitification of the new york times continues:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
We deserve a better democracy than this! If you agree, pre-order my new book On Mindful Democracy from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Parallax Press. Here, I forward a radical vision of democracy grounded in everyday acts of #mindfulness, #community, and mutual care.
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
On Mindful Democracy – Parallax Press
An antidote to political burnout and civic despair: drawing on mindfulness and modern wisdom to cultivate resilience, healthy engagement, and skillful presence in turbulent times
www.parallax.org
November 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM
We deserve a better democracy than this! If you agree, pre-order my new book On Mindful Democracy from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Parallax Press. Here, I forward a radical vision of democracy grounded in everyday acts of #mindfulness, #community, and mutual care.
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
So the tech bros and computer nerds who probably didn't have any friends growing up and struggle to talk to people made stuff that causes the rest of us to have fewer friends and struggle to talk to other people. Great.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here
The social-media era is over. What’s coming will be much worse.
www.theatlantic.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:39 AM
So the tech bros and computer nerds who probably didn't have any friends growing up and struggle to talk to people made stuff that causes the rest of us to have fewer friends and struggle to talk to other people. Great.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Apparently, one of the main uses of AI is advice about difficult conversations. As I head off to campus to teach my basic 100-level interpersonal communication class, which I've taught for 25 years, I've been wondering why I keep making it easier, more simple each year.
November 6, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Apparently, one of the main uses of AI is advice about difficult conversations. As I head off to campus to teach my basic 100-level interpersonal communication class, which I've taught for 25 years, I've been wondering why I keep making it easier, more simple each year.
There's so much truth here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Why Students Are Obsessed With ‘Points Taken Off’
Students and professors are in a drawn-out battle over grade inflation. It may never end.
www.theatlantic.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:41 PM
There's so much truth here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
This is Jon Stewart at his best:
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Will Paramount Cancel Jon Stewart?
The “Daily Show” host talks with David Remnick about his contract with Paramount Skydance, the government’s attack on political satire, and how our institutions got so weak.
www.newyorker.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
This is Jon Stewart at his best:
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
"The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good." lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 1, 2025 at 10:31 PM
"The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good." lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
People spend way more time rationalizing than reasoning. We’d all be better if it were the reverse. Social media seems designed to make sure we keep up the rationalizing and don’t engage in reasoning.
November 2, 2025 at 3:24 PM
People spend way more time rationalizing than reasoning. We’d all be better if it were the reverse. Social media seems designed to make sure we keep up the rationalizing and don’t engage in reasoning.
If I were a pediatrician, I’d prescribe books. They’re the best medicine.
November 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
If I were a pediatrician, I’d prescribe books. They’re the best medicine.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
This is not getting the attention it deserves, but Beutler is absolutely right. We need politicians to go directly after the social media algorithms and curb the rot that has driven us here
New from me: Emmanuel Macron delivered remarks in Germany recently that I think could serve as a template for an outside-the-box, ambitious political figure. But timing and breaking with prevailing orthodoxy would be critical. www.offmessage.net/p/defiant-re...
The Defiant Resistance Speech An American Should Have Given
There's power waiting to be claimed by an ambitious political figure who makes this his or her cause.
www.offmessage.net
October 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
This is not getting the attention it deserves, but Beutler is absolutely right. We need politicians to go directly after the social media algorithms and curb the rot that has driven us here
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Moreover, they are the biggest plagiarism machines in the history of the world. They can not get answers correct without one of us having done it for them in the past, and then getting our work stolen by the corporation that designed the plagiarism machine and got all the money for it
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
October 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Moreover, they are the biggest plagiarism machines in the history of the world. They can not get answers correct without one of us having done it for them in the past, and then getting our work stolen by the corporation that designed the plagiarism machine and got all the money for it
Reposted by Rob Danisch
You spend more time on social media than you intend to, because time flows faster on these platforms, causing you to lose hours in what feels like minutes. This is no accident; it’s a result of a decades-long plot to steal your time.
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
How Social Media Shortens Your Life
And How to Expand it
www.gurwinder.blog
August 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
You spend more time on social media than you intend to, because time flows faster on these platforms, causing you to lose hours in what feels like minutes. This is no accident; it’s a result of a decades-long plot to steal your time.
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
This is excellent. I would love it if some senior admin people from @uwaterloo.ca would read this and think seriously about it:
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
This is excellent. I would love it if some senior admin people from @uwaterloo.ca would read this and think seriously about it:
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Yes, this is absolutely right.
people seriously underplay the strength of elected leaders, influential people and the like just saying a thing.
just... like... say a thing and repeat it. its the core of politics and communications. you say a thing and say it over and over and it becomes the story. it works.
just... like... say a thing and repeat it. its the core of politics and communications. you say a thing and say it over and over and it becomes the story. it works.
October 22, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Yes, this is absolutely right.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
October 22, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Can the Manhattan Project avoid building the nuclear bomb?
October 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Can the Manhattan Project avoid building the nuclear bomb?
Sober, thoughtful take:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Is Moderate Drinking Okay?
“Every drink takes five minutes off your life.” Maybe the thought scares you. Personally, I find comfort in it.
www.theatlantic.com
October 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Sober, thoughtful take:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
This is quite a hed/subhed.
1) Start with Vance. Use strong action verb. Accept the autocratic premise that the “Marines’ Might” are Vance’s to flex.
2) Mention the protest second and absurdly describe them as in the thousands
3) Treat Trump’s strong man use of the military as a partisan scuffle.
1) Start with Vance. Use strong action verb. Accept the autocratic premise that the “Marines’ Might” are Vance’s to flex.
2) Mention the protest second and absurdly describe them as in the thousands
3) Treat Trump’s strong man use of the military as a partisan scuffle.
October 19, 2025 at 10:31 AM
This is quite a hed/subhed.
1) Start with Vance. Use strong action verb. Accept the autocratic premise that the “Marines’ Might” are Vance’s to flex.
2) Mention the protest second and absurdly describe them as in the thousands
3) Treat Trump’s strong man use of the military as a partisan scuffle.
1) Start with Vance. Use strong action verb. Accept the autocratic premise that the “Marines’ Might” are Vance’s to flex.
2) Mention the protest second and absurdly describe them as in the thousands
3) Treat Trump’s strong man use of the military as a partisan scuffle.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
The scenario in which there are oligarchs powerful enough to succeed at their AI con and force LLMs onto the rest of society is the outright fascist and dystopian scenario. That higher ed has largely capitulated to the scam means it had already been deskilled. We need to understand how and why.
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
October 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
The scenario in which there are oligarchs powerful enough to succeed at their AI con and force LLMs onto the rest of society is the outright fascist and dystopian scenario. That higher ed has largely capitulated to the scam means it had already been deskilled. We need to understand how and why.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
1) Know your values, frame the debate
2) Repetition is key to persuasion
3) Communication, public speaking, and on-camera performance are skills you need to train at to be good at bsky.app/profile/theb...
2) Repetition is key to persuasion
3) Communication, public speaking, and on-camera performance are skills you need to train at to be good at bsky.app/profile/theb...
October 17, 2025 at 5:27 AM
1) Know your values, frame the debate
2) Repetition is key to persuasion
3) Communication, public speaking, and on-camera performance are skills you need to train at to be good at bsky.app/profile/theb...
2) Repetition is key to persuasion
3) Communication, public speaking, and on-camera performance are skills you need to train at to be good at bsky.app/profile/theb...
NCA is hosting a special event no the "Futures for Rhetoric and Democracy":
telegra.ph/SPECIAL-PROG...
telegra.ph/SPECIAL-PROG...
SPECIAL PROGRAMS: Futures for Rhetoric and Democracy
Time: Friday, Oct. 17, 2-4 p.m. EDT
Across the globe, in different national cultures and contexts, authoritarianism is on the rise. Prominent authoritarian movements and politicians have threatened t...
telegra.ph
October 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM
NCA is hosting a special event no the "Futures for Rhetoric and Democracy":
telegra.ph/SPECIAL-PROG...
telegra.ph/SPECIAL-PROG...
Lots of political theorists just discovering rhetoric:
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Anger, Fear, Domination
A renowned political theorist offers a road map to the dark forces that threaten democracy “Politics is different now because something awful has been un...
yalebooks.yale.edu
October 14, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Lots of political theorists just discovering rhetoric:
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
