Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
@shengokai.blacksky.app
Martial artist, motorcyclist, pragmatist, comics philosopher, queer phenomenologist.
Assistant Professor @CSUN. Japanese philosophy, race, gender, disability, tech/AI. Inquiries: johnathan.flowers@csun.edu
Rider of the mind shaitan. He/Him/His 🏳️🌈
Assistant Professor @CSUN. Japanese philosophy, race, gender, disability, tech/AI. Inquiries: johnathan.flowers@csun.edu
Rider of the mind shaitan. He/Him/His 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Fuck tenure, I want revenge.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
This technical feat done in protest by the stunning Surya Bonaly in ‘94 - a back flip, landing on one skate - was deemed as “lacking grace,” when a Black-French woman did it.
As she said: “If I had been white or American, I might have won a gold medal at the Olympics or at the World Championships."
As she said: “If I had been white or American, I might have won a gold medal at the Olympics or at the World Championships."
February 10, 2026 at 8:21 PM
This technical feat done in protest by the stunning Surya Bonaly in ‘94 - a back flip, landing on one skate - was deemed as “lacking grace,” when a Black-French woman did it.
As she said: “If I had been white or American, I might have won a gold medal at the Olympics or at the World Championships."
As she said: “If I had been white or American, I might have won a gold medal at the Olympics or at the World Championships."
So, this is the kind of rules lawyer shit I live for: saying something that is offensive to the president or vp typically refers to statements of opinion, rather than statements of fact.
Unfortunately, the determination of “offense” is left up to the parliamentarian if the chair can’t adjudicate.
Unfortunately, the determination of “offense” is left up to the parliamentarian if the chair can’t adjudicate.
House Oversight hearing on ICE opens with the rules:
"It is also a clear violation of the rules of the House to make statements that might personally be offensive to the President or the Vice President of the United States."
"It is also a clear violation of the rules of the House to make statements that might personally be offensive to the President or the Vice President of the United States."
February 10, 2026 at 8:10 PM
So, this is the kind of rules lawyer shit I live for: saying something that is offensive to the president or vp typically refers to statements of opinion, rather than statements of fact.
Unfortunately, the determination of “offense” is left up to the parliamentarian if the chair can’t adjudicate.
Unfortunately, the determination of “offense” is left up to the parliamentarian if the chair can’t adjudicate.
Hasbro owns the trademarks for Wizards of the Coast and is therefore the controlling company of Magic: the Gathering snd Dungeons and Dragons.
D&D and M:tG will not get another cent from me until this deal is dead.
D&D and M:tG will not get another cent from me until this deal is dead.
JKR will never get another dime from the pockets of anyone in my family. You, too, can be part of making this deal a disaster for all parties!
(The revolution starts here
Where you work & where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do & what you say
The revolution starts now - S. Earle)
(The revolution starts here
Where you work & where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do & what you say
The revolution starts now - S. Earle)
Hasbro and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed a multi-year deal starting in 2027 to produce Harry Potter film and television series dolls, role play, action figures, collectibles, interactive plush, board games, and more to be revealed later this year - bwnews.pr/45UKdKL
February 10, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Hasbro owns the trademarks for Wizards of the Coast and is therefore the controlling company of Magic: the Gathering snd Dungeons and Dragons.
D&D and M:tG will not get another cent from me until this deal is dead.
D&D and M:tG will not get another cent from me until this deal is dead.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
When a sitting representative refers to the Super Bowl halftime show as “pornography,” people should use that to reflect on how they and other representatives are simultaneously working to ban, censor, and restrict “pornography” and what that actually means
February 10, 2026 at 6:52 PM
When a sitting representative refers to the Super Bowl halftime show as “pornography,” people should use that to reflect on how they and other representatives are simultaneously working to ban, censor, and restrict “pornography” and what that actually means
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
A stunning detail the ICE chief shared in this hearing that was supposed to be a brag, except it isn't: ICE has arrested 379,000 people between Jan. 2025-Jan. 2026 -- but only 8,700 were suspected gang members or known suspected terrorists.
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
Congresswoman Uses Simple Math To Show How Broken ICE Is
www.huffpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:08 PM
A stunning detail the ICE chief shared in this hearing that was supposed to be a brag, except it isn't: ICE has arrested 379,000 people between Jan. 2025-Jan. 2026 -- but only 8,700 were suspected gang members or known suspected terrorists.
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
i'm a fan of the rhetorical one-two of "we're coming after you in this life and in the next"
February 10, 2026 at 6:51 PM
i'm a fan of the rhetorical one-two of "we're coming after you in this life and in the next"
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
When you factor in just how many incarcerated people including children have disabilities like ADHD and autism and MI and IDs and are Black or brown or indigenous, it really becomes hard not to describe the facilities of cages they're locked in as "death camps built for genocide of undesirables"
February 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM
When you factor in just how many incarcerated people including children have disabilities like ADHD and autism and MI and IDs and are Black or brown or indigenous, it really becomes hard not to describe the facilities of cages they're locked in as "death camps built for genocide of undesirables"
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
jesus fucking christ
read this, do not - or maybe do? - read this in a hallway corner while doing political work, unless you can keep both heat and emotion off your face.
But read it. Filthy, transcendent, violent, upsetting, brilliant.
read this, do not - or maybe do? - read this in a hallway corner while doing political work, unless you can keep both heat and emotion off your face.
But read it. Filthy, transcendent, violent, upsetting, brilliant.
this is the most Queer As In FUCK YOU story I've ever read in a mainstream magazine
I'd describe it to you, but that would violate bsky's terms and conditions, so you should just go read it instead
I'd describe it to you, but that would violate bsky's terms and conditions, so you should just go read it instead
Bullet Time at the Kink Party
Leah is queer community. Leah is expanding and expansive. Leah wants to fall in love with everyone still alive in this room and beyond and be their bottom for a night, just one night, though she wo…
strangehorizons.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:15 PM
jesus fucking christ
read this, do not - or maybe do? - read this in a hallway corner while doing political work, unless you can keep both heat and emotion off your face.
But read it. Filthy, transcendent, violent, upsetting, brilliant.
read this, do not - or maybe do? - read this in a hallway corner while doing political work, unless you can keep both heat and emotion off your face.
But read it. Filthy, transcendent, violent, upsetting, brilliant.
I figure we should use this line of questioning every time one of these christo-fascist assholes is compelled to testify.
McIVER: Do you consider yourself a religious man?
LYONS: Yes mam
McIVER: How do you think judgment day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?
LYONS: I'm not going to entertain that question
McIVER: Do you think you're going to hell, Mr Lyons?
LYONS: Yes mam
McIVER: How do you think judgment day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?
LYONS: I'm not going to entertain that question
McIVER: Do you think you're going to hell, Mr Lyons?
February 10, 2026 at 6:27 PM
I figure we should use this line of questioning every time one of these christo-fascist assholes is compelled to testify.
I was unprepared for last week’s Starfleet Academy and I am gonna need a minute, especially after reading the behind the scenes narrative of how it, and the lines at the end, came to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY what Trek was meant to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY what Trek was meant to be.
February 10, 2026 at 6:18 PM
I was unprepared for last week’s Starfleet Academy and I am gonna need a minute, especially after reading the behind the scenes narrative of how it, and the lines at the end, came to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY what Trek was meant to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY what Trek was meant to be.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
My colleague points out the equally relevant Luis Figueroa's book Sugar, Slavery, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico uncpress.org/978080785610...
For those interested in why Black & Caribbean people are going off about the sugar cane from last night's halftime show: sugar is a plantation commodity that fueled slavery & colonialism
bookshop.org/p/books/swee...
bookshop.org/p/books/swee...
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
The Place of Sugar in Modern History
bookshop.org
February 10, 2026 at 4:57 AM
My colleague points out the equally relevant Luis Figueroa's book Sugar, Slavery, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico uncpress.org/978080785610...
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
*my biggest and most exhausted sigh*
"As AI Enters the Operating Room, Reports Arise of Botched Surgeries and Misidentified Body Parts"
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
"As AI Enters the Operating Room, Reports Arise of Botched Surgeries and Misidentified Body Parts"
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 AM
*my biggest and most exhausted sigh*
"As AI Enters the Operating Room, Reports Arise of Botched Surgeries and Misidentified Body Parts"
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
"As AI Enters the Operating Room, Reports Arise of Botched Surgeries and Misidentified Body Parts"
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
It does not. For Freire, the situation of oppression dehumanizes both oppressed and oppressors but does so differently.
The oppressed cannot choose for themselves what they want to be, while the oppressors can be nothing but oppressors because they don’t know how else to be.
The oppressed cannot choose for themselves what they want to be, while the oppressors can be nothing but oppressors because they don’t know how else to be.
This assumes some basic difference between the original oppressed and oppressors.
This may true in person to person relationships (if, the oppressor for instance, is a malignant narcissist), but, at scale, human beings are human beings and the oppressed are no better or worse than their oppressors.
This may true in person to person relationships (if, the oppressor for instance, is a malignant narcissist), but, at scale, human beings are human beings and the oppressed are no better or worse than their oppressors.
February 10, 2026 at 6:11 PM
It does not. For Freire, the situation of oppression dehumanizes both oppressed and oppressors but does so differently.
The oppressed cannot choose for themselves what they want to be, while the oppressors can be nothing but oppressors because they don’t know how else to be.
The oppressed cannot choose for themselves what they want to be, while the oppressors can be nothing but oppressors because they don’t know how else to be.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
Today for @theflytrapmedia.com I wrote about the (techno)fascist push to grant personhood to anything except people
Dehumanizing Humans, Personifying Computers: Why Modern Fascism Wants You to be Lonely
Welcome to fully-automated luxury fascism. Can I take your personhood?
www.theflytrapmedia.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Today for @theflytrapmedia.com I wrote about the (techno)fascist push to grant personhood to anything except people
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
“As university leadership signals a willingness to purge and sanction political dissidents, the question remains what powerful organizations like the AAU will do. As the historian Howard Zinn opined, you can’t be neutral on a moving train.”
"But if the member presidents choose the guise of institutional neutrality as a way to gain political cover, they may now be leading higher ed toward greater authoritarianism."
Well the AAU is gonna love this (miniest of threads)
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
Well the AAU is gonna love this (miniest of threads)
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
How Elite Colleges Aided Censorship During the Red Scares
Powerful organizations during the Red Scares crafted a world where “academic freedom” was conditional on political allegiance.
www.insidehighered.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:38 PM
“As university leadership signals a willingness to purge and sanction political dissidents, the question remains what powerful organizations like the AAU will do. As the historian Howard Zinn opined, you can’t be neutral on a moving train.”
So, this is a thing that Paulo Freire describes in the first chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed: in the initial phases of a revolutionary struggle, the oppressed don't desire liberation, they desire the power to oppress.
Now, the reasons for this are more complicated.
Now, the reasons for this are more complicated.
Been saying this for a while now.
People don't wanna get rid of oppression, they want their turn to be the oppressor.
People don't wanna get rid of oppression, they want their turn to be the oppressor.
a LOT of people don't want liberation, they want privilege
February 10, 2026 at 12:38 PM
So, this is a thing that Paulo Freire describes in the first chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed: in the initial phases of a revolutionary struggle, the oppressed don't desire liberation, they desire the power to oppress.
Now, the reasons for this are more complicated.
Now, the reasons for this are more complicated.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
The most important question about AI isn't determining whether the machine thinks — it's whether interacting with it displaces the conditions under which we think, writes Eryk Salvaggio. www.techpolicy.press/the-illusion...
The Illusion of AGI, or What Language Models Can Do Without Thought
It is not simple stubbornness that LLMs are not “intelligent,” much less a form of “general” intelligence, writes Eryk Salvaggio.
www.techpolicy.press
February 9, 2026 at 4:24 PM
The most important question about AI isn't determining whether the machine thinks — it's whether interacting with it displaces the conditions under which we think, writes Eryk Salvaggio. www.techpolicy.press/the-illusion...
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
It's incredible how so much conventional political commentary begins from a ridiculously narrow conception of the political. Politics takes many forms & is a creative practice.
Analysis: Weeks before he set foot on the stage, Bad Bunny’s halftime performance had already become a media event.
But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
Analysis | Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?
The Bad Bunny Super Bowl show nodded to injustices in Puerto Rico but mostly evoked wholesome family values that meshed with the more sentimental commercials.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:41 AM
It's incredible how so much conventional political commentary begins from a ridiculously narrow conception of the political. Politics takes many forms & is a creative practice.
The standards that you're demanding ICE follow, "the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow," are the same standards that failed to stem the ongoing extra-judicial murders of Black and Brown folks.
What the fuck makes you think ICE will be ANY different?
What the fuck makes you think ICE will be ANY different?
Our DHS reform demands are exceedingly reasonable.
We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.
Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.
Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
February 10, 2026 at 11:08 AM
The standards that you're demanding ICE follow, "the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow," are the same standards that failed to stem the ongoing extra-judicial murders of Black and Brown folks.
What the fuck makes you think ICE will be ANY different?
What the fuck makes you think ICE will be ANY different?
This is super useful.
Thread. 🧵 (1/x)
On the superiority of water as the primary decontaminant for tear gas and peppery spray on skin and eyes.
To make it clear to people, this is a thread. Some of you are not clear on the concept. I will reply this with another post and mark it with a number in (x). And so forth. (1)
On the superiority of water as the primary decontaminant for tear gas and peppery spray on skin and eyes.
To make it clear to people, this is a thread. Some of you are not clear on the concept. I will reply this with another post and mark it with a number in (x). And so forth. (1)
February 10, 2026 at 11:04 AM
This is super useful.
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
“No matter how Ring and other surveillance tech companies may downplay it, there’s no world in which finding lost dogs is the final end-use for this technology.”
Opinion | Ring is using lost dogs to make the surveillance state adorable
The same technology the Amazon-owned company uses to find lost dogs could easily be turned against their owners.
www.ms.now
February 9, 2026 at 11:00 PM
“No matter how Ring and other surveillance tech companies may downplay it, there’s no world in which finding lost dogs is the final end-use for this technology.”
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
Notice the framing of sex trafficking victims as “consensual sex workers” and the simultaneous framing of consensual sex workers as “sex trafficking victims”
February 9, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Notice the framing of sex trafficking victims as “consensual sex workers” and the simultaneous framing of consensual sex workers as “sex trafficking victims”
For some reason (read: I know why), I have gained 1k followers in under 24hrs and I would like to remind everyone to use alt-text on all your images. There’s even a setting that warns you!
February 9, 2026 at 9:07 PM
For some reason (read: I know why), I have gained 1k followers in under 24hrs and I would like to remind everyone to use alt-text on all your images. There’s even a setting that warns you!
Reposted by Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE)
@discord.com how can we trust that you'll keep our data secure if you force us to upload our IDs?
February 9, 2026 at 6:30 PM
@discord.com how can we trust that you'll keep our data secure if you force us to upload our IDs?