H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
@harrysimmons3578.bsky.social
An account of satire, in the vein of literary critic Henry Louis Mencken. Polemicist at Verdigris, please send essays contact@vdgasjournal.com
Send all hate mail to harrysimmons3578@gmail.com
Send all hate mail to harrysimmons3578@gmail.com
Pinned
Word to the Wise: Cheap Music, Numb Brains, and Stupidity
I have been asked to write about stupidity. I cannot think of why. Perhaps it is that glowing sagacity that rises, like steam, off my hateful words? Or, perhaps, there is some desire for a voice of…
vdgasjournal.com
Hi everyone.
At long last, here is my promised essay on stupidity, with the title slightly changed: 'Word to the Wise: Cheap Music, Numbs Brains, and Stupidity'.
I hope you enjoy!
vdgasjournal.com/2025/06/21/w...
At long last, here is my promised essay on stupidity, with the title slightly changed: 'Word to the Wise: Cheap Music, Numbs Brains, and Stupidity'.
I hope you enjoy!
vdgasjournal.com/2025/06/21/w...
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Just a guess, but I assume they're sitting fearfully and quietly in their dorms, having been threatened with prison and expulsion by their collaborationist administrators who oversaw their peers being deported to an Ecuadorian prison by the ruling government
Opinion | The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z?
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Just a guess, but I assume they're sitting fearfully and quietly in their dorms, having been threatened with prison and expulsion by their collaborationist administrators who oversaw their peers being deported to an Ecuadorian prison by the ruling government
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Everyone ought to give this a read—we can’t all be experts but we can all listen up and keep an eye out for these con men and their casino capitalist stunts
So the USA plans to fabricate their science going forward? If they do, they'll really be able to behave as if they fully don't need scientific evidence anymore. They can just pump out pseudoscience, like antivaxx articles "made by LLMs".
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
November 25, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Everyone ought to give this a read—we can’t all be experts but we can all listen up and keep an eye out for these con men and their casino capitalist stunts
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
"In this interpretation, the plan represents not so much a proposal for Ukrainian surrender as Trump administration amateur hour: a plan that was cooked up by a real estate developer and a financier that won’t be acceptable to either side."
On Illegal War and Immoral Peace
Why we should be dubious of both the coming actions in Venezuela and the ‘peace’ proposal for Ukraine.
lnk.thebulwark.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM
"In this interpretation, the plan represents not so much a proposal for Ukrainian surrender as Trump administration amateur hour: a plan that was cooked up by a real estate developer and a financier that won’t be acceptable to either side."
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
An ICE agent was caught removing a sign marking an ICE kidnapping in DC last week! Do we think he did it out of anger, embarrassment, or most appropriately shame? If you think what you’re doing is right, why are you trying to hide the evidence? 👀
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
A nontrivial fraction of these people appear to be seriously unwell.
OpenAI claims that they have the situation well under control.
My inbox suggests otherwise.
OpenAI claims that they have the situation well under control.
My inbox suggests otherwise.
November 21, 2025 at 2:51 AM
A nontrivial fraction of these people appear to be seriously unwell.
OpenAI claims that they have the situation well under control.
My inbox suggests otherwise.
OpenAI claims that they have the situation well under control.
My inbox suggests otherwise.
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
NEW: Louisiana’s governor eliminated parole for prisoners arrested after Aug. 1, 2024, and tightened eligibility rules for those arrested before.
Then he tossed those rules aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.
Then he tossed those rules aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.
Louisiana Made It Nearly Impossible to Get Parole. Now It’s Releasing Prisoners to Deport Them.
Gov. Jeff Landry eliminated parole for prisoners arrested after Aug. 1, 2024, and tightened eligibility rules for those already in prison. Then he set all of that aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.
www.propublica.org
November 24, 2025 at 1:00 PM
NEW: Louisiana’s governor eliminated parole for prisoners arrested after Aug. 1, 2024, and tightened eligibility rules for those arrested before.
Then he tossed those rules aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.
Then he tossed those rules aside for one group: undocumented immigrants. Why? To have them deported.
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
As @ondankbare-plant.bsky.social also mentioned, we explain the replication crisis relationship to AI here too
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
11/n
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
11/n
First off, we present the concurrently unfolding so-called replication crises and intertwined historical events that lead to where we are in both social psychology (and psychology generally of course as well as other fields) and artificial intelligence. Against this backdrop is the present...
2/
2/
November 25, 2025 at 4:41 AM
As @ondankbare-plant.bsky.social also mentioned, we explain the replication crisis relationship to AI here too
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
11/n
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
11/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Even in more quantifiable fields (like biochemistry), this brute force approach cannot succeed even with the best curated data. Given the ubiquitous use of p<0.05 as statically significant, 5% of all published hypotheses should have been rejected instead of accepted given the data. This would be bad
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Also thanks to @harrysimmons3578.bsky.social @ondankbare-plant.bsky.social @mikefulk.bsky.social for already noticing and dissecting this, see especially:
bsky.app/profile/mike...
9/n
bsky.app/profile/mike...
9/n
Am I nuts, or does this say we'll put all of our scientific papers into a big data warehouse, let a bunch of people working on"AI" train some new LLMs, and then magic will happen. The AI will start generating and testing hypotheses until it solves humanities problems? What a load of crap. Money grab
November 25, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Also thanks to @harrysimmons3578.bsky.social @ondankbare-plant.bsky.social @mikefulk.bsky.social for already noticing and dissecting this, see especially:
bsky.app/profile/mike...
9/n
bsky.app/profile/mike...
9/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Also it's time to keep pushing.
Sign our open letter and adapt it for your university and country!
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
6/n
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Sign our open letter and adapt it for your university and country!
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
6/n
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
November 25, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Also it's time to keep pushing.
Sign our open letter and adapt it for your university and country!
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
6/n
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Sign our open letter and adapt it for your university and country!
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
6/n
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
In general, please check out my website below, I collect all relevant work there by me and my collaborators to help you all keep track.
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
5/n
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
5/n
CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai
🧵
🧵
November 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM
In general, please check out my website below, I collect all relevant work there by me and my collaborators to help you all keep track.
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
5/n
bsky.app/profile/oliv...
5/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
More detailed thread on the paper I linked to in the OP here: bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Table 1 explains the core issues with this and table 2 articulates how if we cede this ground both clinical and basic science are done for. 🫣
4/n
Table 1 explains the core issues with this and table 2 articulates how if we cede this ground both clinical and basic science are done for. 🫣
4/n
New preprint 🌟 Psychology is core to cognitive science, and so it is vital we preserve it from harmful frames. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I use our psych and computer science expertise to analyse and craft:
Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧵 1/
Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🧵 1/
November 25, 2025 at 4:12 AM
More detailed thread on the paper I linked to in the OP here: bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Table 1 explains the core issues with this and table 2 articulates how if we cede this ground both clinical and basic science are done for. 🫣
4/n
Table 1 explains the core issues with this and table 2 articulates how if we cede this ground both clinical and basic science are done for. 🫣
4/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
What they want is to control and destroy actual science.
3/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
3/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
November 25, 2025 at 4:09 AM
What they want is to control and destroy actual science.
3/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
3/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Guest, O. & van Rooij, I. (2025). AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
bsky.app/profile/iris...
2/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
2/n
“The deskilling, denigration, and displacement of teachers and scholars have historically been central to fascist takeovers, since educators serve as bulwarks against propaganda, anti-intellectualism, and illiteracy.” — @olivia.science
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
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
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Guest, O. & van Rooij, I. (2025). AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
bsky.app/profile/iris...
2/n
bsky.app/profile/iris...
2/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
November 25, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
> We must protect and cultivate the ecosystem of human knowledge. AI models can mimic the appearance of scholarly work, but they are unconcerned with truth—the result is a torrential outpouring of unchecked but convincing-sounding "information".
Sign here: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
7/n
Sign here: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
7/n
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 AM
> We must protect and cultivate the ecosystem of human knowledge. AI models can mimic the appearance of scholarly work, but they are unconcerned with truth—the result is a torrential outpouring of unchecked but convincing-sounding "information".
Sign here: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
7/n
Sign here: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
7/n
Everyone ought to give this a read—we can’t all be experts but we can all listen up and keep an eye out for these con men and their casino capitalist stunts
So the USA plans to fabricate their science going forward? If they do, they'll really be able to behave as if they fully don't need scientific evidence anymore. They can just pump out pseudoscience, like antivaxx articles "made by LLMs".
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
November 25, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Everyone ought to give this a read—we can’t all be experts but we can all listen up and keep an eye out for these con men and their casino capitalist stunts
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
So the USA plans to fabricate their science going forward? If they do, they'll really be able to behave as if they fully don't need scientific evidence anymore. They can just pump out pseudoscience, like antivaxx articles "made by LLMs".
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
November 25, 2025 at 3:59 AM
So the USA plans to fabricate their science going forward? If they do, they'll really be able to behave as if they fully don't need scientific evidence anymore. They can just pump out pseudoscience, like antivaxx articles "made by LLMs".
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
See doi.org/10.31234/osf... for the case in psychology.
1/n
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Very grateful to American Nineteenth Century History’s David Cox for putting together this wonderful symposium on #theriseandfallofthesecondamericanrepublic which grew out of the panel on the book at the United States Intellectual History conference organized by Benjamin Park.
November 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Very grateful to American Nineteenth Century History’s David Cox for putting together this wonderful symposium on #theriseandfallofthesecondamericanrepublic which grew out of the panel on the book at the United States Intellectual History conference organized by Benjamin Park.
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Epstein emails (2.5 GB)
Approximately 20,900 unredacted emails and file attachments sent and received by Jeffrey Epstein's jeeproject@yahoo.com email address over nineteen years.
ddosecrets.com/article/epst...
Help us keep publishing: donorbox.org/ddosecrets
Approximately 20,900 unredacted emails and file attachments sent and received by Jeffrey Epstein's jeeproject@yahoo.com email address over nineteen years.
ddosecrets.com/article/epst...
Help us keep publishing: donorbox.org/ddosecrets
November 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Epstein emails (2.5 GB)
Approximately 20,900 unredacted emails and file attachments sent and received by Jeffrey Epstein's jeeproject@yahoo.com email address over nineteen years.
ddosecrets.com/article/epst...
Help us keep publishing: donorbox.org/ddosecrets
Approximately 20,900 unredacted emails and file attachments sent and received by Jeffrey Epstein's jeeproject@yahoo.com email address over nineteen years.
ddosecrets.com/article/epst...
Help us keep publishing: donorbox.org/ddosecrets
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
About 90,000 people living near larger chemical plants face an unacceptable risk of developing cancer, the EPA says.
New rules adopted last year could’ve cut that number to 3,000 residents — a drop of 97%.
But Trump has halted those efforts.
New rules adopted last year could’ve cut that number to 3,000 residents — a drop of 97%.
But Trump has halted those efforts.
Air Pollution From Industrial Facilities Is Far Worse Than Estimated
The Trump administration has put a stop to EPA rules that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install air monitors to measure pollution. Millions of people living near these pla...
www.propublica.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 AM
About 90,000 people living near larger chemical plants face an unacceptable risk of developing cancer, the EPA says.
New rules adopted last year could’ve cut that number to 3,000 residents — a drop of 97%.
But Trump has halted those efforts.
New rules adopted last year could’ve cut that number to 3,000 residents — a drop of 97%.
But Trump has halted those efforts.
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
I am BEGGING wrestling podcasters, ESPECIALLY the ones who are good, to stop treating Twitter/X as your assignment desk. Opinions on a site explicitly, openly dedicated to ragebaiting, from people paid to piss other people off on the orders of its Nazi owner, are not worth listening to 🤼
November 25, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I am BEGGING wrestling podcasters, ESPECIALLY the ones who are good, to stop treating Twitter/X as your assignment desk. Opinions on a site explicitly, openly dedicated to ragebaiting, from people paid to piss other people off on the orders of its Nazi owner, are not worth listening to 🤼
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
NEW: For years, the right mocked worries about foreign influence online. Now they’re the ones panicking after X revealed the location accounts actually post from.
@willsommer.bsky.social breaks down the meltdown — and why the Groyper movement isn’t going anywhere.
@willsommer.bsky.social breaks down the meltdown — and why the Groyper movement isn’t going anywhere.
New X Games: Legitimate Groyper or Bangledeshi Bot?
The ragebait in your timeline may be coming from abroad.
lnk.thebulwark.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:12 AM
NEW: For years, the right mocked worries about foreign influence online. Now they’re the ones panicking after X revealed the location accounts actually post from.
@willsommer.bsky.social breaks down the meltdown — and why the Groyper movement isn’t going anywhere.
@willsommer.bsky.social breaks down the meltdown — and why the Groyper movement isn’t going anywhere.
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
Here's Jeremy kicking in the door of the Oregon State Capitol. I guess you can do that and still be buddy-buddy with Drazen. bsky.app/profile/some...
"I'm a white-power Captain America - damn it!!!"
This far-right asshole, Jeremy Wayne, demands to be honored for kicking-in the door of the Oregon Capitol building. He's definitely not sorry and would do it again if he thought is was advantageous.
This far-right asshole, Jeremy Wayne, demands to be honored for kicking-in the door of the Oregon Capitol building. He's definitely not sorry and would do it again if he thought is was advantageous.
November 25, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Here's Jeremy kicking in the door of the Oregon State Capitol. I guess you can do that and still be buddy-buddy with Drazen. bsky.app/profile/some...
Reposted by H.L. Mencken’s Winking Ghost
The governor is asking the Trump administration to reverse course and provide money to help survivors of flooding across Chicago, Cook County and Illinois.
Pritzker pleads for federal flood disaster aid after summer storms
chicago.suntimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:56 AM
The governor is asking the Trump administration to reverse course and provide money to help survivors of flooding across Chicago, Cook County and Illinois.