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Matthew Cole

Matthew Cole

@mattcole.bsky.social

2.1K followers 480 following 530 posts

Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex. Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés! mattcole.work

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Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 29d

My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026!

This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.

UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 19h

Students reveal their use of gen-AI very easily if you know what it looks and sounds like - typos or not.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 3d

Typos are a sign of authenticity in writing against Gen-AI

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 3d

“slopification”

Typos are now a sign of authenticity

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 3d

Obviously it apes a style because it was fed data that reflected it, at least in part. But that’s not really the point. The slopificarion of writing is real.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 3d

I used to love it ans use it as well but now I am rejecting it entirely.

Human writing must persist in all its weirdness.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 3d

Most detection systems are not reliable enough to be of any practical use.

also people now write more like chat-got even when not using it.

It’s awful

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 5d

Petition for everyone to stop using Gen-AI to write.

Anyone who has played around with it can tell its style, particularly the overuse of these “ —“ and it’s just offensive and embarrassing to see people sharing text like this now.

Reposted by Matthew Cole

John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 5d

I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Repopulating the high-rises

A new history of Britain’s tower blocks reveals the ways architecture and ideology have combined to ensure residents are always forgotten

www.newstatesman.com

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 6d

Time to make the billionaires scream

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 7d

Humans should never trust AI. AI should not be used for most of the things its oligarchical tech cultists proselytise that it should be. It should be nowhere near the education system save for maybe vocationally oriented degrees.

Reposted by Matthew Cole

M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 8d

This is especially rich given that Wiley's "AI Guidelines for Researchers" makes a point of urging authors to "protect your content while using AI". What they mean is: "make sure no other AI company gets hold of your IP, because then we can't use it ourselves."

www.wiley.com/en-us/publis...

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 7d

It’s literally a requirement for my job that I publish in these specific ABS 3 & 4 journals. Most UK academics don’t have a choice if they want to keep their jobs.

And you are hopelessly naive if you think individual choice has any sway at all here. Try moving beyond voluntarism.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 8d

Absolutely fucked that I now have to consent to an AI scanning my data to improve Wiley’s systems in order to publish in a top journal.

As if they don’t profit enough from hosting my intellectual property. My data is now a training pipeline.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 14d

Cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could make 16 million children and 28 million adults go hungry in the United States.

It is violent and I 💯 percent expect it to be met with violence.

www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...

'Uncharted territory': Ongoing shutdown threatens food aid for 42 million people

SNAP, the country's largest anti-hunger program, dates back to the Great Depression and has never been disrupted this way. Most recipients are seniors, families with kids, and those with disabilities.

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 19d

what exactly are university managers doing, when they put pressure on staff to dedicate months of their time applying for these?

ana valdivia @anavaldi.bsky.social · 21d

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:

- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

Reposted by Matthew Cole

alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 20d

bernard stiegler rules so hard bc his books are like:

"if the technical system of production is guided bu the economic system which is guided by the short term financial system, we may see terminal breakdowns in the "honestly giving a shit about any of this" system, which would be bad."

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 20d

hard to not love this

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 20d

Quite a bit of what passes for laudable contemporary ‘scene’ literature is comprised of some of the most truly vapid, myopic and boring fucking stories I’ve ever had the displeasure of attempting to read.

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 22d

Does anyone have a list of independent and or radical bookstores in the United States?

Please share or link me in the replies

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Emiliano Mellino @mellino.bsky.social · 22d

But maybe more ambition is needed, because like @mattcole.bsky.social says, when bosses deliberately withold wages "they are stealing from their workers".

Wage theft is theft, and it should be recognised as such.

novaramedia.com/2025/10/16/e...

Employers Who Steal Wages Should Be Made Criminally Liable | Novara Media

A shocking investigation has revealed that employers who fail to pay wages simply get away with it. It’s time to make wage theft a criminal matter, argues Matthew Cole.

novaramedia.com

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Emiliano Mellino @mellino.bsky.social · 22d

In the UK there's no punishment for employers who refuse to pay their workers, but @mattcole.bsky.social argues that we should follow the example of New Zealand and make non-payment of wages a criminal matter.

novaramedia.com/2025/10/16/employers-who-steal-wages-should-be-made-criminally-liable/

Employers Who Steal Wages Should Be Made Criminally Liable | Novara Media

A shocking investigation has revealed that employers who fail to pay wages simply get away with it. It’s time to make wage theft a criminal matter, argues Matthew Cole.

novaramedia.com

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 23d

Did they get the management consultants in or something?

The Economist @economist.com · 23d

Whereas drug gangs used to be vertically integrated, with a single kingpin supervising production, transport and distribution, they now rely heavily on outsourcing. This has fuelled specialisation and innovation

The traffickers are winning the war on drugs

New decentralised networks are even harder to disrupt than the hierarchical gangs they have replaced

Matthew Cole @mattcole.bsky.social · 25d

Any comrades out there able to help me with a website project for reporting wage theft anonymously?

I can pay a bit out of pocket a bit and will be trying to get a grant to expand it.

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Transition Security Project @transitionsec.bsky.social · 26d

While the US & Europe ramp up military spending, millions live in poverty.

Today, we launch Transition Security Project, investigating how militarisation makes us poorer and less safe amid climate crisis — and what genuine security could look like. 🧵

transitionsecurity.org

Transition Security Project

transitionsecurity.org

Reposted by Matthew Cole

Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 27d

we need a slopbreakers international