Nate
@natedub.bsky.social
he/him - reading (SFF, philosophy) | gaming (video, tabletop) | listening (metal, podcasts from the left) - Covid is not a cold, masking shows solidarity, let's take care of each other 😷
Pinned
Nate
@natedub.bsky.social
· Jul 27
Re: N95s and “perfect fits” not being scalable - I have worn a KN95 mask in public spaces since my family caught Covid for the first time in 2023, and have not had so much as a cold since.
Stop making excuses for why you don’t mask, and start preventing the year-round spread of a vascular disease.
Stop making excuses for why you don’t mask, and start preventing the year-round spread of a vascular disease.
Reposted by Nate
I do, of course, have a paragraph from "Why We Fear AI" for this
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I do, of course, have a paragraph from "Why We Fear AI" for this
Reposted by Nate
there could literally not be a better time in history for us on the left to reach out to progressive liberals and show them that there is an alternative—that the democratic party is their enemy and is just as subservient to capital as republicans are
November 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM
there could literally not be a better time in history for us on the left to reach out to progressive liberals and show them that there is an alternative—that the democratic party is their enemy and is just as subservient to capital as republicans are
Reposted by Nate
Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.
Reposted by Nate
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
I have a feature essay for The Guardian today on the mirage of AI medicine, why care cannot be automated, and how overwhelming uptake of AI by American health capitalism threatens to undermine the very possibility of democracy.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms | Eric Reinhart
A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare – with consequences for the basis of society itself
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:42 PM
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Reposted by Nate
The long-running ideological war on libraries, education, and government workers is not separate from AI boosterism. It is the same ideological war on human knowledge and expertise. In some cases AI is being used to directly supercharge this effort:
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 4:21 PM
The long-running ideological war on libraries, education, and government workers is not separate from AI boosterism. It is the same ideological war on human knowledge and expertise. In some cases AI is being used to directly supercharge this effort:
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
Reposted by Nate
what's most wild to me about mamdani is that he's proposing the most basic policies—free transit, affordable rent and daycare are so deeply not radical. if nothing it's an insight into how far right the democratic establishment has gone after decades of lesser-evil voting
November 6, 2025 at 4:07 PM
what's most wild to me about mamdani is that he's proposing the most basic policies—free transit, affordable rent and daycare are so deeply not radical. if nothing it's an insight into how far right the democratic establishment has gone after decades of lesser-evil voting
Reposted by Nate
Part of Silicon Valley exceptionalism is this culture of bullshit and fantasy that Americans are just programmed into believing. The spiritual void of America is the engine of tech-capitalism.
Excerpt for Karen Hao's 'Empire of AI'
Excerpt for Karen Hao's 'Empire of AI'
November 2, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Part of Silicon Valley exceptionalism is this culture of bullshit and fantasy that Americans are just programmed into believing. The spiritual void of America is the engine of tech-capitalism.
Excerpt for Karen Hao's 'Empire of AI'
Excerpt for Karen Hao's 'Empire of AI'
Reposted by Nate
Models will always do bizarre stuff like that, because "Is this a gun?" isn't a question that has a situation-independent answer.
Yes, a certain hand gesture can be a gun when you're a kid playing a game. No, it's not a real gun. You need to know what the social situation is and models just don't
Yes, a certain hand gesture can be a gun when you're a kid playing a game. No, it's not a real gun. You need to know what the social situation is and models just don't
US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of chips for firearm
Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Models will always do bizarre stuff like that, because "Is this a gun?" isn't a question that has a situation-independent answer.
Yes, a certain hand gesture can be a gun when you're a kid playing a game. No, it's not a real gun. You need to know what the social situation is and models just don't
Yes, a certain hand gesture can be a gun when you're a kid playing a game. No, it's not a real gun. You need to know what the social situation is and models just don't
Reposted by Nate
this whole thread
Today, I became one of those people in all the news articles who turned up for their covid and flu jabs, as booked, as told to book, as told my eligibility was my the infernal NHS app, and was denied a covid jab.
This is my face while I was waiting for staff to confer and confirm.
This is my face while I was waiting for staff to confer and confirm.
October 18, 2025 at 1:44 PM
this whole thread
Reposted by Nate
it's almost daily you see a moderately known person with a large following authoritatively say that covid isn't a big deal anymore and you go okay so what studies have you been reading because hundreds of thousands papers disprove that and they're just like well because I think so. vibes alone.
October 15, 2025 at 11:06 PM
it's almost daily you see a moderately known person with a large following authoritatively say that covid isn't a big deal anymore and you go okay so what studies have you been reading because hundreds of thousands papers disprove that and they're just like well because I think so. vibes alone.
Reposted by Nate
People continue to call COVID advocates’ pleas for masking “unreasonable”.
Yet people who’ve already been disabled by COVID have no choice but to live with the “unreasonable” burdens of constant COVID safety.
My latest:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Yet people who’ve already been disabled by COVID have no choice but to live with the “unreasonable” burdens of constant COVID safety.
My latest:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Beyond all reason
Long COVID patients are constantly harangued about our requests for COVID safety. Yet what we're asking for is far less than what we're called on to do to survive.
substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 5:10 PM
People continue to call COVID advocates’ pleas for masking “unreasonable”.
Yet people who’ve already been disabled by COVID have no choice but to live with the “unreasonable” burdens of constant COVID safety.
My latest:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Yet people who’ve already been disabled by COVID have no choice but to live with the “unreasonable” burdens of constant COVID safety.
My latest:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Nate
All I can add to the “we reject universal masking” discourse is that it’s not about masks. You aren’t rejecting universal masking, which never happened; you’re rejecting having to think about wearing a mask, and maybe feeling badly about thinking about masks. Can’t help you there.
October 15, 2025 at 12:23 PM
All I can add to the “we reject universal masking” discourse is that it’s not about masks. You aren’t rejecting universal masking, which never happened; you’re rejecting having to think about wearing a mask, and maybe feeling badly about thinking about masks. Can’t help you there.
Reposted by Nate
This is why you need to not just mask, but mask consistently in public.
October 15, 2025 at 12:11 AM
This is why you need to not just mask, but mask consistently in public.
NYT Opinion columnists and manufacturing consent for neverending Covid infections, name a more iconic duo.
Neighbors taking this stance gave me and my (3x vaccinated) family Covid for the first time in 2023 and gave my partner Long Covid - sure would have been “rational” to mask around them, huh?
Neighbors taking this stance gave me and my (3x vaccinated) family Covid for the first time in 2023 and gave my partner Long Covid - sure would have been “rational” to mask around them, huh?
(and i think it is a demand that stems from fear more than a rational assessment of the threat environment)
October 14, 2025 at 7:55 PM
NYT Opinion columnists and manufacturing consent for neverending Covid infections, name a more iconic duo.
Neighbors taking this stance gave me and my (3x vaccinated) family Covid for the first time in 2023 and gave my partner Long Covid - sure would have been “rational” to mask around them, huh?
Neighbors taking this stance gave me and my (3x vaccinated) family Covid for the first time in 2023 and gave my partner Long Covid - sure would have been “rational” to mask around them, huh?
I can’t decide between Joan Shelley and Bill Callahan, and we’ve even been blessed with a duet from them
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/track/amberl...
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/track/amberl...
October 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I can’t decide between Joan Shelley and Bill Callahan, and we’ve even been blessed with a duet from them
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/track/amberl...
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/track/amberl...
Reposted by Nate
An interviewer asked me about America's "cost of living crisis," and I was struck again by how casually we've let such profoundly nightmarish phrases slip into our everyday lexicon.
October 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
An interviewer asked me about America's "cost of living crisis," and I was struck again by how casually we've let such profoundly nightmarish phrases slip into our everyday lexicon.
Couple book recs for amazing AI critiques (hat tip to @hagenblix.bsky.social for putting them on my radar) - go pick them up at bookshop.org while they’re doing free shipping! 1/3
Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.
An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.
bookshop.org
October 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Couple book recs for amazing AI critiques (hat tip to @hagenblix.bsky.social for putting them on my radar) - go pick them up at bookshop.org while they’re doing free shipping! 1/3
Counterpoint: “Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe.”
earthsgreatestenemy.com
earthsgreatestenemy.com
The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds. https://cnn.it/4pWQMoh
October 7, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Counterpoint: “Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe.”
earthsgreatestenemy.com
earthsgreatestenemy.com
Reposted by Nate
The Long Heat is finally out from @versobooks.bsky.social today:
It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.
www.versobooks.com/products/331...
It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.
www.versobooks.com/products/331...
The Long Heat
The world is crossing the 1.5°C global warming limit, perhaps exceeding 2°C soon after. What is to be done when these boundaries, set by the Paris Agreement, have been passed? In the overshoot era, sc...
www.versobooks.com
October 7, 2025 at 6:47 AM
The Long Heat is finally out from @versobooks.bsky.social today:
It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.
www.versobooks.com/products/331...
It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.
www.versobooks.com/products/331...
Reposted by Nate
Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
October 7, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
Reposted by Nate
In “Extraction,” @triofrancos.bsky.social examines the politics of lithium mining in South America—and the complexities of the energy transition. @materialistjew.bsky.social spoke with her about imperfect trade-offs and the nature of democracy.
Schrodinger’s Element | Ajay Singh Chaudhary
In her new book, Thea Riofrancos homes in on the extraction of lithium—and the thorny problem of an ecologically sound energy transition
thebaffler.com
September 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM
In “Extraction,” @triofrancos.bsky.social examines the politics of lithium mining in South America—and the complexities of the energy transition. @materialistjew.bsky.social spoke with her about imperfect trade-offs and the nature of democracy.
Reposted by Nate
YES! THIS on GenAI!
Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins:
"An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."
Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins:
"An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."
Large Language Muddle | The Editors
The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...
www.nplusonemag.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:07 PM
YES! THIS on GenAI!
Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins:
"An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."
Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins:
"An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."
My absolute favorite folk singer/songwriter currently operating is Joan Shelley, and she has a gorgeous new album out today!
If you like this, let it be an invite to the rest of her discography as well, a real source of solace for me these past few years.
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/real-w...
If you like this, let it be an invite to the rest of her discography as well, a real source of solace for me these past few years.
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/real-w...
Real Warmth, by Joan Shelley
13 track album
joanshelley.bandcamp.com
September 19, 2025 at 1:18 PM
My absolute favorite folk singer/songwriter currently operating is Joan Shelley, and she has a gorgeous new album out today!
If you like this, let it be an invite to the rest of her discography as well, a real source of solace for me these past few years.
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/real-w...
If you like this, let it be an invite to the rest of her discography as well, a real source of solace for me these past few years.
joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/real-w...
Reposted by Nate
COVID-19 has revealed that much of the US public is willing to accept mass death and abandonment. We were pushed by propaganda to see many around us as disposable. That helped set the tone for current fascist violations. I wrote about it for @prismreports.org.
prismreports.org/2025/09/16/c...
prismreports.org/2025/09/16/c...
Another way out: Building resistance when passivity is the norm
The COVID-19 pandemic should have shown us that we’re supposed to be meeting needs, not falling in line behind fascist incursions
prismreports.org
September 16, 2025 at 5:29 PM
COVID-19 has revealed that much of the US public is willing to accept mass death and abandonment. We were pushed by propaganda to see many around us as disposable. That helped set the tone for current fascist violations. I wrote about it for @prismreports.org.
prismreports.org/2025/09/16/c...
prismreports.org/2025/09/16/c...