Tackman Babcock
@tackmanbabcock.bsky.social
Recovering from blinders of STEM, neoliberalism & fundamentalism. Enjoy film, sci-fi, literary nonfiction, feminism, philosophy, cats. Wish: dismantle reactionary targeting of trans people, Māori, Muslims, Jewish people, etc.
Tangata Tiriti, NZ
Tangata Tiriti, NZ
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
This is narcissism masquerading as philosophy — the technophile elite are not recognizing a new soul in AI, they're falling in love with their creation, staring at their own reflection in a digital pool.
It is the ultimate in solipsism and has its roots in a pathological fear and denial of death.
It is the ultimate in solipsism and has its roots in a pathological fear and denial of death.
November 26, 2025 at 3:47 AM
This is narcissism masquerading as philosophy — the technophile elite are not recognizing a new soul in AI, they're falling in love with their creation, staring at their own reflection in a digital pool.
It is the ultimate in solipsism and has its roots in a pathological fear and denial of death.
It is the ultimate in solipsism and has its roots in a pathological fear and denial of death.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Is the Trump admin using ICE to settle family disputes?
This is fucked up.
This is fucked up.
"A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts."
www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
![REVERE, Mass. —
A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts.
The woman, Bruna Ferreira, has an 11-year-old son with Michael Leavitt, Karoline Leavitt's brother.
Ferreira migrated with her family to the United States from Brazil as a child and is currently in custody at an ICE facility in southern Louisiana.
Michael Leavitt released a statement, saying that his "only concern has always been the safety, well-being, and privacy of [his] son."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x4qyokjtdzgl7gmqhsw4ajqj/bafkreiacyzixchgacpjse7wyra342opgjsvdxzqdrkxq55zzqah65zyeae@jpeg)
November 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Is the Trump admin using ICE to settle family disputes?
This is fucked up.
This is fucked up.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
1. A landmark study was just published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
Study In The Journal Of Pediatrics Finds Trans Youth Care Lowers Suicidality, Few Detransition
The groundbreaking study found that suicidality dropped for transgender youth receiving hormone therapy by nearly 70%, with only 7 patients of 432 discontinuing treatment.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:01 PM
1. A landmark study was just published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
I do think Isaac Chotiner's ability to set people on fire with his mind is a bit overblown but it is fun to kind of go along with the idea that he is the Anton Chigurh of Normal Questions
November 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I do think Isaac Chotiner's ability to set people on fire with his mind is a bit overblown but it is fun to kind of go along with the idea that he is the Anton Chigurh of Normal Questions
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
I think we're going to see a lot more people turning to ChatGPT for answers it doesn't have and for compassion that it's faking...and I think AI companies are both exploiting and banking on that.
I'm literally just living a normal life while also experiencing a theophany via communication with the satellite called VALIS.
November 25, 2025 at 7:28 AM
I think we're going to see a lot more people turning to ChatGPT for answers it doesn't have and for compassion that it's faking...and I think AI companies are both exploiting and banking on that.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
somehow i don't think president harris would be launching an explicit war for oil
Rep. Salazar on Venezuela: "We're about to go in ... we need to go in ... Venezuela for the American oil companies will be a field day"
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 PM
somehow i don't think president harris would be launching an explicit war for oil
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
November 25, 2025 at 1:09 AM
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
I just remembered the first time I heard of Pete Hegseth www.bbc.com/news/world-u...
Fox host says he 'hasn't washed hands in 10 years'
Harvard and Princeton graduate Pete Hegseth says germs don't exist because he can't see them.
www.bbc.com
March 26, 2025 at 11:53 PM
I just remembered the first time I heard of Pete Hegseth www.bbc.com/news/world-u...
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
JD Vance and Peter Thiel are running a sustained operation out of the White House designed to acquire Greenland, either voluntarily or by force. Thiel has laid out plans for what he intends to do with the island nation in past writings. It doesn't entail the consent of the Greenlanders for anything.
November 23, 2025 at 8:52 PM
JD Vance and Peter Thiel are running a sustained operation out of the White House designed to acquire Greenland, either voluntarily or by force. Thiel has laid out plans for what he intends to do with the island nation in past writings. It doesn't entail the consent of the Greenlanders for anything.
Serious Person Candace Owens announces she's got inside info that she's about to get whacked by the Gendarmerie (heh) using their purported secret weapon (..a Jewish member??) .
You Know Who must be leaving bananaskins on the sidewalk near her even as I write this.
You Know Who must be leaving bananaskins on the sidewalk near her even as I write this.
A friend has alerted me to this pressing and very real international incident involving the very sane Candace Owens.
November 24, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Serious Person Candace Owens announces she's got inside info that she's about to get whacked by the Gendarmerie (heh) using their purported secret weapon (..a Jewish member??) .
You Know Who must be leaving bananaskins on the sidewalk near her even as I write this.
You Know Who must be leaving bananaskins on the sidewalk near her even as I write this.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Huh. I wonder which Canadian billionaire it will turn out to be.
November 23, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Huh. I wonder which Canadian billionaire it will turn out to be.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Please hear me when I say that
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Please hear me when I say that
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace
Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?
www.theatlantic.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
It's nice when anti-vaxxers lose, even though it took its toll.
NEW: I spoke with David Vickrey, the Daily Kos blogger Robert Kennedy Jr. spent the last five years pursuing in court with a dead-end, costly defamation lawsuit.
Here’s what he had to say:
www.importantcontext.news/p/robert-ken...
Here’s what he had to say:
www.importantcontext.news/p/robert-ken...
Robert Kennedy Jr. ‘Absolutely Tried to Silence’ Me: Blogger Sued by HHS Secretary Speaks Out
David Vickrey spoke with Important Context about the legal battle that consumed the last five years of his life.
www.importantcontext.news
November 22, 2025 at 9:14 PM
It's nice when anti-vaxxers lose, even though it took its toll.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
US operations against Venezuela to begin within days.
Covert ops the first move.
Covert ops the first move.
www.reuters.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:39 PM
US operations against Venezuela to begin within days.
Covert ops the first move.
Covert ops the first move.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
'When governments override established clinical practice without evidence and when minority groups become targets of restrictive medical policy, it sets a precedent that should concern everyone.'
- Jaimie Veale, NZ transgender health academic
- Jaimie Veale, NZ transgender health academic
Puberty blockers: why politicians overriding doctors sets a dangerous precedent
Analysis: The government's ban on puberty blockers for gender-affirming care prioritises politics and ideology over decades of expert clinical guidance and patient safety evidence.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 22, 2025 at 10:23 PM
'When governments override established clinical practice without evidence and when minority groups become targets of restrictive medical policy, it sets a precedent that should concern everyone.'
- Jaimie Veale, NZ transgender health academic
- Jaimie Veale, NZ transgender health academic
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
Google denies ‘misleading’ reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI
Google says “we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”
www.theverge.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:30 PM
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Anyone would think we’re talking about 1000s of children being prevented from going through puberty forever with the use of puberty blockers.
Puberty blockers were prescribed to 113 people in 2023.
Come on now. Let doctors and other medical professionals do their damned job.
Puberty blockers were prescribed to 113 people in 2023.
Come on now. Let doctors and other medical professionals do their damned job.
November 22, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Anyone would think we’re talking about 1000s of children being prevented from going through puberty forever with the use of puberty blockers.
Puberty blockers were prescribed to 113 people in 2023.
Come on now. Let doctors and other medical professionals do their damned job.
Puberty blockers were prescribed to 113 people in 2023.
Come on now. Let doctors and other medical professionals do their damned job.
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
this is how I found out
Excited for it just to mean Magic the Gathering again. A return to basics
November 22, 2025 at 2:56 AM
this is how I found out
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
Pope Leo of Oonst
November 22, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Pope Leo of Oonst
Reposted by Tackman Babcock
you'd think the forced displacement of 10 million people from one of the oldest centres of civilisation in human history would get a little more news attention than beltway journalists writing essays on how Olivia Nuzzi is a genius because they want to bone her and you'd be wrong
'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'
#Iran 🇮🇷
#Iran 🇮🇷
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...
www.iranintl.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:59 PM
you'd think the forced displacement of 10 million people from one of the oldest centres of civilisation in human history would get a little more news attention than beltway journalists writing essays on how Olivia Nuzzi is a genius because they want to bone her and you'd be wrong