Tonia Sutherland
@toniasutherland.bsky.social
thinker. writer. lover. scholar of archives, community, & technology @ ucla. island girl. hoper of hopes.
Pinned
I was delighted to talk with Dr. Joy of Therapy for Black Girls about tech, digital afterlives, and healing through Black Memory Work. Give it a listen!
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
I was delighted to talk with Dr. Joy of Therapy for Black Girls about tech, digital afterlives, and healing through Black Memory Work. Give it a listen!
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
November 24, 2025 at 2:52 PM
I was delighted to talk with Dr. Joy of Therapy for Black Girls about tech, digital afterlives, and healing through Black Memory Work. Give it a listen!
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
therapyforblackgirls.com/2025/11/19/s...
#TBGU #TBGInSession #TherapyForBlackGirls #PodsInColor
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
If You Use Gmail, You're Going To Want To Turn Off This 1 Automatic Setting ASAP
Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.
www.huffpost.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Mixtapes given to one's romantic interests or received from suitors had strange titles like (as pictured here) "Psychomorph," "Andrea's Hostage Tape," "The Moo Tape," and "Don't Lose Your Temper," because everyone had to act somewhat disinterested.
November 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Mixtapes given to one's romantic interests or received from suitors had strange titles like (as pictured here) "Psychomorph," "Andrea's Hostage Tape," "The Moo Tape," and "Don't Lose Your Temper," because everyone had to act somewhat disinterested.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Faculty senates are under attack from new legislation that sidelines faculty voices and undermines academic freedom. The latest AAUP report defends independent, representative governance as essential to higher ed’s integrity. @aaup.org academeblog.org/2025/11/18/i...
In Defense of an Independent and Representative Faculty Voice: The Case of Faculty Senates
BY AFSHAN JAFAR We have recently seen accelerating legislative and political attacks on faculty governing bodies at state institutions, including legislation recently enacted in Indiana, Ohio, Utah…
academeblog.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Faculty senates are under attack from new legislation that sidelines faculty voices and undermines academic freedom. The latest AAUP report defends independent, representative governance as essential to higher ed’s integrity. @aaup.org academeblog.org/2025/11/18/i...
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
On this day in 1865, Mississippi authorized local officials to identify minor Black children who were orphans and “apprentice” them to white “masters or mistresses."
Nov. 22, 1865 | Mississippi Authorizes 'Sale' of Black Orphans to White 'Masters or Mistresses'
Learn more about our history of racial injustice.
calendar.eji.org
November 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
On this day in 1865, Mississippi authorized local officials to identify minor Black children who were orphans and “apprentice” them to white “masters or mistresses."
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
I think it’s bad that ai allows people to pretend to live in completely separate realities so they don’t have to process news and events that make them uncomfortable. I think that is bad for the health of society!
Trump supporters are also making shitty AI videos of Trump arresting Mamdani in the Oval Office.
They don't know how to process what just happened in real life, so they're making the version they prefer with AI.
They don't know how to process what just happened in real life, so they're making the version they prefer with AI.
November 22, 2025 at 1:54 AM
I think it’s bad that ai allows people to pretend to live in completely separate realities so they don’t have to process news and events that make them uncomfortable. I think that is bad for the health of society!
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
While U.S. families struggle through an affordability crisis, mass incarceration still costs taxpayers $182 billion a year.
That's a lot of money that could be spent on communities instead of cages.
That's a lot of money that could be spent on communities instead of cages.
November 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
While U.S. families struggle through an affordability crisis, mass incarceration still costs taxpayers $182 billion a year.
That's a lot of money that could be spent on communities instead of cages.
That's a lot of money that could be spent on communities instead of cages.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Shout out to Solange. ✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿
@ebonyteach.blacksky.app
@suzette11233.bsky.social
@beigewunder.blacksky.app
@lif3asmaj.blacksky.app
@lizzslockeroom.bsky.social
peopleofcolorintech.com/articles/sol...
@ebonyteach.blacksky.app
@suzette11233.bsky.social
@beigewunder.blacksky.app
@lif3asmaj.blacksky.app
@lizzslockeroom.bsky.social
peopleofcolorintech.com/articles/sol...
Solange Opens Free Digital Library Of Rare Black Books
Solange has launched a digital library archive of Black and brown authors where readers can borrow books at no cost.
peopleofcolorintech.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
my wife and her entire team were fired over Zoom from their program manager jobs at a local nonprofit Seattle hospital this Spring because Trump just stopped paying Medicaid reimbursements. and this is a relatively affluent urban center
we're really not prepared for what's coming
we're really not prepared for what's coming
As a direct result of President Trump's Big Ugly Bill, almost 300 jobs will be cut from Providence Swedish's First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, and Issaquah hospitals and clinics. These are not the only layoffs we've seen in our health care system in Washington state in recent months.
Providence Swedish to eliminate nearly 300 positions
The cuts will affect jobs at Providence Swedish’s First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard and Issaquah hospitals and nearby clinics.
www.seattletimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:49 PM
my wife and her entire team were fired over Zoom from their program manager jobs at a local nonprofit Seattle hospital this Spring because Trump just stopped paying Medicaid reimbursements. and this is a relatively affluent urban center
we're really not prepared for what's coming
we're really not prepared for what's coming
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Sobering thread. LLMs are helping deluded people organize, expand, and spread their delusions.
These are monstrously destructive products that no healthy society should condone, much less enable, subsidize, and partner with.
These are monstrously destructive products that no healthy society should condone, much less enable, subsidize, and partner with.
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Sobering thread. LLMs are helping deluded people organize, expand, and spread their delusions.
These are monstrously destructive products that no healthy society should condone, much less enable, subsidize, and partner with.
These are monstrously destructive products that no healthy society should condone, much less enable, subsidize, and partner with.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
A fascinating insight into a phenomenon I’ve seen myself: my emails from randos with AI delusions are no less delusional these days, but they are now clean, precise, and stylized rather than email versions of Charlie’s pinboard. Chatbots are fueling user madness and then dressing it up as science.
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 3:49 PM
A fascinating insight into a phenomenon I’ve seen myself: my emails from randos with AI delusions are no less delusional these days, but they are now clean, precise, and stylized rather than email versions of Charlie’s pinboard. Chatbots are fueling user madness and then dressing it up as science.
Great thread.
“The AI has inadvertently become part of the referral pathway for people spiralling down a rabbit hole.”
“The AI has inadvertently become part of the referral pathway for people spiralling down a rabbit hole.”
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Great thread.
“The AI has inadvertently become part of the referral pathway for people spiralling down a rabbit hole.”
“The AI has inadvertently become part of the referral pathway for people spiralling down a rabbit hole.”
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
I've written about "disordered counterpublics" groups that reinforce shared delusions Here, the LLM becomes a 1 person counterpublic. It mirrors assumptions, absorbs contradictions, & provides the sense of a responsive, confirming audience.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
November 19, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I've written about "disordered counterpublics" groups that reinforce shared delusions Here, the LLM becomes a 1 person counterpublic. It mirrors assumptions, absorbs contradictions, & provides the sense of a responsive, confirming audience.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
I will note here, for anyone interested, that UMass Amherst has one of the strongest faculty/librarian unions in the country.
TT job here at UMass in 20th cen African American history; application deadline is December 1; more info here: careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u... 🗃️
Details - Assistant Professor/20th Century African American History | Human Resources | UMass Amherst
careers.umass.edu
November 19, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I will note here, for anyone interested, that UMass Amherst has one of the strongest faculty/librarian unions in the country.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
TT job here at UMass in 20th cen African American history; application deadline is December 1; more info here: careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u... 🗃️
Details - Assistant Professor/20th Century African American History | Human Resources | UMass Amherst
careers.umass.edu
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
TT job here at UMass in 20th cen African American history; application deadline is December 1; more info here: careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u... 🗃️
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
I'm someone who did early decision (I told y'all, I really loved UVA) and I wholeheartedly agree
Highly selective colleges have been leaning into early decision. At more than 70 colleges and universities last year, they enrolled 40%+ of their class through ED. Evan Mandery and I are asking them to reverse course in this @bostonglobe.com op-ed. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/15/o...
Why top colleges should cut back on early decision admissions - The Boston Globe
Colleges have increasingly relied upon early decision to secure ever-larger portions of their entering classes. But the early decision edge goes largely to students who already have a big leg up on th...
www.bostonglobe.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I'm someone who did early decision (I told y'all, I really loved UVA) and I wholeheartedly agree
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
We should not mandate AP exams.
If high schools and elite colleges are holding students and teachers accountable for AP test results, you have a strong incentive to fix this problem.
November 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
We should not mandate AP exams.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Were you aware that the construction workers who demolished the East Wing were required to sign NDAs?
www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/p...
Mum’s the word from workers on East Wing demolition, including some who say they’ve signed NDAs | CNN Politics
Construction workers in lime green vests, hoodies and hard hats who have spent the last several days clearing the White House’s East Wing departed through the Treasury grounds on their way out for lun...
www.cnn.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Were you aware that the construction workers who demolished the East Wing were required to sign NDAs?
www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/p...
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Solidarity with the faculty at The New School, one of the most important institutions for humanistic research in the US over the past 75 years.
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
November 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Solidarity with the faculty at The New School, one of the most important institutions for humanistic research in the US over the past 75 years.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Made this, it’s fucking delicious (it’s cranberry, pear, orange). America’s Test Kitchen is doing gift links now!!!
Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days.
Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days.
Holiday Jam | America's Test Kitchen
This easy-to-make jam is packed with the classic flavors of the winter holiday season.
www.americastestkitchen.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Made this, it’s fucking delicious (it’s cranberry, pear, orange). America’s Test Kitchen is doing gift links now!!!
Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days.
Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days.
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
"We have built this issue as a haunted house. Each entry is a room that invites you to commune with a distinct ghost and its manner of haunting. By tracing alternative genealogies and shadow histories, we set out to [unveil] hauntings in the endless churn of generative output."
Limn Issue 13: Ghostwriters is out now online and in print.
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
November 18, 2025 at 10:47 PM
"We have built this issue as a haunted house. Each entry is a room that invites you to commune with a distinct ghost and its manner of haunting. By tracing alternative genealogies and shadow histories, we set out to [unveil] hauntings in the endless churn of generative output."
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
Limn Issue 13: Ghostwriters is out now online and in print.
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
November 6, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Limn Issue 13: Ghostwriters is out now online and in print.
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
Become your own ghost anywhere with the link below.
limn.press/issue/ghostw...
Reposted by Tonia Sutherland
“I think it’s absolutely a genocide,” the founder of a think tank in Sudan said. “The people who survived the first bout of genocide in Darfur twentysomething years ago tell me that, based on their experiences on the ground, this is far, far worse.” ttps://https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/pwYTZC
How the Conflict in Sudan Became a Humanitarian Catastrophe
After a coup devolved into open warfare, countries across the region have pursued their own policy and commercial interests by backing one side or the other.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 18, 2025 at 9:30 PM
“I think it’s absolutely a genocide,” the founder of a think tank in Sudan said. “The people who survived the first bout of genocide in Darfur twentysomething years ago tell me that, based on their experiences on the ground, this is far, far worse.” ttps://https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/pwYTZC