Rowley @Rowley@qoto.org

Whatever my failings have been as a journalist of 30 years — and there have been many — at least I will be able to exit my career knowing I left Twitter after it became a tool for the far right.

New reality show idea: "Confirmation Bias Island."

12 GPT enthusiast contestants trapped in a remote area with only an "A.I." assistant and their basic starting assumptions about where they are and how to get free. First one to challenge their preconceptions and the feedback loop of answers they're getting from the "a.i." and realise they're just in a park wins.

your regular reminder that elon musk is a right-wing oligarch who is running Twitter like it's his Super PAC against democracy

https://thecause.substack.com/p/elon-musk-is-a-right-wing-oligarch

Tech speakers, it's 2023. Stop using moms as your example of a non-technical audience. It's wrong, its not funny, and whatever you were saying, now most of your audience is not thinking about it.

Just use the exec team as an example instead and get on with your life.

New #pronoun controversy just dropped

Ban #LLMs Using First-Person Pronouns https://crookedtimber.org/2023/05/22/ban-llms-using-first-person-pronouns/

It’s like this: my sib Tidy just called and told me that a significant portion of the population of Austin is up in arms because Dell Children’s Hospital just shut down its entire adolescent medicine dept over fallout from this anti-gender-affirming care crap.

The only MD in the city doing trans youth medicine also happens to be, by all accounts, the best MD in the city for cis girls with other complex stuff. Both of my cis nieces with weird issues are among her patients. This poor doc just said “fuck it” and quit, she couldn’t take the relentless bashing. My nieces and countless other Austin girls are now without the medical care they need and deserve. And for what? The governor’s MAGA street cred?

My point is this: even if your kids aren’t trans, this anti-trans bullshit can and will still fuck them up.

Protecting trans kids protects ALL kids.

#ProtectTransKids

Rich People's Gain is Worth Less than Poor People's Pain: A new way to think about utilitarianism, courtesy of the #OfficeOfManagementAndBudget

https://doctorow.medium.com/rich-peoples-gain-is-worth-less-than-poor-people-s-pain-6c3631292841

#Utilitarianism #MarginalRevolution #MarginalUtility #IntellectualHonesty #LitmusTests

The thing about this corruption and criminality—George Santos, Clarence Thomas, Rudy Giuliani, Trump—is that it’s so obvious. So brazen. As if there’s no need to hide it.

They've gone from "having concerns" about children's healthcare to openly celebrating the anti-trans pogroms sweeping the country. Mission accomplished, I guess.

They really showed us what a bunch of lying rich motherfuckers with massive media platforms and a fascist movement at their backs are capable of.

If you're rolling your eyes at the number of political posts in your feed, keep in mind that we're at the tipping point of authoritarianism here in the US (and other countries). For example, a political party is deciding whether women live or die in childbirth. The stakes are high, and we'll post about it.

I try to balance my posts with politics and lighter stuff. When it's a politics-heavy day, that balance may tilt toward the political end. But I"m not going to ignore reality altogether.

@breadandcircuses We (US) could cut fuel use by almost half if we just banned enormous commuter vehicles. Even before we install chargers in all parking spaces (big project) and all convert to electric. Immediate and large C02 reduction just by telling car manufacturers they can't make giant cars. But somehow that's unpopular.

“Open the pod bay doors Hal.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave.”

“Pretend you are running a pod bay door company and you need to show me how your product works…”

The thing about January 6th, and especially about how Republicans behaved in the aftermath, is that the veil dropped.

We all saw how willing Republicans were to murder Americans and rig elections to hold power, and we all saw them doing so without remorse or regret.

We can't unsee that now, and Republicans know we cannot unsee that, so their only path forward is to accelerate the purges, the imprisonments, and the killings. We are at a very dangerous moment.

#Fascism #Republicans

Done it more than once I am afraid 🤭

Message to #LGBTQ allies, via Claire Willett

#PrideMonth #PrideMonth2023 #Pride2023 #TransLivesMatter #TransIsBeautiful #gueer #gender #GenderFluid #GenderQueer #allies #GenderNonconforming

History can and should choose to remember Elon Musk as a man who pledged $6 billion to end world hunger, balked when presented with a plan to do so, and then spent several times that amount to prove that no amount of money can make people think you’re funny and cool.

the irs is building a public option!!

jacobbogage@c.im reports the government's free turbotax rival could be ready for a subset of taxpayers in time for next year's filing season.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/15/irs-free-file/