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David J.

@apocalypticdrift.bsky.social

2.1K followers 820 following 280 posts

Reluctant literary scholar with a focus on the end (of the world) American Studies at Universität Stuttgart (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) Other research interests include video games (& ludology), zombie studies, sound studies, and dark ecology.

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David J. @apocalypticdrift.bsky.social · Jul 1

*face palm emoji*

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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · Jul 1

Got gossip from a managing editor pal of a journal that a few reviewers used ChatGPT to write their assessments for them, and didn't even conceal it. I'll say it again - it won't be the neoliberal administrators that take down the humanities. It'll be humanities professors who've stopped reading.

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David J. @apocalypticdrift.bsky.social · Jul 1

GPT stands for General Planetary Treason, right?

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David J. @apocalypticdrift.bsky.social · Jun 29

Really good book alert 🚨!!!

Emily Herring @emilyherring.bsky.social · Jun 28

The book I wrote with my HANDS and my BRAIN is out in paperback!

Me holding my book Herald of a Restless World How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People

The back cover of the paperback and my dog in the background

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Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier @smittermeier.bsky.social · Jun 22

Operation Midnight Hammer.
Are we officially living in a Mel Brooks film.

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Keith Frankish @keithfrankish.com · Jun 22

"Massive Ordnance Penetrators" We are living in a remake of Dr Strangelove.

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Fintan Mallory @fintanmallory.com · Jun 20

Adam Curtis: But then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable, a hobbit.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · Jun 16

The terminally online mind cannot comprehend this

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Craig Shackleton @craigshackleton.com · Jun 15

It is really really sinking in for me the degree to which LLMs are the ultimate expression of right wing anti-intellectualism. Its proponents are literally mocking the idea that anyone would ever want to learn anything, know anything, develop any actual skill, or have a thought of their own.

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David J. @apocalypticdrift.bsky.social · Jun 15

”I‘d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.“

Close up shot of Mark Duplass in the film Creep.

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Keith Frankish @keithfrankish.com · Jun 15

"I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."

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Teen Vogue @teenvogue.com · Jun 14

Here are some tips for ways to “show up” when you aren’t able to show up in person, as well as suggestions for all of us for building more inclusive movements for social justice and human rights.

How to Protest If You're Disabled And Can't Show Up at Rallies

Tips and tricks to help you resist.

www.teenvogue.com

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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · Jun 10

"I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us."

Read what Doechii said during her #BETAwards2025 speech: rollingstone.com/music/music-...

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Jun 9

"The present frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence will not last forever. As the limitations of become clearer+ as the economic returns on massive corporate investments fail to materialize at the expected scale, the speculative bubble will inevitably burst."

www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/i...

Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?

In the years since Automation and the Future of Work first appeared, a new wave of technological enthusiasm has swept across the popular imagination. The catalyst this time has been the rapid advances...

www.versobooks.com

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Anna Hughes 🍁 @annaghughes.bsky.social · Jun 5

this is like drake and kendrick lamar but they're both drake

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Jooli-AHH! Ghoulia 🎃🍂🔪 @jooliaghoulia.bsky.social · Jun 3

The perfect bird feeder doesn't exi--

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · May 1

happy may day, get in formation to get the goods

"decentralized, social media-based approaches were effective in harnessing attention+organizing street demonstrations. But they couldn't steer the response of the system because there was no organizational support."

time.com/collections/...

Why Protests Should Be Promises

Modern movements that aim to advance racial equity should withhold and promise, rather than perform, writes Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

time.com

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Andrew J Douglas @ajdouglas.bsky.social · May 1

W.E.B. Du Bois, May Day Speech, NYC, 1957

“American socialism should be planned for American conditions... It should demand freedom of thought and speech; freedom to study, travel and learn; and above all, freedom to vote for what we want instead of compulsion to vote for one party under two names”

May Day, New York City, 1957

W. E. B. Du Bois

As I understand it, this is a meeting to advance socialism in this city and nation. It seeks to combine the thinking and efforts of those who believe that the socialist state is the ultimate goal of political action on the part of all men of good will. The differences of opinion as to just what socialism is do not seem to me great enough to hinder joint action toward what all should agree as essential. First, the aim of the state should be the general welfare of its inhabitants and not the private profit of property owners. Secondly, wealth used for the production of wealth, should in most cases be owned by the state and not by individuals. Thirdly, it should be the aim of the state to exact from all work according to ability and to insure them income according to their need. No one for a moment can deny the great difficulty of carrying out such a program. It calls for ability, knowledge, sacrifice and patience. On the other hand, no matter how much in specific times and places we may doubt the ability of human nature to rise to these heights, nevertheless it is equally true that until mankind can approach the ideal of socialism life on this earth for most men will not be worth living.

To me the problem of taking steps toward socialism in the United States seems fairly simple. We face many and clear evils in this land due to monopoly of natural resources in private hands and to unregulated anarchy of action, which we sometimes miscall individual freedom. This nation is rich in resources, but force, theft, gambling and lying distribute it unjustly in too many cases. As a result, we have many individuals with more wealth than they need or know how to use, while a third of the nation receives less than is necessary to live decently. It is no answer to this arrangement to say that we are better off than the rest of the world. Our well-being may be due in part to the tribute the world pays us and in spite of our failure…

Here then is a clear duty for those who think present conditions are unnecessary and can be improved, to think and act on ways of improving them. But as soon as this is suggested, two things happen: first, we are told that improvement is unnecessary and further is impossible. To prove this we are started on an argument about Russia, China, or Hungary. The point of my talk tonight is that this is illogical. I deny the necessity for a magazine devoted to socialism in the United States to send its editors to Hungary. Mississippi would be much more logical. I insist that the study of a socialist program for the United States begins in New York and not in Moscow. I yield to none in my interest in the Soviet Union and my concern for the People’s Republic of China. But that is because of my interest in the Russian and Chinese people. When it comes to the United States that problem must be settled here. Something may be learned from peoples abroad with different histories, cultures and present circumstances, but our main source of information about socialism in America must not continually dissolve into debates over Stalin.

Of course, the real cause of this diversion of attention and fuzzy logic is too often all too clear. It is the inevitable discovery that the cure for the power of corporations in America; the planning for welfare rather than private profit in industry; the re-organization of agriculture and the curb of crime by disciplined labor – that in all these cases, we may see in what the Soviet Union and China have done a pattern of what we must try. And we therefore decide or are forced to decide that anything that succeeds or is said to succeed in Eastern Europe or in Asia must for that reason be bad for America. That is quite as idiotic as assuming without thought or study that what Mao Tse Tung does is suited to our plight in America.

American socialism should be planned for American conditions and to cure American ills. For this purpose, it should demand f…

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · Apr 23

Its not just skipping the humanities, ethics and the arts: they are taught that those ways of seeing the world and understanding it are inferior and useless. Ive seen way too many CS students laugh at these fields. They are taught that their way of seeing the world is not only superior, but complete

Chris Thalassa @christhalassa.bsky.social · Apr 23

This is what happens when an entire industry is made up of people who skipped studying the humanities.

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K.R. Parker, Ph.D. (she/her) @howard2home.bsky.social · Apr 21

It’s release week for Understanding Octavia E. Butler! 🎉

Check out a sneak peek of my book ahead of the official publication day—this Thursday!

b2l.bz/Vi5c3O

#octaviabutler

Understanding Octavia E. Butler : Kendra R Parker

b2l.bz

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · Apr 22

When you think your commitment to democratic pluralism requires you engage with bad-faith fascists determined to destroy all democracy in the world & replace it with racist techno-states run by billionaire eugenicists. Allen has lost her mind.