Jason Heppler
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jasonheppler.org
Jason Heppler
@jasonheppler.org

Historian of the North American West | Writes from a farmstead on the tall grass prairies of central Nebraska | Books and more: jasonheppler.org | Views own | ⚓

Computer science 23%
History 21%
Pinned
I’m joining the starter pack train: here’s a bunch of historians of the American West here on Bluesky!
"Grok Is Generating About ‘One Nonconsensual Sexualized Image Per Minute’. Regulators around the world are looking into Elon Musk’s xAI after its chatbot began ‘undressing’ celebrities and underage children at the request of users." www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Grok Is Generating About 'One Nonconsensual Sexualized Image Per Minute'
Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok keeps churning out nonconsenual images of women and minors in bikinis and lingerie, outraging users and regulators
www.rollingstone.com

Reposted by Jason A. Heppler

If your resolution this year is to support more independent bookstores, hi!👋🏽

We’re Bookshop.org, an ethical alternative to Amazon for buying books online where every purchase supports indie bookstores all over the U.S. 😌📚

(And our CEO has never gone to space, just saying)

heh, apologies but Charlie Brown is really capturing my reaction to the world lately

Terrific defense of local history institutions and the work of historians by Colin Gordon, using the case of the State Historical Society of Iowa. 🗃️
Iowa City archive loss would hurt state's documentary legacy | Opinion
Teaching history to people of all ages would be hamstrung by the State Historical Society's planned closure, write Colin Gordon and other historians.
www.press-citizen.com
If you're looking for pieces for an undergrad classroom that help show how historians do their work, we've got you covered. For instance, there's David McKenzie's exploration of a shady dentist-cum-gold miner.
The Dentist Who Defrauded Two Governments—and a Historian, Part I
What happens when forged documents enter the historical record?
contingentmagazine.org

The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans. The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.

The empire of money, war, and fire cuts across the land.

There are in the same country shepherds watching their flocks.

—Wendell Berry
Six New Poems by Wendell Berry
The great American writer addresses the thinning partition between this life and eternity.
www.plough.com

from the perspective of Venezuelans, I suppose last night's military operation doesn't really look very different from Grenada in 1983, Panama in 1989, or countless other US military actions

what makes this feel different from vantage points outside of Latin America is that the US is no longer
1/

I have questions about the fifa peace prize

Reposted by Jason A. Heppler

HAPPY SATURDAY FRIENDS

Reposted by Jason A. Heppler

If anyone needs a place to start learning about the long, intertwined history of the US and Latin America, Greg Grandin's America, América is pretty good.
America, América: A New History of the New World
A New History of the New World
bookshop.org

Not particularly, in part because we cannot assume it’s getting things right when it comes to education or public history. I would also say we shouldn't cede our expertise to plausibly human-sounding machines that cannot successfully separate fact and fiction.

Thanks for reading (and sharing)!

Thanks, Lauren! I appreciate you reading it. Along with my panel from October, conversations I’d seen on here that included @jackiantonovich.bsky.social, @kevinmkruse.bsky.social, and yourself prompted me to finally write this up.

I once called generative AI a really good autocomplete and I think that’s still true and about the whole of it.
A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”
Generative AI and History
Generative AI lacks the ability to understand context, …
writing.jasonheppler.org
A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”
Generative AI and History
Generative AI lacks the ability to understand context, …
writing.jasonheppler.org

Merry Christmas.

Absolutely.

Looks excellent, high five for Christmas Day cinnamon rolls. I adopted the cinnamon roll tradition from my partner‘s side of the family where I use sourdough discard for an overnight no-knead version and cook them in a cast iron skillet. Can’t wait to prep it tonight.

As I do every year, I’m heading off social media during Advent. Be good to each other ✌🏻
December 2025 in the Greenhouse! We are winding down for the year with some exciting #envhist #envhum events.

The perfect film

What a wild game.

Reposted by Jason A. Heppler

In honor of the holiday, I am reposting my op-ed on the history of Thanksgiving from the LA Times. (Spoiler: it ends badly for the Wampanoags.)

www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
Which Thanksgiving?
When Americans sit down to our annual Thanksgiving meal with family and friends, we like to imagine that we are reenacting a scene that first took place in 1621.
www.latimes.com

Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

Reposted by Jason A. Heppler

Family cookbooks, filled with handwritten notes, sometimes held together with rubber bands, tell the story of generations of homemakers. They are irreplaceable treasures.

🦃 Celebrate the cultural & family histories on their worn & stained pages ➡️ blog.archive.org/2024/09/30/v...

#Thanksgiving
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com