Author | Lightnews

Amy Isikoff Newell

@amynewell.bsky.social

260 followers 450 following 58 posts

hope from despair. Forest Witch. Baba Yaga type. Crazy. Artist, Aspiring Activist, Recovering Engineering Leader. bipolar, bisexual, and bitchy AF she/they 🏳️‍🌈 www.amywriteswords.com www.amynewell.com insta: amywearsboots: amynewell.mastodon.social

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · Jan 21

new followers! Hello! I'm not on on here much, so I want you to know you can subscribe to my newsletter at amywriteswords.com

2 awesome things about it:

1. arrives irregularly, def not every week, only when I have something to say
2. I like when ppl pay/share/like but I don't hound you for it

Amy Writes Words | Amy Isikoff Newell | Substack

"Amusing at best": I write about software engineering, tech, management, politics, bipolar disorder, mental illness, disability, queerness, gender, books, poetry, fashion, boots, and photography. Also...

amywriteswords.com

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 9h

While this post is doing numbers, don’t chat with chatbots, your shittiest art is still better than ai slop, and even though I used the word losers, winning and losing are verbs, not nouns, and they do not define who you are. take off the surveillance tech and repent.

Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 20h

people who wear meta raybans are unfuckable losers, it’s that simple. If you wear an ai companion, also an unfuckable loser. I don’t make the rules. Take the bad tech off and you at least have a shot at being a fuckable winner.

Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 21h

Did we all forget the lessons of Google Glass? The thing that disrupts these glasses is publicly humiliating anyone wearing them without mercy.

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, no, seriously: who's got the device that disrupts all "smart glasses"— and only the smart glasses— in a 300 foot radius?

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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 1d

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 1d

As a reminder, people who wear Meta Raybans are unfuckable losers who should be shunned.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

So now Mark’s creeper specs do what they are intended to do and the company can claim users are circumventing the “guardrails” and violating the TOS. Everyone gets what they want, except for the rest of us, who get screwed.

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 1d

New: a $60 mod to Meta's Ray-Ban glasses disables the privacy LED light. This is supposed to light when people are filming with the glasses. We bought the mod, verified it works. Now you can never be sure whether someone wearing Meta Ray-Bans is filming you or not
www.404media.co/how-to-disab...

Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 1d

As a reminder, people who wear Meta RayBans are unfuckable losers who should be shunned.

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 1d

A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light

Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers ar...

www.404media.co

Reposted by Amy Isikoff Newell

Jana H-S (they/she) @jana-aych-ess.bsky.social · 2d

being a writer is so embarrassing. like, "here's what my brain sounds like. hope exposure to this bullshit I soak in all the time changes your fucking life"

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madeline @mads.haus · 2d

when trans people take hormones: dangerous, a trend, probably trying to molest children?

when soccer moms take hormones: this woman has literally become a six-armed god. you go girl!

ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 2d

It's weird how nobody describes this as "the craze seducing our daughters" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/m...

‘I’m on Fire’: Testosterone Is Giving Women Back Their Sex Drive — and Then Some

www.nytimes.com

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 3d

I remember one ep in Orange is the New Black where the Nazi gang forcibly gives the main character a swastika brand and she runs immediately to get branded again to turn it into a 4-panes window, bc she can’t walk around with a Nazi tattoo

Reposted by Amy Isikoff Newell

bubbe yaga @ellearmageddon.bsky.social · 3d

“doesn’t have nazi tattoos” is actually an even lower bar than it appears at face value when you realize that most artists (correctly) won’t even *do* nazi tattoos, so you kind of have to go out of your way to find someone willing if you decide you want one.

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ali alkhatib @ali-alkhatib.com · 4d

i understand how it sounds ridiculous to say a car is LESS free, but wherever you go in your car, you are constantly accountable for this thing that could bankrupt you if something went wrong. the anxiety of driving past a speed trap is fucking unreal. the fear of getting pulled over can be intense.

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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 4d

There are many reasons why I won't vote for Seth Moulton, but simply not being able to say something like "Trans rights are human rights" is immediately disqualifying for someone who wants to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 4d

We found HUGE trans representation in Boston, where Senator Ed Markey gave a rousing speech with a trans flag draped over his shoulders.

"Here in Massachusetts we stand for what is right. We stand with trans people because trans rights are human rights!" said Markey. The crowd ROARED.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 5d

Still thinking about "Unmanned Drone" by Kara Walker, made out of a decommissioned statue of Stonewall Jackson. Going to be thinking about it for years. My god.

Breathtaking, unsettling, healing: how US artist Kara Walker transformed a Confederate monument

The sweeping exhibition Monuments, which features 19 contemporary artists, opens in LA on 23 October

www.theguardian.com

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 5d

1. Yesterday, millions showed up to the No Kings Rally.

Perhaps no one Rally was as full of subtext as Boston's, however.

Senator Markey showed up wearing a trans pride flag. His challenger, anti-trans Dem Rep. Seth Moulton showed up to boos and jeers.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Anti-Trans Democrat Seth Moulton Booed At Boston No Kings Rally After Sen. Markey Wears Trans Flag

Representative Moulton is challenging Senator Markey for his senate seat in 2026.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Dr. Lisa Corrigan @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social · 5d

In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.

Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 5d

Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 5d

Representing the enraged yet smiling middle-aged woman contingent at #nokings nyc.

#nokings nyc: smiling yet enraged woman holds cardboard sign that says “absolutely the fuck not”

Reposted by Amy Isikoff Newell

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 6d

“People [in tech jobs] worry that not being seen as uncritical AI cheerleaders will be a career-limiting move…for those who aren't insiders in the tech industry, it's vital that you understand that you've been presented with an extremely distorted view about what tech workers really think about AI”

Anil Dash @anildash.com · 7d

Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!

The Majority AI View - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

anildash.com

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 10d

The receptionist told me I wasn't the only person who'd complained. People don't like this crap. They don't want to consent to it. Not everyone has time or inclination to be a (polite) PITA, but for me it's a very satisfying act of protest against something I despise. And can be a "quick win".

Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 10d

Refusal sometimes works: New PT office sent some paperwork, which tried to railroad me into consenting to their AI scribe. I called and said I couldn't fill out the paperwork, bc I had to decline, would not use PT office if forced to consent to scribe. Office added back a "do not consent" option.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 11d

“On November 4th, we can build a city where every child can afford to stay, where every worker can thrive, and where government serves the people — not the powerful.” - Rep. Nydia Velázquez

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13d

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

Read This When Things Fall Apart by Kelly Hayes | Pilsen Community Books

A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable.

www.pilsencommunitybooks.com

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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 15d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15d

This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 15d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Kerrie C. @kcrhetor.bsky.social · 19d

Dearest Mother,
ICE forces took another microbrewery last night, leaving only 879 under our control within city limits. But our beard oil deliveries remain constant, the one bright spot in this dark war. The public pianos have gone silent. But Vegan Company remains resolute. #WarRavagedPortland

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Amy Isikoff Newell @amynewell.bsky.social · 16d

it's the best sleep mask i have ever used.

Reposted by Amy Isikoff Newell

AAUP @aaup.org · 18d

Michel DeGraff, a tenured professor of linguistics at MIT, discusses how his proposal to teach a class on language & decolonization in Haiti, Israel, and Palestine was denied. He faced significant repercussions: he was removed from his department, had a pay raise withheld, and his salary frozen.

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