(VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
@braak.bsky.social
It's me, braak, returned at long last from my social media exile.
I encourage you to purchase my book, RADHIKA RAAD AND THE TOWER INGENIUS, which is now available (for purchase).
https://a.co/d/1nix74W
I encourage you to purchase my book, RADHIKA RAAD AND THE TOWER INGENIUS, which is now available (for purchase).
https://a.co/d/1nix74W
moreover, the point of public debate is *not* to create a *logical, persuasive argument*; the point of public debate is to perform your opponent as not worth listening to.
The drunk uncle theory.
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
agree with this (hah) but also think a particular mistake the left made for a long time online, and still makes to an extent, is failing to understand that the person whose mind you may actually change is the one reading the argument you're having, not the one you're arguing with
February 17, 2026 at 5:33 PM
moreover, the point of public debate is *not* to create a *logical, persuasive argument*; the point of public debate is to perform your opponent as not worth listening to.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Letters sent by @epic.org yesterday calling on the FTC and nine states to investigate and block Meta's plan to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up.
epic.org/epic-urges-f...
A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up.
epic.org/epic-urges-f...
February 14, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Letters sent by @epic.org yesterday calling on the FTC and nine states to investigate and block Meta's plan to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up.
epic.org/epic-urges-f...
A privacy, safety, and civil liberties disaster in the making—unless enforcers step up.
epic.org/epic-urges-f...
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
This is also part of an effort to remove personal ownership from the computing market and force people into expensive and surveillance-heavy cloud subscriptions to replace the concept of a home computer, gaming machine, or tablet.
I understand framing the AI bubble RAM supply crisis in terms of stuff like video game consoles because nerds can conceptualize that but the framing does really undersell the sheer magnitude of how it's going to fuck up everything that even touches a computer.
February 17, 2026 at 5:13 PM
This is also part of an effort to remove personal ownership from the computing market and force people into expensive and surveillance-heavy cloud subscriptions to replace the concept of a home computer, gaming machine, or tablet.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
There is no drawdown. There is no retreat. ICE is just redistributing their assets to better avoid accountability.
The same day DHS announced the surge would end in Minnesota, ICE activity increased in small towns
The less densely populated areas outside the Twin Cities make it harder for protesters and observers to organize.
www.theverge.com
February 17, 2026 at 4:26 PM
There is no drawdown. There is no retreat. ICE is just redistributing their assets to better avoid accountability.
in the arts people will always talk about how "having the ideas" is actually the easy part but it seems like maybe that part is also pretty hard
AI filmmaking is completely unserious.
You've got people with $30k begging the internet for ideas by next week because they have nothing of their own to say, it's just slop for the sake of slop. Embarrassing state of affairs.
You've got people with $30k begging the internet for ideas by next week because they have nothing of their own to say, it's just slop for the sake of slop. Embarrassing state of affairs.
February 17, 2026 at 4:58 PM
in the arts people will always talk about how "having the ideas" is actually the easy part but it seems like maybe that part is also pretty hard
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
I don't believe I've ever seen Ted Levine speak so candidly about his regrets of portraying Buffalo Bill in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. He and some of the crew on the film were asked about the film's cultural transphobia by The Hollywood Reporter.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
February 17, 2026 at 4:46 PM
I don't believe I've ever seen Ted Levine speak so candidly about his regrets of portraying Buffalo Bill in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. He and some of the crew on the film were asked about the film's cultural transphobia by The Hollywood Reporter.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
there was a good bit in the Highlander TV show when his girlfriend finds out he's immortal and keeps asking him about famous historic figures and he has to be like, "yeah I didn't know that guy, I was in France then" and I think that's funny, too.
imagine if you were a vampire that lived for 100s of years but you just had a regular guy's memory. Like a normal person. "What was Venice like in the 14th century" Ahhh, I don't...I don't fucking remember. There was a guy, Vincenzo? Maybe that was the 15th century. Wait, did I live in Venice?
February 17, 2026 at 4:46 PM
there was a good bit in the Highlander TV show when his girlfriend finds out he's immortal and keeps asking him about famous historic figures and he has to be like, "yeah I didn't know that guy, I was in France then" and I think that's funny, too.
Les fourmis! Ennemi numéro un!
I promise that I am not the only person to report that ANTS ATE MY LINKY
www.midilibre.fr/2021/05/27/c...
www.midilibre.fr/2021/05/27/c...
Compteur Linky : les fourmis, ennemi numéro un des clients d'Enedis
La présence de fourmis entraînerait près d'un millier de pannes de courant chaque année. Un phénomène connu par Enedis et dont les abonnés continuent de se plaindre.
www.midilibre.fr
February 17, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Les fourmis! Ennemi numéro un!
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
Every member of the opposition party in Congress, and most journalists and producers, continues to use his platform to discuss politics—even as he encourages mass violence against trans people.
The world's richest man is broadcasting eliminationist rhetoric about a tiny, vulnerable minority, and virtually no one is going to treat it as a scandal. It's just normal now.
February 17, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Every member of the opposition party in Congress, and most journalists and producers, continues to use his platform to discuss politics—even as he encourages mass violence against trans people.
1,000 diaries that you fill out the first twenty pages of and then lose, scattered around Europe, every year you think to yourself, "okay, THIS time I'm gonna fill out the whole diary, I need to keep a record of my immortal damnation"
Figure you’d probably have a diary by that time
imagine if you were a vampire that lived for 100s of years but you just had a regular guy's memory. Like a normal person. "What was Venice like in the 14th century" Ahhh, I don't...I don't fucking remember. There was a guy, Vincenzo? Maybe that was the 15th century. Wait, did I live in Venice?
February 17, 2026 at 4:05 PM
1,000 diaries that you fill out the first twenty pages of and then lose, scattered around Europe, every year you think to yourself, "okay, THIS time I'm gonna fill out the whole diary, I need to keep a record of my immortal damnation"
imagine if you were a vampire that lived for 100s of years but you just had a regular guy's memory. Like a normal person. "What was Venice like in the 14th century" Ahhh, I don't...I don't fucking remember. There was a guy, Vincenzo? Maybe that was the 15th century. Wait, did I live in Venice?
February 17, 2026 at 4:00 PM
imagine if you were a vampire that lived for 100s of years but you just had a regular guy's memory. Like a normal person. "What was Venice like in the 14th century" Ahhh, I don't...I don't fucking remember. There was a guy, Vincenzo? Maybe that was the 15th century. Wait, did I live in Venice?
yah like, in a lot of ways, it seems like the Clintonian third-way politics was deliberately a mechanism to avoid Jesse Jackson's politics.
jesse jackson was constantly played as a punchline on 90s late-night TV to the point that i didn't understand his history of activism and serious left-leaning political platform until i was much older. i have to think, to some degree, that was on purpose.
February 17, 2026 at 3:44 PM
yah like, in a lot of ways, it seems like the Clintonian third-way politics was deliberately a mechanism to avoid Jesse Jackson's politics.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
jesse jackson was constantly played as a punchline on 90s late-night TV to the point that i didn't understand his history of activism and serious left-leaning political platform until i was much older. i have to think, to some degree, that was on purpose.
February 17, 2026 at 3:40 PM
jesse jackson was constantly played as a punchline on 90s late-night TV to the point that i didn't understand his history of activism and serious left-leaning political platform until i was much older. i have to think, to some degree, that was on purpose.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
As an attorney with occasional experience with the Equal Time rule, I can explain what's going on here and how the FCC's Brandon Carr is leveraging his position to force late night and daytime talk show hosts to exclude Democratic candidates.
First I need to explain the Equal Time rule itself. 1/
First I need to explain the Equal Time rule itself. 1/
Stephen Colbert said that the FCC and CBS - which is in no way a compromised or complicit organization - wouldn’t allow him to broadcast an interview with Democratic State Rep James Talarico. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/a...
Colbert Doesn’t Give an FCC About Calling Out CBS
www.nytimes.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:37 PM
As an attorney with occasional experience with the Equal Time rule, I can explain what's going on here and how the FCC's Brandon Carr is leveraging his position to force late night and daytime talk show hosts to exclude Democratic candidates.
First I need to explain the Equal Time rule itself. 1/
First I need to explain the Equal Time rule itself. 1/
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
“We’re not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.”
Jessie Jackson
REST IN PEACE
Jessie Jackson
REST IN PEACE
February 17, 2026 at 10:44 AM
“We’re not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.”
Jessie Jackson
REST IN PEACE
Jessie Jackson
REST IN PEACE
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
One of the best selling books in the UK in 1974 by one of its most well known writers
February 17, 2026 at 7:05 AM
One of the best selling books in the UK in 1974 by one of its most well known writers
There's actually only two kinds of divination: augury, which is learning the language of birds and snakes (&c), and necromancy, which is communicating with the dead. A lot of divination like cartomancy, i ching, tea leaves, pyromancy, these are all actually a form of necromancy. How?
Meta has patented AI that can run a dead person's account, continuing to post and chat on their behalf
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
February 17, 2026 at 2:42 PM
There's actually only two kinds of divination: augury, which is learning the language of birds and snakes (&c), and necromancy, which is communicating with the dead. A lot of divination like cartomancy, i ching, tea leaves, pyromancy, these are all actually a form of necromancy. How?
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
I know I said this in my other thread, but it bears repeating: the censorship of Colbert's interview of Talarico is about the regime trying to dictate a state religion, and then controlling critiques of it.
February 17, 2026 at 12:40 PM
I know I said this in my other thread, but it bears repeating: the censorship of Colbert's interview of Talarico is about the regime trying to dictate a state religion, and then controlling critiques of it.
Reposted by (VFP) Strategic Gravitas Reserve
I... had not noticed this, and it seems inarguable.
Algorithmic media and social media are completely different things.
Smashing the two together in different dilutions is leading us into weird places.
Algorithmic media and social media are completely different things.
Smashing the two together in different dilutions is leading us into weird places.
February 16, 2026 at 3:47 PM
I... had not noticed this, and it seems inarguable.
Algorithmic media and social media are completely different things.
Smashing the two together in different dilutions is leading us into weird places.
Algorithmic media and social media are completely different things.
Smashing the two together in different dilutions is leading us into weird places.
Yeah okay but look a limited series of Peter B. Parker trying to be Spider-Man while also having adult problems like a mortgage and getting his kid to daycare would in fact be good.
I'm not saying *instead*! But in addition to?
I'm not saying *instead*! But in addition to?
I see a lot of online discourse that is essentially "this thing I like should only be aimed at people like me" and like... I get it, it's hard to let go. But if your problem is that corporate IP continues to be corporate IP, you don't need Spider-Man to be aged up, you need to get new interests.
February 17, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Yeah okay but look a limited series of Peter B. Parker trying to be Spider-Man while also having adult problems like a mortgage and getting his kid to daycare would in fact be good.
I'm not saying *instead*! But in addition to?
I'm not saying *instead*! But in addition to?
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This is so sweet, and my first thought is that you couldn't put it on TV today without somebody threatening to bomb the station
I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is
February 17, 2026 at 1:54 PM
This is so sweet, and my first thought is that you couldn't put it on TV today without somebody threatening to bomb the station
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You can tell this administration is run by very smart people, because the dumbest adults on the planet loudly and theatrically announcing that kids are not allowed to do something and their parents will get in big trouble if they do it is a really effective way to get fewer kids to do something.
It got the approval of First Assistant District Attorney Bill Essayli. The AG has taken loss after loss in federal court cases against anti-ICE demonstrators.
February 17, 2026 at 1:33 PM
You can tell this administration is run by very smart people, because the dumbest adults on the planet loudly and theatrically announcing that kids are not allowed to do something and their parents will get in big trouble if they do it is a really effective way to get fewer kids to do something.
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Next time you see a dramatic news article "revealing" a left activist or politician objected to housing, check if they were objecting to it being built on a flood plain. It's pretty frequent and for some reason that kind of news article tends to leave that bit out
The next time you hear some politician blaming pearl mussels or the Habitats Directive for flooding disasters, might be a good time to point this out to to them.
February 17, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Next time you see a dramatic news article "revealing" a left activist or politician objected to housing, check if they were objecting to it being built on a flood plain. It's pretty frequent and for some reason that kind of news article tends to leave that bit out
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I think kids growing up in the Trump era should be told clearly that they are being raised under a regime that espouses white supremacy as if it is a legitimate politics, the same as any other.
Denny Carter on talking to your children about the president's racism, which becomes more normalized all the time:
https://badfaithtimes.com/tell-your-kids-this-shit-is-racist/
https://badfaithtimes.com/tell-your-kids-this-shit-is-racist/
Tell Your Kids This Shit Is Racist
American children deserve to know they're being raised under a white supremacist regime.
badfaithtimes.com
February 1, 2026 at 2:32 AM
I think kids growing up in the Trump era should be told clearly that they are being raised under a regime that espouses white supremacy as if it is a legitimate politics, the same as any other.
Modern day Odyssey where instead of going into the underworld, Odysseus had to go on Facebook which is populated exclusively with robotic facsimiles of the dead.
really think we’re going to find that a lot of the legacy social media sites have been hollow for years at some point
Meta has patented AI that can run a dead person's account, continuing to post and chat on their behalf
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
February 17, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Modern day Odyssey where instead of going into the underworld, Odysseus had to go on Facebook which is populated exclusively with robotic facsimiles of the dead.