Caro Flores
@floresophize.bsky.social
Philosopher @ UC Santa Cruz (soon to be at U Lisboa). Interested in belief, evidence-resistance, social identities, ideology, ignorance, delusions. || Languages: EN, PT, ES || www.carolinaflores.org for papers
Pinned
Caro Flores
@floresophize.bsky.social
· Oct 6
The Left Can’t Abandon Nostalgia to the Right
The global right today excels at leveraging nostalgia for reactionary ends. Yet memories of periods of revolutionary hope and collective victories can provide the materials for a form of nostalgia tha...
jacobin.com
Super stoked to have a piece out in Jacobin! It's a personal essay about nostalgia for the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and a reclamation of the power of nostalgia for the left. 1/
Do you want to depend less on Google and move to more ethical options with better privacy? Now would be a great time to use Black Friday deals on
- pcloud, for one-payment lifetime cloud storage
- ProtonMail, for extremely functional encrypted email - no feeding your emails into an LLM!
- pcloud, for one-payment lifetime cloud storage
- ProtonMail, for extremely functional encrypted email - no feeding your emails into an LLM!
November 25, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Do you want to depend less on Google and move to more ethical options with better privacy? Now would be a great time to use Black Friday deals on
- pcloud, for one-payment lifetime cloud storage
- ProtonMail, for extremely functional encrypted email - no feeding your emails into an LLM!
- pcloud, for one-payment lifetime cloud storage
- ProtonMail, for extremely functional encrypted email - no feeding your emails into an LLM!
"good scholarship depends on empathy as much as on evidence. Listening carefully to how ordinary people remember their lives under socialism isn’t an endorsement; it’s an effort to understand what they valued and why... the past is never as simple as our ideologies make it out to be."
What Socialism Got Right
Writing "The Red Riviera" taught me that even flawed socialist systems offered insights into equality, solidarity, and the dignity of everyday life.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
November 24, 2025 at 8:20 PM
"good scholarship depends on empathy as much as on evidence. Listening carefully to how ordinary people remember their lives under socialism isn’t an endorsement; it’s an effort to understand what they valued and why... the past is never as simple as our ideologies make it out to be."
I say this is the best philosophy substack.
charli's substack | charli xcx | Substack
Click to read charli's substack, by charli xcx, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
itscharlibb.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:35 PM
I say this is the best philosophy substack.
Reposted by Caro Flores
It's world philosophy day: talked already to people in Portugal about why distraction need not be such a bad thing. Soon speaking with @floresophize.bsky.social and her group about the attention market. I do like our philosophy world sometimes!
November 20, 2025 at 7:20 PM
It's world philosophy day: talked already to people in Portugal about why distraction need not be such a bad thing. Soon speaking with @floresophize.bsky.social and her group about the attention market. I do like our philosophy world sometimes!
Academics: what are your tricks for saying no to cool invitations without spiraling and feeling guilty?
November 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Academics: what are your tricks for saying no to cool invitations without spiraling and feeling guilty?
"AI will cure cancer" - Bro, whose cancer will be cured? We still live in a world where many people die of malaria and other easily preventable and treatable diseases.
Just another way in which AI fantasies are about serving an elite.
Just another way in which AI fantasies are about serving an elite.
November 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM
"AI will cure cancer" - Bro, whose cancer will be cured? We still live in a world where many people die of malaria and other easily preventable and treatable diseases.
Just another way in which AI fantasies are about serving an elite.
Just another way in which AI fantasies are about serving an elite.
Interested in what exactly is the problem with attention markets? Go read this fantastic paper by @sebastianwatzl.bsky.social and Katharine Browne! They argue that attention markets undermine autonomy, without misleading appeals to addiction or thinking of attention as a resource.
The attention market—and what is wrong with it - Philosophical Studies
Attention is described as a “scarce commodity” that is traded in “a marketplace.” This, it is further claimed, contributes to a “widespread sense of attentional crisis.” But is there really an attenti...
link.springer.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Interested in what exactly is the problem with attention markets? Go read this fantastic paper by @sebastianwatzl.bsky.social and Katharine Browne! They argue that attention markets undermine autonomy, without misleading appeals to addiction or thinking of attention as a resource.
Pressuring the admin can work!! (TLDR: Pipeline to hiring more diverse faculty restored after resistance from faculty and other community members.)
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Pressuring the admin can work!! (TLDR: Pipeline to hiring more diverse faculty restored after resistance from faculty and other community members.)
Reposted by Caro Flores
So hype that the faculty and staff of the UC system keep pushing their admin to be better
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
November 19, 2025 at 12:09 AM
So hype that the faculty and staff of the UC system keep pushing their admin to be better
The extremely rad editors of @being.transinphilosophy.org have put out a call for pitches for the next edition of their zine! They are also hosting cool events at the Eastern and Pacific meetings of the APA (details on the website). being.transinphilosophy.org/cfp/
Open Call for Pitches & Questions – The #1 Issue: The Job Market | Being Trans in Philosophy: A Zine
We are inviting pitches and questions for Being Trans on the Job Market, a follow-up issue of the zine. Submit by December 20, 2025!
being.transinphilosophy.org
November 18, 2025 at 11:11 PM
The extremely rad editors of @being.transinphilosophy.org have put out a call for pitches for the next edition of their zine! They are also hosting cool events at the Eastern and Pacific meetings of the APA (details on the website). being.transinphilosophy.org/cfp/
Wrote about what the real threat Grokipedia poses is + some suggestions for addressing it! Drawing on @brendannyhan.bsky.social's work on misinformation.
(Lots more to say about erosion of epistemic standards, models of knowledge-production, etc.!)
(Lots more to say about erosion of epistemic standards, models of knowledge-production, etc.!)
What should worry us about Grokipedia is not that masses of people will come to believe right-wing conspiracy theories, but that far-right supporters will find new rationalizations for their views, writes Carolina Flores.
Grokipedia Won't Destroy Knowledge, but it Might Divide Us More | TechPolicy.Press
Grokipedia might well not dethrone Wikipedia, and media outlets should be wary of inflating its importance, Carolina Flores writes.
www.techpolicy.press
November 14, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Wrote about what the real threat Grokipedia poses is + some suggestions for addressing it! Drawing on @brendannyhan.bsky.social's work on misinformation.
(Lots more to say about erosion of epistemic standards, models of knowledge-production, etc.!)
(Lots more to say about erosion of epistemic standards, models of knowledge-production, etc.!)
Reposted by Caro Flores
The International Criminal Court is ditching Microsoft Office, saying it’s too dependent on US tech, in favor of Open Desk, a German open source alternative.
The move comes after Microsoft revoked ICC head Karim Khan’s email access when he was sanctioned by the US for the warrant against Netanyahu.
The move comes after Microsoft revoked ICC head Karim Khan’s email access when he was sanctioned by the US for the warrant against Netanyahu.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative | Euractiv
The court will move its internal work environment to Open Desk, a German-developed open source software
www.euractiv.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:36 PM
The International Criminal Court is ditching Microsoft Office, saying it’s too dependent on US tech, in favor of Open Desk, a German open source alternative.
The move comes after Microsoft revoked ICC head Karim Khan’s email access when he was sanctioned by the US for the warrant against Netanyahu.
The move comes after Microsoft revoked ICC head Karim Khan’s email access when he was sanctioned by the US for the warrant against Netanyahu.
The perfect reply to student grade complaints doesn't exi-
(from Simone Weil, Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God)
(from Simone Weil, Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God)
November 13, 2025 at 6:12 PM
The perfect reply to student grade complaints doesn't exi-
(from Simone Weil, Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God)
(from Simone Weil, Reflections on the right use of school studies with a view to the love of God)
Reposted by Caro Flores
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
Reposted by Caro Flores
Aesthetics friends! What is good on the pursuit of aesthetic individuality, and the development of aesthetic selfhood?
I know @nickriggle.bsky.social’s stuff. But what else is good?
I know @nickriggle.bsky.social’s stuff. But what else is good?
November 11, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Aesthetics friends! What is good on the pursuit of aesthetic individuality, and the development of aesthetic selfhood?
I know @nickriggle.bsky.social’s stuff. But what else is good?
I know @nickriggle.bsky.social’s stuff. But what else is good?
Reposted by Caro Flores
if you can’t see the aurora borealis tonight, here is a sewer tunnel which is a wonder in itself.
November 12, 2025 at 3:58 AM
if you can’t see the aurora borealis tonight, here is a sewer tunnel which is a wonder in itself.
Reposted by Caro Flores
Do your hands talk when you do? 🗣️✋
Check out this @duke-university.bsky.social write up about my new work with my postdoc Esha Naidu (she is on the job market!) showing gestures reflect culture & identity—our nonverbal “accents” can shape interracial communication.
trinity.duke.edu/news/talking...
Check out this @duke-university.bsky.social write up about my new work with my postdoc Esha Naidu (she is on the job market!) showing gestures reflect culture & identity—our nonverbal “accents” can shape interracial communication.
trinity.duke.edu/news/talking...
Talking with Our Hands: Duke Study Reveals How Culture Shapes Our Gestures
You are having dinner with friends, and the conversation is lively. Do your hands join the chat, or do they stay focused on your knife and fork?
trinity.duke.edu
November 11, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Do your hands talk when you do? 🗣️✋
Check out this @duke-university.bsky.social write up about my new work with my postdoc Esha Naidu (she is on the job market!) showing gestures reflect culture & identity—our nonverbal “accents” can shape interracial communication.
trinity.duke.edu/news/talking...
Check out this @duke-university.bsky.social write up about my new work with my postdoc Esha Naidu (she is on the job market!) showing gestures reflect culture & identity—our nonverbal “accents” can shape interracial communication.
trinity.duke.edu/news/talking...
Just learned that Simone Weil's first religious experience happened in Portugal (in Póvoa de Varzim, a fishing town in the north), where she was moved by the beauty of villagers singing hymns in a procession. That's an idea for a niche study trip once I've moved to Lisbon!
November 11, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Just learned that Simone Weil's first religious experience happened in Portugal (in Póvoa de Varzim, a fishing town in the north), where she was moved by the beauty of villagers singing hymns in a procession. That's an idea for a niche study trip once I've moved to Lisbon!
Reposted by Caro Flores
So enjoyed hearing @ruizhegoh.bsky.social share his work on the perception of silence on the latest episode of @vox.com’s “unexplainable” podcast! 🤫 #poopoo
open.spotify.com/episode/6V2a...
open.spotify.com/episode/6V2a...
November 11, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So enjoyed hearing @ruizhegoh.bsky.social share his work on the perception of silence on the latest episode of @vox.com’s “unexplainable” podcast! 🤫 #poopoo
open.spotify.com/episode/6V2a...
open.spotify.com/episode/6V2a...
Murdoch's "The idea of perfection" approaches philosophical perfection and you should go (re)read it now.
November 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Murdoch's "The idea of perfection" approaches philosophical perfection and you should go (re)read it now.
Finally heard of a good use for predictive policing! White Collar Crime Risk Zones, which maps where white collar crime is most likely to occur. It also proposes a facial recognition program based on photos of execs from LinkedIn. whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com
White Collar Crime Risk Zones
A machine learning system that predicts where white collar crimes will occur throughout the US.
whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Finally heard of a good use for predictive policing! White Collar Crime Risk Zones, which maps where white collar crime is most likely to occur. It also proposes a facial recognition program based on photos of execs from LinkedIn. whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com
Hot take: way more things at universities should be done by lottery. Why the need to write rec letters and personal statements for small internal fellowships all the time? What is the benefit? Is the point just sustaining the illusion of meritocracy?
November 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Hot take: way more things at universities should be done by lottery. Why the need to write rec letters and personal statements for small internal fellowships all the time? What is the benefit? Is the point just sustaining the illusion of meritocracy?
Reposted by Caro Flores
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
November 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Amazing roast: "Always use the word “forgotten” in your title. Do not draw attention to who is doing the ignoring or forgetting. If you mention “genocide,” intimate the reasons are about “tribal tensions” or “rivalries,” or even better, “hatred”. Emphasize the lack of thinking (in them, not you)."
How to Write About Sudan
A critique, a balm, a question
yassmin.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Amazing roast: "Always use the word “forgotten” in your title. Do not draw attention to who is doing the ignoring or forgetting. If you mention “genocide,” intimate the reasons are about “tribal tensions” or “rivalries,” or even better, “hatred”. Emphasize the lack of thinking (in them, not you)."
actually they should abolish California
They should invent a California where you can afford to live
November 8, 2025 at 8:52 AM
actually they should abolish California