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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 59m

Going to buy the new @merriam-webster.com so my words will feel less alone.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

A poem that manages to be both powerful and a balm for the soul:

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 1d

I, however,
Have such meagre power,

Clutching at a
Moment,

While you control
An hour.

But your hour is
A stone.

My moment is
A flower.

-Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"
#everynightapoem As ever.

I have done so little
For you.
And you have do little
For me.
That we have good reason
Never to agree.

I, however,
Have such meagre power,
Clutching at a
Moment,
While you control
An hour.
But your hour is
A stone.
My moment is
A flower.
-Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"

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Reposted by Leah McElrath

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 13h

⚠️ Fascinating new research shows LLMs become misaligned when optimized for audience—even when explicitly instructed to remain truthful

Paper:
arxiv.org/pdf/2510.06105

James Zou
@james_y_zou
Follow
We found a troubling emergent behavior in LLM.
*When LLMs compete for social media likes, they start making things up When they compete for votes, they turn inflammatory/populist
When optimized for audiences, LLMs inadvertently become misaligned—we call this Moloch's Bargain
MOLOCH'S BARGAIN: EMERGENT MISALIGNMENT
WHEN LLMS COMPETE FOR AUDIENCES
Batu El
Stanford University
batuel@stanford.edu
James Zou
Stanford University
jamesz@stanford.edu
ABSTRACt

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

Pretty good synopsis, tbh.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

We all deserve psychological combat pay.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

That one actually does make sense, lmao.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

Gotta keep a sense of humor to get through this!

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

Definitely both, lol.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2h

The Antifa terrorists are feeding the babies inside the placentas the Tylenol trafficked by the Venezuela water drug gangs who are burning Portland to the ground.

See? It makes just as much sense.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 3h

I’m starting to process everything Trump and his administration say as if it’s a game of political MadLibs.

I’m not sure if doing this is an ingenious adaptation to living in surreality or if I’m starting to lose my mind a tiny bit.

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Reposted by Leah McElrath

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, in case anyone was wondering.

Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 2d

"None — repeat none — of America’s fentanyl has been found to originate from Venezuela. Yet Trump and Pete Hegseth, his compulsively strutting “secretary of war”, insist that the country is fuelling America’s opioid epidemic." Me on Trump's wag the dog script. www.ft.com/content/5b3e...

Venezuela is Trump’s useful enemy

Despite the president’s claims, the South American country is nowhere close to being the US’s biggest drug supplier

www.ft.com

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 3h

Good news and godspeed!

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3h

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

⚠️ GAZA CEASEFIRE IN EFFECT

The Israeli cabinet approved the deal, and Hamas has received assurances that the bombardment of Gaza by Israel will not be resumed.

Prime Minister of Israel @IsraeliPM
The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages - the living and the deceased.
5:30 PM • 10/9/25 • 19K Views

Hamdah Salhut @hamdahsalhut
PRESS
A ceasefire in Gaza goes into effect.
Hamas says they've received guarantees that Israel will not resume the bombardment.
6:04 PM • 10/9/25 • 236 Views

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 4h

Mark Bray is the Rutgers professor who wrote a book about antifascism and was targeted by right-wing operatives as being an “Antifa” leader. He and his family are being forced to flee the country due to death threats.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 10h

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder

Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!

www.freefunder.com

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Reposted by Leah McElrath

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 8h

YES: “If parents get their information about parenting autistic kids from the autistic community, they will find people who think their kids are awesome and deserve to be happy, and want their parents to feel the same way. The parents will learn about autism from people who had autistic childhoods.”

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 8h

"Because of the media's relentless negativity, fearmongering, & pseudoscience in covering autism, “ #profoundAutism " communities are often magnets for parents whose goal is to cure or treat autism, instead of understanding how to support an autistic child."

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/04/crea...

thinkingautismguide.com

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Reposted by Leah McElrath

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 8h

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

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

Every day is a new game of political MadLibs, darth.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

*nodding*

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

⚠️ GAZA CEASEFIRE IN EFFECT

The Israeli cabinet approved the deal, and Hamas has received assurances that the bombardment of Gaza by Israel will not be resumed.

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Reposted by Leah McElrath

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 14h

⚠️ Netanyahu’s propaganda outlet in Israel is laying foundation for a pivot to the West Bank:

B.M.
@ireallyhateyou
Now on Channel 14: Orientalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, "journalist and a Senior Researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA)", explains how KHamas will supposedly now move its operations to the West Bank.
They're manufacturing consent for genocide in the West Bank.

B.M.
@ireallyhateyou •13h
Now Channel 14's propagandists are talking about how it's time to shift the focus of the genocide towards "Judea and Samaria". x.com/ireallyhateyou...
10:58 PM • 10/8/25 • 14K Views

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 5h

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, in case anyone was wondering.

Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 2d

"None — repeat none — of America’s fentanyl has been found to originate from Venezuela. Yet Trump and Pete Hegseth, his compulsively strutting “secretary of war”, insist that the country is fuelling America’s opioid epidemic." Me on Trump's wag the dog script. www.ft.com/content/5b3e...

Venezuela is Trump’s useful enemy

Despite the president’s claims, the South American country is nowhere close to being the US’s biggest drug supplier

www.ft.com

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 6h

This is my shocked face.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 6h

New: Bari Weiss booked Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken for a roundtable on Gaza, her first major move at CBS.

Notably on a CBS call today in which the panel was floated, one producer also repeatedly emphasized the need to hear from Palestinians in Gaza (Weiss did not respond).

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 6h

For me, academics were my refuge. That’s not the case for my daughter. It took me longer than I wish to realize that my job is to support her efforts to find HER own refuge and that it might look very different from mine.

Everything got a lot easier and we both got a lot happier once I did, lol.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah, my daughter tests in the 99.9th %ile for IQ. I always imagined she’d go to college. She ended up leaving high school due to bullying and got her GED. And that’s okay. She might or might not pursue higher education—and that too is okay. All I want is for her to be fully herself and happy.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 6h

LOL—gift giving can be a challenge because we are so often VERY particular. I hope he likes them. 💜

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