Sam Jackson
@sjacks26.bsky.social
Researching right-wing extremism in the U.S, conspiracy theories, extremist language, etc.
Professing in Albany, NY
Black Lives Matter
he/him
My Oath Keepers book: bit.ly/2DOUuh7
CV: https://tinyurl.com/meyy6xpd
Professing in Albany, NY
Black Lives Matter
he/him
My Oath Keepers book: bit.ly/2DOUuh7
CV: https://tinyurl.com/meyy6xpd
Reposted by Sam Jackson
This is a unique opportunity for junior scholars of extremism and democracy. You do NOT want to miss it. Apply!
📣 @ecpr-ead.bsky.social invites applications for it's Summer School on Extremism and Democracy!
🗓️ 6 – 10 July, University of Bologna
🎓️ Present your research and receive feedback from leading scholars in the field
✅️ Open to all students enrolled in a PhD programme
⌛ Deadline: 25 February
🗓️ 6 – 10 July, University of Bologna
🎓️ Present your research and receive feedback from leading scholars in the field
✅️ Open to all students enrolled in a PhD programme
⌛ Deadline: 25 February
Find out more and apply
Summer School of the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy, University of Bologna, 6 – 10 July 2026
ecpr.eu
February 13, 2026 at 4:31 PM
This is a unique opportunity for junior scholars of extremism and democracy. You do NOT want to miss it. Apply!
Reposted by Sam Jackson
new from me: it's interesting that one of the biggest roadblocks we're seeing to ICE buying up warehouses to convert into modern day concentration camps for detained immigrants is conservative NIMBYs (non-derogatory, for once) saying "not here, thanks"
Opinion | ICE’s warehouse detention centers run up against NIMBYism
A surprising number of Republican communities are coming out against the idea of ICE deportation facilities in their backyards.
www.ms.now
February 13, 2026 at 3:49 PM
new from me: it's interesting that one of the biggest roadblocks we're seeing to ICE buying up warehouses to convert into modern day concentration camps for detained immigrants is conservative NIMBYs (non-derogatory, for once) saying "not here, thanks"
Reposted by Sam Jackson
This is how Meta has always viewed civil society. They were never your friend. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:54 PM
This is how Meta has always viewed civil society. They were never your friend. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Reposted by Sam Jackson
"They're too busy demanding Amazon refund them for their Ring cameras to pay attention to us adding incel perv features to our nerd glasses!"
Facebook plans to put facial recognition in its glasses and they think we’re too stupid to fight back.
Their internal memo: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”
Their internal memo: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:37 PM
"They're too busy demanding Amazon refund them for their Ring cameras to pay attention to us adding incel perv features to our nerd glasses!"
Reposted by Sam Jackson
I'm pretty sure I know. They aren't. We're not going to really be able to make a lot of progress in dealing with the implications of this tech unless and until we get rid of all this "woo-woo" talk about LLMs. Anthropic pushing this line is PR, unserious.
February 13, 2026 at 2:15 PM
I'm pretty sure I know. They aren't. We're not going to really be able to make a lot of progress in dealing with the implications of this tech unless and until we get rid of all this "woo-woo" talk about LLMs. Anthropic pushing this line is PR, unserious.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
this is comically evil. brazenly anti-social. just absolute black-pilled nihilism. we will not have a republic, we will not be free, until we regulate these companies to the point where — at a bare minimum — they're too afraid to put stuff like this down on paper.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
February 13, 2026 at 2:54 PM
this is comically evil. brazenly anti-social. just absolute black-pilled nihilism. we will not have a republic, we will not be free, until we regulate these companies to the point where — at a bare minimum — they're too afraid to put stuff like this down on paper.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Today is my book's second birthday! It's relevant for understanding how militias both function think about themselves, including why many have a disjoint between their complacency about ICE alongside longstanding concerns about govt tyranny.
share.google/g5peK0KVaZRM...
share.google/g5peK0KVaZRM...
Nostalgia, Nationalism, and the US Militia Movement
NPR's Andrew Limbong talks to Amy Cooter of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies about how realistic an idea of a second civil war is
Nostalgia, Nationalism, and the US Militia Movement i...
share.google
February 13, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Today is my book's second birthday! It's relevant for understanding how militias both function think about themselves, including why many have a disjoint between their complacency about ICE alongside longstanding concerns about govt tyranny.
share.google/g5peK0KVaZRM...
share.google/g5peK0KVaZRM...
I always appreciate the opportunity to remind myself that Larry Pratt (longtime head of GOA) participated in a retreat with white supremacists and the nascent militia movement back in the day.
Gun Owners of America is lobbying Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require a majority of Americans to show a passport to register to vote.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
February 12, 2026 at 11:49 PM
I always appreciate the opportunity to remind myself that Larry Pratt (longtime head of GOA) participated in a retreat with white supremacists and the nascent militia movement back in the day.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Gun Owners of America is lobbying Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require a majority of Americans to show a passport to register to vote.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
February 9, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Gun Owners of America is lobbying Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require a majority of Americans to show a passport to register to vote.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
But GOA opposes any law that requires showing a drivers license to buy a gun.
These are not serious people.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
February 11, 2026 at 10:06 PM
Once again: people are angry for very good reason, and this brand of post is perhaps one of the most tedious and bewildering. Practically every social media platform is rabidly pro-‘AI’ so are govts, academia, companies. This one small space being critical of AI is okay, I think.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational
Homan: "Operation Metro Surge is ending. In the next week, we're going to deploy the officers here on detail back to their home stations or to other areas of the country where they're needed."
February 12, 2026 at 2:44 PM
He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational
Reposted by Sam Jackson
My doomer-worry about AI is not that the LLMs become omnipotent and take over the world but that the wealthy and powerful use it as a means to consolidate power and marginalize or lay off skilled workers and also everything about our technological and political and social life gets worse
February 11, 2026 at 8:20 PM
My doomer-worry about AI is not that the LLMs become omnipotent and take over the world but that the wealthy and powerful use it as a means to consolidate power and marginalize or lay off skilled workers and also everything about our technological and political and social life gets worse
Reposted by Sam Jackson
The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
I'm not even saying that's the most *likely* possibility, but it's just very clear that the likelihood of that outcome as increased and even if there's, like, a 1 in 10 change that "AI replaces most to all white collar jobs in 10 years" that's an *enormous* risk to the social order!
February 11, 2026 at 5:45 PM
The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
A lot of the AI hype banks on sentience as an emergent property of spicy autocorrect, but here's the thing about emergence: You can't plan for it. It's unexpected by definition.
The stock market becoming sentient is emergence. Your aspirationally sentient product becoming sentient is not.
The stock market becoming sentient is emergence. Your aspirationally sentient product becoming sentient is not.
February 11, 2026 at 8:18 AM
A lot of the AI hype banks on sentience as an emergent property of spicy autocorrect, but here's the thing about emergence: You can't plan for it. It's unexpected by definition.
The stock market becoming sentient is emergence. Your aspirationally sentient product becoming sentient is not.
The stock market becoming sentient is emergence. Your aspirationally sentient product becoming sentient is not.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
February 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Hey, Bluesky history nerds! Who are your favorite pre-modern historians on here?
February 10, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Hey, Bluesky history nerds! Who are your favorite pre-modern historians on here?
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Another TGS roster call: who are your favorite historians (any period) of anywhere other than Europe, America, or the English-speaking world more broadly?
February 10, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Another TGS roster call: who are your favorite historians (any period) of anywhere other than Europe, America, or the English-speaking world more broadly?
Reposted by Sam Jackson
my nda to discuss how i'm empowering ice is raising a lot of questions i can only answer after you sign the nda
SCOOP: Tensions at Palantir have grown in recent weeks over the company's work with ICE.
On Friday, CEO Alex Karp tried to calm concerns in an hourlong video that offered few specifics—instead offering NDAs to workers who want to understand how it's empowering ICE.
www.wired.com/story/palant...
On Friday, CEO Alex Karp tried to calm concerns in an hourlong video that offered few specifics—instead offering NDAs to workers who want to understand how it's empowering ICE.
www.wired.com/story/palant...
Palantir CEO Alex Karp Recorded a Video About ICE for His Employees
In a video shared with Palantir employees, Alex Karp did not explain how ICE is utilizing the company's products. Instead, workers were told they can sign NDAs if they want detailed information.
www.wired.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:46 PM
my nda to discuss how i'm empowering ice is raising a lot of questions i can only answer after you sign the nda
Reposted by Sam Jackson
see that's not particularly difficult messaging
I will not support any funding deal that puts money in the hands of Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and this violent agency. Defund and abolish ICE now.
February 10, 2026 at 5:16 PM
see that's not particularly difficult messaging
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Every business right now thinks its such an essential part of your life that you'd give them anything to keep using it and brother I am here to tell you I don't need a chat app that bad
Discord will soon require face scans or ID for all users, or restrict access
Discord will soon require face scans or ID for all users, or restrict access
Discord has announced a major change coming to the service as part of its aim to improve teen safety features. Starting in March, all users globally will be required to submit age verification via a face scan or submitted ID, or be given teen-level access restrictions.
more…
9to5mac.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Every business right now thinks its such an essential part of your life that you'd give them anything to keep using it and brother I am here to tell you I don't need a chat app that bad
Reposted by Sam Jackson
The closest modern historical parallel is the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay for intercepted Cubans and Haitians during the HW Bush and Clinton administrations, where at maximum capacity roughly 12,000 migrants were detained. But those migrants were never in the physical US.
February 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM
The closest modern historical parallel is the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay for intercepted Cubans and Haitians during the HW Bush and Clinton administrations, where at maximum capacity roughly 12,000 migrants were detained. But those migrants were never in the physical US.
Reposted by Sam Jackson
Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family.
“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.
“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.
‘He’s not the same’: Father of Liam Conejo Ramos says 5-year-old continues to suffer
Some people thought they say the 5-year-old during the Super Bowl halftime show. But Liam is still in hiding with his family, after he and his father were detained and then released from a Texas deten...
www.mprnews.org
February 10, 2026 at 1:11 AM
Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family.
“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.
“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.