Vikram Bath
@vikrambath.bsky.social
Former business school professor, current software engineer. Writes at ordinary-times.com
Pinned
Vikram Bath
@vikrambath.bsky.social
· Apr 5
Note that these are the years over which America first became the world’s economic superpower
I refuse to believe these industry interests actually want to get rid of automatic emergency braking. It’s such a cheap no-brainer feature that US consumers have been demanding anyway. It’s just oppositional defiance syndrome being expressed through legislation
November 25, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I refuse to believe these industry interests actually want to get rid of automatic emergency braking. It’s such a cheap no-brainer feature that US consumers have been demanding anyway. It’s just oppositional defiance syndrome being expressed through legislation
Reposted by Vikram Bath
Our military has been ordered to bomb civilian fishing boats. According to the Guardian as of yesterday, at least 21 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific have been hit, killing 83 people. 1/
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Deadly airstrikes and a military buildup: how the US pressure campaign against Venezuela has unfolded in the Caribbean
US has used claims of a ‘war on drugs’ to justify its attacks, which have resulted in 83 deaths that the UN has called extrajudicial executions
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Our military has been ordered to bomb civilian fishing boats. According to the Guardian as of yesterday, at least 21 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific have been hit, killing 83 people. 1/
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Vikram Bath
Zizek has a joke in one of his books that only the Leninist party state could complete the final evolution of capitalism without democracy
“Yang Jiemin, VP of the state-owned company behind the port, said its highly automated operations require 60% fewer workers than traditional ports. It underscores one advantage Chinese companies have in deploying AI versus the U.S.: no independent labor unions.” www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-r... (🎁🔗)
Robots and AI Are Already Remaking the Chinese Economy
China’s factories and ports are learning to make and export more goods faster, cheaper and with fewer workers.
www.wsj.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Zizek has a joke in one of his books that only the Leninist party state could complete the final evolution of capitalism without democracy
Having tried, I can say I empathize with the challenge of finding reasonable voices on the right who can articulate a vision for why you should support the right that doesn’t take race and gender animosity as a first and obvious ground assumption
"elevate charismatic figures such as Alan Dershowitz"
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November 25, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Having tried, I can say I empathize with the challenge of finding reasonable voices on the right who can articulate a vision for why you should support the right that doesn’t take race and gender animosity as a first and obvious ground assumption
Relatedly, I wonder if the creepy un-aging grandma app would have been less creepy if the grandmother herself had wanted to leave a remnant of herself. Instead, the video has mom forcing grandma to put on a performance 1/2
a really "wow, Ellie, I didn't know you were that kind of crank" opinion I have is that within a century or so I think that people are going to raise/train artificial neural networks instead of biological children, and that humans probably will end up as a minority of sentients on the planet
November 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Relatedly, I wonder if the creepy un-aging grandma app would have been less creepy if the grandmother herself had wanted to leave a remnant of herself. Instead, the video has mom forcing grandma to put on a performance 1/2
Almost all the weddings I have attended in my life I did so as a child
November 24, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Almost all the weddings I have attended in my life I did so as a child
Reposted by Vikram Bath
checked for it too and it’s not there & while Twitter search is worse than ever, I couldn’t see any replies to a deleted tweet either. The timestamp is recent enough that evidence would be there
November 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
checked for it too and it’s not there & while Twitter search is worse than ever, I couldn’t see any replies to a deleted tweet either. The timestamp is recent enough that evidence would be there
I don’t think it is any more complicated than that Andrew Tate knows how the attention economy works
November 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I don’t think it is any more complicated than that Andrew Tate knows how the attention economy works
Reposted by Vikram Bath
thinking about how my parents escaped vietnam, where the CIA destabilized my family's home country by spreading misinformation, and they landed in the united states, which is now getting destabilized bc someone in vietnam is spreading misinformation
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
November 23, 2025 at 5:59 PM
thinking about how my parents escaped vietnam, where the CIA destabilized my family's home country by spreading misinformation, and they landed in the united states, which is now getting destabilized bc someone in vietnam is spreading misinformation
Reposted by Vikram Bath
Summing the median expenditures of American households in every category of spending as a way to calculate the poverty line is a smart way to calculate the poverty line at above the median income level
Man, gotta love some Wall Street guy who decides It’s Time To Care About Poverty and uses vibe math to recalculate the poverty line, as… $136,500
Extreme “it’s one banana, Michael” energy
Extreme “it’s one banana, Michael” energy
November 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Summing the median expenditures of American households in every category of spending as a way to calculate the poverty line is a smart way to calculate the poverty line at above the median income level
Reposted by Vikram Bath
If you’re sick of reactionary centrist dominance of the media industry, consider supporting us today!
To fight fascism we need opposition media with a backbone. 𝘓𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 is that. Help us grow our voice. www.gofundme.com/f/the-libera...
Donate to The Liberal Currents Startup Fund, organized by Adam Gurri
To fight fascism we need opposition media with a backbone. Liberal Currents is that. Help… Adam Gurri needs your support for The Liberal Currents Startup Fund
www.gofundme.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:12 AM
If you’re sick of reactionary centrist dominance of the media industry, consider supporting us today!
Reposted by Vikram Bath
This was a key attracting factor to many immigrants to this country—my parents included—because the filtering poorer countries tend to do with their higher education access usually involves money. If you don’t have it, your formal education simply stops after a certain point.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
This was a key attracting factor to many immigrants to this country—my parents included—because the filtering poorer countries tend to do with their higher education access usually involves money. If you don’t have it, your formal education simply stops after a certain point.
Reposted by Vikram Bath
I had not been tracking this story, but it appears an overzealous ICE agent shot a woman five times with no cause, and afterwards to cover the crime the DOJ just made up a fake story that she was a terrorist who attacked federal officers, then charged her.
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I had not been tracking this story, but it appears an overzealous ICE agent shot a woman five times with no cause, and afterwards to cover the crime the DOJ just made up a fake story that she was a terrorist who attacked federal officers, then charged her.
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
Microsoft says that File Explorer in Windows 11 is so slow that they are going to leave it always running so that it doesn’t look so bad when you attempt to open it www.windowslatest.com/2025/11/22/m...
Microsoft says it will always run Windows 11 File Explorer in the background to load it faster
Microsoft admitted that File Explorer is slow and can take longer than usual to load, and it's going to fix it in the next Windows 11 update.
www.windowslatest.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Microsoft says that File Explorer in Windows 11 is so slow that they are going to leave it always running so that it doesn’t look so bad when you attempt to open it www.windowslatest.com/2025/11/22/m...
Reposted by Vikram Bath
I ask every American Born Chinese of my generation "violin or piano" and it gets a big laugh because we all Know.
November 23, 2025 at 1:03 PM
I ask every American Born Chinese of my generation "violin or piano" and it gets a big laugh because we all Know.
Reposted by Vikram Bath
Look, it’s unlike me to say something like this — and, frankly, a bit embarrassing — but I want to hear less about these people’s terrible decisions, loose morals, and weird sex stuff and more about this.
November 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Look, it’s unlike me to say something like this — and, frankly, a bit embarrassing — but I want to hear less about these people’s terrible decisions, loose morals, and weird sex stuff and more about this.
Reposted by Vikram Bath
I really kinda love Pope Leo
November 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I really kinda love Pope Leo
Reposted by Vikram Bath
the extent to which everyone is treating the mamdani-trump meeting as if it were actually big news, actually important, actually significant, actually anything other than decadent ephemera ... i dunno, man. im starting to think americans might not be a particularly serious people?
November 22, 2025 at 4:28 PM
the extent to which everyone is treating the mamdani-trump meeting as if it were actually big news, actually important, actually significant, actually anything other than decadent ephemera ... i dunno, man. im starting to think americans might not be a particularly serious people?
This is more like Barringer Crater than a smoking gun. This suggests complete fabrication from scratch
November 22, 2025 at 10:50 AM
This is more like Barringer Crater than a smoking gun. This suggests complete fabrication from scratch
10/10 here:
"Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line."
"Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line."
November 22, 2025 at 10:35 AM
10/10 here:
"Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line."
"Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line."
This is a non-political department ostensibly staffed by careerists and they are putting out anti-vax propaganda. It’s hard to tell someone that this can happen, but economic data would never get altered…
The Center for Disease Control is now an antivax propaganda outlet www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
November 22, 2025 at 12:52 AM
This is a non-political department ostensibly staffed by careerists and they are putting out anti-vax propaganda. It’s hard to tell someone that this can happen, but economic data would never get altered…
I can only assume Pitchbot hacked the Times account and they are begging BlueSky support to get it back
“ChAlLeNgInG ScIeNtIfIc oRtHoDoXy”
“ChAlLeNgInG ScIeNtIfIc oRtHoDoXy”
November 22, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I can only assume Pitchbot hacked the Times account and they are begging BlueSky support to get it back
“ChAlLeNgInG ScIeNtIfIc oRtHoDoXy”
“ChAlLeNgInG ScIeNtIfIc oRtHoDoXy”
Neither Gretchen Whitmer nor Zohran Mamdani fell out of a coconut tree into the Oval Office. Only Zohran could go in there in the same way that only Nixon could go to China
Why did Big Gretch get canceled for being in the Oval and Mamdani is getting slobbered on for having Trump praise him? It’s just factional jockeying.
November 21, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Neither Gretchen Whitmer nor Zohran Mamdani fell out of a coconut tree into the Oval Office. Only Zohran could go in there in the same way that only Nixon could go to China
Deleted now, but real
November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Deleted now, but real