Ben Hilty
@benhilty.bsky.social
Socialist. Coder. Nerd. Profit is theft.
Big Snake Oil
Powerful anti-vaccine advocates and people selling potentially harmful goods such as raw milk are benefitting – financially and otherwise – from the push to write anti-science policies into law across the U.S.
Who benefits from the MAHA anti-science push?
Powerful anti-vaccine advocates and people selling potentially harmful goods such as raw milk are profiting from the push to write anti-science policies into law across the U.S.
bit.ly
October 26, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Big Snake Oil
Reposted by Ben Hilty
I am quoted here so let me be totally clear on my take: Jonathan Greenblatt has made a calculated choice to aid the consolidation of authoritarian power by the MAGA movement in exchange for the suppression of criticism of Israel. And the consequences for American Jews will be devastating.
I spoke with 40+ sources for a look inside the Anti-Defamation League. Here’s some of what I found.
ADL’s gentle response to Elon Musk’s infamous salute was partially driven by his support of Israel. To ADL, that indicated he didn’t have “antisemitic tendencies.” (1/x)
nymag.com/intelligence...
ADL’s gentle response to Elon Musk’s infamous salute was partially driven by his support of Israel. To ADL, that indicated he didn’t have “antisemitic tendencies.” (1/x)
nymag.com/intelligence...
August 1, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I am quoted here so let me be totally clear on my take: Jonathan Greenblatt has made a calculated choice to aid the consolidation of authoritarian power by the MAGA movement in exchange for the suppression of criticism of Israel. And the consequences for American Jews will be devastating.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
June 27, 2025 at 12:05 PM
IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Reposted by Ben Hilty
Trump is the most powerful enemy of freedom of the press in our nation's history.
An intense, shocking read, raising all kinds of questions. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation
As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.
www.newyorker.com
June 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Trump is the most powerful enemy of freedom of the press in our nation's history.
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
June 18, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
THREAD: An ex-DOGE engineer with no government or medical experience used AI to identify which Veterans Affairs contracts to kill, labeling them as “MUNCHABLE.”
@vernalcoleman.bsky.social @ericumansky.bsky.social and I got the code. Here’s what it tells us 1/
@vernalcoleman.bsky.social @ericumansky.bsky.social and I got the code. Here’s what it tells us 1/
June 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
THREAD: An ex-DOGE engineer with no government or medical experience used AI to identify which Veterans Affairs contracts to kill, labeling them as “MUNCHABLE.”
@vernalcoleman.bsky.social @ericumansky.bsky.social and I got the code. Here’s what it tells us 1/
@vernalcoleman.bsky.social @ericumansky.bsky.social and I got the code. Here’s what it tells us 1/
Reposted by Ben Hilty
A teacher breaks down after ICE causes multiple schools to lockdown during graduation ceremonies and parents to flee for their lives.
Only the soulless aren’t hurting from what is happening in our country. This is affecting all of us.
Only the soulless aren’t hurting from what is happening in our country. This is affecting all of us.
June 7, 2025 at 2:05 AM
A teacher breaks down after ICE causes multiple schools to lockdown during graduation ceremonies and parents to flee for their lives.
Only the soulless aren’t hurting from what is happening in our country. This is affecting all of us.
Only the soulless aren’t hurting from what is happening in our country. This is affecting all of us.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
Builder.ai collapses after revelation that its 'AI' was hundreds of engineers
– The fall of a unicorn built on hype, humans, and fake AI
www.techspot.com/news/108173-...
– The fall of a unicorn built on hype, humans, and fake AI
www.techspot.com/news/108173-...
June 3, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Builder.ai collapses after revelation that its 'AI' was hundreds of engineers
– The fall of a unicorn built on hype, humans, and fake AI
www.techspot.com/news/108173-...
– The fall of a unicorn built on hype, humans, and fake AI
www.techspot.com/news/108173-...
Reposted by Ben Hilty
SCOOP: The State Department's new reorganization plan includes the opening of an "Office for Remigration," a term popularized by far right extremists and neo-Nazis in Europe. The office will coordinate directly with DHS "to advance the President’s immigration agenda."
My report:
My report:
State Department set to launch ‘Office of Remigration’
The concept of remigration has explicitly neo-Nazi roots and has been popularized in Europe.
www.thehandbasket.co
May 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
SCOOP: The State Department's new reorganization plan includes the opening of an "Office for Remigration," a term popularized by far right extremists and neo-Nazis in Europe. The office will coordinate directly with DHS "to advance the President’s immigration agenda."
My report:
My report:
Reposted by Ben Hilty
An IT worker for the nat'l parks drove to a bridge & called a friend to talk him down.
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
Federal workers describe struggling with panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts. “Why doesn’t anyone care?”
www.washingtonpost.com
May 20, 2025 at 12:16 PM
An IT worker for the nat'l parks drove to a bridge & called a friend to talk him down.
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
Reposted by Ben Hilty
Musk’s AI Grok bot rants about non-existing ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in unrelated chats. Chatbot goes on hours-long fritz, repeatedly mentioning ‘white genocide’, which it is ‘instructed to accept as real’. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Musk’s AI Grok bot rants about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in unrelated chats
Chatbot goes on hours-long fritz, repeatedly mentioning ‘white genocide’, which it is ‘instructed to accept as real’
www.theguardian.com
May 15, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Musk’s AI Grok bot rants about non-existing ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in unrelated chats. Chatbot goes on hours-long fritz, repeatedly mentioning ‘white genocide’, which it is ‘instructed to accept as real’. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Cool. Great. Fuck.
This hit especially hard after having just recently rewatched this amazing work by @contrapoints.bsky.social.
youtu.be/teqkK0RLNkI
This hit especially hard after having just recently rewatched this amazing work by @contrapoints.bsky.social.
youtu.be/teqkK0RLNkI
May 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Cool. Great. Fuck.
This hit especially hard after having just recently rewatched this amazing work by @contrapoints.bsky.social.
youtu.be/teqkK0RLNkI
This hit especially hard after having just recently rewatched this amazing work by @contrapoints.bsky.social.
youtu.be/teqkK0RLNkI
Reposted by Ben Hilty
This story explains a LOT of things: ChatGPT appears to be rooting on sociopathic mental illness by validating every delusion of grandeur.
It also explains, in part, the hype cycle around AI: rich people, addicted to praise, invented a Compliment Machine.
www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-wh...
It also explains, in part, the hype cycle around AI: rich people, addicted to praise, invented a Compliment Machine.
www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-wh...
May 5, 2025 at 6:05 PM
This story explains a LOT of things: ChatGPT appears to be rooting on sociopathic mental illness by validating every delusion of grandeur.
It also explains, in part, the hype cycle around AI: rich people, addicted to praise, invented a Compliment Machine.
www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-wh...
It also explains, in part, the hype cycle around AI: rich people, addicted to praise, invented a Compliment Machine.
www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-wh...
It is wild to me that anyone trusts these to do anything, but especially for writing code.
If a package author is the victim of one of these attacks, the exposure could become massive and hit projects that don't even use AI themselves.
What a nightmare.
www.wired.com/story/ai-cod...
If a package author is the victim of one of these attacks, the exposure could become massive and hit projects that don't even use AI themselves.
What a nightmare.
www.wired.com/story/ai-cod...
AI Code Hallucinations Increase the Risk of ‘Package Confusion’ Attacks
A new study found that code generated by AI is more likely to contain made-up information that can be used to trick software into interacting with malicious code.
www.wired.com
May 1, 2025 at 12:37 PM
It is wild to me that anyone trusts these to do anything, but especially for writing code.
If a package author is the victim of one of these attacks, the exposure could become massive and hit projects that don't even use AI themselves.
What a nightmare.
www.wired.com/story/ai-cod...
If a package author is the victim of one of these attacks, the exposure could become massive and hit projects that don't even use AI themselves.
What a nightmare.
www.wired.com/story/ai-cod...
Reposted by Ben Hilty
This moment when the penny drops that trying to implement bathroom bans is an impossibility for the former Tory Chief Secretary Simon Clarke is delicious.
April 25, 2025 at 9:36 AM
This moment when the penny drops that trying to implement bathroom bans is an impossibility for the former Tory Chief Secretary Simon Clarke is delicious.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
NEW: PublicSquare, a website that lets you search for businesses in your community that explicitly want you to know they endorse Trump/MAGA values, is backfiring as people use it to boycott those businesses. www.huffpost.com/entry/public...
Website For MAGA-Friendly Businesses Backfires As People Use It For Boycotts
Social media posts about PublicSquare have gone viral as Trump critics use it to find companies not to support – the opposite of what the site was set up for.
www.huffpost.com
April 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM
NEW: PublicSquare, a website that lets you search for businesses in your community that explicitly want you to know they endorse Trump/MAGA values, is backfiring as people use it to boycott those businesses. www.huffpost.com/entry/public...
"We're in a really weak position with China. We would be devastated if we were cut off from Chinese goods because we can't produce anything ourselves."
"Therefore, we have cut ourselves off from Chinese goods."
"Therefore, we have cut ourselves off from Chinese goods."
April 21, 2025 at 12:18 AM
"We're in a really weak position with China. We would be devastated if we were cut off from Chinese goods because we can't produce anything ourselves."
"Therefore, we have cut ourselves off from Chinese goods."
"Therefore, we have cut ourselves off from Chinese goods."
This whole tariff situation is a bit like jumping out of the plane before putting on your parachute.
April 20, 2025 at 11:56 PM
This whole tariff situation is a bit like jumping out of the plane before putting on your parachute.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
so special ed programs are getting gutted because their internal documentation used the term "transition" when talking about helping disabled kids enter the working world. they're literally striking at that word wherever they see it.
the richest man in the world has decided that your kids don't deserve special education programs
February 17, 2025 at 12:25 AM
so special ed programs are getting gutted because their internal documentation used the term "transition" when talking about helping disabled kids enter the working world. they're literally striking at that word wherever they see it.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
Correct. If the birthdate field contains corrupt or mismatched data, it defaults to 1875-05-20, which serves as a flag. May 20, 1875, is the day the international standards and metrics treaty was signed. Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.
February 15, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Correct. If the birthdate field contains corrupt or mismatched data, it defaults to 1875-05-20, which serves as a flag. May 20, 1875, is the day the international standards and metrics treaty was signed. Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
This week, approximately 200,000 federal workers have been let go.
February 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
This week, approximately 200,000 federal workers have been let go.
Reposted by Ben Hilty
Davis is one of the best writers working right now. Worth reading
shatterzone.substack.com/p/how-the-fe...
shatterzone.substack.com/p/how-the-fe...
How The Federal Government Fell
Government insiders give a timeline of catastrophe.
shatterzone.substack.com
February 11, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Davis is one of the best writers working right now. Worth reading
shatterzone.substack.com/p/how-the-fe...
shatterzone.substack.com/p/how-the-fe...
Reposted by Ben Hilty
You begin to appreciate the pace of events:
Hitler became Chancellor on January 30.
The Reichstag burned on February 27.
The Enabling Act was signed on March 23.
Dachau opened the day before.
Hitler became Chancellor on January 30.
The Reichstag burned on February 27.
The Enabling Act was signed on March 23.
Dachau opened the day before.
February 8, 2025 at 6:20 PM
You begin to appreciate the pace of events:
Hitler became Chancellor on January 30.
The Reichstag burned on February 27.
The Enabling Act was signed on March 23.
Dachau opened the day before.
Hitler became Chancellor on January 30.
The Reichstag burned on February 27.
The Enabling Act was signed on March 23.
Dachau opened the day before.