Eric Schatzberg
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ericschatzberg.bsky.social
Eric Schatzberg
@ericschatzberg.bsky.social
36 followers 40 following 7 posts
Eric Schatzberg is professor in the School of History and Sociology (HSOC) at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he focuses on the history of technology.
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Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
mikestabile.bsky.social
They’re describing it as a “shock and awe” campaign, which is why it’s essential to show them there’s huge opposition NOW. Call / email your reps to let them know you oppose censorship bills like KOSA and the SCREEN.

Read up and get involved in the @fightforthefuture.org Week of Action.
mikestabile.bsky.social Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 25d
With SCREEN Act and KOSA on the legislative block this week, there couldn't be a better time for Fight's "Stop Online ID Checks" Week of Action.

Today's action: Share and sign the petition.

Find out more here: www.stoponlineidchecks.org
December 2, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
danjfox.bsky.social
Great answer from @timnitgebru.bsky.social about AGI youtube.com/shorts/899b7... - part of our future of AI feature www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
‘AGI is a fictional thing’ — Timnit Gebru on artificial general intelligence
YouTube video by nature video
youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
ence.bsky.social
We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com.

We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans.

washingtonpost.com/politics/int...
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
philipncohen.com
One thing we can be sure of is that the Hamas-run health ministry's death tallies -- which IDF defenders incessantly dismiss -- are an undercount of the true death toll in Israel's gaza massacre.

From @polgreen.bsky.social (gift link)
Opinion | What Happened in Gaza Might Be Even Worse Than We Think
www.nytimes.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
bordergroves.bsky.social
As a kid I wondered and worried about why people could be allowed to go unfed and unhoused and insecure in the midst of unparalleled, incomparable affluence. That remains the driving question of my research. And the answer remains largely the same. Capitalism in its many guises.
October 5, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
anthonymoser.com
I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
anthonymoser.github.io
August 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
mikestabile.bsky.social
Anyone who's tempted to cheer the state going after porn sites like XVideos should think twice. Uthmeier made a name for himself forcing the censorship of LGBTQ+ library books by calling them "patently pornographic" and "harmful to minors."

If he's coming after us, he's coming after you.
mikestabile.bsky.social Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · Jun 5
Florida's attorney general threatens school district with formal legal action, saying the book "Call Me By Your Name" and others violate "harmful to minors" statutes.

Of course, it didn't stop him from posting page after page of all the "patently pornographic" language that so offends him.
Text from the letter with passages from various books. Full letter here. https://x.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1923144023096664523/photo/4 Commissioner Diaz recently wrote to you about two sexually explicit books that are beyond the pale. Those two publications-Call Me By Your Name and Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) appear to now be "under review" by the district, but troublingly, your schools make available many more materials that run afoul of the prohibitions of section 847.012. Some of these materials are even available in middle school libraries. A few poignant examples demonstrate the point. Seven of your schools' libraries make available What Girls Are Made Of, by Elana K. Arnold, which includes the following: ... and don't restart the vibrator until it's muffled underneath the blankets .... I let my knees splay open and find my slit with my fingers, the soft hooded nub at it's apex, and I guide the red rubber ball against it .... My back arches and I hiss in a breath at its first wonderful, terrible contact. A jolt of pleasure shoots through me and I yank the vibrator away before placing it back against me, this time very gently...It almost hurts, the hum, the buzz, the stroke of it, so different from the jet of warm water that pours from the showerhead, so different from the press of my own hand, so different from the wet lapping of Seth's tongue. It's remembering Seth's tongue that pushes me into the first orgasm, the sweet way he'd press it just there, right where I'm holding the rubber tip of the vibrator, the anxious, ineffective, hopeful lapping of his tongue. And I squeeze my eyes shut and my hips buck up against the vibrator, and my neck gets tight and my toes are stuck in a weird curled spasm, and I can't tell and don't care which way is up and which way is down. Your students can read on to find this additional excerpt: Seth thrusts forward onto the bed and between my legs and against the thin barrier that separates us. From the letter: It's shocking that the district is making these materials available to its students. They are unquestionably pornographic in nature, they depict explicit sexual conduct, they aren't necessary to help students comprehend actual instructional material, and they are inappropriate for minors of any age. And irrespective of any separate parental objection process available in statute, the school board bears the affirmative obligation to remove these materials and others like them-from its classrooms and libraries.6 Commissioner Diaz made you aware of two of these books in his letter. But as this letter demonstrates, there are many more materials that contain harmful sexual content. You must act to protect your students from these gratuitously pornographic materials. Any delay in remedying this situation only exacerbates the current failure to ensure that students are safe and receiving materials and instruction in alignment with state laws. Parents have the right to a school board that doesn't introduce explicit, sexual harmful content bereft of any educational benefit to their children. Another page of the letter. Or Breathless by Jennifer Niven-currently available in 12 high schools in your district: He groans a little and then he's pulling off my dress, the red-and-white one I bought last July 4. I'm braless, in underwear, and he's still in his shorts. I reach for these next, and when I can't get them off him, he helps, and he's not wearing underwear at all, so he's completely naked, and now I can really look at him ... Instead I let him kiss my breasts, and while I've technically gone this far with a boy, right now it feels so much further. Next my panties come off, all at once, both legs at the same time, and he's looking at my body, ... I let him look at me, but not for long, because I'm kissing him, and his hands are in what's left of my hair, and then he's rolling on his side and fishing around in the pocket of his shorts for something. He's getting a condom. ... I kiss the dimples on either side of his mouth, and then he's kissing my throat, and just when I think my body might explode like a firework, it happens .... Now he's opening the condom packet. Now he's putting the condom on .... Now you can feel him. Now he's putting the condom in .... Now you can feel him—all of him. And there's the surprise again. Not pain, necessarily, but the surprise of my body registering something entirely new. I actually suck in air .... Before he can ask what the hell that was or change his mind about ever wanting to have sex with me, I kiss him. I wonder if I'm bleeding all over his couch, if my mythical hymen has actually broken .... Now he's moving on top of you. And you are moving with him even though you don't know how ..... But then, suddenly, we're done. Which means he's done.
August 5, 2025 at 4:07 PM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
On Gaza: "A betrayal of the victims of the Holocaust." (An essay shared by Robert Reich.) open.substack.com/pub/robertre...
A betrayal of the victims of the Holocaust
A view from Israel
open.substack.com
July 30, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
bradlander.bsky.social
The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God.

Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well.
forward.com/opinion/7575...
Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders?
A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.
forward.com
July 24, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
theintercept.com
The people of Gaza face starvation under the joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Our Reporter Got Into Gaza. He Witnessed a Famine of Israel’s Making.
The people of Gaza face starvation under the joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
interc.pt
July 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
A convincing argument:
“I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...
Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.
www.nytimes.com
July 16, 2025 at 12:14 AM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
I just donated to this charity that provides telemedicine services to Ukrainians in need. They are running out of funding.

www.pii-foundation.org
PII Foundation | Hospital in the cloud
PII Foundation provides virtual healthcare services through it's online platform, providing free GP sessions to enable health equity and disaster relief around the world
www.pii-foundation.org
July 15, 2025 at 11:51 PM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
Great new article by Hallie Lieberman, giving voice to the incarcerated people being harmed by the anti-trans agenda.

How Trans Prisoners Are Dealing With The Trump Administration’s Attacks - defector.com/how-trans-pr.... #transrights
July 11, 2025 at 11:57 PM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS in Atlanta” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
NO KINGS in Atlanta · No Kings
📍*The location details have been updated and confirmed.* **In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.** NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing aut...
www.mobilize.us
June 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
ericschatzberg.bsky.social
www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
Phillip K Dick
He is often called the Shakespeare of science fiction. Never more eloquent was he than with these words. “The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in ...
www.dailykos.com
April 15, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
barbmcquade.bsky.social
From interview of Lee Bollinger, 1st Amendment scholar who served as dean of @UMichLaw, president of @UMich, and president of Columbia University.
www.chronicle.com/article/were...
March 15, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
disentelechy.bsky.social
@ericschatzberg.bsky.social take on technology is spot on. The cultural and the instrumental approach. From "Technology: Critical History of a Concept" (Uni. of Chicago Press, 2018)
This tension between scholars and technicians has produced two sharply divergent traditions about the nature of technology and antecedent concepts. On one side, defenders of technicians view technology as a creative expression of human culture. In this view, technology is imbued with human values and strivings in all their contradictory complexity. I term this position the cultural approach to technology. The cultural approach is epitomized by the American public intellectual Lewis Mumford. In the 1930s, Mumford argued that technology (technics, in his terminology) “exists as an element in human culture and it promises well or ill as the social groups that exploit it promise well or ill.” German engineers around the turn of the twentieth century made similar claims, insisting that technology (Technik) was an essential component of culture and a product of the human spirit. Technologies thus express the spirit of an age, just like works of art. The invention of the mechanical clock in Western Europe at the end of the thirteenth century, for example, did not itself create the sense of time. Instead, the mechanical clock reflected a prior consciousness of time, rooted in monasteries and medieval towns, that motivated people to invent, improve, and embrace this new instrument. Chinese craftsmen had created far more sophisticated astronomical clocks in the eleventh century, but these devices failed to spread because they did not reflect a widespread desire for timekeeping. In contrast to the cultural approach, other scholars take what I term the instrumental approach to technology. Supporters of this approach, often humanist intellectuals, insist that technology is a mere instrument that serves ends defined by others. This vision portrays technology as narrow technical rationality, uncreative and devoid of values.
January 14, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Eric Schatzberg
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
Something I've been trying to write about is how the right uses the existence of trans people as justification for overthrowing democracy or the state, and how similar that is to the "trans panic defense" deployed by murderers of trans women trying to earn the sympathies of juries and judges
gbbranstetter.bsky.social Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Mar 16
A running theme in Woods' telling is how even those who opposed Hitler blamed his rise on the "depravity" and excess of Weimar Berlin "as if the mere presence of ersatz women in the club was enough to foment and justify a right-wing putsch"--a phrase I find myself repeating often
gbbranstetter.bsky.social Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Mar 16
Revisiting Gregory Woods' fantastic literary history of Berlin before and under Hitler. Here the pro-Nazi writer Michael Fry encounters the "Daisies" of the legendary drag bar Eldorado
March 16, 2024 at 1:28 PM