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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · 9d

"When he was beneath our tree, we ambushed him, beating him mercilessly with our fists and rifle butts. In a frenzy, I stabbed him repeatedly with my bayonet.

'Allahu Akbar,' I muttered in pride as we walked away from his mangled body."
www.christianitytoday.com/2025/09/enem...

I Was the Enemy Jesus Told You to Love - Christianity Today

As an extremist Muslim, I beat a Christian boy and left him to die. His faithful prayers for me led to my salvation.

www.christianitytoday.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · 28d

As one who is guilty here, @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social
is right: "The fact is that almost nobody can control themselves around the glowing little demon. [...] The way that we manage temptation as a society is through manners, expectations, and peer pressure."
www.theargumentmag.com/p/youre-bein...

You're being rude. Put away your phone.

New manners for a post-smartphone society

www.theargumentmag.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Sep 6

they don't call it the everything app for nothing

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Sep 1

Nothing like logging in here and seeing a totally normal, sensible opinion not even being argued against but being jeered as though anyone with decent morals and intelligence could never agree with such a thing.

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Sep 1

Excellent essay by Brewer Eberly about how he (and others) are opting out of the medical-industrial complex to provide the care their patients need:
www.plough.com/en/topics/li...

The Return of the Family Doctor

The direct primary care model aims to put relationships over profit.

www.plough.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 26

I wrote for @christianitytoday.bsky.social about the good, the better, and the Instagrammable of short-term missions trips: www.christianitytoday.com/2025/08/hone...

Be Honest About Your Motives for Mission Trips - Christianity Today

Short-term missions are complicated and often done poorly. But with wisdom and transparency, a medical missionary explains, they can be hugely helpful.

www.christianitytoday.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 25

Good reporting from @mepaynl.bsky.social
on what it takes to bring a pedophile to justice in Uganda:

www.christianitytoday.com/2025/08/chil...

What It Takes to Prosecute a Child Rapist in Uganda - Christianity Today

Assertive parents and a Christian ministry take on the country’s hamstrung criminal justice system.

www.christianitytoday.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 21

Y'all know I try not to be promiscuous with "this is a pro-life issue" but this is absolutely a pro-life issue. Cutting Medicaid is going to hurt vulnerable, living children and encourage scared mothers to abort children they can't afford to care for.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...

www.nytimes.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 20

This is the best thing I think I've ever read about psychosomatic illnesses, and I'll be sharing it with my residents: "One way I explain functional neurological disorder to patients is that it’s a software problem that looks like a hardware problem."
www.theamericanconservative.com/what-long-co...

What ‘Long Covid’ Means

Long Covid is a real disease, but that doesn’t mean its sufferers are right about everything.

www.theamericanconservative.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 18

Gilbert Meilaender once said that he wants to be a burden on his loved ones. I wrote for @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social
about the joy of dependence, even when that dependence is due to mental illness:

thedispatch.com/article/depe...

Dependence Is Normal

Needing someone else, no matter the reason, is a reminder of our humanity.

thedispatch.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 15

What does the medical profession say to the false negatives, the kids who are screened but still come out with a defect?

"We would have killed you if we’d had the chance, but since you gave us the slip, here’s a onesie with the hospital logo."
www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...

Just societies do not kill suffering people

Matthew Loftus on arcs of life

www.thenewatlantis.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 15

The next step after this is simply killing the baby who never walks and the adult who will never be able to live independently. If a society is dedicating to preventing suffering, then often the last option is simply killing the sufferer.

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Reposted by Matthew Loftus 🧻

Alan Jacobs @ayjay.bsky.social · Aug 13

The big A.I. companies’ business model

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 14

perhaps this is a causative factor becoming HCHA, but too many young HCHA people just don't get sufficient exposure to human beings making stupid decisions despite being told not to

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 14

I suspect there's a normal distribution for both conscientiousness and agency. If you've got an ideology, there's an incredible amount of competition for people at the high end of the spectrum for both simultaneously. Lots of places to invest your idealism!

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 14

A lot of activism (and online discourse in general, really) is about 95th percentile high-conscientiousness/high-agency people assuming that (a) most of the population is as HCHA as they are & (b) all those HCHA people will act as they do given the right information.

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 2

"The distance between the winning Obama coalition and the campaign-by-meme Democrats we have now might well be the distance between Obama’s “I am my brother’s keeper” and Walz’s “mind your own damn business.”"

unherd.com/2025/07/will...

Will Democrats defend society?

unherd.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Aug 1

"It is a sin as grave as Babel to turn that creative mandate inward, retreating, slimebound and snaillike, into manmade caverns of virtual reality porn and metaverse narcissism."
thearkofhistory.substack.com/p/slop-will-...

Slop Will Eat Itself

Against the ugliness to come

thearkofhistory.substack.com

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Jul 31

"Should pastors use Artificial Intelligence to help write their sermons?"- sounds urbane, philosophical, important

"Should pastors let a word guesser machine teach their flock?"- far more accurate, makes you sound stupid for even asking the question

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Reposted by Matthew Loftus 🧻

Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · Jul 30

Someone on here compared AI produced material as "digital asbestos " which in a few decades' time we will have to work out how to eradicate from the fabric of research.

Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · Jul 30

From my own academic research, even pre LLMs there was a huge danger of zombie factoids that begin in a respectable publication by mistake and then get reprinted for decades because no one is backtracing to the original source. Once bad info gets into the system it can take years to clear it out.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Jul 29

I've seen numerous examples of this in recent days - we're at a point where some reporters are using LLMs as a source and not even remotely properly factchecking, but also where LLM generated material is making its way into other material and being unknowingly reproduced by others.

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Jul 29

Strange that one of the best things that a privileged upbringing can buy you is... self-control. "Across the developed West, obesity has become strongly correlated with poverty. I fear that so, too, will be the tide of post-literacy."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

Opinion | Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Matthew Loftus 🧻

Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · Jul 28

Stephen Sondheim introduced his childhood pal Tom Lehrer in 1998 for an exceedingly rare stage performance, part of a tribute to Cameron Mackintosh.

(This will always be my favorite Lehrer song. Interestingly, he here changes one word: "squirrel" becomes "sparrow.")
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-e...

Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park (live, 1998).

YouTube video by Arnesen

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Matthew Loftus 🧻

Ken Opalo @kopalo.bsky.social · Jul 24

Some thoughts on the sorts of policies that produced this map: kenopalo.substack.com/p/a-historic...

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Matthew Loftus 🧻 @matthewloftus.bsky.social · Jul 24

Taking artificial dyes out of Froot Loops and using cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup in Coca-Cola is the land acknowledgements of public health & nutrition.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Jul 22

Coca-Cola said it will add a cane-sugar version of its trademark cola to its U.S. lineup this fall, confirming a recent announcement by President Donald Trump.

Coca-Cola reports weakening global sales volumes in second quarter

Coca-Cola reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter as higher prices overcame weaker sales volumes.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Matthew Loftus 🧻

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jul 23

more evidence for “a bunch of AI cultists dismantled large parts of the federal government because they believed that their LLMs were intelligent and could do the work better” thesis

FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · Jul 23

Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'

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