Maria Sidorkina
@msidorkina.bsky.social
still searching for a schtick / teaching language and politics at UT Austin / writing a book about Russian activists “going to the people” / staring uncomfortably at trees
As the world crumbles all I need is a bot to tell me whether cottage cheese is in stock. Otherwise no real need to go to extreme lengths and leave the house.
September 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM
As the world crumbles all I need is a bot to tell me whether cottage cheese is in stock. Otherwise no real need to go to extreme lengths and leave the house.
Student responses in my socialism class today: the socialists focus on workers as a class because they’re the majority of consumers. If they don’t buy things the capitalists won’t make a profit. What do I say?
September 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Student responses in my socialism class today: the socialists focus on workers as a class because they’re the majority of consumers. If they don’t buy things the capitalists won’t make a profit. What do I say?
If you're wondering how middle-class anti-radicalism can lead to authoritarianism, consider the case of the Russian opposition in the 2010s. Also-what Russian versions of slurs like 'vermin,' 'deplorables,' and 'liberal snowflakes' had to do with it. My latest paper: doi.org/10.1111/jola...
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology | AAA Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper is about “social slurs,” or dysphemisms for collectivities and their members. Social slurs thrived in Russian politicized milieus of the 2010s, during the “two Russias culture war.” Exampl...
doi.org
May 25, 2025 at 1:17 AM
If you're wondering how middle-class anti-radicalism can lead to authoritarianism, consider the case of the Russian opposition in the 2010s. Also-what Russian versions of slurs like 'vermin,' 'deplorables,' and 'liberal snowflakes' had to do with it. My latest paper: doi.org/10.1111/jola...
Reposted by Maria Sidorkina
Here @parkermolloy.com describes a dynamic that is obvious to everyone who has paid attention but you will *never* see acknowledged in the MSM: for decades the right has rolled out one fake bullshit controversy after another, always with the goal of exaggerating the extremity of Democrats.
The Right's Outrage Machine Takes No Beach Days
Republicans want us to believe James Comey is plotting assassination via Instagram shells.
www.readtpa.com
May 19, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Here @parkermolloy.com describes a dynamic that is obvious to everyone who has paid attention but you will *never* see acknowledged in the MSM: for decades the right has rolled out one fake bullshit controversy after another, always with the goal of exaggerating the extremity of Democrats.
Reposted by Maria Sidorkina
Here's why "alignment research" when it comes to LLMs is a big mess, as I see it.
Claude is not a real guy. Claude is a character in the stories that an LLM has been programmed to write. Just to give it a distinct name, let's call the LLM "the Shoggoth".
Claude is not a real guy. Claude is a character in the stories that an LLM has been programmed to write. Just to give it a distinct name, let's call the LLM "the Shoggoth".
December 19, 2024 at 11:15 PM
Here's why "alignment research" when it comes to LLMs is a big mess, as I see it.
Claude is not a real guy. Claude is a character in the stories that an LLM has been programmed to write. Just to give it a distinct name, let's call the LLM "the Shoggoth".
Claude is not a real guy. Claude is a character in the stories that an LLM has been programmed to write. Just to give it a distinct name, let's call the LLM "the Shoggoth".
Oh no, there goes my potential strategy for getting my recently cut migraine med limits back up…
December 13, 2024 at 3:12 AM
Oh no, there goes my potential strategy for getting my recently cut migraine med limits back up…
Reposted by Maria Sidorkina
Democrats spent 5 billion dollars losing to Trump. ~10 percent of that could fund a major media presence nationally, and locally in every swing state prospect.org/politics/202...
Time for Democrats to Abandon the Mainstream Media
The ‘liberal media’ was in the tank for Trump. Democrats should take their subscription dollars elsewhere.
prospect.org
November 7, 2024 at 2:32 PM
Democrats spent 5 billion dollars losing to Trump. ~10 percent of that could fund a major media presence nationally, and locally in every swing state prospect.org/politics/202...
It’s become noticeable, on an everyday level, that we’re living in the age of the great unraveling of (20th c) systems. Everything is broken (geopolitics, healthcare, supply chains, housing, search, links, education). Every thing is an island.
October 9, 2024 at 10:25 PM
It’s become noticeable, on an everyday level, that we’re living in the age of the great unraveling of (20th c) systems. Everything is broken (geopolitics, healthcare, supply chains, housing, search, links, education). Every thing is an island.
Operation Pushkin is begging for Elif Batuman’s novelization but I hope there will be several contenders
May 1, 2024 at 1:51 PM
Operation Pushkin is begging for Elif Batuman’s novelization but I hope there will be several contenders
All the embarrassing emails about the protests are suddenly coming from “Internal Communications” - which one cannot lose confidence in, presumably. The campus Kafkaesque.
May 1, 2024 at 2:27 AM
All the embarrassing emails about the protests are suddenly coming from “Internal Communications” - which one cannot lose confidence in, presumably. The campus Kafkaesque.
Congrats to university presidents for demonstrating that the way they manage protests categorizes us as a “hybrid authoritarian” regime type
April 25, 2024 at 2:29 PM
Congrats to university presidents for demonstrating that the way they manage protests categorizes us as a “hybrid authoritarian” regime type
Reposted by Maria Sidorkina
every time I hear T*****r S***T I'm always just like "well that sure is music." like what if music was neither good nor bad, but somehow that exact average where it's just the most neutral music ever made
April 19, 2024 at 4:31 PM
every time I hear T*****r S***T I'm always just like "well that sure is music." like what if music was neither good nor bad, but somehow that exact average where it's just the most neutral music ever made
The Huberman piece was funny because it revealed that his intellectual promiscuity is isomorphic with his sexual promiscuity (no accountability and at times offensive). But that’s kind of his brand, at least on the podcast.
Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control
The private and public seductions of the world’s biggest pop neuroscientist.
nymag.com
March 27, 2024 at 12:32 AM
The Huberman piece was funny because it revealed that his intellectual promiscuity is isomorphic with his sexual promiscuity (no accountability and at times offensive). But that’s kind of his brand, at least on the podcast.
The hope I see for Russian anti-regime activists is that Navalny’s death and the threat looming over all the other political prisoners will add a heavy dose of personal spite to their motivations- not unlike that driving Lenin and his circle.
February 16, 2024 at 6:09 PM
The hope I see for Russian anti-regime activists is that Navalny’s death and the threat looming over all the other political prisoners will add a heavy dose of personal spite to their motivations- not unlike that driving Lenin and his circle.
Reposted by Maria Sidorkina
An urgent to try to prevent the House from massive budget cuts to funding for area studies training, including language, history, and culture. Takes one minute to send a message by clicking p2a.co/npSWXFZ
Take Action for International Education!
I just took action to increase funding for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays! Join me and take action here.
p2a.co
November 13, 2023 at 8:22 PM
An urgent to try to prevent the House from massive budget cuts to funding for area studies training, including language, history, and culture. Takes one minute to send a message by clicking p2a.co/npSWXFZ
more importantly… they’re hiring! really hoping to hobnob with these new academics in Austin
They have 25 staff, 28 advisors, eight trustees, and a total of ... eight faculty, how is this even supposed to work?
Yikes
November 8, 2023 at 4:39 PM
more importantly… they’re hiring! really hoping to hobnob with these new academics in Austin
Personally benefiting from daylight savings time while everyone around me melts down… but also feeling bad for you all. What is the German word for that.
November 7, 2023 at 2:57 AM
Personally benefiting from daylight savings time while everyone around me melts down… but also feeling bad for you all. What is the German word for that.
everything these days is “predictable but still outrageous”
October 14, 2023 at 5:08 PM
everything these days is “predictable but still outrageous”
Just got a political “poll” by text that asked how I felt about Hamas, whether I knew that the Biden administration had recently unfrozen $6 billion in frozen funds for Iran, and whether Israel would have been attacked had Trump been president, among other insane things…
October 11, 2023 at 1:55 AM
Just got a political “poll” by text that asked how I felt about Hamas, whether I knew that the Biden administration had recently unfrozen $6 billion in frozen funds for Iran, and whether Israel would have been attacked had Trump been president, among other insane things…
Ugh, took a year off from teaching and forgot all my good jokes that I used the last few years. Do people actually write these down?
October 6, 2023 at 3:30 AM
Ugh, took a year off from teaching and forgot all my good jokes that I used the last few years. Do people actually write these down?
I wonder where the public tick to always qualify “reader” and “birdwatcher” with “avid” came from
August 31, 2023 at 2:21 PM
I wonder where the public tick to always qualify “reader” and “birdwatcher” with “avid” came from
I’m actually very jealous of Merve, in that she married wisely. Getting to work 9-12 hours a day with two kids- what a win. I know other academic power women who killed it in their marriage plot story lines. Modern-day Dorotheas.
August 25, 2023 at 5:13 PM
I’m actually very jealous of Merve, in that she married wisely. Getting to work 9-12 hours a day with two kids- what a win. I know other academic power women who killed it in their marriage plot story lines. Modern-day Dorotheas.