Sam Jackson
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sjacks26.bsky.social
Sam Jackson
@sjacks26.bsky.social
14K followers 400 following 1.2K posts
Researching right-wing extremism in the U.S, conspiracy theories, extremist language, etc.
Professing in Albany, NY
Black Lives Matter
he/him

My Oath Keepers book: bit.ly/2DOUuh7
CV: https://tinyurl.com/meyy6xpd
Posts Replies Media Videos
sjacks26.bsky.social
My personality is roasting right-wing assholes via examples when I teach.
A screenshot of a powerpoint slide. The slide title is "Causal inference." The slide reads "Identifying causal relationships is incredibly difficult. Are we trying to identify general (“nomothetic”) causal relationships? How do human traffickers select their target victims? Are we instead trying to identify a specific (“idiographic”) causal relationship? How does Andrew Tate select his victims?"
November 6, 2025 at 7:32 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Hard to believe I first picked up Winnie a year ago. Look how much she’s changed!
Winnie looks up at the camera. She’s a ~12lb Shih Tzu, ~14 months old. Her coat is a sort of dusty, ashy, sandy white. Her snout is dark grey. Winnie looks uneasily at the camera. She’s maybe 3lbs, about 2 months old. Her coat is a dark sandy brown. Her face is mostly black, with a white center around her mouth. Her ears taper from the color of the rest of her coat to black at the tip.
November 1, 2025 at 6:43 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Winnie isn’t in costume, but she’s so fluffy it bursts out of her harness around her shoulders.
Winnie, a “red” shih tzu, is sprawled on a tile floor, looking away. Her back legs are stretched out, she’s lounging. She’s getting fluffy. Winnie in her purple shoulder harness, facing away as she sniffs something. Her floof is sticking out of the shoulder holes of her harness. She needs a haircut soon.
October 29, 2025 at 9:21 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
So many encouraging pictures of No Kings today. I didn’t take pics in Albany really, except: the frogs have arrived in upstate New York.
A picture from No Kings 2 in Albany, showing one participant walking down the street in an inflatable frog suit
October 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Far from the most important thing about this, but they clearly posted this document to the wrong url.
Screenshot of a White House webpage. “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” is the title, and it’s tagged as presidential memoranda” URL for the previous webpage, which says “enforcing the death penalty laws in the District of Columbia to deter and punish the most heinous crimes”
September 25, 2025 at 10:24 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Screenshot from the article linked in the quote-post. Chotiner says "Professor, thank you so much for doing this." Sunstein says "Great, thanks. If we go light on the Kissing part, I wouldn't complain, because it could dwarf everything else."
September 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/gate...

WE CAN'T KNOW IF IT'S TERRORISM IF WE DON'T KNOW MOTIVE. I swear people jumping to conclusions is going to be the death of me.
Screenshot from the linked article. “We look at this as an act of terror against the FBI,” Christopher Giordano, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Pittsburgh, told reporters. “This was a targeted attack on this building. Thankfully no one was hurt, but we are going to exhaust every ability we have under the federal law to find, apprehend and prosecute this subject to the fullest extent.” Giordano said he had no information on a motive. He said the FBI was familiar with the man, a former member of the military.
September 17, 2025 at 1:45 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
The world is a dumpster fire, but Winnie is happy about getting a haircut today.
Winnie, a white-ish shih tzu, is excited and mid-pant. Photo taken right after she got a haircut.
September 10, 2025 at 6:01 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
"While care robots are technologically sophisticated and those promoting them are (usually) well intentioned, they may act as a shiny, expensive distraction from tough choices about how we value people and allocate resources in our societies, encouraging policy makers to defer difficult decisions in the hope that future technologies will “save” society from the problems of an aging population."
September 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Winnie, a small white shih tzu, looks towards the camera. She’s outside, and her front paws are up on a lawn chair where I’m sitting.
September 2, 2025 at 1:18 AM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Me to some German grad students in July
Screenshot of slides where I ask if AGE is still helpful Screenshot of slides where I ask if AGE is still helpful
August 24, 2025 at 1:33 AM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Last week, Meta invited me to participate in a roundtable on their Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy.

I said no, because I'm done being reputational cover for a company that doesn't actually care about mitigating these harms.

(Alt text too long, so it's split across images.)
I must decline your invitation. Meta leadership has amply demonstrated that they do not care about dealing with dangerous organizations and individuals or related Trust and Safety concerns. There are certainly Meta employees who care about this and work on it thoughtfully, professionally, and responsibly. But Meta leadership consistently makes decisions that prioritize profit and growth over the wellbeing of Meta's users as well as non-users who are nonetheless affected by what happens on Meta. To take but one example: Meta has replaced fact checking with community notes for the United States. We live in a political context where disinformation is used to promote a wide range of harmful identities and behaviors that do not find support from actual evidence. To stop fact checking in this context is irresponsible and will see more harm in the world. (alt text continued in next image) Community notes are not a replacement for fact checking, as experts have pointed out time and again (https://theconversation.com/meta-shift-from-fact-checking-to-crowdsourcing-spotlights-competing-approaches-in-fight-against-misinformation-and-hate-speech-246854, https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-meta-abandons-fact-checking-boosts-viral-content, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00027-0, https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/metas-fact-checking-changes-raise-concerns-about-spread-of-science-misinformation/, https://indicator.media/p/a-first-look-at-meta-s-community-notes, https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/01/meta-fact-checking-program-ends-experts-discuss.html, https://www.techpolicy.press/meta-dropped-fact-checking-because-of-politics-but-could-its-alternative-produce-better-results/, https://www.techpolicy.press/meta-dropped-fact-checking-because-of-politics-but-could-its-alternative-produce-better-results/, https://theconversation.com/meta-is-abandoning-fact-checking-this-doesnt-bode-well-for-the-fight-against-misinformation-246878, https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/amid-war-vicious-attacks-and-political-turmoil-global-fact-checkers-fear-impact-end-metas, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/10/meta-facebook-to-drop-fact-checkers-what-does-this-mean-for-social-media). A recent Washington Post story illustrates just how ineffective this switch has been at mitigating misinformation (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/08/04/meta-fact-check-community-notes-test-facebook-instagram/). If Meta leadership changes tack and gives DOI (and broader T&S issues) real priority, I would be happy to work with your teams to think about how to design effective policy and interventions to mitigate these types of online harms. Absent that change, though, I will not participate in Meta activities that use scholarly researchers as reputational cover for their lack of prioritization of T&S. Sincerely, Sam
August 19, 2025 at 8:17 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
A screenshot from the article in the quoted skeet. A sentence is highlighted: “What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, reorient our economy and leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises?”
August 19, 2025 at 1:21 AM
sjacks26.bsky.social
BEHOLD THE POWER OF @xblock.aendra.dev’s CLASSIFIER
A screenshot of a skeet. There is a box that says “Possible Twitter screenshot,” and you have to click “show” on the right side of the box for the Twitter screenshot to be revealed.
August 18, 2025 at 11:14 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Why are technologists so naive about how their tools will be used?
"Gaggle's CEO, Jeff Patterson, said in an interview that the school system did not use Gaggle the way it is intended. The purpose is to find early warning signs and intervene before problems escalate to law enforcement, he said."
August 7, 2025 at 3:50 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Hell yeah

@emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social
A picture of Emily Bender and Alex Hanna's book, _The AI Con_
May 15, 2025 at 5:38 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Enjoying that the first verified badge I saw on this site is @bencollins.bsky.social
A screenshot showing a blue checkmark next to "Tim Onion" aka Ben Collins.
April 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Spent the past few days reading this great book from @maryannefranks.bsky.social
A picture of the cover of “The Cult of the Constitution” by Mary Anne Franks
April 9, 2025 at 5:46 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
That makes two things the items on this shelf have in common.
Some far right primary sources. The John Franklin Letters. Black Helicopters I and II. The original Red Dawn movie. Unintended Consequences by John Ross (TW on that whole book). Little Republics by Samuel Sherwood.
February 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Just starting @katherinestewart.bsky.social’s new book, and she’s already spitting fiery truths.
All will be well, the thinking goes, if the red people and the blue people would just sit down for some talk therapy and give a little to the other side. In earlier times this may have been sage advice. Today it is a delusion.
February 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Same
Winnie the shih tzu sleeps half on a red blanket and half on white carpet
February 16, 2025 at 9:01 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
I think someone had a good idea... @marklemley.bsky.social
A screenshot of three consecutive reposts of a Mark Lemley post about building a case against those who gave Musk access to data, presumably at Treasury. The middle repost is from me.
February 3, 2025 at 1:40 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
If anyone's curious, here's the slide for class I made with some example hallucinations.
Screenshot of a powerpoint slide about genAI hallucination. Screenshot examples are: "Lawyer cites fake cases generated by ChatGPT in legal brief"; Google promised a better search experience -- now it's telling us to put glue on our pizza"; "How many R's in 'Strawberry'? This AI doesn't know"; "Water will not freeze at 27 degrees Fahrenheit because its freezing point is 32 degrees Fahrenheit"; John Backflip performed the first backflip in 1316, leading his rival William Frontflip to accuse him of witchcraft; and "Doctors recommend smoking 2-3 cigarettes per day during pregnancy"
January 31, 2025 at 7:29 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
I dunno about y'all, but I need a timeline cleanse.
Winnie the Shih Tzu in a blue sweater. She looks uncertain as she stands on my lap. Her floof is so floofy that it looks funny where her arms leave the sweater.
January 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
sjacks26.bsky.social
Well, I probably should have done this sooner, but I'm no longer part of DHS's "Science Advice and Guidance for Emergencies" program. They can have my expertise when the person occupying the Oval Office doesn't pardon terrorists.
A screenshot of my email withdrawing from DHS's SAGE program. The body of the email reads: "I write to withdraw my participation in the Science Advice and Guidance for Emergencies program. I cannot in good conscience remain a participant in this program under the new administration, given President Trump’s pardons for the domestic terrorists (according to 18 USC 2331) who violently assaulted law enforcement and attacked our democracy on January 6, 2021."
January 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM