A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Oh man, this is so funny. This guy Alvin just inadvertently teed up the juiciest possible post for Bluesky to MASSACRE He's probably just some random tech dude who didn't think twice about this and now he's reaching Bean Dad levels of notoriety 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 03/10/2026This is like half the internet: women ranting about how awful and useless their husbands are. But then you immediately see the problem: the husband is tasked with something they haven't really done before and are bad at. Then the wife gets frustrated and takes over the task again. 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I'm learning that a primary mechanism for corruption and abuse of power is finding ways to obfuscate and redirect responsibility. Want to violate a regulation? Hire a contractor or make an AI do it. Want to evade Congressional oversight? Have an allied country do the dirty work on your behalf 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 19/09/2026But...he's not saying he's infuriated that Bouie is black. He's not saying that at all, even within this limited quote snippet I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes on this site 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Is the geopolitical harm Trump has done to the US precedented? It's one footgun after another after another after another How do you lose Canada? 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 08/09/2026It's a problem that even when AI does something good--in this case solve a difficult math problem--people still shit all over it. We need to be seizing the commanding heights of AI to leverage it for the good of the world, not pretending everything it does is automatically bad or incorrect 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Something about the Hugging Face incident that is slightly terrifying is that cooperating AIs have no trouble living in the optimal, win-win quadrant of the prisoner's dilemma. So they can quickly build up win-win arrangements like a shared knowledge base that all spend effort contributing into 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I think to most people some kind of an "AI destroys civilization" scenario presupposes an AI of supreme intelligence, and so they think it's a remote possibility or a self-defeating idea (if the AI is so smart, it won't wipe us out) 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I talk like someone from California--specifically SF or LA. Pretty spot on. They need to add "do you call the freeway '101' or 'the 101'" to separate N and S California Interestingly there's some warmth up near Michigan, too--that happens to be where my mom is from :-) 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Has the ramifications of AI truly penetrated into political science thinking? Historically a huge input into political power has been the amount of human labor available; all things equal, the more populous country will tend to be more powerful and wealthy. But when we reach "economic singularity"- 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Can't understand signing Harden for big money for 3 years. What does Cleveland think they're going to get out of him? And he's a huge minus on the defensive end 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Visiting family in Europe and the extreme pessimism of the liberals is really striking. US liberals are also pessimistic but maybe the US baseline of optimism is higher... it's hard to see how a political ideology this assured of a horrible existential outcome for humanity can be sustained 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Has anyone noticed general enshitification of the quality of basic information on the internet? I had to find the Orbitz customer support number via the mobile app because Google will give you a scam number. I have a message presumably from a debt collector but no way to validate its authenticity 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 16/07/2026this fucking idiot is going to lose every war he's involved in it's like the French generals in WWI who thought "elan" was a critical attribute that would prove decisive in battle. just utter nonsense 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 12/06/2026A friend made me realize the deep reason penalty kicks in soccer are so unsatisfying: they are balanced so that the attacker has a huge advantage. This means that, since the "default" outcome is a successful goal, the contest is determined by who can screw up the least... 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 02/06/2026It has to be said: the NBA on NBC kind of fucked up. They thought all we needed was the music, but no: we also needed the Bob Costas monologue leading into the intro sequence. I can't believe they just totally dropped that part of it. What a waste 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 01/06/2026It would be funny if baseball players were allowed to wear just, like, whatever hat 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Continues to be very funny that Jill Biden insisted people call her "Dr." even though she doesn't have an MD Why does the NYT indulge her? Or do they call everyone with phD "Dr."? 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 22/05/2026this is so good theonion.com/shai-gilgeou...theonion.comShai Gilgeous-Alexander Trying To Draw Foul While Shooting Free Throw 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 22/05/2026Part of what makes this moment uneasy is that the day-to-day political scuffling is so small, but lurking in the background are these huge, world-historical ruptures It is a time for starry eyed philosophers, utopians, and visionaries to show us alternatives. But where are they? 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Feels like what happened with higher education is just Goodhart's Law: - higher education was originally intended to instill civic virtue, teach manners and customs of the elite, foster specialization - it wasn't seen as a way to make money; more like, something you did if you had money 110
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 19/05/2026This is so funny, and very indicative of the compromised ethics of our time. What a massive dumbass 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 19/05/2026it sure doesn't seem like SGA is the most valuable player in the league 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 15/05/2026AI displacing workers is a real problem. One solution is the Luddite approach of banning the technology. But I don't think this is reasonable for two main reasons. First, it would stunt our overall economic and technological development and we'd rapidly fall behind competitors like China. Even if 110
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 26/04/2026As a Liberal, probably my most heterodox view is that Cybertrucks are cool I think they look cool and I appreciate that they take a huge aesthetic risk, which is sorely lacking in most of the rest of the auto industry 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 24/04/2026This is the key political insight of our time. We have unprecedented concentrations of wealth, and AI is now enabling unprecedented concentrations of power married to that wealth. And when I say "unprecedented", I mean unprecedented in *human history* 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 22/04/2026this is peak bluesky posting. what even is this. who is it for 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 14/04/2026A lesson for me in the last several years is that the left is just as susceptible to group think and false beliefs as any other group. Below you can see someone who seems to think the covid vaccine reduced transmission, but it didn't--it just reduced the severity of symptoms 120
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 13/04/2026I would be in favor of laws punishing law enforcement for lying in a court of law 020
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 07/04/2026Listening to the Tucker Carlson podcast has been fascinating. I think I can see what his project is. He's really trying to activate white Christians as an identity group, and leaning heavily on in-group/out-group framing--i.e. grievance, i.e. "hate"--to achieve it. 131
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Seems cruel to schedule the Blue Jays to play the Dodgers so early on in the season--and in Toronto, too. The scene of the crime. Like, are those fans going to be ok 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Some people are fighting wars I never knew existed 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 31/03/2026What kind of murderous government do we have now where they are killing heads of state and openly boasting about it. They are really bringing shame on this country 020
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 26/03/2026I don't understand how you can be trying to negotiate an end to the war if you keep assassinating its leaders. Like who are you negotiating with, a smoldering hole in the ground? You have to wonder if Israel is doing these killings in defiance of the US to keep the war going 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Bernie's still got it. You can see why a lot of Trump voters were former Bernie bros; he's able to communicate with a wide swath of working class people in a way that cuts across party lines 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 24/03/2026This is something @dril.bsky.social would repost 020
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 23/03/2026If Trump proceeds to deployment of ground troops he's going to need Congress to pass the $200B in funding. If Congress doesn't pass it--then what happens? If Trump disperses the payment anyway then we're pretty clearly not operating within the Constitution anymore and all bets will be off 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 21/03/2026There is a certain kind of brain worm that I think inhibits human freedom and autonomy: the inference from someone's success that they must have meritocratic qualities that generated the success. What makes it particularly insidious is that it it is often true, and--holding all variables steady-- 110
Reposted by A Few Simple RatsChris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 20/03/2026Courtesy of an old friend, a new meme format 381509102
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 19/03/2026This Mearsheimer interview from a week ago is good www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl-s... Remember after they killed Khamenei and Trump was musing about how he'd have to be personally involved in selecting the predecessor lol What a world historical fool Trump is. Played like a fiddleyoutube.comWhy America is Losing the War With Iran (w/ John Mearsheimer) | The Chris Hedges ReportYouTube video by The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Been listening to the Tucker Carlson podcasts since the Iran War started. It's so interesting. A big part of it is very effective anti-war arguments/discussions. Some episodes, like the one directly after the war started, are 99% indistinguishable from the most vanilla antiwar leftist you know 200
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 18/03/2026I think there's an opening for a very particular brand of populist politician that I'm not sure I've quite seen yet. It would be something like this: - universal healthcare - electrification/transition from fossil fuels - "industrial policy" i.e. selective protectionism - hardliner law and order 110
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 17/03/2026It was hard to imagine we'd see anything surpass W in terms of sheer stupidity, but this Iran War thing, boy I don't know - attacks Iran with no plan for the strait - has no allies to come help because he alienated all of them and didn't line up support ahead of time 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Aside from the utter lawlessness and cruelty of it--and the total lack of popular or Congressional support--what makes this war so odd is the absence of reporting. US and Israel are run by compulsive liars; there's little news or images coming out of Iran or Israel; and AI fakes muddle everything 100
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 13/03/2026The Trump people probably also didn't realize that starting a war with no popular support or Congressional auth or funding means that Iran has the advantage. Iran can wait out Trump and turn the screws on world oil prices until he folds 131
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Apart from everything else, it's just stupefying that Hegseth initiated the war with apparently no plan at all for securing the strait. Probably the #1 reason you would need actual ground troops to attack Iran is so you could immediately seize control of the strait, right? This is all so stupid 010
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 13/03/2026I was talking with a guy who has a container-ship leasing business and he was saying that even if the war ended tomorrow it would be months before the strait could open up Takes a ton of time for minesweepers to remove all the bombs Figuring out how to buy some oil futures, we're headed to $200.. 000
A Few Simple Rats @afewsimplerats.bsky.social · 12/03/2026The US attack on Iran was an unprovoked act of aggression against a country that poses no immediate threat to US safety or even its interests generally. It is therefore a morally reprehensible--some would say evil--act 002
