iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hard to believe that surgery is tomorrow!! I am ready though 😊

Alyson in a green dress with her hair down standing in front of two hotel room beds

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The point Allison Keats made in @powermapmag.com with fuller context:

Text from the article reading: "This reminds me of a critical mistake made in previous generations of socialists; the idea that before any political action happens, before it’s worth contesting power, the people need to be educated. Even now, I encounter people who claim it was a disqualifying error that Bernie Sanders spoke in terms of a 99% and 1% instead of workers and capitalists. DSA has built a socialist movement because we have never excluded people who wanted to build with us for having the wrong reasoning. In doing so, we’ve also recognized that political education is something that is best built in the practice of organizing; someone can come to an issue with the wrong framing and become aligned from our framing of the solutions. People come to DSA concerned about their cost of living, become exposed to the interconnectedness of all the issues we care about, and become socialists in the process."

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026

Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.

Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…

People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 26/09/2026

Crushed my all-time best in today's 5k (set earlier this week!) by 48 seconds! 😤 This is my last run of the season so sub-35 will have to wait for next year but I am in the best shape of my life nonetheless 💪

Best Efforts for Alyson's 5K today

400m - 2:27 6:08/km

1/2 mile - 5:06 6:20/km

1K - 6:22 6:22/km

1 mile - 10:21 6:26/km New best of all-time! 25s improvement

2 mile - 22:03 6:51/km New best of all-time! 1m Improvement

5K - 35:47 7:09/km New best of all-time! 48s improvement

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Emily @emmy.baby · 26/09/2026

5k race time!

Emily and Alyson in the starting corral for the 5k they're doing today

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 19/09/2026

7 years of HRT today!! Estrogen has transformed my life in ways I never expected back when I started, and it's also given me a body that I actually feel comfortable in. Transition is one of the most incredible experiences a person can go through. And it's also 10 days to bottom surgery 😊

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Amelia Sandrine Reisinger 🏳️‍⚧️ @ameliasandrine.com · 17/09/2026

Gonna start referring to Democrats who take anti-trans stances as “Biological Republicans”

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 17/09/2026

What do you think the point of rules is if not to shape the behaviour of the people using the platform? When we see an undesirable behaviour repeated enough on my discord server we make a rule against the behaviour so that we can action violators accordingly.

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 14/09/2026

My sweet little Tomtom crossed the rainbow bridge tonight. He passed away in my wife's arms as we were whisking him to the animal hospital not long after this extremely bright rainbow appeared behind our house. Rest in peace my precious boy - you were such a loving and sweet cat 😭💔

A bright rainbow streaks across the sky above trees and houses

Tommen the white cat sits atop his throne with his arms hanging over the side

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 10/09/2026

The thing liberals fundamentally don't understand is that trans people are losing rights they already had. We're not asking for more, we're asking not to lose what we already had for decades. Most sports leagues and the Olympics had inclusion criteria for decades without issue.

Screenshot of an X (formerly Twitter) exchange discussing political pragmatism and the Overton window.
The initial post by onion person (@CantEverDie) reads:
> "doesn't matter, this is about what the right is able to push with the overton window. first its democrats needing to disavow trans women in sports to get elected, next it'll be agreeing to ban access to HRT to get elected. we've seen how this plays out"
>
A reply from Nick Pappas (@NickAPappas) reads:
> "Are you insane? The Overton window didn’t even include this discussion until recently. The public has never been in favor of desegregating the sports by sex.
> Personally I’m glad Barack Obama ran against gay marriage in 2008. Not because that was the right position, or one he even actually held, but because he knew the public wasn’t with him on it. If he hadn’t won he wouldn’t have been able to appoint 2 of the justices who ultimately voted in the majority for Obergefell.
> Lincoln in 1860 didn’t even run on abolishing slavery! He just wanted to stop its expansion. And thankfully he did that and won because a more extreme and morally correct position would have lost. As a result he was able to win the Civil War and push through the 13 amendment.
> Political practicality is the entire history of progress in America. There’s no other way."
>

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Uncut Femmes @juliagiantrat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

the psycho terf groups are starting to have their eyes drift towards diy hrt resources again - so it's a good time to remember that under no circumstances in no world whatsoever for the rest of time should you talk to journalists, especially regarding anything related to diy hormones.

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Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Anyone at the mass lobby today. You can tell them about my kid. Supported at school for years. Now out of school - driven out by hateful segregationist school policy introduced by Labour. Trans kids are being persecuted by this government

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 08/09/2026

I have had so many recruiters reach out recently - is the tech hiring downturn over or is my experience level just entering another boom period?

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Julia Serano @juliaserano.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

IMHO if you helped to invent a now very popular stereotype that a minority group (in this case, trans people) are sexual predators "with the mentality of a rapist", then that should most certainly be in the first paragraph of your obituary, no matter what other good or decent deeds you may have done

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 05/09/2026

Doubly nice to be able to cool off in the lake afterwards 😊

Alyson, sweaty after her run, in a floral bathing suit sitting on a grey Adirondack chair with a rainbow towel in her lap

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 05/09/2026

So nice to see the gains from a summer of training in this comparison between my first 5K time ever and running the exact same route three and a half months later. Strava only captured 4.99km back on May 17 so it's not showing the time here but it was 44:41 for that

Best Efforts from May 17 on this particular route

400m - 2:52, 7:10/km
1/2 mile - 6:14, 7:45/km
1K - 7:45
1 mile - 12:56, 8:02/km
2 mile - 26:58, 8:23/km
5K - 44:41, 8:56/km

Best Efforts from Today (September 5) on this particular route

400m - 2:39, 6:38/km
1/2 mile - 5:33, 6:54/km
1K - 6:55
1 mile - 11:28, 7:08/km
2 mile - 24:26, 7:35/km
5K - 39:01, 7:48/km

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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Transphobia will be Republicans' central message in mid-term elections. Anti-trans measures are on the ballots in several states, for example, to distract voters from MAGA's policy failures and rampant corruption. 🧵

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Emily @emmy.baby · 01/09/2026

Kind of gross how many people I've seen on bluesky celebrating the murder of a middle manager because she had a fancy sounding title & worked at a bank. Like at some point it's just self-justifiable bloodthirstyness, there's no justice in it.

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 01/09/2026

Happy first day of meteorological autumn everyone! 🍂

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 31/08/2026

Normalise saying 'fascist propaganda' instead of 'culture wars'

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Sandy Ernest Allen @sandyernestallen.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

If you like my work btw, the best way to follow me isn't here anyway, it's my newsletter (which is free): whats-helping-today.beehiiv.com

whats-helping-today.beehiiv.com

What's Helping Today

A newsletter about the daily work of staying alive on earth, by author Sandy Ernest Allen.

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Sandy Ernest Allen @sandyernestallen.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

i will say, I get attacked pretty regularly by TERFs nowadays on bsky, which wasn't previously the case so it makes sense to me that this kinda shit is happening. hey @safety.bsky.app do you give a fuck or nah?

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 27/08/2026

Patiently waiting for Trib Fest to come to town

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 27/08/2026

Downgrade a movie: Mayor of a Ring: A Tower

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 27/08/2026

My youngest as we're talking about Rib Fest setting up: "Do babies come from Crib Fest?"

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

We have written a statement in support of Ghent Uni's decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. We resist attempts to frame this as a punishment for "whistleblowing" or censorship of "controversial research". We invite all academics who share our views to sign our letter. forms.gle/qwN8xzEM5C7Q...

forms.gle

Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University

We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. With th...

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Sandy Ernest Allen @sandyernestallen.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Just to adjust what I'd said here, I'm *most* interested in titles from the past few years I might have missed. Authors, publicists, feel free to contact me directly: www.sandyernestallen.com/contact

sandyernestallen.com

Contact — Sandy Ernest Allen

Contact author and journalist Sandy Ernest Allen for consulting, speaking, etc.

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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 24/08/2026

Race "science" would be over if an evidence based debate over it followed by the race scientist continuing to ply it resulted in the race scientist being forced to take up another job and being stripped of all academic credentials.

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Trans News Network @transnews.network · 24/08/2026

"I already boycott The New York Times/don't have a subscription, what can I do?" A lot! You can: * Share our call for boycott. Tell others about the NYT's role in trans genocide * Stop sharing NYT links, even to dunk on them * Pressure the pension/retirement funds invested in the NYT to divest

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 24/08/2026

Make a band bigger: Streetlight Dissertation

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

how many times must academics demonstrate why Cofnas and his fellow IQ-truthers are wrong? They've been doing so for decades. At some point, you have to admit that Cofnas and his ilk (and you) are not looking for "academic debate" but to give academic credence to rank prejudice.

Sam Freedman
@samfr.bsky.social
· 10h
Why not answer his Q? I'm also curious. How do you want us to engage academically with this claim? Or Cofnas's claim that black people hold too many positions of influence in the US?

Patrick Sturgis
@patricksturg.bsky.social
· 7h
How about refuting them on theoretical and empirical grounds? That is kind of how science works. It doesn’t work by calling people names, refusing to engage with their claims and attempting to get them fired.

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Thanks to Katie Carr on Threads, I just learned: in 1996, the cast of the newly-launched “Star Trek: Voyager” got together to do a feature for Parade magazine about the power of late-’90s technology. Behold its fabulously unhinged glory. 1/

The cast of "Star Trek: Voyager" posing dramatically/seductively/[something]-ly in black clothing against a white background with a variety of late 90s gadgets, for a feature on tech in Parade Magazine in 1996.

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 23/08/2026

If we've learned anything from the Harper's letter this is a list of people publicly signaling that their opinions and their judgement should not be trusted.

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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 23/08/2026

Will anyone acknowledge how revealing it is about the underpinnings of "gender critical" ideology that they're all coming out to bat for the self-described "race realist"?

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 21/08/2026

Probably shouldn't surprise anyone that the dude who's made it his life's mission to legitimize academic transphobia is also sympathetic to the guy peddling academic racism.

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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 21/08/2026

"it doesn't matter what you think of Cofnas or his work" here is misdirection intending to make you think this is a question of your opinion on Cofnas or his work, rather than the facts of Cofnas, his work, and his explicit intentions to use his attacks on Arday to create a white supremacist academy

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Alyson 🏳️‍⚧️🇨🇦 @alyson.northsky.social · 21/08/2026

People should start taking these screenshots and forwarding them to people and organizations whose presence on Musk's platform serves to legitimize its use.

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 20/08/2026

if a white supremacist says anything you should assume every single word is a lie unless completely independently verified by an entirely unrelated source. if they say it is thursday you should ask an expert on days of the week. this should be the bare minimum standard in this media landscape

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

A professor writes: (Jason Stanley) The problem is that journalists failed to do basic journalism. Not a single reporter seems to have checked’ Jason Arday’s citations. The ‘quantifiable metrics’ of his work. Prof Stanley did: ‘Arday is easily comparable to the leading scholars in the field’

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Actually, one more - I feel like I should say this directly, so here goes. In the 90s and 00s, the groups I remember pursuing this strategy (hyperpublicize mugshots, Black crime statistics, etc) were Stormfront, the Klan, etc. Now it's the New York Times and the Telegraph. That is the story here.

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jessdee.bsky.social @jessdee.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Ken Zucker wrote the following; there's a "race realist" quoted in the bell curve that spent his free time studying "phallic difference" between the races. These aren't serious people and we should *say and do something about that*. Northwestern as an institution needs to suffer for the above.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder - PubMed

University students blind to group status rated boys with gender identity disorder and clinical control boys regarding their physical attractiveness. Ratings were made of the face and upper torso from photographs taken at the time of clinical assessment (mean age, 8.1 years). On all five adjectives …

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

At an invitation-only gathering in Italy, white supremacists mapped out strategies to target rural America while local press coverage vanishes www.confrontthehate.com/p/white-nati...

As economic pressures gut local newsrooms across the country, white nationalist figures see an untapped opening: stepping into media deserts where there are few journalists left to sound the alarm.

“Local media has been dying all over America, which means that there’s essentially no real way to hold local governments accountable—and they can do whatever they want,” Kevin DeAnna told an invitation-only gathering of approximately 50 white nationalists in Rome.

Breaking into a broad smile, he excitedly added: “You should be fantasizing about this. This is a good thing.”

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