iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 9h

These aren’t the drones you’re looking for.

Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 21h

But this is everywhere. It's viral. Even when people are laughing at it. There is a Trump Derangement Syndrome, but it is about our attention. Not as individuals, but as a society. The fact that it's AI is a feature, not a bug.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 22h

"DuVernay then highlighted how alternative ways of financing independent and other films will become more important. 'Hollywood is over,' she argued. 'Did you guys hear?  It’s done. They’re buying each other, they’re collapsing. It’s all changed.  They’re selling studio lots.'"

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 22h

You don't have to be nice to AI. It is not human. This kind of parasocial relationship undermines our social thinking skills and awareness. It undermines our basic humanity. Everybody wants to be a master -- the one giving orders -- not a servant.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 22h

I'm bundling this with your just-preceding post about the AI "Bee" -- I think one of the things AI does is to promote a master-slave way of thinking. It appeals to professionals who don't want to see themselves as labor. (As a GEO member at UMass, I would see this in organizing grad students.)

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 23h

Had some over the weekend. Roasted them in a fire in the back yard. They were good!

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 23h

Is the publisher deciding not to sell to the UK market in response to this legislation a better move than testing it in court? Is that the chess move? #Intermezzo ♟️

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Reposted by Andrew Varnon

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Isn’t it time for every honest member of the political media to declare loudly and clearly that Trump and the Republicans are building a dictatorship?

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Can we think of any times in history when this actually happened? Like, when Napolean was exiled? Or the Glorious Revolution in Britain? The North's victory in the Civil War? The French Revolution? Does it require a war or a revolution to get this kind of fix?

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

This is spot on in terms of news coverage. I have family members that were members of GOP administrations, so I'm not as sure that the "glaring divide" is as black and white as this implies, but I think the gray areas don't undo the overall observation.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

"A scheming vizier." Awesome! Having done this work (albeit for a relatively short period of time -- I'm a firm believer that there's a lot of human drama in local democracy, and we're well served by people with good writing skills observing and documenting it.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Are the guys going around selling AI data centers now basically the same guys who used to sell Wal-Marts?

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Thank you for putting out the call. It is affirming to read so many of the responses.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Hmm. Can’t read due to paywall. I’m genuinely curious as to what “religious freedom” means here, and what its effects are.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I knew I was weird from an early age. Certainly in grade school. I work in public school now and it's very interesting to be in that space with an adult perspective.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Me, too. In fact, I wrote a pamplet about it called "A Nerd's Guide to Popular People." I wonder if it still exists somewhere...

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

She's quite meritorious, so long as you don't make the assumption that a press secretary is supposed to, you know, get information out to people.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Yeah, but how was he against lefty pitching?

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I make with things I find on the ground. One quick nip, then tossed into the grass. So sea-green and sturdy, it was made to be found. A clean surface for etching, the whirring diamond-dusted bit. We build a place for imagining. A thing to put there.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I turned some tennis players onto #InfiniteJest this summer. Younger guys. I chatted with one after social doubles last night. It was because I shared my essay. www.thesmartset.com/the-other-si...

thesmartset.com

The Other Side of the Net

“Hey,” I say, and pause for a moment, slinging my tennis bag over my shoulder and closing the car door. I start down the grassy slope toward the tennis cour

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

“Venus / The Grotto” — etched glass bottle.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Short-sightedness is, unfortunately, not just a Trump administration problem. But open hostility to science…

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Ballot measures are a type of democracy that is motivated by organized groups and deep pocketed groups. It’s a way of circumventing the legislative process — not always a bad thing. I’m not against signing petitions, but the guy collecting them is probably getting paid to do it.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“Poets are probably laughing.” 😂

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“Poets are probably laughing.” Yes.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In particular, I liked RK Reynolds' introduction of this poem when I heard it on The Slowdown this morning.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies," -- Langston Hughes, "Let America be America Again" www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907...

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A certain amount of machismo IS insecurity. Because it hinges on the notion of a "pecking order" in which one is supposed to feel anxious about one's place.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Elite here means "has a lot of access to capital."

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Basically, yes. Socialism is "the other."

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Lying in his own favor and shifting blame is his business model. The fact that it has worked for him both in business and politics also shows not just what's wrong with him, but what's wrong with us as a society.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ossoff is not just going up against one man here, he’s going up against a type. He’s got to convince comfortable, white, middle class voters that they no longer want to be identified with the Mike Collins’ of the world.

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Andrew Varnon @andrew-varnon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Oh hey, I drove by that sign, and you're right! Too busy.

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