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John Emerson

@backspace.com
276 followers 828 following 61 posts

Design, code, human rights.

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Reposted by John Emerson
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 6h
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It was the Cornell student paper, with an editorial board that appears to be all women, that first named the rapists and REFUSED to let the story die.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
There’s something to be said for how most of the political spectrum can unite around hounding some lesbians over niche drama in their spaces but huge segments of society are silent about pervasive campus rape impacting a huge population of primarily youngwomen
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Danielle Kurtzleben @titonka.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The masculinity politics beat continues to be very necessary. goodauthority.substack.com/p/republican...
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Listen, I just think it's weird that the same people who are saying they're worried that AI is going to wipe out humanity are also eager for military contracts that will give AI control of weapons.
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James Ryan @jdryan08.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
NYC spends approximately $200,000 a year for every inmate in the corrections system. It spends about $27,000 a year for every student enrolled in CUNY.
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A rich person can never be held accountable. Therefore, a rich person must never make a societal decision
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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare. In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”
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SI: Museum of African American History (Bot) @simuseumafro.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Poster from Women's March on Washington reading "Juntos se puede" nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2017.85…
Poster from Women's March on Washington reading "Juntos se puede"
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 21/09/2026
This will make it nearly impossible to file habeas petitions, because attorneys won’t even know what federal district their client has been moved to to stage for their removal. Something like a third of all people in ICE custody. apnews.com/article/ice-...
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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John Emerson @backspace.com · 21/09/2026
I almost forgot!
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 21/09/2026
To be more precise, America's fatal flaw is conflating rugged individualism with cruel selfishness
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Change in Abstract
Before: A small number of people are shaping what chatbots value. Those choices are already influencing how many people think.
After: A small number of people are shaping what chatbots value. Those choices are already influencing how people think.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Meanwhile, we’re still murdering people in the Caribbean. www.reuters.com/world/us-say...
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I really believe that any history of journalism that doesn’t consider that so many mainstream and now “legacy” organizations worked to undermine or moderate the already vibrant discourse of black media on issues like freedom and democracy is obscuring a huge part of the national story
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Danny Page @danny.page · 17/09/2026
God bless @atherton.bsky.social for this succinct wisdom
Kelsey D. Atherton - tweet from 2019

Oh, you're experiencing a structural problem? Have you ever considered trying different personal choices instead?
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Sickness of Reason (2003). Robert Longo's charcoal drawings of nuclear explosions Untitled (Hercules)
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Laura Haynes👩‍🔬⚾️🐾💙 @drlaurahaynes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Good morning 🌞 Is anyone interested?
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Eamon Javers @eamonjavers.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is a subhed for the ages in the WSJ this morning: “Talk of heading off artificial intelligence’s potential role in destroying humanity hurt some stocks and helped others”
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fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NEVER say "Alexa Stop" if your pet parrot can hear you. Trust me.
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
i think this is the best epitaph for bin laden i have ever seen
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Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Change in Headline
Before: The A.I. Threat Is Real. We Need to Act Now.
After: This Is Really Bad
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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Happy 72nd Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.
Ruby Bridges, age 6Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her schoolNorman Rockwell’s painting depicting the event, “The Problem We All Live With,” originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine. Ruby Bridges talking with President Obama as they look at Rockwell’s painting while it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
When the lifeguards blow their evening whistle on the final day of the season down the shore everyone on the beach claps for them and it is just so heartwarming and wholesome.
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Reveal @revealnews.org · 06/09/2026
Do you remember the “dust lady”? After the 9/11 attacks, her photo was circulated everywhere: a young Black woman in business attire, covered head to toe in white dust. She was later identified as Marcy Borders, a 28-year-old Bank of America employee who worked in the North Tower. 🧵
a young Black woman in business attire, covered head to toe in white dust

Photo credit: STAN HONDA / AFP
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Rebecca Brückmann @historleans.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🍞🌹 #LaborDay #ThereIsPowerInAUnion
Black and white, 3-panel illustration by the 19th-century 8-hour movement that shows a person at work, in bed, and at leisure, reading a union newspaper. The caption says: “8 hours for work; 8 hours for rest; 8 hours for what we will.”
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 07/09/2026
Possibly the most American news of all time
local12.com
Prison inmates donate more than $4,000 to pay children's school lunch debt
Residents at the prison contributed $3,810 of their own money, while Kansas Department of Corrections employees added another $457.
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SI: Museum of African American History (Bot) @simuseumafro.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Electric guitar belonging to Chuck Berry, nicknamed "Maybellene" nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2011.13…
Electric guitar belonging to Chuck Berry, nicknamed "Maybellene"
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Can't get a moment's peace on this bloody planet.
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Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness @tangledwilderness.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Hey I'm not actually done talking about Dolly Parton. 🧵 Specifically I want to talk about her album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs, released in 1980 (not the soundtrack to the film 9 to 5, that's a different thing). The whole album is about work, with most of the songs focused on a different type of worker.
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Chico Escuela @blaqdocdown.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
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NPR @npr.org · 29/08/2026
A charity built 96 bridges to connect communities separated by rivers and gorges. A new study looks at the life-changing impact of a concrete-and-steel pedestrian crossing. n.pr/4xuLiEX
n.pr
The bridges of Rwanda open up new worlds
A charity built 96 bridges to connect communities separated by rivers and gorges. A new study looks at the life-changing impact of a concrete-and-steel pedestrian crossing.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Oil is a war against all of us.
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David Sullivan @davidsullivan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
If you're reading the Meta settlement and wondering about the age assurance/verification contents, might I suggest you first read this new statement from the Internet Architecture Board: datatracker.ietf.org/doc/statemen... HT @farzdusa.bsky.social @johnperrino.com
datatracker.ietf.org
IAB Statement on Age-Based Restrictions and Online Safety
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Most headlines refer to this as "misspent" or "misappropriated". Whether by a legal definition it's "stole" those other words GREATLY understate what happened. They took $10M of public money for childrens health care and laundered it thru a string of orgs to get it into a political campaign account.
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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Working on a piece for the newsletter, this is a data point - smart people keep shrugging and saying “communities don’t like data centers because of ‘vibes’” etc when it’s really that people are in fact smart enough to know they are bad faith neighbors. It is *entirely rational* not to trust them.
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Dolly offers an object lesson for so many people who think you have to be self-serious to do meaningful work on serious issues.
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
the thing is like public health child literacy civil rights social justice rural poverty once you personally have become rich and successful, those things only matter if you still have the capacity to care deeply about people outside your immediate circle and that is harder than becoming rich
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Reminder: Dolly Parton helped fund the Moderna vaccine for COVID.
nytimes.com
Dolly Parton, who helped fund the Moderna vaccine, gets a ‘dose of her own medicine.’ (Published 2021)
The country music star broke into song before she was inoculated, and urged her fans to “get out there and get your shot.”
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fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
20 years after she died. I still have my Nan's house key on my keys. Happy memories visiting her where I felt the safest I ever felt in childhood. That key reminds me of those times.
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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I’m an anxious-avoidant writer (paralytically terrified of starting), I justify procrastination as “percolating” etc. And yet! whenever I force myself to actually sit down and barf shit out, the thoughts that emerge are totally fresh, previously unknown to my conscious mind, and often pretty good!
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Cameron Dixon 🥄 @notgov.org · 06/08/2026
Incredible governmenting
A screenshot from https://ita.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/g410.pdf that says:

Ill. GUIDELINE
There is no guideline for this guideline.
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oh no @ili.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
en esta economía??????
nyt cooking melissa clark seis leches cake january 21, 2020
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John Emerson @backspace.com · 18/08/2026
Tired: training your AI on busted books Wired: training your AI on busted corporations news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-l...
news.bloomberglaw.com
Google Aims to Boost AI With Purchase of Spirit Airlines Data
Google LLC won a bankruptcy auction for a trove of deindentified business data, software code, and operations records from collapsed low-cost carrier Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., saying it plans to ...
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Headlines: Such-and-such technology may someday be as smart as human brains! Reminder: *We already have human brains.* Billions of them. Most of them living in poverty and being exploited for the obscene benefit of a tiny number of the worst people in the world.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 02/08/2026
In happier news, it turns out that blueberries grown beneath solar panels turn out sweeter! 🫐 (via @billmckibben.bsky.social)
ecoportal.net
In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and tastes
In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above some blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and even how it tastes.
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John Emerson @backspace.com · 15/08/2026
“By remapping font glyphs, the document's visible characters show humans one thing – while terminals, AI systems, and clipboard copy paste see another.” github.com/DoctorEww/Ev...
github.com
GitHub - DoctorEww/EvilFontTool: A font-based deception tool for red teaming, security research, and whatever else.
A font-based deception tool for red teaming, security research, and whatever else. - DoctorEww/EvilFontTool
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Comics Outta Context 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @comiccontext.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
White background, A sound effect is surrounded by blacklines with blue background. Sound effect: "SZZOSH!"
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alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
THREAD. Contrary to what you are being told, 40 years of polling have established that shifting money away from police/prisons toward social services is one of the most popular public policies among *all* political demographics. But it's not just that, it goes way deeper.
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