Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 10hIf you wanted to destroy the capacity of a professional military to think, and turn it into some sort of simulacrum of the Russian military, this would be a great start. 0124
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 17hI see two things. The CDU has been carrying on about how people need to work more, retire later, etc etc. So a CDU politician adding this sort of frivolous ‘luxury’ to their tax payer funded office invites blowback. If your party’s strategy is “Be the Biggest Scold” this is what you sow. 101
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsUlrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 28/09/2026I worry that we are going absolutely crazy. A CDU politician (the eccentric type, often target of malice) has put a typical north/baltic sea beach chairs on his office balcony (he’s from the region). And somehow people lost it?? He had to send it back?? (He paid for it himself) What on earth?tagesspiegel.deEr wollte nur „ein Stück Heimat“ – und erntete Spott: Amthor will Strandkorb selbst bezahlt haben und schickt ihn zurückPhilipp Amthor hat sich einen Strandkorb auf den Balkon des Kanzleramts stellen lassen. Im Netz bekam er dafür viel Häme. Der Verkäufer des maritimen Möbelstücks nimmt den CDU-Politiker in Schutz. 2316916
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsReconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Every French presidential poll LADY HITLER - 35% JEAN D'AUSTÉRITÉ - 18% CHUD COMMUNISTE - 17% 132629470
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 28/09/2026There are a limited number of legitimate ways that LLMs and generative-AI can be used productively, it’s mostly a technology of social and cultural annihilation. It annoys the shit out of me that we’re using these slop machines in scientific research. 000
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsGuido Kühn @guido-kuehn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Die Welt brennt. Die menschengemachte Klimakatastrophe verursacht immenses Leid, unbezahlbare Schäden, Wirtschaftseinbrüche, droht den Lebensraum Erde für viele dauerhaft unbewohnbar zu machen. Und wir fördern nun ausgerechnet jene Industrie, deren Geschäftsmodell es ist, unsere Welt anzuzünden? 261336505
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsManuel 'HonkHase' Atug @honkhase.de · 28/09/2026Ab wann ist ein Innenminister ein Gefährder? "Dobrindt arbeitet mit den radikalislamistischen Taliban zusammen – und schiebt gleichzeitig nach Afghanistan ab. Viele sind keine Straftäter." Dobrindt lässt Afghanen abschieben – die meisten haben sich nichts zuschulden... www.fr.de/politik/afgh...fr.de„55 Prozent keine Straftäter“: Dobrindt lässt dennoch Afghanen abschieben – mithilfe der TalibanDobrindt arbeitet mit den Taliban zusammen – und schiebt gleichzeitig nach Afghanistan ab. Viele haben sich nichts zuschulden kommen lassen. 43903329
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsJames Medlock @jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The GOP cut funding to the IRS because *audits work* and they fundamentally don't believe rich people should have to play by the rules. 273294769
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsDavid Arditi @davidarditi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026We need to have a conversation about peer review in academia across fields The problem: different people see their role differently as a reviewer Here are some of the issues and some of the solutions 1134
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 27/09/2026These fuckers are just out here looking for the most deranged ways to be despicable pieces of shit. 020
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsAsheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 27/09/2026Right-wing billionaire decides to make a macarthur for race scientists and transphobes; initial recipients to be Nathan Cofnas and Kathleen Stock. 2278
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsSherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 27/09/2026So much of what we are confronting today is best understood by the actions undertaken by white communities in response to integration orders. White supremacy is a form of democratic nihilism. Every institution, norm, and value of democracy will be sacrificed for it. calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...calendar.eji.orgSep. 27, 1958 | White Little Rock Voters Choose to Close Public Schools Rather Than IntegrateLearn more about our history of racial injustice 251136427
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026to keep functioning, society must discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities 522216330
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsAndrás Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Nazis don't want you to remember their crimes 2934356
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 27/09/2026Es ist das Chris Rufo Modell. Statt Migranten versucht er Universitäten zu zerstören. Er wäscht seine anti-intellektuelle Ideen in den Seiten der New York Times, the Atlantic, usw. und ist recht erfolgreich. Wir müssen diese “Institut” keine Legitimität bieten, sonnst aggressiv dagegen kämpfen. 000
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsRoland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026AI #slopaganda is not so much about fakes or disinformation. It's about aligning the world with your preformulated descriptions of it, making reality disappear behind its formulaic image, rendering visible all your fears at once in order to enjoy them more. It's a technology of fascist daydreaming 17682227
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026This is like accusing someone of robbing a bank because they deposited money and never withdrew it 59182761854
Reposted by Charles Martin-Shields"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 26/09/2026When I was told that our tech oligarchs took their morality from science fiction, I never quite expected it to be from Spaceballs: The Movie.static.klipy.comSpace Evil Triumphs Over GoodAlt: Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb. 1442588
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 26/09/2026Durchgebracht mit Stimmen von der CDU. Ich gehe davon aus, dass die CDU noch vor 2029 von dem AfD (zumindest im Osten) absorbiert wird. www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comGerman town bans stumbling stone memorials to Nazi victimsGermany's education minister has branded the ban on the small brass memorial plaques a "scandal". 160
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 26/09/2026Based on how I read the U.S. laws on providing asylum and the unvarnished racism behind the Trump administration’s decision to grant white Afrikaners asylum, the next administration should revoke these asylum claims and deport the people who came in on this program. www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comSouth African white genocide does not exist, new ambassador to US tells BBCRoelf Meyer tells the BBC that being a white Afrikaner gives him legitimacy to challenge Trump's claim of a genocide. 000
Reposted by Charles Martin-Shieldsjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/09/2026was talking about this recently with an ex-congressman (an old timer from the 80s and 90s) and one of the remarkable things about this cycle is that trump has given his party absolutely nothing to run on. no bill to tout, no accomplishment to hype, no nothing. 1573428375
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsAmy Jo (AJ) Cousins @ajcousins.bsky.social · 23/09/2026This is not deporting people. Literally. Legally. There is a deportation process and this isn't it. This is rendition. This is disappearing people. 172058803
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsSenator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 22/09/2026Trump's ICE is disappearing thousands of people in their system, hiding their locations from loved ones & lawyers, & preventing them from exercising their constitutional rights. This is the lawlessness Republicans keep writing blank checks for. Not another dime! apnews.com/article/ice-...apnews.comAP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal ordersU.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... 16329126
Reposted by Charles Martin-Shieldsex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 21/09/2026On my second Army deployment to Afghanistan I was stationed for a few months at a small base that did not have washing machines for clothes so we had to try and wash our uniforms, socks, and underwear by hand. If you've never tried it, give it a whirl, and then ask this question again. 1724922
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Tell me again how good and important A.I. is for human flourishing? Between this and the killer drones, I’m struggling to find the pro-human balance. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/b...nytimes.comAt DraftKings, AI Targets the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose (Gift Article)Data science helps determine who receives betting incentives, but the company has resisted using similar technology to protect gamblers at risk of addiction. 539398
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsJen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 20/09/2026When authoritarian regimes collapse, their leaders experience symbolic deaths, largely through the destruction & removal of monuments that they've built to glorify themselves and affirm their power. Sometimes called "iconoclasm," who gets a statue or monument is always a symbolic struggle for power. 33902291
Reposted by Charles Martin-Shieldsherman mark schwartz @thunen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026This is going to be a Harvard business school case study in how to alienate your core market. I grew up with converse all stars, so i’ve always had a soft spot. No longer. 022
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Instead of workslop, now we have warslop. Some dipshit analyst asked a chatbot "what's on this ship" and it said "nuclear materials" and then put that in a report that he also made with AI, and sent it off. Possibly the best example of how a "human in the loop" just human-washes the generated text 39423
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsKieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 18/09/2026This is the far more likely pathway for how AI will end us all, btw. Not via some superintelligent swarm of paperclip maximizers, but by a cascading sequence of dumb fuckups driven by human beings who have arranged things to be fast-moving and catastrophically fragile while also being really lazy. 17391149
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 17/09/2026Australia nicely demonstrates the way far-right parties end up pulling the strings on centrists goblins Centrists see surging support for drooling racists, and then try to mildly mimic their positions and policies. Centrists don't get a surge in poll support though; that all stays with the racistsabc.net.auFamily visas for foreign students targeted in migration crackdownInternational students would effectively be banned from bringing family members to Australia under a long-awaited overhaul of the immigration system. 911648
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 17/09/2026Credulous rubes signing deals with businesses built to stealing and annihilate knowledge: “Maybe THIS time Stealing and Annihilating Knowledge Inc. will deliver a fair exchange of value.” 000
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsMicah @rincewind.run · 16/09/2026"why does the left distrust AI" certainly has plenty to do with the technology itself but at its core I think it is about the fact that everyone building it is a wannabe fascist oligarch and nobody trusts them on a god damn thing 222091431
Reposted by Charles Martin-Shieldsae @aelkus.bsky.social · 15/09/2026no, they're not. basically US civil society is a fire sale 0361
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsThomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026ICYMI over the weekend: I wrote about the emerging far-right international, why the project it is pursuing is best described as a kind of aggrieved revanchism, and what an adequate democratic response might look like.steady.pageA Far-Right International Is Assaulting DemocracyMAGA and the AfD are united in a struggle against democratic pluralism that transcends national borders. It is an alliance of extremists defined by aggrieved revanchism 318258
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Jared Kushner is not "on the other side of the aisle." He's not an elected official. He's not an administration official. He's the president's son-in-law and a private citizen. You do not, in fact, have to take meetings with relatives of the president. Some might even say you should *not* do that 58791822102
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsNome @nome.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Put ten million in a fund to live like a king off of the interest for the rest of your life, and try to spend the rest as fast as possible on things that would materially improve people's lives. Fund school lunches, buy and forgive debt, just give people houses, go fucking nuts. Right? 1017827
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsAlan Jagolinzer @jagolinzer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026“What we do know...is that crypto and meme assets have already become what I consider to be a financial cesspool that is leveraged by many of the darkest actors on the planet.” My 2025 testimony in Democracy Shield hearings at European Parliament. youtu.be/xJaJfROLs6Y?...youtu.beProf Jagolinzer testifies to EU Parliament about the dark uses of cryptocurrencyYouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit 23419
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I find it infuriating and unnerving how liberals are unable to recognize brownshirts when they see them, or understand that brownshirts exist along a separate axis of public mobilization than “protesters,” which is how they’re always described. These aren’t protesters, they’re paramilitaries! 1046973
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsButt Praxis @buttpraxis.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Yeah the endgame here is very obviously the destruction of girls’ sports by making them sites of mandatory sexual abuse and it is really blackpilling how many people are going along with it out of fear of trans people or their hope for little Christleigh getting a track scholarship to Azusa state 91383377
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsJoshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 11/09/2026The “illegal for liberals but legal for conservatives” principle is already leading to very dark places in general, but as a subversive force eroding the few virtues of military service left it will impose incredible long term damage to our society. We will NOT like a formally politicized military. 18134
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsMatt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 06/09/2026The conflation of AI-critical with technophobic is tactical & infuriating. While accusing us of just knee-jerk hating tech, they’re enshittifying search engines, degrading digital archives, sundowning or enclosing popular tools, etc. We were all happily using that tech! 3504147
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 11/09/2026The EU member states worked so hard to create an imaginary that the EU isn’t a state that they can’t reasonably turn around and have the EU do things that states do, even when it’s critically necessary. Then there’s the deep un-seriousness among EU politicians about how much things really cost… 110
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsKevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Watching the morning baseball recap show and just saw a commercial for a chain of plasma donation centers, urging viewers to consider the benefits of donating plasma--especially receiving "up to $800 a month"--and that's surely a sign our economy is doing great 1933660
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsCatherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Since becoming president again, Trump has promised: -$5000 stimulus checks via "DOGE dividend" -$2000 stimulus checks via "tariff dividend" -$1000+ checks via "savings" from expiring ACA subsidies -$5000 "dividend" if Rs win midterms No checks have been issued www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-magi... 46079483375
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsNed Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026lol I just realized Trump is treating the voters like his construction crews on a building project. Tell them to do a job and then stiff them on the promised compensation. 61426282
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsDevin Burghart @dburghart.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Today, the Heritage Foundation, the org behind Project2025, took credit for driving Lonnie Bunch out the Smithsonian Institution. Bunch was the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the Smithsonian. But sure, tell me again how it’s not about racism. 532230876
Charles Martin-Shields @charlesmartinshields.com · 09/09/2026I would posit that part of this is because in places with few/no foreign nationals, AfD can make ‘migrants’ into any straw- or boogieman they want. People have no frame of reference and passively accept it. (Of course there are also plenty of racists in these places who simply lap it up) 010
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsThomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 08/09/2026My legitimate concern is that this world leading success story of multicultural integration is being usurped by racist hoodlums and thugs who want to tear it all down, and many in power think that's just dandy. 421872
Reposted by Charles Martin-ShieldsThe Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Have seen this Nature piece about the effects of X's algorithm mentioned again and it bears repeating; exposure to a right wing algorithm makes you - measurably and predictably - more right wing, even after you stop using it. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comThe political effects of X’s feed algorithm - NatureAmong users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared... 4239351776