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Butsy

@doctorbutler78.bsky.social
227 followers 501 following 161 posts

Lecturer at Ulster University in contemporary literature with a focus on dystopian fiction and the climate crisis; a genre nerd in general. If I'm not reading, I'm playing video games. Derry man and Candystriper. He/him.

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Reposted by Butsy
John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Using Canvas agentic AI to do your work for you signals that your work is worth less than it was prior to that act. The idea that this will, long term, free faculty time is belied by every single thing we know about the history of labor automation. It either puts you out of work, or you work more.
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Comics Outta Context 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @comiccontext.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
#MondayMorning
Narrow horizontel panel of Dani Moonstar seen in right profile looking upward, eyes wide, mouth open. Above her the sound effect running the width of the panel, "NOOOOOOOOOO."
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Fight The Right… 👊🏼👊🏽👊🏿 @wtafc.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
It really gets my goat when people tell me I may not like AI but it’s here to stay & there’s nothing we can do about it. Yes there is! We don’t have to bow down to every corporate demand! We can fight, regulate, use the law. We can & must ensure this tech benefits humanity & doesn’t dismantle it.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 23/02/2026
stories like this will mention the AI "doomer narrative" (SkyNet will kill us all, often pushed by industry insiders), but not mention it pre-empts more realistic criticism (Grok's data center in Memphis is aiming its pollution directly at black people) the industry doesn't want to talk about
nytimes.com
People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.
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Stefanie 🏳️‍⚧️ @foxenlock.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Trans in the Machine is fully funded! But with under a week left, there’s still time to hit some stretch goals. The more we make, the more goes to good causes and mutual aid. So, shout it loud and share far and wide. Post anywhere you can think of. 🔗 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
A trans femme of colour with a mechanic arm and a leg rising up into the air above a cyberpunk city. Waves of pink and grey energy swirl from their hands and weave between vertical lines of binary code. A variety of other Trans+ people and standing and seated on the tops of buildings and floating platform. The text reads: ‘Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the New Cyberpunk Canon’. Artwork by Lyss Menold
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Sophie Lewis @reproutopia.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
UK friends, fans of my essays, radical femmes, and femmephiles! My forthcoming book FEMMEPHILIA is available for 25% off if you pre-order *this week* (before the end of Friday) from @waterstones.bsky.social - just enter FEB26 at the checkout www.waterstones.com/book/femmeph...
waterstones.com
Femmephilia by Sophie Lewis | Waterstones
Buy Femmephilia by Sophie Lewis from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
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the pickwicker man @pickwick.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Happy 12-year anniversary to my favourite broadcast subtitle mistake And a happy year of the whores to you all
BBC News screenshot with the subtitle "Welcome to the year of the whores. People around the globe celebrate..."
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The Spectre Haunting Europe @frightfulhobgoblin.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Your reminder that close friend of Peter Mandelson (the guy who was also close personal friend & corrupt enabler of Jeffrey Epstein) Emily Maitlis claims personal credit for creating the moral panic around the Tavistock gender care clinic. This has never, ever been about the safety of children.
thepinknews.com
Emily Maitlis says her BBC work led to closure of UK's only youth gender clinic
Former BBC Newsnight journalist Emily Maitlis has said her work on the programme led to the closure of England's only youth gender clinic.
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
good morning, it is day 3 of strikes at the University of Essex to save 400 jobs across all depts & stop the closure of our Southend Campus and our Foundation Year programme. The campus cat Pebbles is in solidarity 💕
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Josephine Riesman @josie.zone · 16/02/2026
"...and that concludes our intensive three-day pitch to your employer and/or government"
Lyle Lanley at a chalkboard 

A = ARTIFICIAL

I = LAYOFFS
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
BREAKING⚡️The High Court has just ruled that the government's draconian ban of Palestine Action was unlawful. This is a massive blow to the Home Office’s authoritarian approach. They need to stop criminalising people protesting a genocide and start ending the UK's complicity
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Palestine Action have WON their judicial review in the High Court! A massive victory for free speech, freedom of association and the right to protest. A massive defeat for the draconian attempts by Keir Starmer's government to curtail our fundamental rights.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: “.. In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.” hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...
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uncle leyla (scary) 🎃 @leyla.money · 01/02/2026
every time i see some new attempt to Streamline and Optimize our Lives i think about this kurt vonnegut quote that does rounds. we're dancing animals! not everything needs to be optimized! sometimes a tedious task creates an unlikely opportunity to learn something about yourself! or for joy!!
KURT VONNEGUT: Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know…

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.
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Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Tech billionaires aren't robber barons. Robber barons donated money to educational and cultural institutions, from universities to newspapers. Tech billionaires are destroying them - and building their fortunes on destroying the human capacity to think, learn, empathize, and concentrate.
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Paul F. Tompkins @pftompkins.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
It’s so funny that this guy’s entire thing is “Oh are you triggered by what I have to say about marginalized people” but he loses it when someone more well-liked than he will ever be talks about an actual injustice
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Andrew Cherry @kolektiv.xyncro.com · 28/01/2026
I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!
aiskillshub.org.uk
AI Skills Boost - AI Skills Hub
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Butsy @doctorbutler78.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
My issue with academia swallowing this grift wholesale
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🌎🐎John Hyphen🎮🤠 @johnhyphen.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
three hands joined together, marked as: irish dissident republicans; japanese people eating noodle soup; ancient egpytian sun worshippers

in the middle it says: RA MEN
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Butsy @doctorbutler78.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Rep Omar with the Glasgow pub rule response. Love to see it.
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Reminder that British journalists have a weird fetish for Harry Potter because it's a fantasy world where nobody mentions how fucking weird it is that everybody was privately educated in just five schools
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Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 10/11/2025
critfailmemes on threads (!)

"Okay so to keep the poor from rioting you give them bread and circuses" 

"Got it. However some of them were sneaking into the circus on their friend's login so we stopped that" 

"No you... you gotta give them the circuses" 

"We're ending the free bread program, too much of it was going to the poor"
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Glyn Moody @glynmoody.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
#AI is hitting UK harder than other big economies, study finds - www.theguardian.com/technology/2... "Britain is losing more jobs than it creates owing to artificial intelligence, Morgan Stanley research suggests" <slowhandclap/>
theguardian.com
AI is hitting UK harder than other big economies, study finds
Britain is losing more jobs than it creates owing to artificial intelligence, Morgan Stanley research suggests
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Mark Pendleton @markpendleton.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...
Screenshot of email that reads: “This status will remain in place until the University receives notification that you are no longer participating in that action. During this period, any work undertaken will be regarded as voluntary.”
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Butsy @doctorbutler78.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Superb titles, no notes 🔥
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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 09/10/2025
It cannot be made clearer. If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.
JK Rowling pledges to keep up fight against SNP trans policies

Author vows to bankroll campaigners after Scottish government fails to pay group's legal fees in Supreme Court equality case
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Cedric Moore @cedricmoorejr.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
“The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what's coming now. The party's over, folks.” -Hunter S. Thompson ~2 weeks after 9/11
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Naoise Dolan @naoisedolan.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The UK has declined a new Elbit Systems contract, leading Palestine Action prisoners to end the hunger strike that had three of them on the brink of death. The Tesco worker suspended for refusing to handle Israeli goods has been reinstated and will no longer have to handle them. We can and will win
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Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 08/01/2026
visenyaism on tumblr: "Honestly fuck A1 for making me have to go on and on defending the dignity of toil like I'm some kind of protestant"
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Butsy @doctorbutler78.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
It's certainly rampant at universities 😫
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 11/01/2026
The American Dialect Society's Word of the Year is SLOP! “Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms newcompounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop,” Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright said. “This productivity has no end in sight.” 🧵
American Dialect Society Selects Slop as 2025 Word of the Year
NEW ORLEANS MARRIOTT–JAN. 9—The American Dialect Society, in its 36th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected slop as the Word of the Year for 2025. More than three hundred attendees took part in the deliberations and voting, in an event hosted in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America’s annual meeting.The word slop was recognized for its widespread use for low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI. While AI slop was a nominee in the American Dialect Society’s 2024 Word of the Year vote, in 2025 slop could stand on its own, with theAI context often implicitly understood. Slop was also recognized as a productive combining form to describe anything of little value generated in mass quantities. Presiding at the Jan. 9 voting session were Ben Zimmer, chair of the ADS New Words Committee, and Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.“Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms new compounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop,” Dr. Wright said. “This productivity has no end in sight.”Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item”—not just words but also phrases, compounds, and affixes. The items do not have to be brand-new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year.The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead. It is fully informed by the members’ expertise in the study of words, but it is far from a solemn occasion.
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AveTeresa @aveteresa.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Folks, @womensaidireland.bsky.social have closed their X account on principle. Follow them here, give them some real engagement to acknowledge both the rightness of that decision, but also of letting go of high follower numbers (even if the algorithm meant that no longer signified actual reach).
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Brendan Hark! T'is nearly Halloween. @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
British people on Bluesky trying to pretend they don't see the replies they're getting from people in NI about how state murder has long been legal in the UK:
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Love this from Guillermo del Toro
“Be kind, be involved, believe in your art,” he said. “At a time when people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude to fascism. When they tell you it doesn’t matter, when they tell you a fucking app can do art you say, if it’s that important, why the fuck do they want it so bad? The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book, and in my life, includes monsters.”
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onion person @junlper.beer · 16/12/2025
the “you should love ai” line is best outlined by a recent joe rogan episode. he LOVES ai music and always tells guests this. a guest pushed back on him saying “i’ve heard ai podcasts are amazing too” and joe rogan immediately pushes back. losers love it until it comes for them
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Yukimi Ogawa @fluoritewitch.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
My Japanese collection (translated) is included in the 20 books recommended here☺️ www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/455317
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The Onion @theonion.com · 05/12/2025
Quentin Tarantino Slams Paul Dano As Worst Actor On Wikifeet theonion.com/quentin-tarantino-slam…
Quentin Tarantino Slams Paul Dano As Worst Actor On Wikifeet
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Butsy @doctorbutler78.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
More integrity with regards to AI than either academic institution in the North.
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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
then, the transphobes , feeling victorious at how many people they have made unhappy and despairing in the previous week, move on to anything else that has a spectrum and the possibility of more colours than they can conceive - such hateful people - they cannot understand anything that is not THEM
pete_wharmby_books &
•••
HADLEY FREEMAN
Wes Streeting must stand up to the
ADHD activists
I can help with the minister's review: some people are just confused by life
Hadley Freeman
pete_wharmby_books Ah, as expected the right wing press (and Freeman's pipeline from the Guardian op-Ed pages to the Times is worth looking into) is now piling on, suggesting that these scary ADHD activists are just trying to ruin things for everyone.
Not, like, try to improve people's self esteem and sense of what is going on.
2025 is so horrifyingly, predictably *boring*
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AAAAHH-lex Plante 🐀👑 @aplante.com · 28/11/2025
i know WHY this is but that just makes it even more of a kick in the pants lmao
screenshot of a tumblr post from user “wildmansters”

The thing that really boils my potatoes about Al in general is that I have been a creative professional for over a decade now and the devil has ALWAYS been in the details. Big and small, I've had single-person businesses rip me to shreds over how their colors turned out on newsprint, and have worked with huge companies with THICK brand guidelines with every detail of their brand identity laid out and enforced with an iron fist.

But I guess all of that stuff doesn't matter anymore? Who gives a fuck if this Al generated baby has six fingers, that mom-and-pop shop is still going to use it. That rug from Temu says Happy Thanksgivirg? Oh well haha it's just a silly funny thing now (nevermind that you never would have given a B-grade item from a craft show the same consideration). I don't actually care that the Al Coca-cola ad has a truck that changes size every scene, but I can't help but think about how, if it had been some poor underpaid artist, they would have been laughed out of the building.

I don't really know how to put it in a succint way but it just feels all the more obvious how much more grace and flexibility has always been possible but never offered.
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Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 25/11/2025
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
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Tom Ewing @tomewing.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Handshake meme - "Me doing a CAPTCHA" and "THE THIRD POLICEMAN by Flann O'Brien" uniting over "Is the guy riding the bicycle part of the bicycle?"
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
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Bloody Disgusting @bloody-disgusting.com · 24/11/2025
Udo Kier has passed away at 81. A singular screen presence, Kier had a long history in the horror genre, starring in films including Mark of the Devil, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula, Blade, Feardotcom, Rob Zombie's Halloween, and Dario Argento's Mother of Tears.
Black and white photo of Udo Kier in a suit
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Rob Palk @robpalk.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Oh fuck off
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Ian Potter @ianzpotter.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Happy There Is A Circulatory System Walking Through The Kitchen Day to all who celebrate.
It's an artistic representation of a circulatory system walking through a kitchen, as drawn by Dave Gibbons and written about by Alan Moore.
It happens a lot 'round here.
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