EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 1hThe realization that Ditka outlived half of the Superfans . . . 110
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Screenplay starter: an incompetent "Secretary of War" pushes the commanders of a US carrier group too far, and they go rogue, taking to the high seas to harass aggressor states and support downtrodden nations. So, you know the A-Team but with jets and boats and contemporary concerns. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Trump and the Techbros have another thing in common: the sort of eschatological narcissism that would rather see the world burn than refuse to obey their every whim. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Chatbots feed on the decimation of social life instigated by capitalism and accelerated by social media. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Our tech overlords are classically panoptic: ubiquitous, part of the very structure of our lives, but also unverifiable. Their technologies govern behavior by the internalization of the assumption of constant observation. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Negative political ads are not meant to make you vote for the other guy; they're meant to turn you off so completely that you don't vote at all. If the electorate looks more like the primary, the candidates are happy. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Not only to they want to forever keep their childish illusions, they want to force the rest of us to play along. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 04/10/2026We never consider the slaughter of so many innocent naugas. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 03/10/2026If research is like a hunting expedition, AI-assisted search is like being served show leather and being told it's filet mignon. 210
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 03/10/2026It was one of those weeks when, after somebody bid me to have a good weekend, the first thing I thought was "I dunno, man. That sounds like a lot of work." 110
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 03/10/2026We shouldn't forget that the war against DEI programs is meant, among other things, to prevent people from being able to identify and empathize with the traditionally oppressed, especially when they're discriminated against, abused, and assaulted. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Do you ever feel like you're being punished just for, like, having standards? 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 30/09/2026So now AI companies are all "We can regulate ourselves!" just like {checks notes}. I'll get back to you on that. Note how quickly they pivoted to self-regulation after bipartisan support for the real thing and called in their Idiot Emperor, the one they paid off with gold baubles, to back them up. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 28/09/2026It's telling that our idea of "intelligence" is based on "tasks" that capitalism finds useful, that selfhood is measured by what a being can do and not personhood as such, that the way to prove your personhood is a measure of your economic utility. 011
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Since buddying up to the tyrant won't save you from his arbitrary and capricious actions, when your status as friend or foe is a matter of the tyrant's mood and not a political calculus, you might as well do what you want. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Like, imagine if Albanese demanded the extradition of Sam Altman. It'd be worth it just to see Trump totally lose his shit. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Not to state the obvious, but we're going to keep getting "rogue AI" incidents until the people in the companies that own these systems face real jail time. If you harbor a vicious dog, you're responsible when it bites someone, not the dog. 100
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026The Trump regime assumed that unused ACA accounts were fraudulent, somehow not realizing that most people with high deductible accounts would only use them in catastrophic circumstances. But then, "I can't afford to use the coverage I have" doesn't compute in an administration full of billionaires. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Just imagining the tell-all book written by the couch JD left to marry Usha: Hell hath No Fury Like a Davenport Scorned. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I'm noticing a greater gap with my students (high school students taking college classes) between what they think they know and what they actually know. It's not just lack of preparation for college material--nothing new about that--but more confidence in their ignorance and misinformation. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 22/09/2026GPS hasn't just prevented us from getting lost; it has allowed us to be lost all of the time. Social media has, likewise, enabled loneliness and disconnection, and now AI has come along not to enhance our thoughts but to supplant them. We don't own these technologies; we are owned by them. 001
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Tip for curious students: before you ask for advice on how to improve your essay, maybe you should look at the comments I left on it clearly communicating to you how you can improve your essay. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Not seasonal, but neither is the weather: Green skies, black days—spring scolds the tallgrass, scours bare ground with hail: a cruel yes. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Overheard on the couch: His side: "It's a good-looking storm." Her side: "Yeah, it even makes _Topeka_ look interesting!" 001
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I imagine the Iranian leadership is all "Those American troops! They're so well-groomed! We must immediately capitulate!" 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Being pleasant because you've been taught to be pleasant isn't the same as being good. Some of the most cruel people alive are nice enough to be around. The devil is, no doubt, unerringly polite. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 15/09/2026With AI company heads calling for regulation, we've moved the discussion from capability to culpability. They're trying to cover their asses; they know full well Congress won't act, and they're setting the stage to blame electeds when a rogue AI does real world damage. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Not to engage in whataboutism, but more to explore our collective penchant for self-destruction, AI doom discussions remind me that every time we've had a choice to address climate change, we've picked candidates who openly pledged to make it worse. We've already opted for a fiery end. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 13/09/2026We can't really discuss such things as intelligence without revealing our ideological and philosophical assumptions. That we're not openly talking about those right now also reveals a lot about why we can't solve our pressing problems with AI. 001
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 11/09/2026The hubris hasn't changed, only the ancient Greek assurance that the gods will actually do something about it. 001
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Just vagueposting here, but using your faith to justify your bigotry doesn't make you a hero. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 10/09/20269/11 marks the point the rightwing stopped being coy about its imperial ambitions. Dick Cheney championing the "unitary executive" was a major piece--and we can now see how that has worked out. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 10/09/2026In no viable moral system is "We have to do the bad thing because otherwise someone worse will" a good excuse. The right answer is to not do the bad thing and try our level best to make sure the other guy doesn't either. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 09/09/2026The thing about college students is that they have an endless supply of grandparents to kill off to explain why they didn't get their work in on time. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 07/09/2026The thing is, he was never a billionaire real estate developer. He was just a spoiled rich kid playing, hiring people to tell him he was the real deal. Thus all the bankruptcies. Thus burning through creditors until he finally had to go to the Russians. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Uh, Bombardier has a manufacturing plant in the US, only a few miles from where I sit, in the heart of Trump's "real" America. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 07/09/2026The single most important skill in any democracy, especially one in the Age of AI, is how to distinguish shit from Shinola. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 06/09/2026A new technology is just as likely to reveal existing problems as it is to solve them. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Would a charity dairy be supported by the United Whey? #AskingForMyself 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I think we're in the "If I can't have you, nobody can have you" phase of the abusive relationship between MAGA and the nation. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 03/09/2026In not too many years, we'll have to explain to young people what winter was. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 03/09/2026What's going through my head on something of an endless loop is that every technology is a projection of the ideology of its creators. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Overheard on the couch: His side: "Tell us about it, Bert." Her side: "He's not Bert. He's Jay." His side: "He could be a Bert. Anybody could be a Bert if they just put their mind to it." 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I get why rural America doesn't want data centers in their back yards and largely agree. But rural landscapes have been industrialized for 100 years, ever since the advent of mechanized farming. The loud, dirty, destructive sprawl is already there. They're called farms. 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 01/09/2026John Roberts, who has done more to promote the imperial presidency than anyone alive, should have his right to object to anything imperial a president does revoked. 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 01/09/2026The "thou shalt never say climate change" local meteorologists are all "temps over 100 for the foreseeable future," and it's September, and I'm, all, "Well, it's a good thing climate change is a hoax! Otherwise I might worry!" 010
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Amazing how Bessent still doesn't realize that he's been thrown under the bus even as its wheels roll right over him! 000
EW Wilder @ewwilder.bsky.social · 31/08/2026None of them are happy: Trump and Musk rage tweet late into the night; SCOTUS justices grunch; ICE delivers mass misery. Ridicule does not equal joy. Their "jokes" are extensions of their hate. And they lack the insight to understand that, no matter how much they "win," they never will feel joy. 000