iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Holly Thomas

Trump’s new AI website is kinda fun, it turns out.

Can the president use taxpayer funds to air his old campaign ads on TV?

No. Federal appropriations law has long barred using taxpayer funds for political advertising.

I've seen ppl do this, and I stg it causes the same internal rot as habitual lying. The shame metastasises over time, & unless they lance it (aka tell the truth, which is more daunting the longer they leave it), they end up doubling down to bolster the alternate reality in which they're fine + good

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Craig Johnson @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social · 23h

Also, they're talking about events in the BAY AREA, the heart of the kink and sex world in the US. That scene isn't without its problems! But it's been working them out for decades and has real plans and protocols for this. But human safety and consent has never been what the AI men want.

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Morrigan Croft @morrigancroft.bsky.social · 23h

As an autistic woman* it's really interesting when men fall back on "I can't help it, I'm autistic" as an excuse for SA and consent violations because as an autistic person all I've ever done is make myself smaller for a world that won't accommodate my disabilities.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 23h

Important, when talking about the threat posed by AI, to ground that convo in the fact that it is made and controlled by people. We keep talking about AI models as though they're these unbiddable entities, because otherwise we'd have to acknowledge the fact that we've let these people run riot.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I wrote the paragraph below last week, and honestly, I regret not going so much harder.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When male managers have daughters, women at their company are paid more. This suggests two things. One, many men don’t fully appreciate women’s humanity until they’ve “made” one of their own. Two, they are capable of empathy, given a nudge. Wrote this: www.independent.co.uk/voices/world...

independent.co.uk

It shouldn’t take having a daughter for men to start caring about women’s rights

As the World Economic Forum’s 2026 Global Gender Gap report shows, on current trends, it will take 120 years for a girl to be born into a world in which opportunities are truly equal. Holly Thomas ask...

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

S.E. Sinkhorn @sesinkhorn.com · 28/09/2026

ask me sometime about my younger self's propensity to trust that people were telling me the truth because it did not occur to me that people in a professional environment would just. LIE. to me. or that people in positions above me didn't know what they were doing.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Insane on its face, even more insane considering pretty much any fertile hetero couple can just *make* a human child irrespective of being the worst or stupidest two people you've ever met

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One of the Cornell students accused of gang rape, Scott Kretzschmar, denies it and says through his attorney that they are going to “confront” the survivor through the court system. I can already tell you that means victim-blaming, DARVO, and smears. She is going to need a lot more of our support.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sorry for such a bleak post, but I can't stop thinking about the men who were in that Cornell fraternity and presumably saw the Snapchat message allegedly advertising "free pussy," and did nothing, tacitly allowing their friends to allegedly commit gang rape. Men, your passivity destroys lives.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"They at least behave as if they do" yeah so did I when I wanted to get out of PE

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I still can't believe Mad Men was number 3

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

How could there possibly be more to know

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

30 Rock should not be No. 8! It hasn't aged well! Both The Office-s are much better! If Mare of Easttown is here as a limited series, Band of Brothers should be too! The Good Place is MUCH better than The White Lotus! No Euphoria?! So, so many awful takes, thank you, NYT

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yup! And this is amidst a MASSIVE COVID surge and the same week the CDC reclassified COVID levels to make high levels seem low aka lie to the public about transmission. Not one of the big “leftists” ranting about this story have mentioned the CDC change or Covid surge once!!

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Criminal damage" is a very broad descriptor "Simple" (not a legal term) damage costing < £5,000 carries a max penalty of a fine of up to £2,500, up to 3 months in custody, or both. But racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage dealt with in the Crown Court carries a max 14-year sentence.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What's it gonna take for posh female influencers to stop describing the fabric of every garment they're advertising as "buttery" I know I'm being a dick, but it's giving me the same ick as that five-year phase when every book written by a woman was described as "fiercely tender"

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Really speaks to the toxicity of the GLP-1 discourse that my first response upon seeing this headline was "UGH no" Today we're treating brain disorders by correcting an underlying signalling system with a miracle drug; tomorrow, college students are "awakemaxxing" www.economist.com/science-and-...

economist.com

The brain may be about to have its Ozempic moment

Pharma’s newest obsession involves mimicking the system that keeps people awake

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 24/09/2026

Everyone, stop what you are doing. I've discovered there is a politician called Teresa May running for city council in British Columbia. And this is from one of her campaign videos. Never have two people with the same name had such different vibes.

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 23/09/2026

i think it is worth noting that one of the first actual elected democrats to prominently call for underbussing trans people, seth moulton, just got crushed in his primary 65-35

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I didn't need this piece about how American college girls are using GLP-1s to get "thin enough" to qualify for the "best" sororities to convince me that I'd find being in a sorority worse than hell, but it sure did anyway. www.thecut.com/article/soro...

thecut.com

The Secret ‘Ozempidemic’ on Sorority Row

College girls are desperate to join the best sororities. Some are turning to weight-loss drugs to get there.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Grim gambling news that won't get nearly as much traction as Sydney Sweeney's rack: Kalshi, another (mainly) sports betting platform is asking the CFTC to allow margin trading on its platform, which would let users gamble with borrowed funds.

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Lisa Guerrero @lisaguerrero.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Not only did I meet Robert Kraft, I worked for him. His kid Jonathan asked me to “remove the black music” from my gameday playlist in ‘94 & I refused so they fired me. I was the cheerleader director at the time. I sued them for wrongful termination and won. So yes, I know that motherfucker.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I’m too tired to concentrate, and I’ve been rewatching Buffy for the (redacted) time lately, so for no other reason than I need to get these thoughts out of my head in the hope that they make space for more profitable ones, here are a few Buffy takes I’ve been sitting on!

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It's v "those darn dinosaurs exploited the power failure that downed the electric fence"

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Mollie Goodfellow @hansmollman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

They should make the David Walliams Alton Towers thing a Jacqueline Wilson world where you can experience being born into a dustbin, having an eating disorder and being groomed by a teacher

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Re-upping with the additional specification: And what if you are referred to a chronic fatigue clinic? Any magic words that might prompt them to be super helpful?

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Reckon when you have a net worth of more than half a billion dollars & have sold more than 150 million records, and could absolutely afford to stand with your friend and simply not play a few gigs, and choose not to, you are complicit.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Has anyone UK-based on here had experience of chronic fatigue/been told they have chronic fatigue? What was your experience like with the NHS/do you have any tips on how to elicit actually useful care?

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Agree with this. Also really didn't like the flip "instinct tells me that gambling wrecks a lot more lives than Sydney Sweeney." The debate around Sydney Sweeney isn't distinct from gambling when she is advertising a betting company that she is an equity partner in!

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I wrote about why all the wellness-obsessed tech bros are so pathetic! "When immortality, or even just some nebulous sense of physical “optimisation” feels within touching distance, the little things both cease to matter and matter a great deal" thenewworld.substack.com/p/why-are-al...

thenewworld.substack.com

Why are all these longevity bros such total snowflakes?

One bad night’s sleep and it’s moan, moan moan. They reckon they’re the pinnacle of the species – but what’s the point of living forever if you don’t have a life to start with?

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"wow, everyone knew this already" is such a cynical, annoying and unfortunately extremely common response to tech news. assuming your privacy is being violated and proving that it is are two very different things, and the latter is the result of hard work and rigorous reporting

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I get why athletes are outraged by Sydney Sweeney's sports betting ad, but I fear this may be the point. The furore is a neat cover for what it's actually selling (gambling) & to whom (young men and boys, who are esp vulnerable to gambling, the deadliest addiction there is)

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Gonna get RSI from checking Patti Smith's Insta for signs of life

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Jane has to stick around for a while, I stg

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Added my voice to the chorus. "One of my favourite Dolly facts is that she was an uncredited producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy was a blonde girl who had phenomenal gifts, and secretly devoted her life to saving the world against overwhelming odds." www.independent.co.uk/voices/dolly...

independent.co.uk

Dolly Parton was exactly the woman we needed her to be

The icon, who has died aged 80, spent her life winning an uphill fight to make spaces for women where none existed before, says Holly Thomas

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Finding some of the framing of this story pretty weird, I gotta say

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Emily is back! And she’s more triggered than ever. This series imagines how Emily Charlton, the real heroine of The Devil Wears Prada, might express herself if she had time for therapy. Snap open a crisp, refreshing Diet Coke and have a read. hollymcthomas.substack.com/p/emily-char...

hollymcthomas.substack.com

Emily Charlton Goes To Therapy (again)

Part 2: I need a Diet Coke break

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Reposted by Holly Thomas

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 23/05/2026

I've you've watched DWP or DWP2, trust me and click.

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Holly Thomas @holstat.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

After just a little over three years, I'm back! And yes, I have started a Subst — *single shot rings out* This first post goes out to everyone who's suffered bullying at work, straight from the victim of the worst office bully of all time. hollymcthomas.substack.com/p/emily-char...

hollymcthomas.substack.com

Emily Charlton Goes To Therapy

Part 1: A Cuckoo in the Nest

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