iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

NoBlogs is already back -- not that we should be any less horrified and concerned by its temporary shutdown -- but just noting that zinelibrary.org is autonomous of NoBlogs, and open source from a git repo, so anyone can back it up and restore if it goes down.

zinelibrary.org

ZineLibrary

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William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The US is targeting the anarchist collective that hosts the popular Noblogs wordpress platform as terrorists. This is truly batshit (as are their various obvious lies about Rose City Antifa etc). This is a HUGE attack on basic free speech. www.state.gov/releases/off...

state.gov

Designation of Autistici/Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist - United States Department of State

Today, the Department of State, in partnership with the Department of the Treasury, is announcing the designation of Autistici/Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Autistici/Inventati...

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ergopraxis @ergopraxis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

this is how they get you. First the swarm threatens your perceived belonging to the community, then you have to keep posting to prove yourself. It's negging, really

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

MY TAKE: unionization is a good idea actually

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jhanez jhobbes @jhanez.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

the neat thing about one on one relationships with power differentials is that they are rarely a site for abuse and don't need any external monitoring

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Under the advice of friends, I've been avoiding posting or replying to things for the time-being, but I think the recent thing has (perversely?) created a habit of using the site more, so I will probably be bleeting more regularly.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 24/08/2026

Weeks ago, Amnesty International caved to JK Rowling's threats and removed it report on anti-trans groups. But they didn't stop there. Now, it appears that the organization is issuing DMCA takedown notices to activists who saved the report. Subscribe to support our journalism. SB Investigates.

erininthemorning.com

Amnesty UK Reportedly Using Copyright Law To Erase Its Own Report On Anti-Trans Groups And Target Activists

After JK Rowling threatened to sue the human rights organization, it capitulated—and then reportedly issued takedown requests.

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Christopher Hudson @chrishudsonjr.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Some advice for when you’re experiencing a social media pile-on (from experience). 1) Silence or narrow your notifications. Seeing your application flooded with notifications can be just as overwhelming as actual responses. You’re also likely to miss replies you truly want to see.

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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 24/08/2026

It's not 'defending' anyone to have a coherent understanding of academic freedom. A lot of peoples' conception of academic freedom is that it doesn't apply if you decide the person's a horrible human being. Which is just another way of saying you don't believe in academic freedom.

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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

5) I also discuss the Rümeysa Öztürk & Mahmoud Khalil cases in a forthcoming paper in the Markets & Society journal titled "Immigrants’ Rights and the Unfulfilled Promise of American Democracy."

Immigrants’ Rights and the Unfulfilled Promise of American Democracy
Nathan P. Goodman, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, ngoodman@mercatus.gmu.edu
Abstract: The United States of America arose from a revolution. This revolution was motivated by classical liberal values and principles, which were codified in documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The American government has never fully lived up to these principles. In this paper, I argue that immigration restrictions have long enabled significant violations of America’s founding principles. Moreover, I argue that the increasing militarization of immigration enforcement threatens to destroy liberal democracy in America. To fulfill the promise of liberal democracy, we must reaffirm and radically extend the principles of the American founding. Ultimately, this means liberalizing immigration policy and stopping the rapacious state violence of agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

IV.I. Free Speech
As discussed in the previous section, immigration restrictions were used to stifle dissent in both the early republic and in the 20th century. Use of immigration enforcement to crack down on political dissent has continued in recent years. Under the Donald Trump administration, ICE has detained multiple people for their political speech, particularly for their criticisms of the Israeli government’s warfare in Gaza. For instance, Syrian-born immigrant Mahmoud Khalil was detained, and the administration sought his deportation as retaliation for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. His lawyers called this “open repression of student activism and political speech” (quoted in McCausland 2025). Rumeysza Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University, was detained by ICE for writing an op-ed calling on Tufts University administration to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel” (Ozturk et al. 2024; Ozturk 2025). U.S. District Judge William Sessions III rightly saw this as a violation of freedom of speech and warned that it could have a chilling effect on the speech of “millions and millions” of people (quoted in Crampton and Cheney 2025). Indeed, in at least five cases, “federal judges have forcefully rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian student activists, issuing one stinging ruling after another to declare the efforts unconstitutional—with one judge comparing the deportation drive

to the Red Scare” (Gerstein and Cheney 2025). We can only hope that the judiciary will continue to limit this use of immigration enforcement for political repression.
Immigration enforcement and border security efforts have also undermined American values around free expression and free assembly in another way. Coercive tools cultivated for border security are increasingly used to police and surveil protestors and political activists. For example, the Border Patrol has a substantial number of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, which they use to surveil the borders. But the Border Patrol also lends these drones to other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. In the three weeks after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, Border Patrol drones were used to surveil protests in fifteen cities. They have also lent drones to surveil protestors and activists who opposed the construction of fossil fuel pipelines. This includes surveilling protests, pipeline routes, and even activists’ homes. It’s easy to see how this surveillance could have a chilling effect on activities protected by the First Amendment. Similar problems arise with the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), the Border Patrol’s top SWAT team. During the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s murder, BORTAC was on the streets of Portland, where they grabbed suspected protesters and pulled them into unmarked vans (Goodman 2024a; Jones 2023). This type of aggressive, secretive, militarized policing of protests clearly has a chilling effect on political dissent.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Including, I should emphasize, *universities* whose academic staff do have a right to extramural political speech that was upheld by courts.

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Fully Informed Jury Association @fijanational.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

fija.org/news-events...

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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Populations, in a genetic sense, are not "races" in the racialist sense, no matter how much the new scientific racists try to elide the two. That's the most important thing to remember when they start in on the topic.

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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Basically Cofnas is entirely aware that his white supremacy is trivially-discredited pseudoscience and his response is to attempt to render the whole enterprise unfalsifiable by starting from his preferred racial hierarchy and positing an additional racialized component that doesn't show up on tests

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ergopraxis @ergopraxis.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I happen to know Byas, and I think he is a very intellectually honest person that reliably approaches discussions in good faith and has reasonably self-consistent, liberal views. I disagree with a few of those positions, but I think some of you should be approaching him with a lot more courtesy.

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Nikhil Venkatesh @nikvenkatesh.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I worry that social media teaches us basically the opposite of this: saying something that sounds right and puts you on the right side tends to beat careful reflection and engagement with opposing views

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Nikhil Venkatesh @nikvenkatesh.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

One thing philosophy has taught me is that questions that are very important and very emotive can also be very difficult to get right, with a range of reasonable answers. Another is that somethings that sound terrible on first hearing turn out to be amongst those reasonable answers on reflection

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Teaching Clarence Darrow's "Crime and Criminals" in one class tomorrow and Hobbes's Leviathan in the other. The two very extreme opposite poles on a lot of questions, but united in their radical anti-realism about pre-institutional violations of right.

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

"they didn't put in the email 'this is retaliation for extramural speech that falls under a reasonable conception of academic freedom'" isn't particularly probative. of course they didn't put that in the email, yknow?

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

one thing i will say is that i am not in general in the habit of taking things university adminstrators are willing to write down (presumably in consultation with legal) as an unmediated representation of the truth

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

every post is an open letter with one signatory

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Rob the Blue Mage @thebluemage.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Have you considered taking your own advice?

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Brian Kogelmann @bkogel89.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Is polarization rational? Many ask this question, but they only address belief polarization, never affective polarization. Paul Wheatley and I ask: is it rational to be affectively polarized? Our answer: no. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

The Rationality of Affective Polarization | Philosophy | Cambridge Core

The Rationality of Affective Polarization

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KWierso @kwierso.com · 24/08/2026

My strongly held belief is that anyone named Jason Lee Byas should be strung up on a wall and pelted by cans of soup untio they stop stealing oxygen from humanity.

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ergopraxis @ergopraxis.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The paradox of tolerance actually is egregious, and it's a legitimately sad situation that it was popularised by that comic over and against the obviously superior related ideas of reasonable pluralism and overlapping consensus in Rawls.

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Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 22/08/2026

In the middle of nowhere Colorado we drove past a highway billboard that said "Unborn Children for Trump Pence." And someone really ought to let those kids know neither is on the ballot.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This excellent, just-filed amicus brief from @thefireorg.bsky.social defends the plaintiffs' central claims in AAUP v. Rubio--that noncitizens are protected by the First Amendment, and that deportation for political speech is flagrantly unconstitutional. knightcolumbia.org/documents/9j...

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I don't think it is up to the university to make decisions on individual research value. Pre-tenure, academics go through various promotion milestones where they are evaluated by their supervisor (for postdocs) or their peers through standard academic channels. These are effective.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

There's no evidence that Cofnas is not carrying out the work he is funded for. Additionally, the university should be extremely careful not to allow the appearance that they are retaliating for publicizing fraud.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Academic freedom is both a core principle and, ultimately, leads to better science -- it must be defended. /x

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

It is certainly not the role of university administrators to evaluate academics' outside speech or political engagements. Academics live in society too and have a right to lend their academic expertise to political spheres.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

It is not the role of university administrators to evaluate the merit of a topic being studied; silly or wrong-headed research questions can produce useful answers when evaluated with rigor. Whereas a culture of research fear leads to lower quality science.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In fact, Cofnas' race pseudoscience does not survive peer review -- it goes to his blog. This is how we know the standard academic channels are working.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Seeing some arguments for firing Cofnas like this one, that (scare quotes) academic freedom should not apply to pseudo-scholarship and taxpayers shouldn't fund scholar-activism. I think this is wrong. /1

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Academia is a unique space where people can pursue controversial questions wherever they lead. If the work is pseudoscience (and, in my view, Cofnas' race science clearly is), academia has effective channels for response: public criticism and peer-review.

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sirosenbaum.bsky.social @sirosenbaum.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I just can't believe his name is actually Byas

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

People on here are starting to forget why freedom of extramural unscholarly speech is part of academic freedom, even with the firings of people who said unkind truths about Charlie Kirk in recent memory and attacks on extramural pro-Palestinian speech ongoing. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

annualreviews.org

Conceptualizing Academic Freedom

Academic freedom is an unusual and complex set of norms and practices. It arises out of the combination of the corporate self-governance of medieval universities and the spirit of disciplinary scienti...

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Jason Lee My ass thank you.

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Christopher Hudson @chrishudsonjr.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

x Suicidal Maoist x

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Seems like a lot of people on this site do the thing of quote-bleeting and then blocking so you can't even reply.

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is for sure the first time I've ever been called a suicidal Maoist who supports ISIS.

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blurses @blurses.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

reddit edgelord energy

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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Ryan's right: liberals should defend principles of liberty & equality, not technocracy. My colleagues @kristenrosec.bsky.social & @erwindekker.bsky.social do this well. So do my friends @jasonleebyas.bsky.social, @corymassimino.bsky.social, & @arosspowell.bsky.social.

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

If I'm in one of these two groups, it's the played-for-fools group. My opinion of Cofnas is very low, but "academic freedom for people of good character" is a principle that, once put into practice, collapses pretty quickly into no academic freedom.

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Does anyone know of an explicit statement from Lon Fuller of his political views? He's kind of the prime example of philosophers who say basically every single thing that gives strong "I am a classical liberal" vibes (including repeated friendly Hayek citations) short of just saying it outright.

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Jason Lee Byas @jasonleebyas.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Somehow never occurred to me that New Orleans was a place you could live rather than visit.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

getting into menswear TikTok

Anton chigurh asking “what’s the most you ever paid for a raincoat”

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Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief @katie.bzky.team · 25/07/2026

it's fucked up that morning people are right. i've had a whole day's worth of errands and chores but it's not even noon yet and i feel great. What the fuck.

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