iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 4h

Definitely, plus the cathartic element of acting out. Similar to the serial killer antihero except hitmen are constantly trying to quit, while serial killers never do.

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Right Livelihood @rightlivelihood.org · 8h

The 2026 Right Livelihood Award goes to women and women-led organisations challenging entrenched power structures: 🏆 Jalila Haider @jalilahaider.bsky.social 🏆 Rural Women's Assembly 🏆 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association 🏆 Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app rightlivelihood.org/2026-announc...

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Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 4h

“She is one of a number of representatives from across the UK’s women’s sector who told us how, far from tackling violence against women, far-right activity has actively disrupted frontline women’s services – and ultimately left victims more vulnerable.” www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

thebureauinvestigates.com

‘Fear is part of our life now’: women’s groups thrown into disarray…

Anti-immigration protestors are disrupting services aimed at those they claim to protect

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 14h

Wired just did a story noting that an influencer named Kurt Schlichter is a “civilian government advisor” (?) to Hegseth. This dude has been around forever in internet time and writes the worst novels that are basically Turner Diaries fanfic www.wired.com/story/a-pent...

wired.com

A Pentagon Influencer Called Liberal Women a ‘Pestilence’ Who Will End Western Civilization

Kurt Schlichter was part of a task force rooting out so-called woke ideologies at the military’s war colleges. He has called to bar childless adults from voting.

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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 18h

there literally is no system that is abuse proof, so at a certain point you’re just against the abstract concept of authority or power in general. I think about this when it comes to ALPRs for traffic enforcement. Like if you want to have laws at all, you have to give someone power.

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 8h

One of the things to come from GamerGate was the gamification of torturing real, live women...hounding them out of their homes, making them look over their shoulders for years. It was treated as a joke, nbd, the work of a few bad apples--as all terrorism against women is--& that failure leads here.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

I almost watched it last night but I went with The Replacement Killers. No regrets! But I am on the couch now with GPB to remedy this lapse.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

I don't begrudge the IAC members for trying to make a difference in this way, but I will just say it didn't take much probing on my part to determine that GIFCT was not independent, and once you settle that, it's not a big leap to understand that the I in the IAC is also just PR doublespeak.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

This was bad enough in 2022, but the CEOs of the controlling companies are all now unambiguously participants in the fascist enterprise, and they are only interested in enforcing content policies consistent with that enterprise. So kudos to those who just resigned. It's only going to get worse.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

In short, the IAC was a joke. But it didn't matter because GIFCT was also a joke. It is nominally "independent" but its director is chosen by the tech cos., and its funding controlled by the same. If GIFCT ever did a damn thing to justify its claim of independence, let me know, I'm all ears.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

Some civil society members tried to get buy-in to put out an extremely anodyne statement about January 6 when it happened. It was vetoed by the governments. Even some of the civil society members balked, seeing their role as whispering advice in the tech companies' ears, perhaps hoping for access.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

I was a founding member of the IAC. I quit because the IAC was structured to ensure gridlock, with half the members coming from civil society and the other half comprised of representatives of governments. The gov reps (Kash Patel was one of them) were 100% committed to making no waves.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 9h

I resigned from the GIFCT Independent Advisory Committee in 2022, before it was cool. The only difference now is that they're not even bothering to pretend badly that GIFCT is independent or that it does anything meaningful. www.wired.com/story/indepe...

wired.com

Meta-Led Anti-Terrorism Group Faces Mass Resignation of Expert Advisers

Meta and other tech giants are pushing through structural changes at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism that outside researchers allege will weaken oversight of an already embattled consor...

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Joe Uchill @joeuchill.bsky.social · 10h

I'd watch a hitman movie about a hitman hired to covertly make sure the boss's incompetent son, also a hitman, finishes each hit successfully and thinking he's good at his job.

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Scott Fenstermaker @scottfenstermaker.bsky.social · 9h

The hitman genre is in dire need of its own Airplane-style satire.

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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 10h

lmao

Google: Because of that executive order today, the proper corporate names for OpenAI and SpaceXAI will effectively function under the OpenSI and XSI umbrella in official government documents and the broader industry rebrand.

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Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 11h

I like this piece (and it explains a lot about teenaged-me loving Forsyth’s DAY OF THE JACKAL) but I admit to being a little sad that GROSSE POINTE BLANK doesn’t feature in it. :)

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 10h

I haven't seen it yet but it's been in my queue!!

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sina @rejectionking.bsky.social · 11h

!!!!!!!!!!

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Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 12h

Kiddo, a high school sophomore, was interested in Cornell for undergrad. I asked her if she had seen the campus rape thing. Her response: “yeah, and I am no longer interested in applying to Cornell.”

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 12h

The Pope's Hitman definitely deals with that stuff, although I admit to yadda yadda yaddaing through some of it.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12h

“Well, you see, I have to stay on the White Supremacist Child Porn Rape Victim Doxxing site because that’s where my community is”

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 13h

Buying fast food for my family, it’s over $50, which feels like a lot. Not unreasonable from the restaurant, but like going out to dinner, not grabbing something cheap. So I looked up fast food prices, and they’ve risen faster than inflation. Add that to the why people say stuff’s expensive list.

crews.bank

Chart of the Day: Fast Food Inflation

Today’s Chart of the Day shows the inflation of fast-food prices over the last of 10 years vs. actual inflation of everything else.

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stevve.bsky.social @stevve.bsky.social · 15h

I like the hitman in Mikey and Nicky who sucks at it and complains the whole time

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 13h

Yes, although also this is a movie that is engrossing while it is on but does not hold up well when thought about afterward

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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 14h

Yup, MAHA/MAGA is doing all it can to torpedo cervical cancer prevention: -It blocked the US Preventive Services Taskforce from issuing a recommendation on screening -RFK Jr peddles the horrific, deadly lie that HPV vaccine increases risk of cervical cancer (he made $$$$ suing the vaccine maker)

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Owen Barcala @obarcala.bsky.social · 14h

Once again granting a stay with no analysis of the stay factors in a case where the balance of equities is utterly bonkers

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Roger @partlyhuman.com · 14h

Doxxing as a Service: "In one case, Muse unmasked a person whose name had been kept out of news reports for fear of retaliation and harassment. In another, it tied several pseudonymous accounts to the same person. It also matched a private Instagram account to a real person..."

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Gore Vidal Sassoon @jimmyjazz1968.bsky.social · 15h

good opportunity to rizz The Day of the Jackal, which is the absolute pinnacle of these films imo

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Charles Miller @carl.fish · 15h

One thing I really liked about the 60s Day of the Jackal movie was how the creators weaponised this against the audience. Just when you started to root for the competent, cool assassin, they hit you _hard_ with how flat-out evil he was (and that you'd have to be to do that job).

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Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 15h

Great piece. Part of why I loved Linklater's HIT MAN was its exploration of that trope and how we desire the fantasy of the competent killer

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 15h

man the republicans who hate language policing are going to be so mad about this

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

I'll write about this more but Barry Eisler's John Rain series does this really well

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

Many of you have mentioned this movie which I will confess I bailed out of after about 20-30 minutes

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

The reboot also did a really effective job with this

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

Oh well, y'all are not going to like my forthcoming piece on that particular movie lol, but I look forward to hearing from people about why I am wrong

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David Avallone @davallone.bsky.social · 15h

A review of HEAT, back when it came out, called Michael Mann "the poet of masculine competence" and that has stayed with me forever.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

Yes, but! my forthcoming post on literary inspirations for The Pope's Hitman will talk about the team/family aspect found in book series that particularly influenced me.

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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 15h

My latest: Why are hitman movies such a perennial genre? I make the case that they're workplace competency porn. medium.com/the-berger-d... #booksky #movies #thepopeshitman #thrillers

medium.com

The Hitman Genre as Workplace Competency Porn

It’s nice that they’re good at their jobs.

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 17h

1 - You have got to be fucking kidding me. 2 - I’ll take it. A win’s a win.

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Aram Sinnreich @aramsinn.bsky.social · 16h

Sounds like a massive gift to a certain South African nazi trillionaire

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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 17h

Do we seriously have to do Maoist newspeak every single time an 80 year old posts his idiotic ideas on the internet. It has been AI since before I was even born. Can literally anyone have a shred of dignity.

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