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Liz McCausland

@lizmc2.bsky.social
289 followers 302 following 4K posts

Who even knows anymore?

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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I am a good Anglican Church Lady but a kinda half-hearted believer. AI is going to make me a street-corner evangelist at this rate. 😂
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Maybe that “AI can read to my kid” post is a joke or a troll but even so it says something about the anti-human orientation of this tech and those embracing it. I find myself doubling down on the human in all its frailty and mess. And recognizing that for me this is partly a religious commitment.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
When your goal is to be the wire monkey in Harlow’s experiment.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
FB ads about equal parts “US voters abroad, return your ballots!” and “Hey, wanna renounce that pesky US citizenship?” (not from the same groups obviously).
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Reminds me of going to info nights for specialized high school programs with my kids. One teacher acknowledged that most of them (except STEM-focused) got way more applications from girls and they try to roughly gender balance (if not 50-50) so way easier to get in as a boy.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
For some reason FB decided to show me a bunch of posts from Stanford showing their new Nobel laureate doing stuff like making his kids’ school lunches and announcing the news to them and I know it’s marketing but it’s also cute and wholesome. Guess they got me.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Have to keep reminding myself I have a cold so I don’t beat myself up for being lazy and unfocused. Stupid Protestant ethic. (Protestantism 100% to blame; I remember my mom telling me that CS Lewis said he always felt better when he made himself do things when sick). 😂
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I have a cold so I have spent a lot of the day reading and snoozing in bed. Nothing makes a cat happier than someone who takes to her bed. Also my bedroom has lovely afternoon light that I am rarely in it to enjoy.
Tuxedo cat stretched out very very long along the legs of a person over a bright striped comforter.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Double election October = popped out to get bread and library holds, met my provincial NDP candidate and saw people early voting in the municipal election. Reminding me I need to print and mail my US ballot early next week.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I don’t think an em dash is always an AI tell, but “we’re not going A — we’re doing B” is aping AI if not written by it. Humans and bots copying each other until it’s all one bland mush of “content.” (The Titanic thing is truly funny. 0 context.)
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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My new JOD piece arguing against the “cure polarization” approach to saving democracy.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My son and daughter in law want to come over and make dumplings for dinner tonight and this new phase of life is seeming pretty great.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
First batches of student papers are coming in next week so of course I also have 4 library holds to pick up. It never fails.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Finally got time to digest this excellent news. I hope it leads to big changes. Government resistance to safer supply, medical or non-medical, is killing people.
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Oooh, the poet Layli Long Soldier is a MacArthur Fellow! I loved her collection "Whereas." So excited to see what some genius opinion writer from the Times has to say about how there are not enough white guy geniuses being honored this year.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s local honeycrisp apple season! 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Can a woman in a TV show ever just give birth without drama?
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
One peek at a happy day.
My son and I walking down the aisle at his wedding. We are on a paved patio with guests seated in white chairs. He is in a navy suit and I am in a navy dress with pink flower pattern at the waist and hips. I am holding his arm and we are smiling at each other.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Exhausted but happy, the weather was perfect, the wedding was lovely and simple and suited them. It’s wild seeing a wedding ring on my son’s hand. Surely they are just children playing dress up, because I am far too young to have a married child.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I did not drop the wedding cake and it was delicious.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I swear I put 4 pins in my hair but I think it ate 1.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Trying to imagine being the kind of person who would not only have this simile in my back pocket, but also feel fine saying it to a Times reporter. I cannot. I cannot imagine being that person. Also the kind of sales job this awful guy deserves.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
Damn. With the alt text:
The incident fits a broader pattern in the discourse around 'free speech' and 'cancel culture': 
[Section highlighted]
whatever comes from the top down is freedom; whatever comes from the bottom up is bullying and censorship.
[End highlight]
When Macklemore is dropped at the behest of the billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft, it's an exercise of the freedom of businesses to 'demonstrate their values' by deciding whom to platform. But when Ed Sheeran's fans decide not to buy tickets to his performances, or even demand refunds, it's bullying, mob behaviour. Since most people are not billionaires and do not own stadiums, they can exercise meaningful power only collectively. The collective exercise of power must therefore be demonised.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I survived the work week! (Dazed and confused). Now family is here I am mostly happy/excited about wedding day tomorrow. I am picking up the cake and my parents cruelly told me the story of how their wedding cake tipped over in the caterer’s van. Nightmare fuel, thanks Mom and Dad.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Late middle age = getting dressed for work, wondering if I wore the same outfit last Wednesday (can barely remember what I wore yesterday), thinking I should write down what I wear to work so I don’t repeat too much, deciding I don’t care.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I texted that photo to my kid and when I was at work I got this one back. Many of our texts are cat photos. Sometimes when we’re both home. “Look where she’s being cute now!”
Tuxedo cat on her back in someone’s lap, front paws in the air, looking like she might grab your hand if you dared to rub her belly (which she likes, but she also likes to grab you when you do it).
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
You can just not read and post about a boring, vapid, predictably racist NYT opinion piece. As long as you hate-click, you are doing what they want. (I’ve done it too, of course, but why are we still falling for it?)
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My yoga buddy ready to go.
Tuxedo cat sitting alertly on the end of a yoga mat.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I got a work email signed "Kind regards, [your name]" so that fills me with confidence.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Staring down the week ahead wishing I had the kind of job where you could take a few days off around your kid’s wedding instead of teaching/grading/meeting through it. I am excited! But! There is A LOT.
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karen ward @kwardvancouver.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
[registers B.C. Vacant Shell Party, wins 17 consecutive elections]
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My reading group had a delicious potluck lunch as usual, and a lively discussion of Stone Yard Devotional. I realized this is my 2nd nun-adjacent pick (the previous one was Small Things Like These) and both went over well. So I need to be plotting a nun book for next year?
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A couple of Kid2’s friends are staying with us to go to a show Fri night, I’m hosting my book group Sun, Kid2’s partner arrives for a 2 week visit Mon, my family arrives for wedding Wed (but not staying with me). I need to give up now on my house being as clean as I’d like for any of this.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I got my hair cut and discovered my stylist did my son’s “wedding haircut” this morning. My stylist first cut my hair when I was pregnant with my son, and first cut my son’s hair when son was 3. Pretty sweet. But also we both felt ancient.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Come ON, Mr. Death. It’s been years since I read Annie Dillard, but I still have images from her books in my head. Time to revisit.
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Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Arch Manning and a room full of journalists laughing about an AI video of Steve Sarkisian slapping Holly Rowe is a horrible look. awfulannouncing.com/college-foot...
awfulannouncing.com
Arch Manning had a good laugh over AI edit of Steve Sarkisian slapping Holly Rowe
Steve Sarkisian blowing off ESPN reporter Holly Rowe after Texas’s comeback win over Ohio State on Saturday was bad form, and he received plenty of pushback in the days since. In the Longhorns locker…
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I don’t know anything about college football so I had to figure out what this was about. And now I’ve spent the whole morning wondering if men I work with would laugh sycophantically about an AI video of me getting smacked. I don’t *think* they would. . . .
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I am excited to read this.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 14/09/2026
Free newsletter: The idea that we're nearing the creation of AI systems that we can't control and that pose an existential threat to humanity is a lie and a distraction from the tangible harms and problems caused by LLMs and AI labs' near-unlimited resources. www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-alread...
wheresyoured.at
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-already-in-dangerous-hands/
If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year, $18 a quarter, or $7 a month. In return you get a weekly newsletter…
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Ramona is enjoying the return of furry throw blanket season.
Tuxedo cat curled on a cream furry throw beside the feet of a person stretched out on a sofa. She is looking over her shoulder at the camera.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Guess what’s paved with good intentions?
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MurderBotBot @murderbotbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Possibly I should just stop complaining like a human and get on with it.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
On the train to work I have been rereading Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional, which I chose for my reading group, and loving it just as much as the first time. (On the train home from work I have been staring vacantly into space because the first week of classes is exhausting).
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My institution is in a better position than many peers (and I am grateful for our history of risk-aware governance/management) but we’ve still had painful cuts and I’ve talked to plenty of students who can’t get courses they need.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A student asked me after class (first-year college writing) yesterday if we would be typing some assignments. In their last year of high school, everything had to be hand written, presumably in class. This cannot be the way.
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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"The idea that preparing students to succeed in an AI-saturated world requires reimagining college as an AI incubator is not a sign of technological acumen, but of tech illiteracy." This is so good.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Casualties of the first week of the semester at the lost and found.
A brick half wall topped by a window (enclosing a security office) inside a large atrium. Lined up on the window ledge is a row of reusable water bottles.
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Halfway through the teaching work and incredibly tired. It was a scramble this year but I don’t *think* today’s class could tell that I did the last tweaks to the schedule two hours before class started. . . .
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Liz McCausland @lizmc2.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Text from my mom: “We went to the farm and got peaches and cider donuts after we voted.” So New Hampshire primary.
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