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Louise Seamster

@louiseseamster.bsky.social
7.6K followers 2K following 2.8K posts

debt, development, infrastructure, the economics of racial inequality, and the myth of racial progress. I express my own views

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
learn to code! no, not so you can ANALYZE our code!!!!
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 14/10/2026
This is such important work, and the thing to keep in mind is that when AI people tell you that games will be personalized for you, this is the kind of thing they are more likely to mean.
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 14/10/2026
Sally Rooney books can't be sold in UK due to support for Palestine Action, publisher says
lemonde.fr
Sally Rooney books can't be sold in UK due to support for Palestine Action, publisher says
'To sell a writer's work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation,' publisher Faber said of the decision.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I predict her tenure will last 1 Scaramucci or less
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Per the Middle East Studies Association, since October 7, 76 North American academics have been fired for speaking out against the genocide in Palestine. Two-thirds of those people are non-white. 16.5% are Jewish. afi.mesana.org/resource/les...
Retaliation goes far beyond firing. Of 196 recorded incidents of employer retaliation against employees speaking out on Palestine, nearly 40% (76) resulted in termination. Retaliation that does not rise to the level of termination is an even larger phenomenon.
All categories of academic workers are at risk. Of the 162 individuals whose employment status was disclosed, 30% involved non-tenure track faculty or instructors, and 36% were tenured.
People of color are disproportionately affected. Of the 134 cases recorded in the AFI database in which respondents’ identification is known, two-thirds were people of color: 30% SWANA; 10.5% Black; and 27% other POC. Additionally, 16.5% identify as Jewish. More than half of those targeted whose gender is known are women. Such retaliation compounds the abuse of already racist and sexist work environments.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
the "Disney in line for key assets" part
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Dan "Mr. Bones and Me" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
For most people, AI will not automate their own labor but the management of it. DOGE showed how this would work in the public sector. Now the paranoid racists are gonna ask Grok to find furries everywhere. States like NC & FL have forced more, eg, college syllabi online to facilitate auto-harassment
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Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Imagine what else they’re doing if they really believe that this technology provides them immunity from consequences 
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 12/10/2026
I’ll stop calling everything eugenics when everything stops being eugenics.
Research into genetic influence on athletic performance is still developing, and AlterMe acknowledges that its genetic findings reported through DNA testing have not been clinically validated. However, the company conducts its own research to produce a personalized Fitness and Wellness Genetic Report. It says it uses “a rigorous genetic interpretation process that adheres to strict scientific standards” with “scientific integrity” and “robust research.” AlterMe also states that saliva samples are processed in the US in a CLIA- and CAP-certified lab that meets local regulations.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Congratulations Anna!!!!
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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 12/10/2026
It's official. I AM AN AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR!!! WOW 😭✨ #TheDoubleTax has won the prestigious 2026 Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize, awarded to one author whose work advances gender equity. Past winners include NYT Bestsellers and National Book winners. #GodsPlan womensway.org/events/18th-...
WOMEN'S WAY 

2026 Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize Winner
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, Economist and Author of The Double Tax

Anna Gifty stands in front of library, smiling, wearing an oversized yellow sweater and holding THE DOUBLE TAX with the cover facing the camera

photo credit: Corban Swain
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
After years of championing "free speech," Texas lawmakers have enabled a dramatic rise of censorship in Texas universities, banning concepts, canceling courses and closing departments seen as "woke," and even using AI bots as censors. All in the name of freedom. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
In other professors’ syllabi, the bot flagged the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Angels in America by Tony Kushner, essays by the Mexican American MacArthur genius grant recipient Sandra Cisneros, and materials related to a class about the Holocaust (that professor was told to drop material regarding Nazi persecution of LGBTQ people).

Putting aside the ideological slant of the new rules, the bot, like many large language models, seems to “hallucinate,” or make mistakes. The AAUP lawsuit lists texts banned for their “sex-based ecofeminist framework” and “gendered ecofeminist frameworks.” These phrases might sound persuasively like academese, but the academics behind the lawsuit had never heard of them; these concepts “do not exist,” the complaint says. Matthew Pehl, a history professor at Tech, told me that he knew several people who’d received reports from the system that were “plainly written by an AI that had hallucinated content or confused content from one class to another.”
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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“Texas Tech’s censorship policy does not just affect the humanities. According to the AAUP lawsuit, medical students at the campus in El Paso are no longer permitted to learn about racial disparities in medical care or how to treat underserved populations.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 10/10/2026
If I built an AI lab and it went rogue and deleted all student loan information, I'm betting they'd suddenly figure out how to prosecute me.
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CalMatters @calmatters.org · 11/10/2026
Gavin Newsom backs measure to kill the billionaire tax and ban future wealth taxes Gov. Gavin Newsom isn't just fighting the billionaire tax. He's backing Prop. 42, which would ban future wealth taxes in California, too.
cal.news
Gavin Newsom backs measure to kill the billionaire tax and ban future wealth taxes
Gov. Gavin Newsom isn't just fighting the billionaire tax. He's backing Prop. 42, which would ban future wealth taxes in California, too.
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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Warrantless stops and violent roving patrols by masked federal agents across California, especially the Central Valley, have been terrorizing farm workers for the past 5 days. The chaos is escalating. full statement: www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...
United Farm Workers union condemns brutal
ICE surge impacting farm workers in Central Valley; highlights Rep. Valadao's comments as 'insulting' to his constituents
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A Jelly Squishes Slowly By @ubiquisquish.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The pillar of any older office is a woman named something like Barb or Dorothy who still uses a ton of filing cabinets, and she can never be automated.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I'm also looking forward to the reports that take on, say, the rigor of academic fields like business...
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Which is it? Are students studying useless subjects with no relevance to today's world, professions, etc., or are they studying things too relevant to today's world to have academic value?
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Mei 🪽 @meidotwav.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
treat your body like a data center. consume as much water, art and literature as possible. upset local municipalities with your existence.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
you may be surprised by how low the AGI "threshold" is in dollars: just $100 billion in profits to early investors (sitting at the top of the pyramid)! bsky.app/profile/loui...
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
AND, for that purpose, they've also defined what AGI would be--not "it's alive", although that's the fun thing to tell the media, but much more achievable goals (you'd think) like hitting a certain amount of revenue. So all the hype we hear is the marketing, happening in a different conversation.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
on the "is/could AI conscious or becoming AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) soon" question, one more point I'd make: these cos have big financial stakes set on hitting "AGI" at some specific calendar date--they've promised this to backers
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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I’m in DC scheduled to give this talk today. But the organizers flagged slides in my deck that mention racism, structural gaslighting, New Jim Code and other themes that are off limits in the Land of the Free.
APA Women’s Leadership Institute event flyer with “keynote speaker” crossed out with a red X
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I love this
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The American Dream is amazing: within just a few years you can go from being the child of Cuban immigrants to the great-grandson of Spanish settlers.
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kelsey ables @kelseyables.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
New: The White House is conditioning $190 million for the Smithsonian on compliance with its executive order "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" through legally-binding footnotes in recent OMB apportionments. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
theatlantic.com
The White House Revives a Pressure Tactic Against the Smithsonian
The Trump administration is threatening $190 million in museum funding.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This is a great book! I got to read it for a panel this August
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Jonathan Feingold @jpygold.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Heard of “the confederacy of California”? I hadnt. Til I read @rahimk.bsky.social new book on a hotbed of white supremacy in LA county. I pulled Rahim into our latest #RaceClass episode. Lots of hero’s & villains LA folks will know well. Baca. Villanueva. Blasi. on.soundcloud.com/sNlarAbCShNX...
Cover to Indefensible Spaces by Rahim Kurwa
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think people should listen to what the administration trying to bring back spectacle lynchings, race riots, and middle passage-esque deportation voyages are trying to tell you about themselves. bsky.app/profile/bren...
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Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“accompanying faith in future technological salvation provides another crutch: a way of postponing difficult choices today by placing hope in solutions that may arrive tomorrow” - @kevinclimate.bsky.social
theguardian.com
Scientists who put faith in technology less likely to take climate action
‘Techno-optimism’ may lead to reliance on unproven solutions at expense of societal changes needed
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This made me laugh this week.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
my dad made my sister a Chompo Bar with a handmade wrapper for her 3rd birthday and it was one of her favorite presents
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
the guy missed the part where his wife actually wants to take a shower/do dishes/lie on the floor, and "can you read your baby a book" means "hold your dang baby a minute"
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
www.theregreview.org/2026/10/08/n...
theregreview.org
Reforming the Reform | The Regulatory Review
A recent Education Department rule fails to remedy overborrowing while hurting already-disadvantaged students.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
he is welcome to try out the digitization tech!
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
*I use "human" more in the sense of "human shaped"
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
every defense of progress-as-ideal has a clause about how it's all worth it for technological advances--Sam Altman is just the concentrated human embodiment of this idea
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
oh I meant to add, undoing the Voting Rights Act and going after birthright citizenship, limited room per post...
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
(oh and in addition to the policy shifts, they have also not grappled with the shift in ideology from "build the wall" to "remigration," Great Replacement Theory and open white supremacy.)
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Less than consultants, right now progressive politicians need advice from some constitutional law experts, immigration lawyers and historians, and critical race scholars on what's happening. **not to mention** talking to affected people!!!
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
--targeting documented immigrants, denaturalizing people, weaponizing routine legal appts, Kavanaugh stops, turning the refugee program into a farce, ending TPS, changing green card and HB-1 visa rules, empowering ICE to "investigate" supposed election fraud, and merging w/the surveillance state...
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Democrats are still using lines from the 2015 playbook on immigration ("strengthen the border" etc..) and meanwhile the whole post-1965 citizenship model is crumbling
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
me last year: academics use a lot of jargon student: what's jargon mean
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"The letter from Mr. Raskin says the email was sent from “President@Bard.edu.”"!!!!
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Former @bardcollege.bsky.social President and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Leon Botstein, has finally resigned all his college positions after emails emerge in which he asked Epstein if a trafficked woman was “for me.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...
nytimes.com
Leon Botstein, Former Bard President With Epstein Ties, Resigns From College Positions
Leon Botstein had already retired from the presidency of the liberal arts college this spring, after emails showed he had maintained a longtime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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Stephen Vaisey 🇺🇦 @stephenvaisey.com · 07/10/2026
BTW this means no funding for GSS, ANES, or PSID. GSS 2026 is in the field now, but then it looks like that's it. Devastating for social science.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
it was all a bit disturbing--that prime is hosting this movie depicting it as a horrible workplace and more generally expressing (some, light) critique of modern wealth inequality, and letting you "shop" its clothes
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
II just watched Good Fortune on Amazon Prime and now when you pause the movie you can "shop" the still image by highlighting things on screen, and I did spend some time trying to "Shop" the "pee bottle" thrown at the main character in a scene where he's depicted working at an Amazon clone.
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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
written in diary: "solved math today, on to theoretical physics tomorrow"
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