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Sean Satori

@seansatori.bsky.social
2.4K followers 1.1K following 11K posts

Government litigator with interests in antitrust, IP, cyberlaw, and privacy. Views = own != legal advice. He/him/y’all. Follow me at: belowtheconversation.substack.com

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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 5h
I finally found a good AI use case. It is currently going through my email and unsubscribing me from every political fundraising email I currently am being bombarded with. Now, can it do text messages too?
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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 6h
I reviewed SUPREMACY for the Los Angeles Review of Books! @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/supr...
lareviewofbooks.org
Who Is Supreme, the People or the Court? | Los Angeles Review of Books
Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan’s new book challenges the supremacy of judicial review over democracy itself.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 17h
This isn’t law. Don’t let anybody argue that law is what the Court does. It’s the raw application of power.
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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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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Stan Woodward continues to beclown himself.
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Hannah BW @hbwhbwhbw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
new preprint: The Public Interest in Private Science. It explores how government grants & contracts became central ways to fund scientific research; argues that these agreements fail to effectively protect either scientific independence or the public interest; & sketches a few possible reforms
papers.ssrn.com
The Public Interest in Private Science
The federal government primarily relies on grants and contracts to fund scientific research. This arrangement emerged as a political compromise after World War
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Always remember, it's not just Trump. This is Public Enemy No. 2: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/o...
Linda Greenhouse
By Linda Greenhouse

Ms. Greenhouse, the recipient of a 1998 Pulitzer Prize, reported on the Supreme Court for The Times from 1978 to 2008.

Chief Justice John Roberts has accomplished so much of his agenda that it’s not easy, as he begins his 22nd Supreme Court term, to think of what unfinished business might remain.

Affirmative action is dead. Roe v. Wade is a fading memory. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is in shreds, rendered incapable of serving its original mission of preventing states from undermining the political power of minority citizens. The executive branch agencies known collectively as the administrative state have lost their independence, with the president now able to fire nearly all agency heads for any reason or no reason at all. Federal judges are no longer to defer to an agency’s interpretation of its own authority, instead being told to decide for themselves the validity of agency regulations. Historical claims that fly under the banner of “originalism” have frozen the government’s ability to regulate the ownership of lethal weapons.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
My son got in a fight at school because someone called him a name. The principal called us to tell us what happened and apparently both of them were pretty dumb. Still great time to explain that if someone says words, you respond with words, not physically.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’m still not calling it the Department of War
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m grand sommelier of all the shadows.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s almost as if Republicans aren’t the sincere defenders of the working class they portray themselves to be.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It is the very central issue driving the country’s aberrant politics right now. Continuous lack of accountability going back to the Nixon era.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Which is ... what, exactly?
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T. Greg Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Pretty cool!
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 27/09/2026
Punxsutawney Jill is sticking her head out a little early this cycle.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The false path of dealing with scapegoating is agreeing with those doing it and promising to scapegoat them too.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We need to keep calling these guys weird until they go away. GTFO weirdos!
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So this site appears to have been created by Elon Musk to 'unskew the polls' and make it appear that Republicans are doing better than they are, likely in an attempt to stop polls from further depressing turnout. What say you BlueSky hivemind? Any other potential people who could be doing this?
pollsmax.com
Polling Methodology | Pollsmax
How Pollsmax collects, standardizes, and averages political polling data for Senate, House, governors, and national charts.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026
This is another great, approachable explainer on “the rationalist wackos who have managed to take over much of the AI industry, and who now have tons of money and political power.” www.iankduncan.com/personal/202...
iankduncan.com
Sex, AI, and the Apocalypse - Ian Duncan
How a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking ...
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I’ve started watching Murderbot on AppleTV and it’s pretty good so far.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
lol holy shit I wouldn't talk about literally anything else if I was the guy running against him. —"What do you think about trans kids in sp-" —"Did you hear my opponent had his patient, who was 8 months pregnant, arrested in front of her son because she didn't pay a $50 medical bill?"
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So I just got polled by some big company, likely tech, about how they can earn trust back after getting in bed with Trump. In case you are wondering what writing they see on the wall…
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I wrote nearly 3,000 words about Silicon Valley sex cults, killer AI, a paperclip game I can't stop playing, and the seventeenth-century mystic who saw it all coming...
belowtheconversation.substack.com
The Sacred Without the Sacrifice
On rationalist sex cults, killer AI, a paperclip game I can't stop playing, and the seventeenth-century mystic who saw all of it coming
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Not only is this deliberate, it’s also being done so that people are in a constantly anxious state, which makes them prone to narratives about immigrants stealing their jobs. Anger that should be focused upwards gets diverted downwards instead.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Most Americans think government is corrupt and this is the reason why.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
NO.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I know the proper thing to do right now is treat the upcoming election like we are 5 points behind. And we should. But I also think it’s ok to start being a little hopeful. Because deep down, most people are good. Like Fred Rogers said: look for the helpers.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The DOJ lawyer who argued in favor of Trump’s CNN/Politico/MSNOw ban once cited Mein Kampf as his favorite book. You seriously cannot make the shit up anymore 😂
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’m riveted by this…
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
JFC, this guy is good. And I don't mean he's skilled. I just mean he's good. The entire word good, wrapped up in one man.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Shocking literally no one...
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
That's because EA is a religion...
belowtheconversation.substack.com
The Sacred Without the Sacrifice
On Silicon Valley sex cults, killer AI, a paperclip game I can't stop playing, and the seventeenth-century mystic who saw all of it coming
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is a great review. I'll caveat with something though: human society needs hierarchy. The goal of law shouldn't be to eliminate it, but to make it justifiable to the broader population. Law both manages rivalry and legitimates hierarchy; both are necessary for it to function.
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🦎 @loungeiguana.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Fun thread if you're looking for a sci-fi read
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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I have not responded to the email that you sent me and which you probably spent awhile writing Forgive me it was so long and my executive functioning is completely shot
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I'm still playing the paperclip game.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I wrote nearly 3,000 words about Silicon Valley sex cults, killer AI, a paperclip game I can't stop playing, and the seventeenth-century mystic who saw it all coming...
belowtheconversation.substack.com
The Sacred Without the Sacrifice
On rationalist sex cults, killer AI, a paperclip game I can't stop playing, and the seventeenth-century mystic who saw all of it coming
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I'm trying to finish my essay on the rationalist sex cult and got sucked into playing universal paperclips again.
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Symbols matter. White House isn't a palace. Kennedy Center is for the general public to enjoy. We don't have a triumphal arch in DC because that's imperial. We don't put the president's face on money because it's monarchical. It's about tearing down everything that says we're a democratic republic.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
You would be unsurprised to learn that DOJ‘s attorney was co-president of Columbia’s FedSoc and also a Claremont Institute fellow. It’s like they grow these guys in test tubes.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I wrote about the recent elections in Germany and the UK. I try to explain why the far-right is winning and what the major parties in both countries can do to stop it.
belowtheconversation.substack.com
The Scapegoat Election
Germany interrupted this cycle once, in 1928. Whether Merz and Starmer can do it again is the open question.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Guys, I’m writing something about Roko’s Basilisk and why AI folks, both the effective altruists and the rationalists, have basically recreated something problematic from ancient religion without discovering how religion actually solved the problem.
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Josh Landau @jslandau.cc · 17/09/2026
As to the “why National is so much worse now”, this goes through the history of how we got here (as well as details on the 2025 collision). Skip to Chapter 2 if you just want the history lesson though the whole thing is a good read. admiralcloudberg.medium.com/reaping-the-...
admiralcloudberg.medium.com
Reaping the Whirlwind | Inside the Potomac River Midair Collision
How America’s golden age of aviation safety came to an end
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This was 100% certain the second he took the witness stand.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Ahh, this is the key thing I've been thinking this is all about. Antitrust is the only legal doctrine so far that has been focused on AI, and Silicon Valley (especially Thiel-aligned people) consider it their biggest threat.
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I'm kind of happy I knew all the words save for two (estivate and peregrinate).
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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Happy Constitution Day theonion.com/area-man-pas...
theonion.com
Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be
ESCONDIDO, CA—Spurred by an administration he believes to be guilty of numerous transgressions, self-described American patriot Kyle Mortensen, 47, is a vehement defender of ideas he seems to think ar...
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SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I'm back, I missed you all. Since this is an important subject I know too much about, here's a 🧵 explaining that AI Safety Is Mostly A Sex Cult. I don't think these people should make policy. (1/?) (alternative title: Time For Some Cult Theory)
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Sean Satori @seansatori.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
George muthafuckin' Will folks.
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