Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 4hWho doesn't love Fall in San Diego? Balmy in the mid-90s with limited AC. So awesome! 000
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026In case anyone is wondering, San Diego‘s chronically mild weather has become chronically mildly unpleasant, what with this annoying humidity. 130
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Rove and Carlson supporting senate Dem candidates was not on my bingo card. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...independent.co.ukTucker Carlson backs Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan Senate raceMike Rogers is ‘unfit to serve’, right-wing commentator writes, after wave of Islamophobic abuse against El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani over 9/11 000
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I used to be one of those people who said things like "I don't understand how San Diego weather can get boring." Lo: 011
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 15/09/2026It would be awesome if the main result of rogue AI was simply that it made the internet and connected devices totally unusable. 100
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasAndrew Lopez @andrulus.bsky.social · 12/09/2026This paper is now out! If you're interested in politics on the internet, 4chan, and the intersection of politics, sociology, and philosophy, give it a read! journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article...journals.publishing.umich.eduIt’s Just a Joke: Thinking Online Politics with Jorge PortillaI argue that the philosophy of Jorge Portilla can help us understand the current social and political conditions of the United States. In particular, I draw from Portilla’s account of relajo and his w... 163
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Yes, but does this mean at least one person gets the ability to echolocate? 000
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasShen-yi Liao 廖顯禕 @liao.shen-yi.org · 09/09/2026It's scandalous that for-profit companies like SpringerNature and Elsevier rent-seek from academic publishing and profit off of our labor. I'm also convinced by @hiphination.bsky.social that it's just as scandalous that for-profit digital infrastructure companies do the same in higher education.globecollegetown.substack.comCollege campuses need to be liberated from their administratorsHigher ed is being strangled by absurd and costly rules. What message is that sending to students? 152
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Would this summer have been a bit more chill if back in the day SCOTUS was like, "Actually, we pick Gore?" 000
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasAlejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 09/09/2026The alarms are all flashing red. 1542324730
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026I can't believe we're talking about renaming NM. We've got to save "New America" for the moon, obviously. Also, the solar system needs to be renamed the American System, and the Milky Way is . . . wait for it . . . THE AMERICAN WAY. 020
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 04/09/2026A crisply stated overview of my current-ish views about free will, by George Semaan at The Daily Neuron. dailyneuron.com/moral-respon...urldefense.comMoral Responsibility Doesn't Need Free Will to Do Its Job - Daily NeuronBlame and praise can keep working even if nobody was ever free to choose otherwise. The philosophical case for keeping them, and what it costs. 001
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026If AI stayed down, how long would it take to see a discernible improvement in student learning? 030
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Philosophers and furniture stores fighting about what it means to define a room. 110
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 02/09/2026In the absence of any real knowledge about what happened, I'm blaming the stalled out inter webs on AI, stupid wars with enemies and allies, and all the enemies of free will revisionism. 010
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026This is awesome. cailinoconnor.substack.com/p/nara-smith...cailinoconnor.substack.comNara Smith is a Performance Artist, Not a TradwifeA close textual reading of the work of Smith 010
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026It would be funny if Nolan reviewed Emily Wilson's new book, focusing on its putative shortcomings concerning imagistic, musical, and generally cinematic elements. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/b...nytimes.comFor Emily Wilson, Translating the Ancients Requires a Dash of Cardi BA new book of essays by the celebrated classicist captures her excitement for her subject matter and the surprising range of her references. 110
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I wonder how much would it cost to get an executive order stipulating that Manuel Vargas' philosophical views on any given topic must always be referred to as "the true view." 030
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Stares in revisionism (at the original headline). 020
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasShiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Ozymandias shoulda made two monuments so he could have told people to look upon his works ye mighty and de spare 601675222
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Am desk rejecting the Parton news. She had remarkable grace for someone who lived her life in the fishbowl of celebrity. 030
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026TIL I learned the long-deleted "Voice Memos" app on my phone provides transcription, thus allowing me to transcribe paper ideas worked out while hiking. 000
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Yeah, well since we are all using pretty loose notions of "potential," I'm pleased to announce that the potential revenue opportunities for investing in me is $30 QUADrillion. 010
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Turns out that knowledge of how coaxial cables screw on to coaxial ports is also no longer general knowledge for youngsters. It feels like the beginning of Battlestar Galactica where only folks using ancient tech survive the AI uprising. 040
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Wisdom of the ages: impressing daughter and her roomie w/ my practical knowledge of how portable dishwashers from the 1980s work 021
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasMerriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 19/08/2026People who don’t know the difference between ‘entomology’ and ‘etymology’ bug us in ways we cannot put into words. 568197983682
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 18/08/2026This is a helpful (and, alas, alarming) discussion of how we are inadvertently training artificial systems to deceive and cheat. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The A.I.s Are Already Out of ControlHelen Toner, who served on OpenAI’s board, hopes the recent hack by that company’s models serves as a warning. 001
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 15/08/2026New idea for my utopia: outright ownership rights to the AI company of your choice to whichever country or company provably makes the biggest dent in mitigating climate change. Ownership of a second AI company of your choice for eliminating or overcoming data center environmental effects. 020
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Some, uh, striking changes to academic freedom in the US. academic-freedom-index.net 111
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 07/08/2026New law in my utopia. Every college athletics program that runs at a deficit for more than two years is required to pause major sports and pour in equivalent amount of money lost into the humanities for two years before they can restart major sports. 093
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Hey everyone: I have an idea! Let’s improve the greatest higher ed system in the world by emulating places whose higher ed system is falling apart! We‘d be so much better off with less [checks notes], uh, social work and teaching aides? Less music? And no one likes religion, right? Right? 030
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasThe New Republic @newrepublic.com · 03/08/2026President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6vtrib.alTrump Moves to Cut Off Student Loans for Tons of DegreesUnder a new rule, if your degree doesn’t make enough money, you won’t be able to get a student loan. 2121193821
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasJonathan Edward Durham @thisone0verhere.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Seems kinda irresponsible to start another week like right after that last one. Borderline reckless. 929838
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Pretty sure I'd be a lifetime voter for anyone who can undo climate change and effectively rolls back the current outbreaks of, say, ticks, explosive diarrhea, measles, chagas, West Nile, and ebola. 151
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Inspired by Nolan's Odyssey, this fall term I'm gonna present Fanon as Afro-Caribbean on my slides, St. Augustine as N. African, and Jaegwon Kim as Asian. People will condemn it as woke, but I'm making a point about the fall of the American Empire. #philsky 040
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Pretty sure this set a record for the number of jokes about tortas in Mexican social media. 000
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasNeedhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 29/07/2026From the abstract: “promoting a woman to Associate Professor increases female faculty by 1.5 members after 15 years, leads to six additional female PhD graduates over the following decade, and raises the number who subsequently remain in academia and reach tenured positions” 119888
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Can confirm, Obsession is pretty good horror. 000
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 28/07/2026My fav tenure/promo letters to write are the ones where the dept is super clear about standards and the candidate just blows past those standards by a country mile. 140
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Using AI to set up filters to block email and messages about AI, even as I write papers about AI. 010
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo Vargasda share z0ne @dasharez0ne.bsky.social · 24/07/2026DA REAL INTERNET MUST COME BACK - dashare.zone ADMIN 03061709
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Or, the inevitability of Sor Juana. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/b...nytimes.comValeria Luiselli on Her Favorite Books and Her New NovelPliny’s “Natural History” is meant for “skimming and skipping,” she says. Her own new (one-volume) road-trip novel is “Beginning Middle End.” 011
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 24/07/2026I have a profound love/hate relationship with reading tenure/promotion files. I always learn a ton, but there is no way to do this properly that doesn't take an enormous amount of time and it is rare that anything we write makes much difference to what happens. 040
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Disappointed to learn that the "Brown Investigator Award" isn't actually targeting browns who are investigators. 000
Reposted by Manuel Buckaroo VargasNathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏 58153723627
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Was told this by a friend in the UK and I thought it had to be a mistake. But apparently it isn't? The UK has a per capita GDP lower than ANY state in the U.S. www.newsweek.com/britons-gues...newsweek.comBritons guess how wealthy UK is vs. all US states—and get it all wrongBritons were asked to rank U.K. wealth against U.S. states'. A report found most guessed wrong—placing Britain far higher than reality. 010
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 16/07/2026I would totally watch a tourney that has the top 4 most endearing teams that didn’t make it into the quarterfinals and beyond. Call it the Fan’s Cup. 220
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Still laughing that one of the WC finalists is led by an MLS star, and they got there by defeating a team chock-full of EPL stars. 000
Manuel Buckaroo Vargas @unfilosofo.bsky.social · 15/07/2026That's what you get for golfing with that one guy. 020