Tim Verstynen

What is intelligence?
Department Gadfly
Data Alchemist
Synthetic Psychologist
Zombie Apologist
"The enemy" - JD Vance

Make billionaires extinct (again)

Opinions are my own. Not gonna let my employer take credit for them.

Pronouns: He/Him
Lab website: https://www.cognitiveaxon.com
Life goal: Be the Bill Drummond of science

Last Notes

2024-12-22 21:47:41 UTC

Someone pointed out to me that you probably don’t see profiles/analysis of the vocal supporters of Luigi Mangione in legacy media because of fears that it will rationalize or normalize his actions.
It made me reconsider why we get all of those profiles of Trump supporters after each election.

2024-12-19 17:48:35 UTC

There are so many red flags with this incoming Musk-Trump administration that it's now the only color that one can see.
I saw someone else point out that if you could take control of your enemy's government to inflict the most harm, this is what it would look like.
I'm starting to believe that's true.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-security-clearance-putin-b2665462.html

2024-11-28 14:08:19 UTC

This is simultaneously messed up and a pretty decent reflection on the state of our current society.
(gift link)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/nyregion/banana-auction-sothebys.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dU4.SjXo.v7GQ6YfXfi90&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

2024-11-18 01:33:18 UTC

I don’t think anything is going to change until Americans wake up and realize that we have experienced a slow motion coup, critically enabled by an ideologically (and wantonly undemocratic, unconstitutional) Supreme Court.
Over the last 14+ years SCOTUS has:
- Paved the way for a flood of dark money into politics, based off of the irrational idea that money is speech and corporations are people (itself an idea only due to an offhand comment by a Supreme Court justice a century earlier).
- Gutted the Voting Rights act and brazenly allowed voter suppression to return.
- Neutered the 4th Amendment by repeatedly allowing warrantless entry and surveillance.
- Obliterated the idea of expertise in governmental policy (by gutting the Chevron doctrine), paving the way for rampant political & corporate interference in our laws and regulations.
- Brazenly defied the clear language of the 14th Amendment that says that someone who engaged in insurrection cannot be on the ballot for office.
- Rewrote historical & legal precedent in declaring that the President is, in fact, above the law.
So now we are in a position where an insurrectionist is returning to power (despite the 14th Amendment), brazenly advertising his corruption and intention to disregard the Constitutional, enabled by the oligarch class and a corrupt Supreme Court.
This isn’t a democracy anymore. We lost. It is now an oligarchy. The whole system needs to be burned and rebuilt for things to really change now.
#trump #election2024 #coup #SCOTUS

2024-11-08 12:29:21 UTC

I see all these op-eds pontificating on what the Democrats did wrong & #Trump did right this #election. They are all the same old talking points as before because no one is willing to admit the truth: the Harris campaign assumed that most Americans are good and decent people, while Trump knew that you can override our better angels through fear and division.
It’s not that complicated, but something that the talking heads don’t seem to want to admit.

2024-08-30 19:11:21 UTC

- reply

I am hopeful for that change too. I’m not sure the general genius has ever been true, but the stereotype is definitely harmful. So as those of us in the Ivory Tower, maybe it’s up to us to change the narrative

2024-08-30 12:55:01 UTC

No one:
Absolutely no one:
John McWhorter: Joy is really just coded racism
(How this clown is considered an expert on anything is just beyond me at this point)
https://media.neuromatch.social/media_attachments/files/113/051/073/234/759/007/original/1d966895e533f6d4.png