Quinn Norton

https://social.circl.lu/@quinn

Writer, migrant, surprisingly nice in person. I write, these days mostly explainers. Old queer. I would rather be blocked than tone policed. It's all warnable content. More meme literate than I should be at this age. I mainly shitpost, then sometimes make you cry. ❤️
(I take #alt4u help, thanks)

Writer: Internet, Security, Climate, End Times Weirdness, Utopias etc
On break for medical shit: Usually at emptywheel.net
¯\_(ツ)_/¯: LLM vegan
It's usually sensitive content: B. 329 ppm

Public Key

npub1ls4zq7un7ck7stvpf66jnuuq6n86c38fzpkkwdcn6n2jhvv0jj9sy77vtk

NIP-05 Address

quinn_at_social.circl.lu@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0c23q0wflvt0g9kq5adff7wqdfnavgn53qmt8xufaf4ftkx8efzcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswsnpua

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ls4zq7un7ck7stvpf66jnuuq6n86c38fzpkkwdcn6n2jhvv0jj9sy77vtk

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Last Notes

2026-05-16 19:47:27 UTC

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When are Americans going to stop having parades and actually do something about about the Trump administration? Hint: if your protest has a parade permit, it's not a protest. It's a parade, a walk with cute signs.
Block something, fight back, take the streets ffs, maybe get in the way of the government.

2026-05-16 19:42:25 UTC

This, on the gear to cover (or attend) a real protest, holds up after some years.
https://medium.com/message/dressed-for-excess-47a89d343a06

2026-05-01 09:06:17 UTC

Ok time for some SCIENCE. Movie science.
How much do you see movies and where?

2026-04-28 12:52:51 UTC

Me, Gen X, talking to my millennial partner: "I need you to understand how deeply traumatized my generation is, and how it interacts with our politics and world view."
*Reaches for the Neverending Story DVD*
(Also we're all lead poisoned, and survived on hose water, ketchup-is-a-vegetable lunches and Tupac and Biggie)

2026-04-24 08:30:49 UTC

I'm endlessly confused by the wave of legislation to ban children from accessing social media, rather than banning social media companies from harming children.
And yes I know Free Speech but now we know that we can torture and sicken people, including kids, in this medium. Some of the things we currently call Free Speech turn out to be poison, mental control, and torture.
At some point we have to separate the "innovation" from the digital lead and asbestos tech companies are feeding people.

2026-04-21 13:00:01 UTC

I just need to say this every so often to keep myself sane: IT'S NOT THE FUCKING DEPARTMENT OF WAR IT'S THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CHANGING THE NAME TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS
YOU KNOW CONGRESS? THE MOST POWERFUL BRANCH OF THE US GOVERNMENT? THAT ONE? THE ONE THAT CAN EXCLUSIVELY DECLARE WAR?

2026-04-13 21:00:41 UTC

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And then these mofos are going to blame the electorate because they should be able to win while phoning it in and buying their second beach house. It sucks. The Dems suck. They suck so much that we have Trump the raving lunatic and we all know how that happened.
It doesn't get better until the culture of this electoral system burns to the fucking ground.

2026-04-13 20:58:18 UTC

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Anyone who doesn't fit that system, who goes against DNC patronage, well they get to go home, now don't they? It's money first, then elections. But still somehow since the other party are literal fascists, the dems get to be high and mighty while shit at their jobs. Biden's presidency was the apotheosis: take the oldest man, and the worst VP, and if you don't give up all your money you'll have authoritarianism, and what do you know, here we are.

2026-04-13 20:54:03 UTC

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"Vote Blue no matter who"
Fucking hell, I've been hearing that my whole life, and more I got to know the Dems the more I wanted to stab people. The DNC is more hedge fund than political party. Somewhere back in the 70s or 80s they decided whoever raises the most money wins, and they've never let reality shake that belief.
And I suppose it's not wrong, if you work for the dems. They pump a whole economy into the party, and they always keep the money pump primed.

2026-04-13 20:37:03 UTC

Who doesn't love Democrats? They don't fail democracy, democracy fails them. Losing elections to idiots, dementia patients, or idiot dementia patients (yes I have specific people in mind) and still it's "don't blame me I voted democrat"
All democrats ask of their candidates is a fucking pulse, and barely that. And thusly that's all they get. A pulse and corporate expense accounts.
Then they get mad that doing the barest minimum possible doesn't make them heroes of the people.

2026-04-06 16:40:32 UTC

My fellow journalists, I need you to stop talking about the Turing Test; it was never a good metric. Turing was a computer scientist, not a psychologist. ELIZA passed it, and also was a decent Person-centered therapy bot. Some people actually used it that way, even knowing it was a bot.
A) There are many paths to the top of a mountain, and
B) LLMs and other AIs aren't real girls and boys just because we feel they are.

2026-04-06 08:14:13 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jplebreton/116355757033992032
Money was a bad idea.
#note1ps6…yy3d

2026-04-05 23:56:02 UTC

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I literally have no idea what that is. 🤷

2026-04-05 16:07:32 UTC

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there's a lot of good people saying important things on Twitter still, too. People I respect and people I care about. Network effects are crucial.

2026-04-05 16:06:01 UTC

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not many of my non geeky friends are here, and none of the communities I am trying to reach out to 😔

2026-04-05 13:09:09 UTC

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it has shrunk a lot which i am sad about, but what people need to remember is that foss shit never goes away, even when you want it to 😂

2026-04-03 18:26:38 UTC

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I'm worried that the younglings have never seen it and want to correct the error immediately

2026-04-03 18:21:46 UTC

RE: https://social.yoyodyne-it.eu/@rafi0t/116341293183911034
Seriously if you've never seen Wag the Dog, it's absolutely vital in this geopolitical moment.
#note179s…hytm

2026-03-31 14:31:34 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@zackwhittaker/116323734408381625
My trans homies, remember that your stealth roll is nerfed today, but you can use hit dice to restore more HP than usual 🙌
#note1rzq…r7gw

2026-03-19 08:54:00 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@freakonometrics/116253899766465545
This is so good. Thanks @npub1g7j…4z3z for sharing it.
#note1fyw…fdut

2026-03-17 09:35:20 UTC

All

2026-03-16 18:05:46 UTC

Hey guys I wrote this short story twelve years ago, but oops it came true. It's a dark look at the AI lifestyle, and it hits so many notes.
I would very much appreciate any boosting you might think warranted.
https://medium.com/message/agency-3d37adfc69a3

2026-03-15 18:12:06 UTC

So ways in which masto is my favorite...
1. I woke up to over 500 notifications and just said FUCK audibly. This is going to be a whole thing. But no, it was just a wide ranging and interesting discussion about America's class and social systems, and how they terribly disadvantage most Americans.
2. I can edit my posts to clean up my terrible spelling

2026-03-15 10:47:57 UTC

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the wire is so good! But precious few Europeans can follow a bmore accent 😂

2026-03-14 09:38:34 UTC

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The rest of world never sees the poor and desperate America, they mostly stay in the decently rich bits of New York or California, and have no idea what a "food desert" is.

2026-03-14 09:34:10 UTC

Europeans don't, maybe sometimes can't, understand the absolute crushing pressure and gaslighting that most Americans are put through to make us the way we are.
It's a decades long effort to turn most of the population into a money and power pump for a tiny elite class, all while grinding us into dust.
We're crazy and scared all the time, and have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world.
There's a reason dying of opiates seemed like a rational choice to a lot of people.

2026-03-14 09:07:09 UTC

RE: https://flipboard.social/@newsguyusa/116224961260367484
Guys, guys, Bezos is trying to kill it, but also use it as a test bed for continuing the Amazon data experiments in dynamic pricing while killing it.
#note135j…42ke

2026-03-13 13:43:04 UTC

Hey guys, I actually wrote some science fiction. It's a capstone to my AI series at Emptywheel, but it takes place in 30 years. IT COUNTS. I'm also not actually anti AI in it.
https://emptywheel.net/2026/03/13/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-ai-epilogue/

2026-03-11 19:03:09 UTC

RE: https://flipboard.com/@aljazeera/middle-east-news-oapkqap7z/-/a-kRUVgfJURbW4b9zw7Xxp3Q%3Aa%3A3199698-%2F0
The only reason to do this to Beirut is pure evil spite. Lebanon is so torn up, and just gets kicked by one power after another (including Hezbollah)
Beirut is the capital city, not a Islamist fortification or something. When I was there the locals immediately bought me arak and we swapped stories all damn night.
I have never met the people of another nation as cool, chill, and funny as the Lebanese. I am extremely sad.
#note1s4n…e7yx

2026-03-04 19:26:20 UTC

If the whole of Europe isn't in a civilizational mad dash for renewables within months I don't know what to tell you. It's going to get real rough and even more expensive to function.

2026-02-27 18:53:28 UTC

I tried doing alt-text for a while, but I just ended up not posting at all. I don't understand why screen readers can't recognize and OCR text in the year of our lord 2026. I used OCR so much back in the day.

2026-02-27 17:58:02 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@effinbirds/116143219894094373
Me with AI companies/bros
#note1gsx…lmd4

2026-02-26 22:00:08 UTC

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But also sometimes when you're US centric it has its moments/posters
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/116/139/175/922/038/627/original/eedf00fa9e76a2fa.png

2026-02-26 21:19:05 UTC

Checked in over at bsky
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/116/139/001/162/882/812/original/0450b2e4a433090a.png

2026-02-24 23:19:19 UTC

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on the down low, it could also be a miner affair, you dig?

2026-02-24 15:57:45 UTC

So it looks like Trump raped a child. Will he suffer any reduction in support from his base for it?

2026-02-22 12:06:20 UTC

Here's a fun thought: You know how you work in.. *that field* You know what I mean. With all the management crises and no one really know how it's all held together, but we keep duct taping it all so that it doesn't fall over. We all know it can't go on like this forever, and when someone asks "Who are the adults in the room" you just laugh and go back to managing your stress with questionable habits.

2026-02-20 18:40:27 UTC

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@metacurity/116104393407032622
and popcorn futures go through the roof
#note1z6d…kln6

2026-02-20 14:02:44 UTC

The PTSD clinic I work with in Bordeaux keeps a posted list of human rights lawyers on the wall. It's hard to explain how comfortable and validating that is.

2026-02-20 12:12:16 UTC

It took a year and getting through several medical emergencies (the kind that drag on) to get here, but I got here.
The final installment of the AI series for Emptywheel is What We Talk About When We Talk About AI (Part Five) "Not With a Bang But a Whimper"
https://emptywheel.net/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-ai-part-five/
I think you guys are going to love this one.

2026-02-18 21:36:23 UTC

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...and they're right! until maybe the day they aren't.

2026-02-18 21:35:17 UTC

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and honestly, they're blending way too much these days. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to avoid the former, and have been at the mercy of the latter. My intuition is that when they finally collide is where we get into 1984 territory, probably without realizing we're there at all.
When I offer to help people actually avoid surveillance, they almost always demur, they care, but not enough to safeguard themselves. People always assume it will happen to someone else.

2026-02-18 21:10:50 UTC

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everyone is scared and powerless right now, i fear they will only increase for a while. And worse, there's a grain of truth to it, making it all the harder to handle.
I speak with some experience with these things 😬
(having been targeted I've realized that you can never tell when you've crossed the invisible line between paranoia and person of interest)

2026-02-17 10:50:26 UTC

I've spent my whole life seeking reliable expertise and asking, humbly, for time and specialized knowledge from the people who are the experts. This really is the shape of my career and key to who I am. I want to get things right, and I want to fix it when I don't.
But I'm now living in a society that's just thrown all that away for hallucinating stocastic parrots as arbiters of truth.
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/116/085/581/269/286/925/original/711798aa129943b8.mp4

2026-02-12 09:21:52 UTC

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stupid. Most recently people were agreeing with each other that if he was now harassing CoY off platform as well, there's nothing bsky can do 🤷

2026-02-12 09:17:30 UTC

I checked and.. the discourse about catsofyore on Bluesky is exactly what you think it is.

2026-02-12 00:29:12 UTC

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anytime, you can count on us. We're like the Spider-Man of Fediverse, for some weird reason there's too many of us.

2026-02-12 00:25:49 UTC

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I mean, there is some. We're not talk interstellar medium empty, where Voyager 2 is now. but it says something that V2 went though a 50,000 C temperature zone, and matter was so dispersed that it was fine

2026-02-11 23:56:19 UTC

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not necessarily cook itself, there is *some* heat transfer in space, especially a busy place like and inner solar system. But modern computer components absolutely would toast themselves long before you really got much up and working. A whole datacenter? That's just absurd.

2026-02-11 23:47:53 UTC

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that's easy, NOTHING IS EVER ALLOWED TO BREAK.

2026-02-11 23:44:13 UTC

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Space isn't quite cold, for this purpose it's more empty. you need matter to transfer heat into a medium dense enough to allow heat to flow. Put something generating heat in a vacuum, and it will cook itself.

2026-02-11 23:27:11 UTC

I'm so confused, I am a bear of little brain, can someone explain to me, in simply words... HOW THE FUCK DO YOU COOL A DATA CENTER IN SPACE

2026-02-07 19:14:40 UTC

yeaaah... Substack is a bad idea. Look into Outpost or Ghost, and stop supporting literal Nazis. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters

2026-02-07 10:18:13 UTC

As an American, and a journalist, I can't express how upset I am that these demonic fuckers came for the CIA world fact book. It's literally the only good thing the CIA ever did, and it was wonderful. I remember discovering it as a kid, and it was like the first time you discovered Wikipedia.
It's just evil. It's destroying something because it was good. It makes no sense! Afaik, they didn't even give a reason. Destroy, destroy, destroy.

2026-02-06 22:12:08 UTC

Peter Mandelson, you scamp.
CONFIDENTIAL – STRICTLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION:
"Mr Mandelson’s representatives state that he does not wish to speak to the media at this time. He requests that the press do not take photos or film, approach, or contact him via phone, email, or in-person."
Yeah, that should take care of it.

2026-02-04 19:44:24 UTC

RE: https://federate.social/@mattblaze/116013966140738150
This, all of this. Fucking man babies.
#note1glg…5w3p

2026-02-04 07:38:18 UTC

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the losers are also anyone who has to deal with climate change too!

2026-02-03 00:17:37 UTC

RE: https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/116003787681227517
Can't help but notice no mention of Tesla here
#note1m0q…dzmf

2026-02-02 20:19:22 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Nickiquote/116002845169409239
I'm beginning to think, against all expectations, that this might not be a good movie.
#note1mda…3wcw

2026-02-02 18:20:56 UTC

So my journalistic alma mater, Wired, has been doing great coverage. Last year they put out a video on how governments spy on protestors, and everything about it is technically superb (though it has been a while and it might be out of date.) It comprehensive look at surveillance at protests, and how to evade it.
But it missed an important political point: You go to a protest to make a political statement about your rights and desires.

2026-02-02 16:29:36 UTC

I have been invited to forgo my work day. Sigh.
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/116/001/980/421/493/776/original/d99c64b152c78d13.jpg

2026-02-02 16:03:35 UTC

Been deluged in Epstein news, just like everyone else. But what strikes me is how far you can get as a mediocre white man, if you truly have no morality at all. It's breathtaking how stupid they all are.

2026-01-31 13:02:20 UTC

RE: https://social.circl.lu/@quinn/115989814863816106
If I post this on Bluesky I'm going to get so canceled, aren't I?
#note1v2v…2mhp

2026-01-31 12:55:18 UTC

Can someone explain to me, in simple language even a tech and politics journalist can understand, how Bellingcat isn't labor exploitation?

2026-01-23 17:16:33 UTC

What if we were able to pay attention to more than one genocide at any given time? That would be amazing.
Aw well.

2026-01-23 16:50:26 UTC

Proposal to nickname AI the stupidification machines.

2026-01-16 01:40:01 UTC

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I'm still a bit on edge about it, these guys find ways to ruin shit I didn't even know you could ruin.

2026-01-16 01:29:16 UTC

I may have not understood this; it's about scraping, not generating articles? It's a bit confusing.

2026-01-14 10:52:05 UTC

Does anyone remember when we were going to make an energy transition so we didn't all doom our children in a climate apocalypse, before we just forgot about climate change and just burnt our carbon budget on AI slop?
Seems so long ago.

2026-01-11 19:51:11 UTC

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would love to dig into it... When this flu is done with me. 😂

2026-01-11 19:42:06 UTC

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it feels highly avoidable though, they all tend to be on the same instances. The Nazi furries aren't exactly evenly distributed.

2026-01-11 17:12:29 UTC

I have been hearing people talk about mastodon in the past tense, and it's weirdly upsetting. It turns out that it has lost a lot of users apparently? This is by far the best social media site in terms of communication health. Not... That that is saying much in this social media environment.

2026-01-09 19:20:43 UTC

I was sick for all of CCC, which sucked. But the session that I am most sad at missing was the hack of WhiteDate. *chef's kiss* https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-the-heartbreak-machine-nazis-in-the-echo-chamber

2026-01-07 09:22:28 UTC

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I'm not sure I even think the like button is good. I use it because of social pressure. Afaik, it mainly exists to drive engagement and is a tool for social media companies to keep you on platform and surface content that drives engagement. My favorite thing about fedi is that no one is engineering the platform to keep me here instead of living my damn life.

2026-01-06 17:20:26 UTC

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this is very good but also NOT ENOUGH :)

2026-01-06 17:13:06 UTC

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I wish news orgs would figure out how to use Mastodon. sigh.

2026-01-06 17:12:37 UTC

This is incredibly hard and and incredibly good reporting.
@npr's ([@npr](https://flipboard.com/@npr ))(?) look back on the Jan 6 attack on the capitol.
Part 1: https://npr.org/2026/01/04/nx-s1-5666343/inside-the-jan-6-capitol-riot-part-1-of-2
Part 2: https://npr.org/2026/01/04/nx-s1-5666352/inside-the-jan-6-capitol-riot-part-2-of-2
So many lives destroyed, that day and beyond

2026-01-01 16:35:20 UTC

I love all the posts on Public Domain Day every year.

2025-12-29 09:54:00 UTC

It's day three of CCC, and my fever has returned. I will be lying in bed all day at the hotel yet again.

2025-12-28 13:34:43 UTC

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look this is effectively the only way I can go viral at this point in my career

2025-12-28 09:56:32 UTC

I have hit the bad part of this flu. I woke up with aching in every part of my body, and feeling like I'm trying to breathe though a half pound of gauze. This will officially be my worst CCC ever.

2025-12-27 17:15:29 UTC

You know what no one needed? Liberal Twitter but with Merkel trees, unusable federation, and VC.

2025-12-24 02:12:35 UTC

The AI controversy is the loneliness crisis, the inequality crisis, and the education crisis stacked on each other, wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora.

2025-12-07 15:04:53 UTC

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oh you sweet summer child 😂

2025-12-07 11:32:12 UTC

Ouch
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/115/678/060/688/447/250/original/7d46c4aa39527b54.png

2025-12-04 01:08:41 UTC

In which I am a bit weird, I admit, but Pete Hegseth is so, so much worse.
Back on my bullshit for @npub1ejx…afye
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/03/pete-hegseth-and-the-radical-queer-wing-of-al-qaeda/

2025-11-30 11:54:56 UTC

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I've definitely compared it to asbestos, but I've also compared social media to asbestos. Together they're Super Asbestos 😬

2025-11-22 21:00:03 UTC

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oh, they're definitely going to be identified by AI. For their own safety of course.

2025-11-10 11:58:39 UTC

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This pansy ass giving up shit is why everyone hates the Democrats. Enjoy going back to millions suffering and dying without healthcare, America.

2025-11-10 11:50:36 UTC

The right is fascist incompetents, but I didn't realize the left was this feckless.

2025-11-08 19:03:09 UTC

Living that life 😂
https://social.circl.lu/system/media_attachments/files/115/515/623/289/762/509/original/2926e57d9f2ab425.jpg

2025-10-28 09:59:17 UTC

Oh ffs, this is insane. Antifa foreign terrorist designation could completely fuck America.
https://one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5587726:nx-s1-9508257

2025-10-28 02:15:08 UTC

Being one of the white trash usians who gets dumped on, getting called a Nazi and bs like that, I'm damn tired of how self defeating the US left is determined to be. Trump has no better ally than social media progressives who tear down anyone who tries. Anything. Harvard perfect only.
The foul mouth Mainer who got to be the main character of left social media turns out to be basically an ok if emotionally damaged guy. Because war. https://jacobin.com/2025/10/platner-maine-senate-reddit-media
He's up against Susan Collins ffs

2025-10-26 11:56:25 UTC

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I... Just don't know. It could be a form of self expression for some people. Probably never huge, but, the glasses are coming back successfully. Also apparently in workplace mandates? More surveillance.

2025-10-26 11:48:42 UTC

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I think it's most likely going to fail because our phones already do most of this anyway and existing ai companies have already made friend agents power enough to drive us into psychosis anyway. 😬

2025-10-26 11:39:22 UTC

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it's deeply cynical, and could very possibly work on more people than I'd like to admit.

2025-10-26 11:37:35 UTC

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they're targeting lonely people without community or social support. That's not you, but statistically that's most Americans, especially the young ones.

2025-10-24 12:28:46 UTC

Unpopular opinion, but I don't care that much what they do with the Whitehouse, I'm much more concerned about what they're doing to the people and civil institutions while distracting us with the Whitehouse.

2025-10-23 20:30:52 UTC

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I know I mentioned it in my piece, but I cannot recommend watching the Revisionaries enough. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/revisionaries/
And it's right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqd-k03pJJE (Though you might need a VPN if you're not in America)

2025-10-23 20:18:11 UTC

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but you know with *ever so slight variations*, so we swing on each other like good leftists 😂