Matt Weiner

@shaenon.bsky.social

I just saw someone confessing that they used copilot for a backronym, oh no oh no

John Cougar Mellencamp and the Infinite Sadness

"what do you call this linguistic construction?"

"The Generics!"

even Bill Kristol--who is responsible for many MANY bad things--does not constantly get dragged on here for his current phase, because most of his poasts are not about criticizing the people who were right before he was

is that one of those "emojis as weapons of propaganda"?

Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime | Defector The origin of Michael Connelly’s new true crime podcast, Killer in the Code, was a rather far-fetched tip fielded by Rick Jackson, a retired detective from the Los Angeles Police Department. A self-de...

for the weekend crowd: I dug into a new podcast that pins a bunch of notorious murders on a long-dead Jewish man from San Diego. It's the ugliest true crime property in recent memory. [gift link] defector.com/michael-conn...

literally what it is asking for, I think

Just say the government is lying. The goal of journalism should be to inform, not gaslight.

don't really want to argue about the ethics of genAI overall right at the moment but if you're giving OpenAI in particular your money please consider literally any other option

as extensively noted at the Comics Curmudgeon, the chronology is confused, I remember the blizzard of '78 but not by much and I am *far* too old to have recently given birth to Trixie. Among other impediments.

given comics lead time, assume timing is a coincidence

concerned Hi and Lois are looking out their front window at the falling snow. Hi has his hand on Lois's shoulder. Hi, Lois, and Dot and Ditto are looking out the window at the snow. Hi: Remember the blizzard of '78? Lois, arms folded: What a disaster. Hi narrating in an inset over a house near-buried in snowdrifts: 27 inches of snow fell in 33 hours. Lois inset over snow-buried cars: Thousands of cars were stranded. Hi inset over two soldiers in a tan Jeep: The National Guard was called in. Lois inset over a presumable snowfront with a "closed" sign in the window: Everything was shut down for a week. Dot, horrified: Even schools? Lois: Yes. Ditto, angry: We were born too late for all the GOOD times!

Hi and Lois: concerned about the present and traumatized by the past. Dot: also traumatized by the horrors of the past (school closed). Ditto: angry about the paradise he never knew (school closed). At least two Flagstons: troubled by reminders of soldiers who were there to *help*. 8/10 QDUs

I started spitting glass about norms violations in 1994 but not everyone can be *that* prescient
bsky.app/profile/matt...

part of Norms Respecting is retaliating for violation of the norms

if you were not absolutely spitting glass about the theft of a Supreme Court seat at the very latest--and really should be Bush v. Gore--then I deny you the title of Norms Respecter

I blocked the denialist, but this goes waaaaay back before Hamas controlled any territory. and Israel's occupation of all the territories, including the West Bank, has always been actively violent

bsky.app/profile/matt...

tbc by "back in the day" I mean like the 90s. at least starting then

they already took Phoebe Maltz for us, let's not be greedy

Not a new thing, to be sure, and I actually wouldn't blame the companies for this. LLMs cannot discern source quality, so hard coding against the use of bad sources will always be a post-hoc effort.

Phoebe Maltz [now Bovy] getting dragged for a terrible take is some oldhead blogosphere nostalgia

Well you were wrong! But congrats on all the attention

just got reminded of the great Minnesota cartoonist Dick Guindon

in the Obama years people would attend his rallies armed and hold signs calling for his murder

(genuinely think that it was a mistake not to crack down on these people very strongly at the time)

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

fuck you

United States presidential election results for Edina, Minnesota 2000 Republican 51.49% Democratic 43.75% 2004 Republican 48.25% Democratic 50.82% 2008 Republican 43.49% Democratic 55.36% 2012 Republican 46.04% Democratic 52.76% 2016 Republican 32.22% Democratic 59.62% 2020 Republican 30.14% Democratic 67.95% 2024 Republican 28.28% Democratic 67.95%

(it does look like Edina Moms were already pretty likely to be Evelyn Normielib)

whoa been a long time since I thought about Guindon

Round sticker that reads Every Day Ice Needs Ass-kicking (EDINA acronym) and then MOM, with little kid heart and smiley face drawings.

The Edina moms are making anti-ICE stickers
Wild times out there, new lines and new coalitions being drawn in real time

The guy that runs the Reddit where people post about patting their cat on the butt like bongos has put his foot down

but whatever may be wrong with saying "THEY should protest nonviolently" obviously doesn't apply to someone saying "WE are protesting nonviolently"

and the situation of anti-ICE witness and the civil rights movement are structurally very different from the occupation of Palestine (2/2)

back in the day I often heard people piously say "if Palestinians had devoted themselves to nonviolent protest, they'd have a state by now." which stuck in my craw because it didn't seem true, and was an excuse to keep violently oppressing Palestinians (1/2)

I was not prepared for the replies either. the replies make me nostalgic for the time five minutes ago when i had not read them