Sean O’Kane

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I guess I have one other thing to add: a lot of the manosphere stuff is basically what berlant calls cruel optimism. it gives you "tips" for attracting women that don't actually work so you'll come back and (ideally) shell out more $$ for more tips. this is also how the diet industry works!

Missives from the near future – a novel about tech and humanity Fictionalizing and satirizing the tech dystopias we’ve come to normalize

✨ Some personal news! I wrote a novel that explores the dark pull of immersive technology and the systems profiting from escapism and disconnection.

Mixed Reality is my new newsletter where I unpack the themes behind the book.

First post is live.
rebeccabellan.substack.com/p/missives-f...

Read my latest:

What we all lose in Trump and Musk's attack on government data A wide array of government data and reports have been inaccessible after a Trump directive.

Re-upping this one. www.axios.com/2025/02/07/t...

“PR in the limit”

“Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla’s and the entire industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology. We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial. Even though this jury found that the driver was overwhelmingly responsible for this tragic accident in 2019, the evidence has always shown that this driver was solely at fault because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator – which overrode Autopilot – as he rummaged for his dropped phone without his eyes on the road. To be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This was never about Autopilot; it was a fiction concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility.”

rare public statement from Tesla (which came in through an outside PR firm because the company disbanded its comms team years ago)

techcrunch.com/2025/08/01/t...

breaking!

Webster's Dictionary defines genius as...

here's the original story: bsky.app/profile/kate...

How the information ecosystem works on X today: A random account aggregates my reporting, recounting scoops from our Media Matters story, and uses it to drive subscriptions to their Substack. Elon Musk sees it and endorses it, with apparently no idea he's reading the NYT, a publication he hates.

m'lady

#341: Boris Sofman of Bedrock Robotics — Autonocast Former Waymo self-driving truck lead and Anki co-founder Boris Sofman joins The Autonocast to talk about his new company, Bedrock Robotics, and why autonomous construction equipment might be the most ...

@alexroy144.bsky.social and I (sans Ed this week) chatted with Boris Sofman - former CEO and co-founder of Anki Robotics/ex-Waymo about his new startup Bedrock Robotics. Enjoy! www.autonocast.com/blog/2025/7/...

CPB not only served as a funding middleman between Congress and public media stations but also negotiated music rights and procured technical infrastructure on behalf of the stations. That leaves an open question as to what entity, if any, will fill that gap.

needed this today lol

an assault on the free press and the first amendment

what cabinet position do we think she'll get

Sex toy maker Lovense threatens legal action after fixing security flaws that exposed users' data | TechCrunch The internet-connected sex toy maker said it fixed the vulnerabilities that exposed users' private email addresses and accounts to takeovers, but said it was also planning to take legal action followi...

New, by me: Lovense, a maker of internet-connected sex toys, has confirmed it fixed a pair of security flaws that exposed users' private email addresses and put accounts at risk of takeovers. Now the company's CEO says he might sue.

ADL web gone

Shortly after Trump’s election in November, the Internet Archive registered major changes to ADL’s website. Sections devoted to voting rights, racial justice, and other civil-rights issues were all gone. (3/x)

Forged signatures found on Mayor Adams’ petitions to run as an independent The Adams campaign said it is conducting a review after Gothamist found signatures that were fraudulently obtained or outright forged.

fantastic journalism from @gothamist.com “Verifying signatures is time-consuming work; for two weeks, three reporters knocked on more than 200 doors in four boroughs and interviewed more than 100 people. “ gothamist.com/news/forged-...

sources:

edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/t...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

remembering the time Musk got in a twitter spat with the UN and said he'd sell $6B of tesla stock to solve world hunger but only if the UN released a spending plan

and then the UN released a spending plan

and then Musk sold $6B of tesla stock but just gave it to his own foundation instead

Conservative Activists Join a New Assault on Vineyard Wind And more of the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy.

Scoop: Conservative activists have petitioned the Trump administration to take away the permits for *an operating offshore wind project* — Vineyard Wind — after the admin expressed openness to undoing previous approvals for such projects

heatmap.news/plus/the-fig...

the right wing media ecosystem is so efficiently set up to take random posts from non public figures and turn them into pseudoevents. to the point where the entire social media system rn really just favors their viral propaganda machine.

RFK Jr. warned about giving the government your data. Now he wants it. The Health and Human Services secretary's pivot on wearables is a case study in how conspiracy extremists rebrand themselves once in positions of power.

RFK Jr. used to warn about a government takeover of our data. He said wearables and their tech were part of a plot to surveil us, enabled tyranny, caused cancer, and turned users into “permanent consumers” to Big Tech.

Now, he'd like your data, please.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

not allowed

How a Nazi-obsessed amateur historian went from obscurity to the top of Substack Tucker Carlson has called Darryl Cooper the “most important popular historian working in the United States today.” His background is more extreme than previously reported.

Daryl Cooper—the current #1 History Substacker—in 2016: “Think of how most people you know got here. It wasn’t from basic American ideology to reading Mein Kampf and then, boom, they’re onboard. It’s a process, and you have to initiate people without scaring them off."

Exclusive: Air Marshals diverted from protecting commercial passenger flights act as "highly paid guards" on deportation flights. cnn.it/46UooMP

Assistance! At the Pierogi Tent