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An image with a blue gradient in the center and California poppy in faded yellow. It features the Berkeley Sociology logo, and the following text: From: 'David James Harding' via socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu <socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 8:01 AM Subject: 2026 Sociology Commencement Speaker: Dr. Alex Hanna Dear Sociology Community, I'm very pleased to announce that our speaker for the 2026 Sociology Commencement will be Dr. Alex Hanna, a writer and a sociologist of technology, labor, inequality, and social movements whose academic and public-facing work can be found in our discipline's top journals, blogs, op-eds, policy briefs, and in your neighborhood book store.

17 years ago, I didn't get into the UC Berkeley Sociology program.

In May, I'll have the distinct honor of giving the keynote speech at this year's commencement. I'm still processing this, but I'm ecstatic for the opportunity to pay forward a little voice of hope and solidarity.

Oh also even if the products worked exactly as well as "AI" enthusiasts have tricked themselves into believing, and if they were somehow magically a net positive for the environment, they would still be completely unethical because of the exploitation inherent in their design, creation, and use

“If [wealthy, powerful people] can get us to accept that the future’s already settled, AI is already here, the end is already here, then we will create that for them. My most daring idea is to refuse.” — @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

a bright orange canvas jacket with bright blue, green, and magenta letters in a 3x4 pattern reading a b c d e f u c k i c e

finished embroidering my jacket :)

Are there any movies that you feel got an unfairly bad rap in mainstream media and you wish people would give another chance?

that's such weird and sad and bad behavior

I'm not thrilled about the prospect of switching careers again, but I am getting some satisfaction out of making sure that my ostensible peers, who are dragging my current profession into the abyss, know that _we_ know what they've done and that we'll remember

🎬 🍿

Everyone, go watch this amazing talk!

🧠 🖥️

You can thank me later 😌

👇

Submissions for Are.na Annual vol. 8: score | Notion Hosted by Notion Sites — The easiest way to get a website up and running.

@are.na invites pitches for its forthcoming annual anthology on the theme of "score" (of course, being sports-indifferent, I think of event scores, experimental composition, @yblent.bsky.social's wonderful project: www.getty.edu/publications... :)

"AI" boosterism continuing to provide galvanizing reminders of who* enjoys power and proximity to power in institutions that are/were important to me, like academia

*i.e. the wrong people

want to know how these people really feel about defending effeminate gay men? watch how they talk about trans men who are fem and/or gay (but i bet you can guess)

I really don't care so much how many new lines are between each of the things, I just need people to write an appropriate amount (not too much or too little) for what they're trying to say. It's like people learned "the eye loves whitespace" in Design 101 and they extrapolated to infinity

literally your customer base was 90% parents of young children who want a good future for their kids in which they can be free to be themselves, no matter who they are. you told those people to go fuck themselves. they won't be back

OK I think what I have learned this week is that if a software person says that Claude or another chatbot "did something easily", they are very likely lying, most of all to themselves

Alex V Green coined the "Having Conversations Industrial Complex" and I think about that phrase a lot

AI companies should be publicly owned and shut down etc 💞

forced public ownership and jail for the Epstein class

no point mincing words tbh

That said I'm totally on board with firing being on the table for "AI" malpractice, such as idk deciding to purchase an "AI" product for children's mental health care

bsky.app/profile/hype...

I am not a particular fan of Edwards's work, but when I see things like this I get worried about bosses using "AI" to force people into situations where they either have to quit, get fired, or commit malpractice, then bosses fire the employees for "not using the tools according to company policy"

This is not just cursed, its monstrous. The digital resurrection of a historian who died in January of this year, all so Grammarly can get some more clicks and engagement from students and/or scholars and/or others.

It feels so wrong on so many levels, these ghosts enslaved to AI forever

I'm seeing so much "I typed a lot of inputs and read a lot of outputs, so that means I've thought critically about this topic". Also seeing a lot of "product testimonials are a form of lived experience, so we shouldn't try to critically analyze them".

"community data collection"

Hey how many anti-fat things about trump do you guys have left in you? Aren’t you bored of this yet? Because I sure fucking am

Street name "Prince Andrew Court" with the last part crossed out and changed to "caught".

cot-caught-court on a British high street ;-) #linguistics

Waiting for the pitch from tech bros that GenAI is going to save teachers time to focus on what really matters: their side jobs.

the wildlife calendar at the café near me has a picture of blue-footed boobies, and ever since I saw a picture of one in my wildlife fact file as a kid I've always thought it would be so cool to have blue feet

chairing is caring

Three workers pose in front of a Starbucks store, holding their union vote certification

Did you know that Pittsburgh has one of the highest densities of union Starbucks stores in the country?

CONGRATULATIONS to baristas at the Banksville Plaza store - they just won the 21st union Starbucks in Pittsburgh! ✊🔥

Newspaper: we're committed to publishing a wide variety of views

Me: Holy shit! Like the far left?

Newspaper: LOL no... not those views

Me: So...working-class community organizers?

Newspaper: Haha no not those views either

Me: Which views, exactly?

Newspaper: Oh, you know the ones

A truck carrying Vicks Vaporub overturned on the highway here but the good news is there has been no congestion for 8 hours.

She Came Out of the Bathroom Naked, Employee Says Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’...

“The workers in Kenya say that it feels uncomfortable to go to work. They tell us about deeply private video clips, which appear to come straight out of Western homes, from people who use the glasses in their everyday lives.
Several describe video material showing bathroom visits, sex…”