Ray Aldred

Word cloud visualization showing sentiment analysis of tweets across three categories. Left panel (green): Positive tweets (405 tweets, 899,754 total likes) with prominent words including "Good," "day," "Love," "SHARE," "Thank," "Happy," and "MAGA." Middle panel (black/gray): Neutral tweets (511 tweets, 855,228 total likes) with prominent words including "Fight," "say," "Drop," "Trump," "Tyranny," and "Unite." Right panel (red): Negative tweets (1,231 tweets, 2,027,034 total likes) with prominent words including "Trump," "anti," "hate," "going," "racist," "never," and "need." Word sizes correspond to the frequency of use within each sentiment category.

Hmmm...what is the most used word in my woke data set?

Combine that with the tweets about being woke, and it comes to about 7 people who claim to be "woke," which is still only 0.4%. Combined with the 285 people (18.2%) who say they are "anti-woke," it would seem that they are the ones with religious fervour.

Based on my dataset of 1,569 unique users, virtually nobody (0.32%) identifies as "woke" in their Twitter bio. Unlike "conservative," "liberal," "Christian," etc., almost nobody claims "woke" as their identity. It's primarily used by opponents as a pejorative label. It is NOT a religion.

GitHub - Ray-Aldred/Woke-Tweets: Some data I scraped of Twitter/X on the terms "woke" or "wokeness" after Donald Trumps election Some data I scraped of Twitter/X on the terms "woke" or "wokeness" after Donald Trumps election - GitHub - Ray-Aldred/Woke-Tweets: Some data I scraped of Twitter/X on the terms...

I just added the tweets about "woke" or "wokeness" dataset to my GitHub. It's after Donald Trump won, with some interesting results. If any #datascience people want to comb through it and analyze it, go for it. I will post my analysis at the end of this month or the next.
github.com/Ray-Aldred/W...

Yes, I’ve observed the same in various games, but with VR, there are specific body standards you are expected to meet, even if only loosely. What if I don't have two hands? What if I sit differently from most people? What if I can't extend my hands due to muscle contractures?

...VR is very problematic.

I bought a Meta Quest a year ago, excited to explore virtual reality. But I quickly discovered that VR technology is often built on narrow assumptions about what bodies can and should do. I couldn't even play chess in it, since moving a piece required extending and reaching my arm too far.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6) will comprise presentations by disabled philosophers and their nondisabled allies whose cutting-edge research challenges members of the phil...

There were some awesome talks at my conference symposium today! Thank you so much @michciurria.bsky.social, @shengokai.blacksky.app, @wolvendamien.bsky.social and @fintanmallory.com . It was an honour.

ucf.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6) will comprise presentations by disabled philosophers and their nondisabled allies whose cutting-edge research challenges members of the phil...

Philosophy, Disability, & Social Change 6 starts tomorrow morning, & you can still register for free. On Thursday from 2pm-4pm, I'm part of the symposium "Virtual Power: AI, Ableism, Racism, and Fascism," w/ @rayaldred.bsky.social @michciurria.bsky.social @shengokai.blacksky.app & @fintanmallory.com

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Autism Fictions I just read Hannah Arendt's essays "Truth and Politics" and "Lying in Politics" for a Continental philosophy reading group I recently joined. In "Lying in Politics", what troubled Arendt was not simpl...

I just wrote a thing on my blog:
thinking-otherwise.ghost.io/robert-f-ken...

Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6), Unapologetically Online, Jan. 28-30, 2026: Final Program and Registration! BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY and Ethically Speaking at The Center for Ethics at the University of Central Florida  (UCF) ENTHUSIASTICALLY INVITE YOU TO: Philosophy, Disability, and S…

Excited to be giving my first philosophical presentation in a while. The title of my talk is "Confessions of an Indigenous AI Frankenstein" for Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 on Jan. 28-30, 2026. It is online, and registration is free.

biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2025/12/18/p...

Black text on a yellow background - This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time. I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you. There are a few in progress that might come to fruition in a few years if things work out. I did not ever imagine I would live to this age and end up a writer, editor, activist, and more. As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward. It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin. We need more stories about us and our culture. You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I'm honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”

Thinking Otherwise Philosophy, data, and little digital rebellions.

I have started my new blog here, and a new post about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Autism is coming soon. I also have a page on it that offers discounts on encrypted email accounts, and why it is good to do so, if, per chance, your are interested in de-googling your life.

thinking-otherwise.ghost.io

RFK, Jr., Cites ‘Truly Appalling’ Studies to Tie Autism to Circumcision and Tylenol Studies suggesting circumcision rates are linked with autism are “riddled with flaws”

RFK is a severe ethical problem for the USA.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/rfk-...

Discord says users' government IDs used for age checks stolen by hackers Thanks to age verification laws, expect more data breaches of users' government-issued passports and driver's licenses.

Discord said late on Friday that hackers stole users' government-issued IDs (passports and driver's licenses) from one of its customer support databases.

I wrote a few words about the risks of age verification laws, and why collecting people's government IDs is bad for security and privacy.

i looked at the methodology for this and it is
a. sex addiction counseling group in texas did a surveymonkey and extrapolated the results to the entire us population which is the sort of research design that earns you an ff on an intro methods class (the extra f is for extra effort), and
b. p-hacked

Telegram, the FSB, and the Man in the Middle The technical infrastructure that underpins Telegram is controlled by a man whose companies have collaborated with Russian intelligence services.

Telegram's infrastructure is maintained by Global Network Management (GNM), a company owned by Russian national Vladimir Vedeneev, whose other companies have a documented history of working with Russia's FSB security service and defense sector.

www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

Trump promotes unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism without new evidence President Donald Trump is using the platform of the presidency to promote unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism without giving new evidence.

BREAKING: President Trump promotes unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism without new evidence.

Holy shit RFK Jr just used the idea that we should "believe all women" to defend the idea that vaccines might have caused their kids' autism, I am INCANDESCENT with rage

A brainworm bear roadkill eater, an insurrectionist psychopath and a TV snake-oil sommelier announce, without a shred of empirical evidence, that taking Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism.

Oh, they're totally going to blame the mothers for the existence of autistic people. It's eugenics wrapped in misogyny.

Israel launches offensive to occupy Gaza City The Trump administration supports the ground operation but wants to see it end as soon as possible.

Israel is now invading Gaza City.

www.axios.com/2025/09/15/i...

Trump officials order removal of photograph of enslaved man’s scars The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”

“The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of ‘corrosive ideology.’”

I would say treat it like another person that you can bounce ideas off or help with things, but don't use it to supplant your individual learning. Like another person, it does have some flaws, and might get things wrong, so you should check its work.

The Internet Wants to Check Your I.D. New safety rules require users to verify their identities before gaining access to sites. This spells the end of the relative anonymity that we’ve come to expect online.

"We’re witnessing the real-time destruction of the internet as we know it." — @ericgoldman.bsky.social

Addiction and emotions: From distress-regulation loops to affective recovery niches This paper argues that the emotional dynamics that structure a person’s relationship to drug use and their environment over time are central to understanding how agency is both operative and constr...

Next paper in our special issue on 'Understanding oneself through others' is out! Zoey Lavallee, Anke Snoek and Frøydis Gammelsæter on addiction and affective recovery niches: #philsky

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Ron Deibert is absolutely the voice that the infosec industry needs to be listening to right now. We are in a moment where fascism is consolidating power and most of the infosec industry is either playing along or is busy bragging about how much AI they've shoved into their products.

If they make them so that the prescription gets automatically updated as my eyes decline, I'd consider it, but you know there would be a fucking monthly subscription for that shit.

Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Raymond Aldred Hello, I’m Shelley Tremain and I would like to welcome you to the one hundred and twenty-fourth installment of Dialogues on Disability, the series of interviews that I am conducting with disabled p…

I recently sat down with Biopolitical Philosophy for a wide-ranging interview that explored AI and disability, D.E.I. discourse, theology, Indigenous perspectives on care, and other contemporary issues.

biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2025/07/16/d...

I would recommend Tuta rather than ProtonMail because it offers a more generous free plan. It also encrypts not only email content but also subject lines and metadata using AES and RSA encryption, and even provides post-quantum secure encryption if that matters to you.