Richard Tyson

The historical record of comebacks from authoritarian implosions certainly indicates that lustration is almost the only possible path.

(The only other option is some sort of “Truth and Reconciliation” process but this requires a genuine sense of contrition, which is not forthcoming.)

The judgments of foreigners are generally much closer to those of posterity than those of one’s fellow countrymen.

That ends justify means.

Title card for Mindscape AMA episode.

Mindscape Ask Me Anything | April 2025. This month we're talking about the Big Bang singularity, compression and complexity, how to teach quantum mechanics, and thoughts about podcasts. Also a Puck update. #MindscapePodcast

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

Insofar as it is remembered at all today, the Iran-Contra scandal is usually presented as a minor subplot in the Cold War’s final act.

But from the POV of 2025, we can now see it as a prefigural moment in triumph of rightwing political-ideological expediency over democratic norms.
archive.ph/dZaYo

Santayana famously said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Twain rejoined, “History doesn't repeat Itself, but it often rhymes.”

But the right auditory metaphor today is more like sampling of past autocratic soundbites, autotuned for the memetic moment.

The coolest thing I’ve seen today is that a bunch of volunteer public health professionals and developers have restored the CDC website from before January 20th 2025.

This differs from an archive in that they want to rebuild the links between pages and replicate the full website.

All four minutes of this video are a MUST WATCH!!!

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office.

Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc.

Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

Something is shifting. They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. (1/2)

This is a good headline in the same that it would a good headline to say “Jeffrey Dahmer had unusual dining habits.”

People are comparing these people to Mao’s red guards. But that implies more ideological motivation and consistency than is the case for these Geek Squad Brown Shirts.

A more apposite historical analogy is Alaric’s Visigoths sacking Rome: wanton destruction not even for profit but because FUCK YOU.

ABA It has been three weeks since Inauguration Day. Most Americans recognize that newly elected leaders bring change. That is expected. But most Americans also expect that changes will take place in accordance with the rule of law and in an orderly manner that respects the lives of affected individuals and the work they have been asked to perform. Instead, we see wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself, such as attacks on constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, the dismantling of USAID and the attempts to criminalize those who support lawful programs to eliminate bias and enhance diversity. We have seen attempts at wholesale dismantling of departments and entities created by Congress without seeking the required congressional approval to change the law. There are efforts to dismiss employees with little regard for the law and protections they merit, and social media announcements that disparage and appear to be motivated by a desire to inflame without any stated factual basis. This is chaotic. It may appeal to a few. But it is wrong. And most Americans recognize it is wrong. It is also contrary to the rule of law. The American Bar Association supports the rule of law. That means holding governments, including our own, accountable under law. We stand for a legal process that is orderly and fair. We have consistently urged the administrations of both parties to adhere to the rule of law. We stand in that familiar place again today. And we do not stand alone. Our courts stand for the rule of law as well.

Someone at the American Bar Association ate their Wheaties this morning.

It gives me no joy to say it, but I think this election revealed a structural corporate metaphor about American politics it’s gonna be hard to overcome. Republicans are sales. Democrats are HR. IYKYK.

Most of our problems could be solved by properly funding public education.

Once you realize that Trump isn’t nominating cabinet members to RUN agencies but DESTROY them, it makes more sense.

Forms of life, forms of mind | Dr. Michael Levin Thoughts on the science and philosophy of embodied minds, and the lives that can be.

Wordpress blog thoughtforms.life. Unlike drmichaellevin.org, here I post speculative ideas, personal thoughts on what our research means, nature photography, essays, interviews, etc. Register to be notified of books' progress, events, and news, access downloadable content, etc.

Our findings suggest that participants employed shared yet flawed heuristics to differentiate AI from human poetry: the simplicity of AI-generated poems may be easier for non-experts to understand, leading them to prefer AI-generated poetry and misinterpret the complexity of human poems as incoherence generated by AI

Ha, interesting stuff here!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Socrates on oligarchy.