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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1h

You say that people perceive AI as "neutral" -- how did you determine that?

Isn't it simply that a majority of people 'preferred', in a survey context, an AI account to a partisan one?

To me, that doesn't seem like the same thing as being 'neutral'.

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1h

You say that people perceive AI as "neutral" -- how did you determine that?

Isn't it simply that a majority of people 'preferred', in a survey context, an AI account to a partisan one?

To me, that doesn't seem like the same thing as being 'neutral'.

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 2h

But AI is not a "neutral alternative"...

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 2h

the prophecy is fulfilled

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 3h

Do I love interacting with the IRB on my own research stuff? No, not particularly.

But am I glad it exists? Yeah, for sure.

But it’s really terrifying to imagine federal agencies responsible for billions of state-sponsored biomedical research not having some pragmatic institutional checks…

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 3h

This is legit scary.

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 12h

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 3h

This is legit scary.

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 12h

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Instability and confusion’ as CDC slashes 1,300 jobs before reinstating half

Trump administration says 700 notices were sent in error, while top CDC officer says ‘they didn’t think through what they were doing’

www.theguardian.com

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 4h

dripping with pure desperation in every possible sense

404 Media @404media.co · 5h

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced in a post on X Tuesday that ChatGPT is officially getting into the fuckable chatbots game, with “erotica for verified adults” rolling out in December.

🔗 www.404media.co/chatgpt-erot...

ChatGPT’s Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can Fuck

As recent reports show OpenAI bleeding cash, and on the heels of accusations that ChatGPT caused teens and adults alike to harm themselves and others, CEO Sam Altman announced that you can soon fuck t...

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Theory, Culture & Society @theoryculturesociety.org · 7h

From the Archive: Melinda Cooper, 'Orientalism in the Mirror: The Sexual Politics of Anti-Westernism' - reflects on the convergence of revolutionary anti-capitalism and moral fundamentalism in contemporary Islamic revival. (2008) journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Orientalism in the Mirror - Melinda Cooper, 2008

This article reflects on the convergence of revolutionary anti-capitalism and moral fundamentalism in the contemporary Islamic revival. It is concerned more gen...

journals.sagepub.com

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 15h

Jeff Tweedy last night. The dude rocks and his band was awesome. Two of his sons!

Photo of Jeff Tweedy with a cool half moon guitar

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Mo Torres @motorres.bsky.social · 1d

a fun part of aziz rana’s recent-ish @thedigradio.bsky.social series was learning about du bois as a constitutional scholar + how social movements have varied in their (strategic, rhetorical) relationships to the founding texts

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

How W. E. B. Du Bois responded to government policing of "anti-American" sentiment during the 1910s:

"I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, 'We are seeking to have the Constitution of the United States thoroughly and completely enforced.' ”

Federal agents invaded even the offices of The Crisis and the National Association for the advancement of colored people and asked searching questions: " just what, after all, were our objects and activities?” I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, “We are seeking to have the constitution of the United states thoroughly and completely enforced.” It took some ingenuity, even for Southerners, to make treason out of that.

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

TBFighters @tbfighters.org · 1d

Private philanthropy isn't the way to fix the global health crisis. We need to address the root causes of the problem, including #EconomicInjustice, that allow TB and diseases like it to spread!

Join us for our next TB Ed Talk with Dr. Carole Mitnick in two weeks! tbfighters.org/tb-ed-talks

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Asia Russell @asia-ilse.bsky.social · 1d

Please take a moment to do this NOW--fighting back and demanding Congress actually use their (rapidly eroding) power is in fact helpful in fighting back against these illegal firings that make us all less safe.

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Write to your Senators and Representative NOW!

Demand **ALL CDC employees to be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government**.

actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...

@defendpublichealth.bsky.social @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

Write to Congress: CDC Employees must be Reinstated

**Please write now to your Senators and Representative demanding that ALL CDC employees be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government.** Late on Friday, October 10, the Trump Admin...

actionnetwork.org

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Write to your Senators and Representative NOW!

Demand **ALL CDC employees to be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government**.

actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...

@defendpublichealth.bsky.social @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

Write to Congress: CDC Employees must be Reinstated

**Please write now to your Senators and Representative demanding that ALL CDC employees be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government.** Late on Friday, October 10, the Trump Admin...

actionnetwork.org

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

ASA Medical Sociology @asamedsoc.bsky.social · 1d

"Is it important to say ""no"" to Weight-Loss Drugs? What does the paradox of the ideal patient-consumer and stratified biomedicalization reveal?
Check out this new article to discover the answers you are looking for!

📖 Authors: Jackson, Ni’Shele. 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Saying no to weight-loss drugs: The paradox of the ideal patient-consumer and stratified biomedicalization

Discourse around the usage of weight-loss drugs (semaglutide, GLP-1 agonists, Ozempic, Wegovy) center around how people are precluded from access, a p…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 2d

New article out this month on how doctors become fascists.

50% of German physicians joined the Nazi Party––twice the proportion of any other profession. US doctors today are arguably the most conservative in the world, and we're heading along a similar path.
drive.google.com/file/d/1CAk9...

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Palette? Pallet?

Palette cleanse is what I meant… 🙃

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

As a pallet cleanse (and antidote to nihilism?) here’s a piece on how doctors can learn/be trained to incorporate pro-democracy community organizing efforts into their work!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Write to your Senators and Representative NOW!

Demand **ALL CDC employees to be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government**.

actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...

@defendpublichealth.bsky.social @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

Write to Congress: CDC Employees must be Reinstated

**Please write now to your Senators and Representative demanding that ALL CDC employees be reinstated as part of any agreement to reopen the government.** Late on Friday, October 10, the Trump Admin...

actionnetwork.org

11 16

Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 3d

Scared about the systematic destruction of public health under the Trump regime?

Better get organized!

Here are some ideas how we can do it.

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 11d

How can the justice-oriented public health community build power to fight back & fight for health equity in an era of oligarchy & fascism?

I'm not sure, but here are some podcast reflections on how we at @defendpublichealth.bsky.social are trying our best:

www.infectiousdose.com/post/from-ev...

From Evidence to Power: Organizing for Public Health with Jon Shaffer, PhD

Sociologist–organizer Jon Shaffer, PhD, joins Infectious Dose to explain why organizing—not just evidence—wins public-health protections, how DPH is building state teams, and what you can do next.

www.infectiousdose.com

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio @rlmartstudio.bsky.social · 2d

This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.

A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.

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Michael Metivier @grousehollow.bsky.social · 3d

Dan and Willy Lindner, performing Battle Hymn of the Republic at the 2nd anniversary of the Vermont Forest Cemetery in Roxbury.

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 2d

(It is.)

"On Sept. 26, the new union, the Doctors Council of the Service Employees International Union, wrote to high-ranking MGB executives asking, among other things, whether the health system intends to deploy Care Connect instead of hiring new primary care providers."

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 2d

Extremely cursed.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/b...

MGB is turning to AI to ease shortage of primary care doctors. Some of them don’t like it. - The Boston Globe

Several providers said the app — which questions patients, reviews medical records, and produces a list of potential diagnoses — sidesteps real solutions.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 2d

Extremely cursed.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/b...

MGB is turning to AI to ease shortage of primary care doctors. Some of them don’t like it. - The Boston Globe

Several providers said the app — which questions patients, reviews medical records, and produces a list of potential diagnoses — sidesteps real solutions.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Reposted by Jon Shaffer

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 3d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 3d

This pic really makes the US collapse into full despotism feel real, doesn't it? Leader's dead-eyed, meritless teen son shoved into powerful role solely because Leader wills it: a marker of corrupt autocracy recognizable on every continent and in every century.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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