Adia Benton
@ethnography911.bsky.social
Quick! Somebody call an anthropologist! Assoc prof @ Northwestern. MedAnthro. African studies. Pop culture. Politics. She/her. book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816692439/hiv-exceptionalism/
Make it more lethal for…?
“For the first time ever, by the end of this week, three million employees, warfighters, contractors, are going to have AI on their desktop, every single one.”
Full story here:
Full story here:
Pete Hegseth Says the Pentagon's New Chatbot Will Make America 'More Lethal'
The Department of War aims to put Google Gemini 'directly into the hands of every American warrior.'
www.404media.co
December 10, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Make it more lethal for…?
“Subtract immigration” from health care, you have not “fewer health challenges” but a shortage of care providers
Someone should subtract this mofo
Someone should subtract this mofo
Stephen Miller: "If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of the sudden our test scores skyrocket"
December 9, 2025 at 11:40 PM
“Subtract immigration” from health care, you have not “fewer health challenges” but a shortage of care providers
Someone should subtract this mofo
Someone should subtract this mofo
Reposted by Adia Benton
My favorite is when they attempt to literally WALK THROUGH YOU in public spaces. I’m short but I’m not that fucking short, chief
One of the ways your racism is manifesting as a white person that you probably don't notice is that you have horrible manners with Black people. You have a terrible attitude when you meet real Black people. You don't say excuse me & can barely look them in the eye. That's over 80% of white people.
December 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
My favorite is when they attempt to literally WALK THROUGH YOU in public spaces. I’m short but I’m not that fucking short, chief
Reposted by Adia Benton
A new investigation has revealed that grocery delivery service Instacart is using a covert, AI-powered dynamic pricing scheme to charge customers different prices for the same items — potentially costing households over $1,000 more a year.
Instacart Reportedly Using Secret AI-Powered Dynamic Pricing to Jack Up Prices
In an experiment, investigators found that the same grocery basket at a Seattle store cost between $114 and $124.
truthout.org
December 9, 2025 at 9:40 PM
A new investigation has revealed that grocery delivery service Instacart is using a covert, AI-powered dynamic pricing scheme to charge customers different prices for the same items — potentially costing households over $1,000 more a year.
Not Al Green erasure tho because this applies to Hegseth. The two of them filed against Trump earlier this year.
Look, Shri Thanedar isn’t exactly squeaky clean as a House Rep, but this is the second time he’s filed articles of impeachment for people who very much should be impeached when no other Dem will.
Democratic congressman Shri Thanedar has filed articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth over the murderous attacks on boats in the Caribbean.
https://bit.ly/44E1yqP
https://bit.ly/44E1yqP
December 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Not Al Green erasure tho because this applies to Hegseth. The two of them filed against Trump earlier this year.
Reposted by Adia Benton
Look, Shri Thanedar isn’t exactly squeaky clean as a House Rep, but this is the second time he’s filed articles of impeachment for people who very much should be impeached when no other Dem will.
Democratic congressman Shri Thanedar has filed articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth over the murderous attacks on boats in the Caribbean.
https://bit.ly/44E1yqP
https://bit.ly/44E1yqP
The Push to Impeach Pete Hegseth Is On
Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar has filed articles of impeachment against the secretary of defense over the murderous attacks on boats in the Caribbean.
bit.ly
December 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Look, Shri Thanedar isn’t exactly squeaky clean as a House Rep, but this is the second time he’s filed articles of impeachment for people who very much should be impeached when no other Dem will.
Reposted by Adia Benton
Acting CDER Director Tracy Beth Høeg is not wasting any time ensuring that babies are as vulnerable as possible to preventable diseases that kill them.
Now she's going after preventive RSV meds based on unverified claims from an anti-vax blogger.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Now she's going after preventive RSV meds based on unverified claims from an anti-vax blogger.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Exclusive: US FDA launches fresh safety scrutiny of approved RSV therapies for infants
U.S. health regulators informed senior executives at Merck, Sanofi and AstraZeneca last week that their approved protective RSV treatments for infants would face fresh safety scrutiny following concer...
www.reuters.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Acting CDER Director Tracy Beth Høeg is not wasting any time ensuring that babies are as vulnerable as possible to preventable diseases that kill them.
Now she's going after preventive RSV meds based on unverified claims from an anti-vax blogger.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Now she's going after preventive RSV meds based on unverified claims from an anti-vax blogger.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Reposted by Adia Benton
REPEAT AFTER ME (but really, after Neil Kraus):
Wage stagnation and underemployment are not problems that education can fix. We cannot "upskill" students into well-paying jobs that do. not. exist.
Wage stagnation and underemployment are not problems that education can fix. We cannot "upskill" students into well-paying jobs that do. not. exist.
Do not accept the premise that education is to blame for abysmal jobs outcomes.
“The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
“The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
December 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
REPEAT AFTER ME (but really, after Neil Kraus):
Wage stagnation and underemployment are not problems that education can fix. We cannot "upskill" students into well-paying jobs that do. not. exist.
Wage stagnation and underemployment are not problems that education can fix. We cannot "upskill" students into well-paying jobs that do. not. exist.
Reposted by Adia Benton
Read this as an American woman and then go break something.
December 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Read this as an American woman and then go break something.
Reposted by Adia Benton
This is precisely the book. She wants us to marvel at all the Deep Thoughts she's putting to paper but the deep thoughts are all just "I am super pretty and I like looking at sunsets"
If I was a woman who was demonstrably incapable of introspection this is how I would pretend to be introspecting
December 9, 2025 at 4:11 PM
This is precisely the book. She wants us to marvel at all the Deep Thoughts she's putting to paper but the deep thoughts are all just "I am super pretty and I like looking at sunsets"
Reposted by Adia Benton
No one I'd rather read on the AI slop imagery of "Alligator Alcatraz" than the great Diana Flores Ruíz:
www.flowjournal.org/2025/12/swam...
www.flowjournal.org/2025/12/swam...
Swamp Slop and Fake Moats: On the AI Mediation of Alligator AlcatrazDiana Flores Ruiz / University of Washington – Flow
www.flowjournal.org
December 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
No one I'd rather read on the AI slop imagery of "Alligator Alcatraz" than the great Diana Flores Ruíz:
www.flowjournal.org/2025/12/swam...
www.flowjournal.org/2025/12/swam...
Reposted by Adia Benton
I had a long talk with someone yesterday about how all prior logic and norms about the labor market have been called off because capital is in the final push to finally casualize white collar workers the way they’ve long wanted to do. From AI to non-competes to this. They smell blood in the water.
"Last month marked the third time since 2008 that layoffs in November exceeded 70,000, with the other two times being in 2008 and 2022."
@paigemcglauflin.bsky.social reports.
www.hr-brew.com/stories/2025...
@paigemcglauflin.bsky.social reports.
www.hr-brew.com/stories/2025...
Employers seemingly disregard etiquette, laying off employees right before the holidays
The once common ritual fell out of fashion following the Great Recession, until this year.
www.hr-brew.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:35 PM
I had a long talk with someone yesterday about how all prior logic and norms about the labor market have been called off because capital is in the final push to finally casualize white collar workers the way they’ve long wanted to do. From AI to non-competes to this. They smell blood in the water.
Reposted by Adia Benton
"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more."
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
December 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more."
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
It really is something that NZ shows can manage to fit in the random Crowded House reference
December 9, 2025 at 2:06 AM
It really is something that NZ shows can manage to fit in the random Crowded House reference
The writing is eerily similar… and I think Taddeo used to be able to write, maybe?
Unhinged to describe the criticism of her journalistic ethics as a "freaksome lynching" when she has not denied any of the allegations and admits to most of them in her book.
Possibly the only thing more freakish than Nuzzi's prose is the contortions her defenders twist themselves into. "She's not just hot, but she definitely is hot, while also being a vulnerable smol child. Also, criticizing her is sexist."
December 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
The writing is eerily similar… and I think Taddeo used to be able to write, maybe?
Reposted by Adia Benton
“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”
AI Slop Is Spurring Record Requests for Imaginary Journals
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives
www.scientificamerican.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
“AI models not only point some users to false sources but also cause problems for researchers and librarians, who end up wasting their time looking for requested nonexistent records…”
Reposted by Adia Benton
The “retired engineer” has absolutely no business making a dataset of autistic faces, but what on God’s green earth are researchers thinking when they *use* a dataset like this? Come on. Use a single brain cell.
December 8, 2025 at 11:00 PM
The “retired engineer” has absolutely no business making a dataset of autistic faces, but what on God’s green earth are researchers thinking when they *use* a dataset like this? Come on. Use a single brain cell.
Reposted by Adia Benton
just received my copy in the mail after seeing a post!
taking to The Love Building (a physical home for social justice in Detroit) as a donation to their library.
TheLoveBuilding.org
taking to The Love Building (a physical home for social justice in Detroit) as a donation to their library.
TheLoveBuilding.org
December 8, 2025 at 7:33 PM
just received my copy in the mail after seeing a post!
taking to The Love Building (a physical home for social justice in Detroit) as a donation to their library.
TheLoveBuilding.org
taking to The Love Building (a physical home for social justice in Detroit) as a donation to their library.
TheLoveBuilding.org
Reposted by Adia Benton
I'd pay good money just to see her argument for these biscuits being "biologically male"
December 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I'd pay good money just to see her argument for these biscuits being "biologically male"
no, none of the five or six editorial manager passwords and usernames work for your publication, it seems
December 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
no, none of the five or six editorial manager passwords and usernames work for your publication, it seems
Reposted by Adia Benton
1/ ACIP’s meeting last week was disgraceful, unprepared, & chaotic. They voted to roll back the universal #HepB birth dose despite no evidence of harm, and pushed an antibody test that doesn’t reliably guide decisions. This shift will have real consequences—with babies and families paying the price.
December 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
1/ ACIP’s meeting last week was disgraceful, unprepared, & chaotic. They voted to roll back the universal #HepB birth dose despite no evidence of harm, and pushed an antibody test that doesn’t reliably guide decisions. This shift will have real consequences—with babies and families paying the price.
Reposted by Adia Benton
oh hey look it’s the thing literally everyone said would happen
Two months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting H-1B visas, soaring costs are roiling rural health care facilities that have long struggled to find staff.
Rural America relies on foreign doctors. Trump’s visa fee shuts them out.
The Trump administration’s demand for companies to pay a $100,000 fee to hire an immigrant worker using an H1B visa has created turmoil among rural health providers.
wapo.st
December 8, 2025 at 7:17 PM
oh hey look it’s the thing literally everyone said would happen
something I was nattering on about re trust and 'global health'/'public health' appears to have been researched and written up quite nicely in the past couple of years. not by me, of course. I'm happy it's out there, but I also can't help but think I probably should've written something
December 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
something I was nattering on about re trust and 'global health'/'public health' appears to have been researched and written up quite nicely in the past couple of years. not by me, of course. I'm happy it's out there, but I also can't help but think I probably should've written something
Reposted by Adia Benton
The depressing part is that Netflix winning would be objectively terrible for viewers and society and yet somehow a successful Paramount bid would be far more terrible
this pretty much guarantees months and months of performative bullshit by Trump and Ellison and right wing media about how Netflix ownership would be a woke antitrust nightmare, but letting Larry and his nepobaby son dominate U.S. media would be a delightful, populist spritzer
It’s a Bidding War: Paramount Attempts Hostile Offer for Warner Bros.
David Ellison calls Netflix's $82.7 billion deal value an "inferior proposal" and tells Warners shareholders that his coalition promises $18 billion more in cash.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The depressing part is that Netflix winning would be objectively terrible for viewers and society and yet somehow a successful Paramount bid would be far more terrible
Reposted by Adia Benton
Huck’s story of denaturalization helped me understand the context and stakes of the story Vivek Bald tells in In Search of Bengali Harlem, about how C19/early C20 Bengali immigrants found homes within Black communities
The hidden history of Bengali Harlem
MIT professor’s new book details the overlooked waves of South Asian immigrants to the United States.
news.mit.edu
December 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Huck’s story of denaturalization helped me understand the context and stakes of the story Vivek Bald tells in In Search of Bengali Harlem, about how C19/early C20 Bengali immigrants found homes within Black communities