Josh Sutphin
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joshsutphin.com
Josh Sutphin
@joshsutphin.com
230 followers 600 following 480 posts
(SUT-fin) Writing horror and hopepunk at @horrorxhope.com. Co-founder @shirakipress.com. Veteran video game developer.
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Reposted by Josh Sutphin
horrorxhope.com
This is a massive overreach by Amazon and I eagerly await the inevitable lawsuit.

In the meantime, we need serious collective action at scale to punish this kind of behavior and prevent it from recurring.

Fuck generative AI.

#ai #amazon #kindle

writerbeware.blog/2025/12/12/k...
December 16, 2025 at 5:06 PM
joshsutphin.com
THIS
kayorchison.bsky.social Kay Orchison @kayorchison.bsky.social · 14h
What if instead of buggering up access to the internet, creating new problems, the government had turned to the SM companies doing the most damage saying "effective moderation policies now and by effective we mean according to OUR metrics, or sanctions on your execs, board and anyone replacing them"
December 16, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
horrorxhope.com
Here is the opening of my latest piece: THE GILDED KING.

Read the full poem here: www.horrorxhope.com/the-gilded-k...

#poetry #writing #writingcommunity
The Gilded King upon his gilded throne: a modern Midas, heedless of the tale. No pleasure can surpass the sheen of gold. There is nothing better than gold. He paves over history with gold. He drowns his kingdom in gold. What better, then, than making deals for more?
December 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
joshsutphin.com
You know what would be a way better solution to social media addiction than age verification? Banning the algorithmic timeline and the infinite scroll.

The problem isn't on the users' end; it's embedded in the intentionally addictive design patterns of every app.

proton.me/blog/austral...
Australia’s under-16 social media ban raises major privacy and enforcement concerns | Proton
Australia is the first country to ban social media for under-16s, but enforcing the law requires biometric checks, identity data, and new surveillance risks. Here's why.
proton.me
December 15, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
afterdinnerconversation.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:31 AM
joshsutphin.com
I just ran out of steps IN the antechamber WITH the final door UNLOCKED 😡

#BluePrince
a woman in a black dress says it - it - the f - it - flam - flames
ALT: a woman in a black dress says it - it - the f - it - flam - flames
media.tenor.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:28 AM
joshsutphin.com
Love to watch our culture erode into an AI-generated slurry of meaningless self-referential “content” that we mindlessly dopamine-binge without feeling until we die, while Aldous Huxley’s ghost screeches “I told you so” until the end of time
December 14, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
richardkadrey.bsky.social
In honor of us having a delightful light snow day in Pittsburgh, here's a present for you. Open it right away. But alone. In a locked room. Soundproof if possible. Just be patient and listen to the pretty music. The real present comes at the end.
#PulpSabotage
a picture of Pinhead in a Santa hat holding a wrapped gift box
December 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
My position on taking action. And on the important space between everything and nothing.
And everything is flawed, if you want to look at it that way. The analogy that has helped me most is this: in Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of boat-owners rescued people—single moms, toddlers, grandfathers—stranded in attics, on roofs, in flooded housing projects, hospitals, and school buildings. None of them said, I can’t rescue everyone, therefore it’s futile; therefore my efforts are flawed and worthless, though that’s often what people say about more abstract issues in which, nevertheless, lives, places, cultures, species, rights are at stake. They went out there in fishing boats and rowboats and pirogues and all kinds of small craft, some driving from as far as Texas and eluding the au- thorities to get in, others refugees themselves working within the city. There was bumper-to-bumper boat-trailer traffic—the celebrated Cajun Navy—going toward the city the day after the levees broke. None of those people said, I can’t rescue them all. All of them said, I can rescue someone, and that’s work so meaningful and important I will risk my life and defy the authorities to do it. And they did.
December 13, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
jfoster.bsky.social
December 13, 2025 at 1:47 PM
joshsutphin.com
💯
erikahall.bsky.social Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 4d
It's so fucked up to have been a kid during the D&D is the devil freakout and the Tipper Gore dirty lyrics freakout and live to see the teen suicide machine get such a pass.
December 13, 2025 at 5:44 AM
joshsutphin.com
I've become cynical enough to believe that these tech companies are intentionally baiting major AI lawsuits in hopes of getting one in front of the 6-3 conservative majority SCOTUS to establish legal precedent in their own favor for at least a generation

writerbeware.blog/2025/12/12/k...
Kindle's New Gen AI-Powered "Ask This Book" Feature Raises Rights Concerns - Writer Beware
In a recent press release, Amazon noted that some new features were coming to Kindle. We’re adding new AI-powered reading features that preserve the magic of reading on Kindle. Story So Far lets you c...
writerbeware.blog
December 13, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
horrorxhope.com
My new poem THE GILDED KING is up on Horror × Hope: www.horrorxhope.com/the-gilded-k...

I’ve never considered myself a poetry-enjoyer, but then this just… fell out of me, and now I have to rethink everything. 🤔

#PoliticalHorrorPoetry
December 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
joshsutphin.com
Remember when the Democrats caved on the shutdown because they were promised a vote on extending health care subsidies?

Well, they got it. 🙃

#4DChess

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Senate rejects dual healthcare bills as Obamacare tax credits expiration nears
Votes came as premium tax credits for estimated 21.8 million enrollees of plans set to expire at end of month
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
strangelibrary.com
The Game Awards in one convenient image
THERE ARE WORLDS BEYOND YOUR OWN just tell them you want Wendy's
December 12, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
coreybrickley.bsky.social
i made this in december 2023 but never shared it bc i felt like it'd just bum everyone out
drawing of a little guy saying "boy all this ai stuff sure is grim for artists, but at least we can count on media companies fighting for the long-term value of their intellectual property over chasing short-sighted tech grifts and market hype. Right, Mickey?" In the next panel as giant Mickey Mouse face laughs in an unhinged way. In the last panel the little guy stares into space and says "Oh fuck"
December 12, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
horrorxhope.com
I've got new fiction coming tomorrow, and this time it... rhymes?! 🤯
December 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
joshsutphin.com
I can't help but think this Disney + OpenAI deal is actually just Disney establishing a fully automated factory for prosecutable copyright infringement at scale. It's gonna be Napster lawsuits 2.0 and every random kid prompting Iron Man + Goofy porn is gonna be in the crosshairs.
December 11, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
seantcollins.com
J.R.R. Tolkien, literal Butlerian Jihadist
from a letter by JRR Tolkien to his son Michael: [here is] the tragedy and despair of all machinery laid bare. Unlike art which is content to create a new secondary world in the mind, it attempts to actualize desire, and so to create power in this World; and that cannot really be done with any real satisfaction. Labour-saving machinery only creates endless and worse labour. And in addition to this fundamental disability of a creature, is added the Fall, which makes our devices not only fail of their desire but turn to new and horrible evil. So we come inevitably from Daedalus and Icarus to the Giant Bomber. It is not an advance in wisdom! This terrible truth, glimpsed long ago by Sam Butler, sticks out so plainly and is so horrifyingly exhibited in our time, with its even worse menace for the future, that it seems almost a world wide mental disease that only a tiny minority perceive it. Even if people have ever heard the legends (which is getting rarer) they have no inkling of their portent. How could a maker of motorbikes name his product Ixion cycles! Ixion, who was bound for ever in hell on a perpetually revolving wheel! Well, I have got over 2 thousand words onto this little flimsy airletter; and I will forgive the Mordor-gadgets some of their sins, if they will bring it quickly to you
December 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
joshsutphin.com
This will definitely be fine and the Internet will be very normal about it
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 5d
Please treat our treasured IP like trash
MEDIA & MARKETING Disney to Invest $1 Billion in OpenAl, License Characters for Use in ChatGPT, Sora The three-year licensing deal will let users generate videos of more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar characters
December 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Josh Sutphin
chrissabug.bsky.social
💀🌹Dread Persephone
December 11, 2025 at 12:25 AM
joshsutphin.com
This is a really good short piece with excellent editorial examples: janefriedman.com/the-case-for...

#writing #writingcommunity
The Case for Shrinking Your Novel | Jane Friedman
Even experienced novelists overwrite. Here are five insights about ruthlessly cutting a manuscript—and why that’s a good thing.
janefriedman.com
December 10, 2025 at 10:07 PM
joshsutphin.com
This quote just about sums up the entirety of modern online culture, doesn't it?

“…Instead of kind of feeling under surveillance, users (are) basically feeling seen.”

proton.me/blog/spotify...

#SpotifyWrapped #tech #privacy
If you must do Wrapped, here’s the privacy-safe version | Proton
Spotify's year-end Wrapped is a major marketing success. It's also a privacy landmine. Here's how you can engage your customers instead.
proton.me
December 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
joshsutphin.com
I love being a millennial and lurching from structural crisis to structural crisis until I die

fortune.com/2025/12/09/f...
The 'forever layoffs' era hits a recession trigger as corporates sack 1.1 million workers through November | Fortune
That's the most since 2020—but then you have to go back to 2009 to find when companies let so many workers go.
fortune.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:51 PM
joshsutphin.com
Ban SCOTUS, not books.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
“This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States denied our petition for certiorari,” plaintiff Leila Green Little wrote in an email on December 8. “They will not hear our case. No explanation is given.” Little continued, “This means that the en banc ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in effect for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This means that public library patrons have no First Amendment rights to access information. This means we now live in a censorship state.”
December 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM