Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
@joshuafoust.com
Made the CommSky Starter Pack https://go.bsky.app/QkcgePD
Assistant Professor at Syracuse. I study public relations, military esports, video games, and gender theory. Happily 🏳️🌈.
Assistant Professor at Syracuse. I study public relations, military esports, video games, and gender theory. Happily 🏳️🌈.
Pinned
Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
@joshuafoust.com
· Jan 9
Public Relations in Times of Dissensus
Public relations are entering an era marked by increasing societal dissensus, where shared narratives are breaking down and contentious communication defines th…
www.bloomsbury.com
Yay! Thrilled that the volume I co-edited with Saima Kazmi and Burton St. John is available for pre-order: Public Relations in Times of Dissensus: Narratives, Artifacts, and the Challenges of Meaning. It’s a pretty timely exploration of how we can communicate with the public when we all disagree.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Ho-lee Shit. This is phenomenally good news. Department of Education rolls back— for now— its attempts to destroy Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility initiatives. Keep an eye on them, of course, and watch for the hidden knife, always, but for now: Fantastic news.
February 18, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Ho-lee Shit. This is phenomenally good news. Department of Education rolls back— for now— its attempts to destroy Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility initiatives. Keep an eye on them, of course, and watch for the hidden knife, always, but for now: Fantastic news.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Social science denial is science denial.
Again, we should treat answers to "who pays tariffs?" & "does voter fraud exist?" & other social scientific questions as settled law/facts, just like we treat "does the sun rise in the East?" We do not need more research or explainers or both sides debates about this in 2026. It feeds the trolls.
Who pays for the US tariffs? The answer may not surprise you ft.trib.al/MLaTtRV
February 18, 2026 at 6:02 PM
Social science denial is science denial.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
i shouldn’t give this piece any more attention than it has already garnered but i feel like it is worth pointing out some flaws in the argument/unquestioned assumptions
thread 1/
thread 1/
February 18, 2026 at 4:46 PM
i shouldn’t give this piece any more attention than it has already garnered but i feel like it is worth pointing out some flaws in the argument/unquestioned assumptions
thread 1/
thread 1/
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
🧵
i shouldn’t give this piece any more attention than it has already garnered but i feel like it is worth pointing out some flaws in the argument/unquestioned assumptions
thread 1/
thread 1/
February 18, 2026 at 4:57 PM
🧵
Guys: don’t snitch tag. It is antisocial. If I wanted to tag someone, I will.
February 18, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Guys: don’t snitch tag. It is antisocial. If I wanted to tag someone, I will.
“Nearly 90% of firms said AI has had no impact on employment or productivity over the last three years, the research noted. However, firms’ expectations of AI’s workplace and economic impact remained substantial: Executives forecast AI will increase productivity by 1.4%”
It’s all wishful thinking
It’s all wishful thinking
Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago | Fortune
In the 1980s, economist Robert Solow made an observation that reminded economists of today’s AI boom: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
fortune.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:50 PM
“Nearly 90% of firms said AI has had no impact on employment or productivity over the last three years, the research noted. However, firms’ expectations of AI’s workplace and economic impact remained substantial: Executives forecast AI will increase productivity by 1.4%”
It’s all wishful thinking
It’s all wishful thinking
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
NEW: ChatGPT and other chatbots are feeding users' fixations on real people, reinforcing users' delusional ideas and obsessions about others as they descend into unwanted harassment, stalking, and/or domestic abuse — traumatizing victims and profoundly altering lives.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking
ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are reinforcing users' delusions about other people — fueling fixations linked to stalking and other abuses.
futurism.com
February 17, 2026 at 3:58 PM
NEW: ChatGPT and other chatbots are feeding users' fixations on real people, reinforcing users' delusional ideas and obsessions about others as they descend into unwanted harassment, stalking, and/or domestic abuse — traumatizing victims and profoundly altering lives.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Women in the games industry already have to put up with a lot, but we shouldn’t have to do it alone. Men in the industry: if you see one of your fellow men doing behaving this way towards a woman at a professional conference, please speak up and tell them to CUT IT OUT.
I hope things in our industry change for the better in the future. I will not allow anyone to feel this way again.
February 18, 2026 at 7:10 AM
Women in the games industry already have to put up with a lot, but we shouldn’t have to do it alone. Men in the industry: if you see one of your fellow men doing behaving this way towards a woman at a professional conference, please speak up and tell them to CUT IT OUT.
Here, have a little dopamine, as a treat.
February 18, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Here, have a little dopamine, as a treat.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
So, why is the entire media and Democratic political establishment insistent on posting there, providing it legitimacy and ad revenue???
I have theories. But no explanation. It is a low-value platform for persuasion and reach. There isn’t a positive case for being active there. They have to quit.
I have theories. But no explanation. It is a low-value platform for persuasion and reach. There isn’t a positive case for being active there. They have to quit.
If you've looked at Xitter anytime recently, it is overwhelmingly (a) bots (b) porn (c) scams (d) Russian/MAGA agitprop.
And of course (e) Musk-worship.
Plus the "legit" institutions that are still on there. As they should not be.
And of course (e) Musk-worship.
Plus the "legit" institutions that are still on there. As they should not be.
Elon Musk's social media platform X faces a European Union privacy investigation after its Grok AI chatbot started spitting out nonconsensual deepfake images, Ireland's data privacy regulator said Tuesday. https://to.pbs.org/3Owjoqe
February 18, 2026 at 12:55 PM
So, why is the entire media and Democratic political establishment insistent on posting there, providing it legitimacy and ad revenue???
I have theories. But no explanation. It is a low-value platform for persuasion and reach. There isn’t a positive case for being active there. They have to quit.
I have theories. But no explanation. It is a low-value platform for persuasion and reach. There isn’t a positive case for being active there. They have to quit.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Breaking: Scam is a scam.
Google’s AI Overviews Can Scam You. Here’s How to Stay Safe
Beyond mistakes or nonsense, deliberately bad information being injected into AI search summaries is leading people down potentially harmful paths.
www.wired.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Breaking: Scam is a scam.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Profs, Grammarly is NOT the benign writing assistant you may have thought it is, but a powerful cheating machine that includes tools explicitly designed to help students hide the cheating done with it...
Grammarly Is a Cheating Machine - Daily Nous
Grammarly is sometimes thought by instructors to be a relatively benign writing tool app, akin to a sophisticated spelling and grammar checker. That may have once been true, but as Kieran Barker, an e...
dailynous.com
February 17, 2026 at 8:52 PM
Profs, Grammarly is NOT the benign writing assistant you may have thought it is, but a powerful cheating machine that includes tools explicitly designed to help students hide the cheating done with it...
It took until the late 90s for a majority of Americans to approve of interracial marriage. The “popularists” like Jain or Yglesias would have counseled Democrats to never bring it up because it wasn’t “popular,” the way they’re doing today with trans personhood. It is substantively, morally wrong.
February 18, 2026 at 12:27 PM
It took until the late 90s for a majority of Americans to approve of interracial marriage. The “popularists” like Jain or Yglesias would have counseled Democrats to never bring it up because it wasn’t “popular,” the way they’re doing today with trans personhood. It is substantively, morally wrong.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
As a media person, I am probably paying a real cost by refusing to engage with Threads. I just can't do it.
Firstly, Facebook is an evil company and I want less of them in my life.
Secondly, every time I opened Threads it served me an awful stream
of garbage that made me upset and angry.
Firstly, Facebook is an evil company and I want less of them in my life.
Secondly, every time I opened Threads it served me an awful stream
of garbage that made me upset and angry.
when I open threads, 90% of the posts that are served to me are either rage bait or straight out false information
And the algorithm is choosing that
Nothing comparable happening here at all
And the algorithm is choosing that
Nothing comparable happening here at all
February 18, 2026 at 1:46 AM
As a media person, I am probably paying a real cost by refusing to engage with Threads. I just can't do it.
Firstly, Facebook is an evil company and I want less of them in my life.
Secondly, every time I opened Threads it served me an awful stream
of garbage that made me upset and angry.
Firstly, Facebook is an evil company and I want less of them in my life.
Secondly, every time I opened Threads it served me an awful stream
of garbage that made me upset and angry.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
It's doubly ahistorical as it ignores how gay rights in the 1970s-00s followed a near-identical trajectory: initial acceptance, violent backlash, regression of rights, slow rebuilding/expansion.
And, yes, mealymouthed centrists told us we were asking too much then, too.
And, yes, mealymouthed centrists told us we were asking too much then, too.
They just talk as though the public spontaneously lurched to the right on a few specific issues -- sports, restrooms. And now they just take that as a given, a fact that trans supporters must work around.
But how did that happen? Anyone? It's fucking *bizarre* they never even raise the question.
But how did that happen? Anyone? It's fucking *bizarre* they never even raise the question.
February 18, 2026 at 8:52 AM
It's doubly ahistorical as it ignores how gay rights in the 1970s-00s followed a near-identical trajectory: initial acceptance, violent backlash, regression of rights, slow rebuilding/expansion.
And, yes, mealymouthed centrists told us we were asking too much then, too.
And, yes, mealymouthed centrists told us we were asking too much then, too.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
The right is currently demonizing **rainbow crosswalks**. There is no safe space to retreat to where we won’t have to win the political fight.
Like this. "You must strategically abandon the specific issues that the right has rendered toxic & focus on others."
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
But then ... why wouldn't the right just be able to do the same thing on those other issues?
February 18, 2026 at 11:53 AM
The right is currently demonizing **rainbow crosswalks**. There is no safe space to retreat to where we won’t have to win the political fight.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
A link to Brian's newsletter, because I am a silly goose and forgot to include it.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/five-takea...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/five-takea...
Five takeaways from an unhinged AI discourse
What's behind the feverish AI discourse? Who thinks "AI is fake"? Is "the left" wrong to dismiss AI? Is that even what's happening? What's really going on with AI in 2026.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
February 18, 2026 at 11:19 AM
A link to Brian's newsletter, because I am a silly goose and forgot to include it.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/five-takea...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/five-takea...
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
4-5 years ago there were MDs like Lucy McBride crowing about the urgency of normal, getting kids back to school. There were PR hacks like David Zweig supporting them. Now kids are being sent to immigration detention, getting measles & these folks are nowhere to be found. It was never about the kids.
February 18, 2026 at 11:25 AM
4-5 years ago there were MDs like Lucy McBride crowing about the urgency of normal, getting kids back to school. There were PR hacks like David Zweig supporting them. Now kids are being sent to immigration detention, getting measles & these folks are nowhere to be found. It was never about the kids.
Guys that Tyra Banks docu series is WILD
February 18, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Guys that Tyra Banks docu series is WILD
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
It is a cult.
The AI Apocalypse - Lawyers, Guns & Money
I’ve wanted to understand a bit about AI before I wrote about it. My gut feeling was that this is something we don’t want generally although it may have a few specific uses. That remains my partially ...
www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com
February 17, 2026 at 11:26 PM
It is a cult.
AI companies are phagocytizing the entire economy and a lot of folks look at it and go “the future is cool”
That reads more like a cult than an economic sector to me.
That reads more like a cult than an economic sector to me.
Seagate and WD just declared they've finished selling their stock for the year and won't be stepping up production early. Drives out on retail have doubled in cost this week. There's the rest of the year ahead.
February 17, 2026 at 11:22 PM
AI companies are phagocytizing the entire economy and a lot of folks look at it and go “the future is cool”
That reads more like a cult than an economic sector to me.
That reads more like a cult than an economic sector to me.
“This weekend, it’s hosting a free clinic courtesy of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit like Doctors Without Borders, but for places in the United States where the health outcomes are as grim as those in many developing countries.”
I will never understand why ordinary people defend this system.
I will never understand why ordinary people defend this system.
Trump has betrayed the people of coal country. They love him anyway.
Trump has betrayed the people of coal country. They love him anyway.
“He thinks our people are idiots.”
www.motherjones.com
February 17, 2026 at 11:03 PM
“This weekend, it’s hosting a free clinic courtesy of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit like Doctors Without Borders, but for places in the United States where the health outcomes are as grim as those in many developing countries.”
I will never understand why ordinary people defend this system.
I will never understand why ordinary people defend this system.
I’m on day, like, 11 of trying to recover from a vial infection and while I’m not feverish anymore I just feel like ass constantly, unable to rest. I know that happens sometimes but it’s really frustrating.
February 17, 2026 at 9:52 PM
I’m on day, like, 11 of trying to recover from a vial infection and while I’m not feverish anymore I just feel like ass constantly, unable to rest. I know that happens sometimes but it’s really frustrating.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
This is indistinguishable from right-wing anti-SJW agitprop
Confessions of a Former Body Positivity Influencer
YouTube video by New York Times Opinion
www.youtube.com
February 17, 2026 at 8:00 PM
This is indistinguishable from right-wing anti-SJW agitprop