Kevin Riggle
@kevinriggle.bsky.social
Principal @ http://complexsystems.group. I keep people safe on the internet (trying). Looking at the world with an “anarchist squint” 🏳️🌈 @ [email protected]
A reminder that there are many fewer self-identified Republicans than there used to be. It’s the party of groypers, opportunists, and pedophiles
New Gallup poll shows Trump's approval hit a new low for his second term:
-36% approve
-60% disapprove
His approval among Republicans went from 91% in January to 84% in November
news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
-36% approve
-60% disapprove
His approval among Republicans went from 91% in January to 84% in November
news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
Trump's Approval Rating Drops to 36%, New Second-Term Low
President Donald Trump's job approval rating has slipped to a new second-term low point and is approaching his all-time low of 34%.
news.gallup.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:56 PM
A reminder that there are many fewer self-identified Republicans than there used to be. It’s the party of groypers, opportunists, and pedophiles
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
this week ya girl will have been unemployed for ONE YEAR !!!!
please consider buying some THINGS to HOLD STUFF
please consider buying some THINGS to HOLD STUFF
November 12, 2025 at 6:57 PM
this week ya girl will have been unemployed for ONE YEAR !!!!
please consider buying some THINGS to HOLD STUFF
please consider buying some THINGS to HOLD STUFF
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
This touches on a few of the biggest sources of low morale for me:
- flood of AI slop lands in my inbox as peer review requests
- my critical reviews of said AI slop are then ignored by editors at Journals that won't give my work consideration
- all while I'm expected to ⬆️ research output
- flood of AI slop lands in my inbox as peer review requests
- my critical reviews of said AI slop are then ignored by editors at Journals that won't give my work consideration
- all while I'm expected to ⬆️ research output
It's easy to see shoddy research as a bad actor problem. But if AI slop like this can make it through editors and peer reviewers, it means there are systemic problems at work. And I'd argue that at least part of the problem is the overwork culture in academia-- pressure to do more while caring less.
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 28, 2025 at 5:43 PM
This touches on a few of the biggest sources of low morale for me:
- flood of AI slop lands in my inbox as peer review requests
- my critical reviews of said AI slop are then ignored by editors at Journals that won't give my work consideration
- all while I'm expected to ⬆️ research output
- flood of AI slop lands in my inbox as peer review requests
- my critical reviews of said AI slop are then ignored by editors at Journals that won't give my work consideration
- all while I'm expected to ⬆️ research output
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
More plausible is "I spent 35.5 hours straight pursuing increasingly more ridiculous attempts to diagnose and fix a really stupid error I made in the first 30 minutes that had become entirely invisible to me"
November 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
More plausible is "I spent 35.5 hours straight pursuing increasingly more ridiculous attempts to diagnose and fix a really stupid error I made in the first 30 minutes that had become entirely invisible to me"
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
I was watching Adam Friedland's interview with Zohran and he said "you're the first one who is one of Our Guys" and then he said "well, Mayor Pete, but he's really one of the people our age who is trying to suck up to the parents" and it was an incredibly illuminating thought!
November 28, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I was watching Adam Friedland's interview with Zohran and he said "you're the first one who is one of Our Guys" and then he said "well, Mayor Pete, but he's really one of the people our age who is trying to suck up to the parents" and it was an incredibly illuminating thought!
Also: For the love of god, unless this is your area of expertise, please defer to service members on the question of what are and aren’t war crimes. They’ve been trained extensively on it and most of the rest of us haven’t
Regarding the latter, one could argue there is a level of seniority below which it is not reasonable to expect service members to exercise their own judgement about that.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
Refusing to follow a “kill the survivors of the previous strike who are clearly hors de combat” order SHOULD BE significantly more clear-cut than refusing one due to “this entire operation is unlawful because citing inherent Article II authority is insufficient.”
There must be accountability.
There must be accountability.
November 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Also: For the love of god, unless this is your area of expertise, please defer to service members on the question of what are and aren’t war crimes. They’ve been trained extensively on it and most of the rest of us haven’t
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
One time I saw a distinguished British historian playing with his small child, who was doing finger guns. He put his arms up and the boy - who was about six - went "bang!" and he very seriously explained that you must never shoot a prisoner.
Regarding the latter, one could argue there is a level of seniority below which it is not reasonable to expect service members to exercise their own judgement about that.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
Refusing to follow a “kill the survivors of the previous strike who are clearly hors de combat” order SHOULD BE significantly more clear-cut than refusing one due to “this entire operation is unlawful because citing inherent Article II authority is insufficient.”
There must be accountability.
There must be accountability.
November 28, 2025 at 7:27 PM
One time I saw a distinguished British historian playing with his small child, who was doing finger guns. He put his arms up and the boy - who was about six - went "bang!" and he very seriously explained that you must never shoot a prisoner.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
They believe that Trump will use the formal powers of the government and whatever informal powers he may have to extract costs from them if they do not play ball and they equally believe that the anti-Trump coalition will not extract these costs.
So we need to extract those costs.
So we need to extract those costs.
given how unpopular Trump is, it’s insane that civil society/universities/law firms are still asking themselves “how do I stay on Trump’s good side” rather than “how do I avoid facing consequences for complying with Trump’s illegal demands”
New Gallup poll shows Trump's approval hit a new low for his second term:
-36% approve
-60% disapprove
His approval among Republicans went from 91% in January to 84% in November
news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
-36% approve
-60% disapprove
His approval among Republicans went from 91% in January to 84% in November
news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
November 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM
They believe that Trump will use the formal powers of the government and whatever informal powers he may have to extract costs from them if they do not play ball and they equally believe that the anti-Trump coalition will not extract these costs.
So we need to extract those costs.
So we need to extract those costs.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
When you don't control any of the political branches job one as a political party is to change that.
November 28, 2025 at 7:43 PM
When you don't control any of the political branches job one as a political party is to change that.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
I wrote a bit about this many years ago on Twitter-that-was: the algorithm has gradually eroded "here's what you want to see" by replacing it with "here's what we'd like you to want to see."
It continues to trade on its former reputation solely due to inertia. Underneath, it's all ads.
It continues to trade on its former reputation solely due to inertia. Underneath, it's all ads.
love to live in a world where all my personal data is relentlessly harvested so that megacorps can feed it into their all-knowing algorithms and yet somehow the end result is that algorithm going “we think you’d like Clarkson’s Farm”
November 28, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I wrote a bit about this many years ago on Twitter-that-was: the algorithm has gradually eroded "here's what you want to see" by replacing it with "here's what we'd like you to want to see."
It continues to trade on its former reputation solely due to inertia. Underneath, it's all ads.
It continues to trade on its former reputation solely due to inertia. Underneath, it's all ads.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
A book and a train is a hell of a combination.
*bonus points for the snowy landscape.
*bonus points for the snowy landscape.
November 28, 2025 at 5:41 PM
A book and a train is a hell of a combination.
*bonus points for the snowy landscape.
*bonus points for the snowy landscape.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
There are no high-minded nor structural defenses against an elite class that is all in on being terrible, there's just beating them.
November 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
There are no high-minded nor structural defenses against an elite class that is all in on being terrible, there's just beating them.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
if a little piece of decoration you're putting on your slide isn't very specifically designed to support & extend whatever information you're trying to convey, slapping some weird little AI thing in there isn't going to add value. just get a swirly border or use a damn gradient, idk.
November 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM
if a little piece of decoration you're putting on your slide isn't very specifically designed to support & extend whatever information you're trying to convey, slapping some weird little AI thing in there isn't going to add value. just get a swirly border or use a damn gradient, idk.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
this is part of a discussion about using AI art in your presentation slides, but also feels like it captures where this all goes wrong.
people who don't see the visuals as communication can't respect the skill & thought of the artists whose work got fed into these models to begin with.
people who don't see the visuals as communication can't respect the skill & thought of the artists whose work got fed into these models to begin with.
Yes! Visuals are part of the communication. Treating them as ignorable decoration completely misses the point and it’s not how they’re received by an audience
November 28, 2025 at 4:43 PM
this is part of a discussion about using AI art in your presentation slides, but also feels like it captures where this all goes wrong.
people who don't see the visuals as communication can't respect the skill & thought of the artists whose work got fed into these models to begin with.
people who don't see the visuals as communication can't respect the skill & thought of the artists whose work got fed into these models to begin with.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
I think they should all leave if they want. I think every young girl and non-male person gets to say no fucking thanks to software if they decide to. I have no desire to work on the psychology of manipulating people into picking code over themselves. We should work to *deserve* young people.
November 28, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I think they should all leave if they want. I think every young girl and non-male person gets to say no fucking thanks to software if they decide to. I have no desire to work on the psychology of manipulating people into picking code over themselves. We should work to *deserve* young people.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
Authoritarians claim the power not just to tell all of our stories but to select the definitive story that says who we are, what our nature, why we're here, in order to cast themselves as both forever hero protagonists while also endlessly victimized.
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Authoritarians claim the power not just to tell all of our stories but to select the definitive story that says who we are, what our nature, why we're here, in order to cast themselves as both forever hero protagonists while also endlessly victimized.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
I do go on and on about how all media is becoming QVC but Amazon making its NFL pregame squad pitch PS5 Black Friday deals really hammering the point home
November 28, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I do go on and on about how all media is becoming QVC but Amazon making its NFL pregame squad pitch PS5 Black Friday deals really hammering the point home
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
'Democrat' is not a species with DNA: it is an empty box into which any combination of politics may be poured, same as 'Republican.' Try to pour in something good and useful.
Perhaps this jumps out at me more clearly because I do not identify as a Democrat myself.
Perhaps this jumps out at me more clearly because I do not identify as a Democrat myself.
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
'Democrat' is not a species with DNA: it is an empty box into which any combination of politics may be poured, same as 'Republican.' Try to pour in something good and useful.
Perhaps this jumps out at me more clearly because I do not identify as a Democrat myself.
Perhaps this jumps out at me more clearly because I do not identify as a Democrat myself.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
I find the 'the Democrats won't do anything' doomer line annoying, because the Democrats will be who you make them - look how much the GOP changed over the past decade!
Right now the party feels immovable but the moment it has a presidential nominee, it will be whatever that person is.
Right now the party feels immovable but the moment it has a presidential nominee, it will be whatever that person is.
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I find the 'the Democrats won't do anything' doomer line annoying, because the Democrats will be who you make them - look how much the GOP changed over the past decade!
Right now the party feels immovable but the moment it has a presidential nominee, it will be whatever that person is.
Right now the party feels immovable but the moment it has a presidential nominee, it will be whatever that person is.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
If Trump proactively pardons Hegseth, the solution is to signal either to the ICC or the country of origin of the murdered men that we will honor extradition requests on this point.
And then, in something of an irony, Noem him out of the country before anyone can react.
And then, in something of an irony, Noem him out of the country before anyone can react.
November 28, 2025 at 6:40 PM
If Trump proactively pardons Hegseth, the solution is to signal either to the ICC or the country of origin of the murdered men that we will honor extradition requests on this point.
And then, in something of an irony, Noem him out of the country before anyone can react.
And then, in something of an irony, Noem him out of the country before anyone can react.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
The elites don’t want you to know this, but you can just do that
November 28, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The elites don’t want you to know this, but you can just do that
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
BREAKING: A new wave of union baristas are joining the longest ULP strike in Starbucks history! 2,500 union baristas across 120+ stores in 85 cities are now on an open-ended ULP strike. We're SIXTEEN DAYS in and only getting stronger ✊
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
November 28, 2025 at 11:05 AM
BREAKING: A new wave of union baristas are joining the longest ULP strike in Starbucks history! 2,500 union baristas across 120+ stores in 85 cities are now on an open-ended ULP strike. We're SIXTEEN DAYS in and only getting stronger ✊
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
It’s still technically stealing but no A.I. graphic is gonna get your point across better than a Simpsons still from frinkiac
I feel like I’ve paid for it by watching 200k hours of simpsons-supporting advertisements
I feel like I’ve paid for it by watching 200k hours of simpsons-supporting advertisements
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 5:00 PM
It’s still technically stealing but no A.I. graphic is gonna get your point across better than a Simpsons still from frinkiac
I feel like I’ve paid for it by watching 200k hours of simpsons-supporting advertisements
I feel like I’ve paid for it by watching 200k hours of simpsons-supporting advertisements
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
If you use AI in a presentation or product marketing, I'm going to assume you've put the same lack of care and attention into the rest of the content.
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 4:47 PM
If you use AI in a presentation or product marketing, I'm going to assume you've put the same lack of care and attention into the rest of the content.
Reposted by Kevin Riggle
In literally any other situation about 2/3 these complaints would be dealbreakers and get someone fired at work
"Yeah, my js bundler only works half the time and pretends there were no errors and exposes us to legal risk and shot our electric bill through the roof and needs 100 gfx cards to work"
"Yeah, my js bundler only works half the time and pretends there were no errors and exposes us to legal risk and shot our electric bill through the roof and needs 100 gfx cards to work"
November 26, 2025 at 8:13 PM
In literally any other situation about 2/3 these complaints would be dealbreakers and get someone fired at work
"Yeah, my js bundler only works half the time and pretends there were no errors and exposes us to legal risk and shot our electric bill through the roof and needs 100 gfx cards to work"
"Yeah, my js bundler only works half the time and pretends there were no errors and exposes us to legal risk and shot our electric bill through the roof and needs 100 gfx cards to work"