Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 39m

“At least as yet, most of us have not been conscripted to the data mines. We are here of our own volition, or, at least, we still have some power to break addictions, to reject, as the Northwestern protestors have, indirect coercive power, to force the monopoly of violence to reveal its true self.”

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

open.substack.com

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1h

“Regardless of what happens to AI (as represented by LLMs etc), both Tesla and crypto, with a combined market value in the trillions are worthless assets, being held up only by magical thinking.” - John Quiggan

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 3h

What we should be asking is why somebody like Thiel, whose fortune was subsidized by massive public investments at University of Illinois, & humanities granting organizations at Stanford, wants to dismantle that educational infrastructure now that he’s rich.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 3h

Most of these people are deeply trained, or at least highly educated, in humanities. Knowing isn’t being.

brasidas @brasidas.bsky.social · 9h

Anyone who claims that Silicon Valley would be better with more humanities education has to grapple with the fact that Peter Thiel was a philosophy major.

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

stealingsand @stealingsand.bsky.social · 13h

"A legion of libertarian technocrats who currently believe they are dismantling the “nanny state” will someday realize they have actually been supporting the most ambitious attempt at central planning, civilian surveillance, and behavioral control since the Chinese Cultural Revolution."

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Tom Ellison @tomellison123.bsky.social · 13h

I’m glad a light is being shined on this, but for the record, no relation.

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 11h

Well, there’s always this option.

allgrimprints.shop/products/trp...

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 11h

Stop apostrophizing “moms,” heteronormative robot.

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 13h

This was much-needed.

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 13h

This was such a treat to be with @mattseybold.bsky.social @aprilanson.bsky.social @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social @jlb.bsky.social @natewolff.bsky.social( & others not on here?) to think through the knots of energy, aesthetics, politics & the hell we inhabit. Thanks Matt, Jeff, & Joe for having us.

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

Quarry Farm Symposium, my favorite event on our annual calendar, kicks off tonight with a discussion of everyday ecofascism with @aprilanson.bsky.social & Alexander Menrisky.

This year’s theme is Energy Studies, co-organized with @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social.

marktwainstudies.com/2025-quarry-...

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 13h

Will vote for Harris/Cuban ticket, but not Cuban/Harris.

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

stealingsand @stealingsand.bsky.social · 13h

"EA holds on to enormous repositories of information about their customers, mined from device logs, as well as from financial micro-transactions, closed-circuit chatrooms and telecoms, and every aspect of gameplay, which can be personalized, micro-targeted, and/or customized by machine-learning..."

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 13h

Imperative to remember, any big tent, including one that defeats totalitarian kleptocracy, must have a whole lot of dumbasses inside it.

To spurn the American dumbass constituency is to lose.

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Larisa Aitch @llarisah.bsky.social · 1d

So who watches him then - surely he would be better off if he were safe behind bars and us poors could just pop by and ogle him in person or just log on and check him out online, shitting or scratching or whatever rich weirdos like him do all day, just to ensure he’s on his best behavior

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Andy Famiglietti @afamiglietti.bsky.social · 1d

Oh goody we're going to get a Chinese Communist Party style surveillance state AND climate collapse and constant gun violence. Love it. No notes.

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

1 1 8

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

"If you believe, as Ellison does, that Americans will be better off when they are subjected to 'supervision at all times,' then buying microvideo platforms, enterprise software, streaming services, cable networks, gaming developers, & internet publishers is just buying supervision capacity."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. Portions of the event, including tonight’s convo, will be edited into podcast episodes.

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

"What the kleptocratic antitrust agenda has underwritten is not so much a media conglomerate as a surveillance agency, & it is one which will persist, after the near-term political turmoil, either as parallel media serving the jilted broligarchy or paragovernmental arm of a post-democratic dynasty."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

Quarry Farm Symposium, my favorite event on our annual calendar, kicks off tonight with a discussion of everyday ecofascism with @aprilanson.bsky.social & Alexander Menrisky.

This year’s theme is Energy Studies, co-organized with @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social.

marktwainstudies.com/2025-quarry-...

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Charlie Robertson @frontiercharlie.bsky.social · 9d

This is great piece, very clear and well structured

When the AI stock bubble crashes, it won’t necessitate QE type policies from the Fed as the bubble is built on equity on debt

Ian Harnett @ianrharnett.bsky.social · 9d

Many thanks to @tonytassell.bsky.social at the @financialtimes.com Times for asking me to share my thoughts on why I believe the AI capex boom signals the start of the end-game for this phase of the AI bubble.

www.ft.com/content/c7b9...

The AI capex endgame is approaching

The rapid building of excess capacity both extends bubbles and ultimately bursts them

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Anna E. Clark @annaeclark.bsky.social · 2d

I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social

www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...

Toward the Higher- and Secondary-Ed Alliance! - Public Books

The influence of K-12 policy and pedagogy on higher ed can perhaps be seen best in the trickle-up effect of the standards of the Common Core.

www.publicbooks.org

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

My thoughts, such as they are. Much aided by thinking with your piece from last week.

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

open.substack.com

8 22

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

"What the kleptocratic antitrust agenda has underwritten is not so much a media conglomerate as a surveillance agency, & it is one which will persist, after the near-term political turmoil, either as parallel media serving the jilted broligarchy or paragovernmental arm of a post-democratic dynasty."

The Ellisons Are Beta-Testing Big Brother.

If your feeds, subs, streams, games, and sports don't ensure you are on your "best behavior," your school and its EdTech partners will.

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Reposted by Matt Seybold

Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social · 2d

A TRUST FUND FOR EVERYONE: At a time Trump, Big Tech & Wall Street deploy stablecoins to privatise the dollar, here is an alternative use of blockchain that harnesses its decentralising powers to benefit everyone equally www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/10/10/2... @izaromanowska.bsky.social @rarar.com

A Trust Fund for Everyone: How to create a Monetary Commons that socialises money and funds a basic dividend without new taxes or debt - Yanis Varoufakis

At a time Donald Trump, Big Tech and Wall Street deploy stablecoins to privatise the dollar, usurping the decentralising power of blockchain to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense, here is an...

www.yanisvaroufakis.eu

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 2d

Ben lacks many things, but not professional pride.

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