Matt Seybold
@mattseybold.bsky.social
American Vandal Pod | Prof of AmLit & Twain Studies + Director of Media Studies, Elmira College | Resident Scholar @MarkTwain.bsky.social | Political Economy of Mass Media
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
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Matt Seybold
@mattseybold.bsky.social
· Jun 20
Against Technofeudal Education
Pillars For Protecting Our "Core Infrastructure" From OpenAI
theamericanvandal.substack.com
“The logical conclusion of a technofeudal oligarchy combining forces with an authoritarian political movement is compulsory enrollment in the security state’s platform architecture of surveillance, indoctrination, and behavioral modification.”
Hell yeah!
December 4, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Hell yeah!
American Vandal, a podcast for people who listen to audiobooks about Hegel.
(These were the most popular audiobooks amongst listeners to AV on Spotify in 2025.)
(These were the most popular audiobooks amongst listeners to AV on Spotify in 2025.)
December 3, 2025 at 8:19 PM
American Vandal, a podcast for people who listen to audiobooks about Hegel.
(These were the most popular audiobooks amongst listeners to AV on Spotify in 2025.)
(These were the most popular audiobooks amongst listeners to AV on Spotify in 2025.)
Reposted by Matt Seybold
endlessly funny to me that some australian hedge fund is who gets all the profit from the indiana toll road
Good morning, Indiana Toll Road. The privatization of our government interstates is a grievous theft of labor. Us poor saps need a new deal.
December 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
endlessly funny to me that some australian hedge fund is who gets all the profit from the indiana toll road
Good morning, Indiana Toll Road. The privatization of our government interstates is a grievous theft of labor. Us poor saps need a new deal.
December 3, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Good morning, Indiana Toll Road. The privatization of our government interstates is a grievous theft of labor. Us poor saps need a new deal.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Thanks for the interest all. Here’s a public (I hope?) link to the readings schedule. Please note this was a co-taught course, so readings were selected by me and my colleague Dr. Kari Kraus. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Public Kirschenbaum/Kraus AI Syllabus
ENGL 739B: Reading Machines, Writing Machines Fall 2025 University of Maryland Dr. Matthew Kirschenbaum (he/him/his) and Dr. Kari Kraus (she/her/hers) Description This seminar will address recent...
docs.google.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Thanks for the interest all. Here’s a public (I hope?) link to the readings schedule. Please note this was a co-taught course, so readings were selected by me and my colleague Dr. Kari Kraus. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by Matt Seybold
still waiting for intelligent longform cultural criticism with psychomarxist explanation of the "everything is butthole" logorrhea in the AI space
December 2, 2025 at 5:08 PM
still waiting for intelligent longform cultural criticism with psychomarxist explanation of the "everything is butthole" logorrhea in the AI space
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Great final class discussion about AI and the institution of the university, featuring writing and thinking from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, @dmgreene.bsky.social, @mattseybold.bsky.social, @ritaraley.bsky.social, and @aaup.org.
December 2, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Great final class discussion about AI and the institution of the university, featuring writing and thinking from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, @dmgreene.bsky.social, @mattseybold.bsky.social, @ritaraley.bsky.social, and @aaup.org.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
This is coming up fast. @annakornbluh.bsky.social, @bakerdphd.bsky.social, & I, sponsored by UIC Faculty United.
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
December 1, 2025 at 10:33 PM
This is coming up fast. @annakornbluh.bsky.social, @bakerdphd.bsky.social, & I, sponsored by UIC Faculty United.
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
Reposted by Matt Seybold
I can't be there but you can (and then I can listen to the thing you were at when it's on The American Vandal)!
This is coming up fast. @annakornbluh.bsky.social, @bakerdphd.bsky.social, & I, sponsored by UIC Faculty United.
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
December 1, 2025 at 10:36 PM
I can't be there but you can (and then I can listen to the thing you were at when it's on The American Vandal)!
This is coming up fast. @annakornbluh.bsky.social, @bakerdphd.bsky.social, & I, sponsored by UIC Faculty United.
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
December 1, 2025 at 10:33 PM
This is coming up fast. @annakornbluh.bsky.social, @bakerdphd.bsky.social, & I, sponsored by UIC Faculty United.
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
And, YES! 🥳, it will be an episode of Vandal Live.
I will also be…
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Haven't read BIG FICTION? Been waiting for the right time? Need a gift for the fiction-lover in your life. 50% off right now. Go get it babes.
Today! All old & new books in @columbiaup.bsky.social's Literature Now series are 50% off, including POETRY AFTER BARBARISM by @xenoglossic.bsky.social; POETRY IN GENERAL by @keegancf.bsky.social; BIG FICTION by @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social; and WRITING BACKWARDS by @manshel.bsky.social! bit.ly/4rupQx9
December 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Haven't read BIG FICTION? Been waiting for the right time? Need a gift for the fiction-lover in your life. 50% off right now. Go get it babes.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
You almost forget that it was only a little over a year ago that university administrators, cheered on by right-wing thugs, were collaborating with cops to beat up and arrest peaceful student and faculty protestors, with seemingly no accountability or consequence.
December 1, 2025 at 8:03 PM
You almost forget that it was only a little over a year ago that university administrators, cheered on by right-wing thugs, were collaborating with cops to beat up and arrest peaceful student and faculty protestors, with seemingly no accountability or consequence.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
I wrote a book about the erosion of Democratic norms right before the pandemic. The one with the red cover has a bonus chapter from 2021 about Zoom Town halls. You you can get it here as a stocking stuffer.
www.upress.umn.edu/978151790856...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151790856...
December 1, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I wrote a book about the erosion of Democratic norms right before the pandemic. The one with the red cover has a bonus chapter from 2021 about Zoom Town halls. You you can get it here as a stocking stuffer.
www.upress.umn.edu/978151790856...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151790856...
The Enrollment Cliff is a Miff
We first note that hand-wringing about the decline in US college enrollments has mistakenly linked such declines to the price of four-year colleges.
But the decline is entirely driven by two-year community colleges (and by for-profit colleges). The four-year sector is the dog that didn't bark.
But the decline is entirely driven by two-year community colleges (and by for-profit colleges). The four-year sector is the dog that didn't bark.
December 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
The Enrollment Cliff is a Miff
Reposted by Matt Seybold
This thread is 💯. Labor precarity in academia means the evisceration of faculty governance and academic freedom, opening the door to administrative purges of the most vulnerable. And faculty-esp tenured faculty and academic leaders-who aren't defending their trans colleagues are enabling it.
So yeah, this is fundamentally about trans people and that cannot be elided, but the ways in which junior faculty are targeted and disposed of, while academic jobs are increasingly precarized, and political grandstanders seek to influence academic governance are fucking terrifying for everyone.
December 1, 2025 at 12:35 PM
This thread is 💯. Labor precarity in academia means the evisceration of faculty governance and academic freedom, opening the door to administrative purges of the most vulnerable. And faculty-esp tenured faculty and academic leaders-who aren't defending their trans colleagues are enabling it.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Cover Reveal!
“The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" arrives on August 4, 2026.
How extremist tech billionaires are dismantling democracy to crown themselves as kings—and what we can do about it.
Please pre-order! ➡️ www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
“The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" arrives on August 4, 2026.
How extremist tech billionaires are dismantling democracy to crown themselves as kings—and what we can do about it.
Please pre-order! ➡️ www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
November 26, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Cover Reveal!
“The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" arrives on August 4, 2026.
How extremist tech billionaires are dismantling democracy to crown themselves as kings—and what we can do about it.
Please pre-order! ➡️ www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
“The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" arrives on August 4, 2026.
How extremist tech billionaires are dismantling democracy to crown themselves as kings—and what we can do about it.
Please pre-order! ➡️ www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...
One thing I loved about my Dad was that he would never tell you his favorite anything.
Favorites, superlatives, rankings, these were for “softheaded youths who have no sense of history.”
(At the time he first said this to me, I was the softheaded youth with no sense of history.)
Favorites, superlatives, rankings, these were for “softheaded youths who have no sense of history.”
(At the time he first said this to me, I was the softheaded youth with no sense of history.)
December 1, 2025 at 12:24 AM
One thing I loved about my Dad was that he would never tell you his favorite anything.
Favorites, superlatives, rankings, these were for “softheaded youths who have no sense of history.”
(At the time he first said this to me, I was the softheaded youth with no sense of history.)
Favorites, superlatives, rankings, these were for “softheaded youths who have no sense of history.”
(At the time he first said this to me, I was the softheaded youth with no sense of history.)
America is basically a chain of Who’s Who In America scams.
When I became somewhat public I was stunned to learn how much of media appearance was basically a “who’s who in America” scam where you pay for the privilege of seeing your name in print.
November 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
America is basically a chain of Who’s Who In America scams.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Very good piece on the quite fast rollout of "AI-powered" textbooks in South Korea. The government went from making the textbooks mandatory to supplementary because of complaints and now the textbook companies are suing because "the market suddenly disappear[ed]."
restofworld.org/2025/south-k...
restofworld.org/2025/south-k...
AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade in South Korea
South Korea’s AI learning program was rolled back after just four months following a backlash from teachers, students, and parents, underlining the challenges in embedding the technology in education.
restofworld.org
November 30, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Very good piece on the quite fast rollout of "AI-powered" textbooks in South Korea. The government went from making the textbooks mandatory to supplementary because of complaints and now the textbook companies are suing because "the market suddenly disappear[ed]."
restofworld.org/2025/south-k...
restofworld.org/2025/south-k...
Keep your friends close. And your creditors closer.
November 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Keep your friends close. And your creditors closer.
“Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.” - Twain
Happy Birthday, Mark.
Happy Birthday, Mark.
November 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM
“Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.” - Twain
Happy Birthday, Mark.
Happy Birthday, Mark.
All family tragedies should feature a 4yo at peak unfiltered talking phase.
After several nights at hospital: “Are you staying with us, Daddy, since your Dad is dead?”
Sees Papa’s wedding ring: “So you get it now, since he’s dead?”
At Cracker Barrel when waiter asks what we did for Thanksgiving…
After several nights at hospital: “Are you staying with us, Daddy, since your Dad is dead?”
Sees Papa’s wedding ring: “So you get it now, since he’s dead?”
At Cracker Barrel when waiter asks what we did for Thanksgiving…
November 29, 2025 at 9:06 PM
All family tragedies should feature a 4yo at peak unfiltered talking phase.
After several nights at hospital: “Are you staying with us, Daddy, since your Dad is dead?”
Sees Papa’s wedding ring: “So you get it now, since he’s dead?”
At Cracker Barrel when waiter asks what we did for Thanksgiving…
After several nights at hospital: “Are you staying with us, Daddy, since your Dad is dead?”
Sees Papa’s wedding ring: “So you get it now, since he’s dead?”
At Cracker Barrel when waiter asks what we did for Thanksgiving…
This week I learned that if one 80+-year-old jazz musician gets your phone number, they all have it.
And they will call it.
A bunch of guys who are on Van Gelder Studio records, I know what their maladies & medications are.
And they will call it.
A bunch of guys who are on Van Gelder Studio records, I know what their maladies & medications are.
My dad, Don Seybold, has died.
Made jazz radio across six decades; jazz presenter & agent; at 60, started teaching jazz history.
So charismatic, he excelled at sales, politics, seduction, storytelling.
He used it to promote other people’s art.
Life tested his ethics many times. He always passed.
Made jazz radio across six decades; jazz presenter & agent; at 60, started teaching jazz history.
So charismatic, he excelled at sales, politics, seduction, storytelling.
He used it to promote other people’s art.
Life tested his ethics many times. He always passed.
November 29, 2025 at 3:30 AM
This week I learned that if one 80+-year-old jazz musician gets your phone number, they all have it.
And they will call it.
A bunch of guys who are on Van Gelder Studio records, I know what their maladies & medications are.
And they will call it.
A bunch of guys who are on Van Gelder Studio records, I know what their maladies & medications are.