Philip Loring
@philiploring.com
Human ecologist and storyteller. Regeneration and Social Justice. Global Director @nature_org. Author: FINDING OUR NICHE. Stubbornly optimistic that radical change is closer than we think. Opinions mine (but science-based). 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Philip Loring
@philiploring.com
· Feb 25
I believe in unicorns
If you want to change the world, you should too.
conservechange.medium.com
“When we put into the world an alternative notion of how it could or should be, we take a little bit of power away from the people who tell us that this is all we can have.”
Why I want you to believe in unicorns:
conservechange.medium.com/i-believe-in...
Why I want you to believe in unicorns:
conservechange.medium.com/i-believe-in...
I’m genuinely trying to find the point in recent history that tech leaders lost the thread (or became so entitled) such that they started thinking this way. I’m thinking it was how willingly people started consuming the mid content they flooded platforms like Netflix with.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns
AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns
Big tech boss tells delegates at Davos that broader global use is essential if technology is to deliver lasting growth
www.irishtimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 4:51 PM
I’m genuinely trying to find the point in recent history that tech leaders lost the thread (or became so entitled) such that they started thinking this way. I’m thinking it was how willingly people started consuming the mid content they flooded platforms like Netflix with.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
The Minnesota Star Tribune has their live blog outside of their paywall so everyone can access their reporting about the federal attack on their city
A group of nearly 30 U.S. House Democrats will gather this morning in St. Paul for a hearing on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.
The latest: Two arrests made after anti-ICE unrest, Trump threatens to send troops to Minnesota
The war of words between state and federal officials escalated as the president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell anti-ICE protests.
bit.ly
January 16, 2026 at 3:30 PM
The Minnesota Star Tribune has their live blog outside of their paywall so everyone can access their reporting about the federal attack on their city
Really excited about this!
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Philip Loring as co-Editor-in-Chief of FACETS! 🎉Dr. Loring brings expertise in the social and cultural dimensions of environmental science, with a focus on food systems, sustainability, and equity ▶️ https://ow.ly/lm9b50XWJAz
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
January 14, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Really excited about this!
Accurate
and I feel like we were steadily heading in that direction for a half century (as i type on a shard of glass) and then this dude showed up, and a few other dudes like him, and now we’re in the mirror universe where people are trying to bring back slaves.
"We want to make Star Trek real," said Elon Musk.
"We want to make Starfleet Academy real so that it's not always science fiction, but one day the science fiction turns to science fact."
"We want to make Starfleet Academy real so that it's not always science fiction, but one day the science fiction turns to science fact."
January 14, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Accurate
We used to assume "turning into a Nazi bar" would result in everyone leaving. Turns out not only can you turn the bar into a Nazi bar but you can turn it into a Nazi CSAM bar and huge swaths of supposedly reasonable people will still keep showing up.
elon musk has succeeded in transforming twitter from a place where you used to get ratioed for being racist to a place where the racists do the ratioing
January 13, 2026 at 11:35 PM
We used to assume "turning into a Nazi bar" would result in everyone leaving. Turns out not only can you turn the bar into a Nazi bar but you can turn it into a Nazi CSAM bar and huge swaths of supposedly reasonable people will still keep showing up.
Can someone check the Tom Nichols-o-meter™️ to see if we’re allowed to call it fascism yet?
January 12, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Can someone check the Tom Nichols-o-meter™️ to see if we’re allowed to call it fascism yet?
This from @juliusgoat.bsky.social is really good. www.the-reframe.com/absolute-imm...
Absolute Immunity
Alignment with supremacy is a vile choice. Raising the natural costs for those who make that choice by putting first things first.
www.the-reframe.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:38 PM
This from @juliusgoat.bsky.social is really good. www.the-reframe.com/absolute-imm...
Reposted by Philip Loring
Use your judgement about whether to watch videos of state violence. Don't shame people who find it traumatic. Don't demand that others don't share them.
I've covered enough of these to know how important video (and its dissemination) is in the possibility of accountability.
I've covered enough of these to know how important video (and its dissemination) is in the possibility of accountability.
January 7, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Use your judgement about whether to watch videos of state violence. Don't shame people who find it traumatic. Don't demand that others don't share them.
I've covered enough of these to know how important video (and its dissemination) is in the possibility of accountability.
I've covered enough of these to know how important video (and its dissemination) is in the possibility of accountability.
Yungblud’s “Zombie” with Smashing Pumpkins is hitting just the right spot for me rn
youtu.be/pf3KyEnacJ8
youtu.be/pf3KyEnacJ8
YUNGBLUD, The Smashing Pumpkins - Zombie (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by YUNGBLUDVEVO
youtu.be
January 7, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Yungblud’s “Zombie” with Smashing Pumpkins is hitting just the right spot for me rn
youtu.be/pf3KyEnacJ8
youtu.be/pf3KyEnacJ8
Exactly! The skilled and creative bits are the best bits, the reason we get into careers we love.
And that’s exactly why corporate loves the prospect of eliminating these roles with LLMs, because skilled and creative work garners a premium. Stacking shelves does not.
medium.com/age-of-aware...
And that’s exactly why corporate loves the prospect of eliminating these roles with LLMs, because skilled and creative work garners a premium. Stacking shelves does not.
medium.com/age-of-aware...
January 6, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Exactly! The skilled and creative bits are the best bits, the reason we get into careers we love.
And that’s exactly why corporate loves the prospect of eliminating these roles with LLMs, because skilled and creative work garners a premium. Stacking shelves does not.
medium.com/age-of-aware...
And that’s exactly why corporate loves the prospect of eliminating these roles with LLMs, because skilled and creative work garners a premium. Stacking shelves does not.
medium.com/age-of-aware...
Reposted by Philip Loring
The rise of deepfakes and AI CSAM prove public and private sectors don’t actually care about abuse, but still punish sex workers, queer people, and women under that guise. Credit cards companies and law enforcement punish consensual sex and sexuality, but ignore and therefore encourage abuse
January 6, 2026 at 1:52 PM
The rise of deepfakes and AI CSAM prove public and private sectors don’t actually care about abuse, but still punish sex workers, queer people, and women under that guise. Credit cards companies and law enforcement punish consensual sex and sexuality, but ignore and therefore encourage abuse
Reposted by Philip Loring
I think @philiploring.com is on to something essential: demoralizing and painful and driven by nothing but ugly feelings and thoughts corrodes those who lack the light, love and warmth, the curiosity and instinct to do good that makes our lives worth living, and that we find in the great majority.
This is so painful and demoralizing, but it also reinforces something I keep saying. All they know how to do is tear good and beautiful things down. And that strategy is limited. It has an end point. We have to out endure them. And we do that by continuing to create good and beautiful things.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been dissolved, ending its 58 years as the primary funder for PBS, NPR and local TV and radio stations
January 6, 2026 at 4:50 AM
I think @philiploring.com is on to something essential: demoralizing and painful and driven by nothing but ugly feelings and thoughts corrodes those who lack the light, love and warmth, the curiosity and instinct to do good that makes our lives worth living, and that we find in the great majority.
Reposted by Philip Loring
January 5, 2026 at 8:05 PM
This is so painful and demoralizing, but it also reinforces something I keep saying. All they know how to do is tear good and beautiful things down. And that strategy is limited. It has an end point. We have to out endure them. And we do that by continuing to create good and beautiful things.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been dissolved, ending its 58 years as the primary funder for PBS, NPR and local TV and radio stations
Corporation For Public Broadcasting Is Dissolved After 58 Years Of Service
www.huffpost.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:55 PM
This is so painful and demoralizing, but it also reinforces something I keep saying. All they know how to do is tear good and beautiful things down. And that strategy is limited. It has an end point. We have to out endure them. And we do that by continuing to create good and beautiful things.
“Trump wouldn’t have bombes Venezuela if we didn’t have such harsh regulations on fossil fuel development in the US” — Ezra Klein, tomorrow, probably
January 3, 2026 at 9:09 AM
“Trump wouldn’t have bombes Venezuela if we didn’t have such harsh regulations on fossil fuel development in the US” — Ezra Klein, tomorrow, probably
Reposted by Philip Loring
I'm deeply sorry to the people of Venezuela. There is no opposition party in the United States to counter the fascist regime's actions and the population is easily demagogued.
January 3, 2026 at 7:53 AM
I'm deeply sorry to the people of Venezuela. There is no opposition party in the United States to counter the fascist regime's actions and the population is easily demagogued.
Poverty is created by people.
That’s it. That’s the post.
That’s it. That’s the post.
January 2, 2026 at 10:11 PM
Poverty is created by people.
That’s it. That’s the post.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Infrequent reminder (including to myself) that we do not, in fact, have to try to educate the person vying to be the main character on this website today.
January 2, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Infrequent reminder (including to myself) that we do not, in fact, have to try to educate the person vying to be the main character on this website today.
So many people have an enormous collective blind spot when it comes to the role of the private sector in the current state of the world and what they love is that we’ve tricked ourselves into believing everything wrong is our own failing.
"For years, going to the movies was an almost definitionally American habit," Caitlin Flanagan writes. She reflects on her childhood spent growing up at the movies and what it means that "we're running out of stories to tell one another." theatln.tc/fpW29PVe
January 2, 2026 at 2:03 PM
So many people have an enormous collective blind spot when it comes to the role of the private sector in the current state of the world and what they love is that we’ve tricked ourselves into believing everything wrong is our own failing.
I know a lot of self styled centrists are going to have their inner Ayn Rand triggered by @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’s invocation of “collectivism” in his excellent inaugural speech, but don’t be tricked: they’re responding to a caricature of what he is saying.
January 2, 2026 at 1:58 PM
I know a lot of self styled centrists are going to have their inner Ayn Rand triggered by @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’s invocation of “collectivism” in his excellent inaugural speech, but don’t be tricked: they’re responding to a caricature of what he is saying.
The Russos are really pulling all the “haven’t they been through enough” heartstrings with these Doomsday trailers, and I’m not sure that bodes well for the movie.
January 1, 2026 at 8:43 PM
The Russos are really pulling all the “haven’t they been through enough” heartstrings with these Doomsday trailers, and I’m not sure that bodes well for the movie.
We’re getting a new Muppet Show!?
kermit the frog from the muppet show is standing in front of a red curtain .
Alt: kermit the frog from the muppet show is standing in front of a red curtain saying “yay”
media.tenor.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:32 PM
We’re getting a new Muppet Show!?
Billionaires out there spending billions to try and live for ever and meanwhile Diana Ross is doing it apparently just by being awesome
January 1, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Billionaires out there spending billions to try and live for ever and meanwhile Diana Ross is doing it apparently just by being awesome
Reposted by Philip Loring
Environmental and Indigenous activists were being labeled terrorists years before Trump took office. We tried to warn you, then…
Have you heard of Jessica Reznicek?
(from the vault: 2023:
youtu.be/1ZDXJjFa7Gw)
Have you heard of Jessica Reznicek?
(from the vault: 2023:
youtu.be/1ZDXJjFa7Gw)
December 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Environmental and Indigenous activists were being labeled terrorists years before Trump took office. We tried to warn you, then…
Have you heard of Jessica Reznicek?
(from the vault: 2023:
youtu.be/1ZDXJjFa7Gw)
Have you heard of Jessica Reznicek?
(from the vault: 2023:
youtu.be/1ZDXJjFa7Gw)
Clearly the author of this column has never read Shakespeare. Or Mary Shelley. Or spoken to any Indigenous person.
You might ask yourself, as I did, if this piece will prove to be a pretentiously justified rejection of empathy and a denial of the trauma of rape.
The answer is yes.
(Paywall free link in replies.)
The answer is yes.
(Paywall free link in replies.)
A common assumption is that throughout history, people have experienced the same basic range of emotions. A radical field of history now challenges this assumption, Gal Beckerman reports. theatln.tc/KD2QRX9Y
🎨: Nicolás Ortega
🎨: Nicolás Ortega
December 28, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Clearly the author of this column has never read Shakespeare. Or Mary Shelley. Or spoken to any Indigenous person.