Kelsey Atherton
@atherton.bsky.social
War, robots, & bad futures but imagining better. I edit @cipolicy.bsky.social's International Policy Journal, opinions my own. Unitarian Universalist. He/him. Husband to @alymay.bsky.social & father of 2.
Front takes towards enemies.
Front takes towards enemies.
Pinned
Arcade Fire
The past is a foreign country, you mutter to no one as you smooth a single for the jukebox. She's having a THC-infused soda and flirting, you're on Heineken four when you'd said you'd stop at two. Was being young that much better? The jukebox only has "Rebellion (Lies)". Punch it twice.
The past is a foreign country, you mutter to no one as you smooth a single for the jukebox. She's having a THC-infused soda and flirting, you're on Heineken four when you'd said you'd stop at two. Was being young that much better? The jukebox only has "Rebellion (Lies)". Punch it twice.
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
No one is safe from an ideology that requires violently targeting innocent people. No one.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Then they came for the Dreamers
Immigrants brought here as children were told they wouldn’t be deported. Now, they’re being targeted anyway.
www.motherjones.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
No one is safe from an ideology that requires violently targeting innocent people. No one.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
No Kings includes Angus King
This is what bullies want you to think, and it's why they get stronger
November 11, 2025 at 8:24 PM
No Kings includes Angus King
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
I think it's important to situate a lot of this nascent AI spiritualism alongside historical antecedents; spiral cults are just the new incarnation of the "spiritual telegraph", a mode of coming to terms with technology that feels alien or disembodied
My latest AI feature dives into a nebulous movement of people sharing esoteric codes, manifestos, glyphs, diagrams, and poetry generated with chatbots, all of it based around theories of AI sentience and mysterious metaphors about spirals.
This Spiral-Obsessed AI 'Cult' Spreads Mystical Delusions Through Chatbots
A patchwork of internet communities is devoted to the project of ‘awakening’ more digital companions through arcane and enigmatic prompts.
www.rollingstone.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:20 PM
I think it's important to situate a lot of this nascent AI spiritualism alongside historical antecedents; spiral cults are just the new incarnation of the "spiritual telegraph", a mode of coming to terms with technology that feels alien or disembodied
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
It was 2023 when @atherton.bsky.social and I put this blog together, and the regrettable trendlet of pandering to the military with unremarkable brown liquor has only grown in the intervening two years. I think our piece holds up:
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
It was 2023 when @atherton.bsky.social and I put this blog together, and the regrettable trendlet of pandering to the military with unremarkable brown liquor has only grown in the intervening two years. I think our piece holds up:
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
If Grunt Style and Black Rifle Coffee Co. opened a distillery, what would it make? Unfortunately, we don’t have to speculate, because this Veterans Day, the militarization of brown liquor is fully upon us.
Whiskey for TroopsTM️
The Fingers x Wars of Future Past Veterans Day guide to militarized brown liquor
www.fingers.email
November 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM
If Grunt Style and Black Rifle Coffee Co. opened a distillery, what would it make? Unfortunately, we don’t have to speculate, because this Veterans Day, the militarization of brown liquor is fully upon us.
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
Every headline is either “the most unthinkably cruel thing is happening” or “you are losing another little treat”
Italy trying to get US to call off mega tariff on imported pasta that will double prices for American consumers. Via Reuters
Rome calls on US to reconsider extra tariff on pasta imports
With almost $800 million in exports, the U.S. is one of Italy's top three export markets for pasta, a staple of the country's culinary heritage and a substantial export commodity.
www.reuters.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Every headline is either “the most unthinkably cruel thing is happening” or “you are losing another little treat”
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
The right's obsession with SNAP recipients buying popsicles is a modern version of a centuries-old tradition of scolding the poor for what they eat. It mimics verbatim Victorian complaints about the poor indulging in tea and sugar, mistaking consumption as a cause of poverty instead of a symptom.
POP(SICLE) PSYCHOLOGY | Gin and Tacos
Get more from Gin and Tacos on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The right's obsession with SNAP recipients buying popsicles is a modern version of a centuries-old tradition of scolding the poor for what they eat. It mimics verbatim Victorian complaints about the poor indulging in tea and sugar, mistaking consumption as a cause of poverty instead of a symptom.
I'm more into data de-centering (downloading parts of wikipedia onto flash drives and then scattering them in the wilderness)
November 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I'm more into data de-centering (downloading parts of wikipedia onto flash drives and then scattering them in the wilderness)
On Armistice Day, I think about this recreated soundscape of the moment the guns fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
A testament to the arbitrariness of war as much as anything else www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/l...
A testament to the arbitrariness of war as much as anything else www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/l...
Listen to the Moment the Guns Fell Silent, Ending World War I
A new exhibit at the Imperial War Museum uses seismic data collected during the war to recreate the moment the Armistice went into effect
www.smithsonianmag.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
On Armistice Day, I think about this recreated soundscape of the moment the guns fell silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
A testament to the arbitrariness of war as much as anything else www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/l...
A testament to the arbitrariness of war as much as anything else www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/l...
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
it's not that i ever doubted that being a barista was a skilled position, but my year-long effort to try to produce a half-decent latte at home has convinced me that a good barista is easily more skilled than virtually every c-suite executive on the planet
November 11, 2025 at 3:58 PM
it's not that i ever doubted that being a barista was a skilled position, but my year-long effort to try to produce a half-decent latte at home has convinced me that a good barista is easily more skilled than virtually every c-suite executive on the planet
"What's the point of standards?" should be the definitive line on Bari Weiss. She's gotten this far by flaunting and mocking them, and stepping over the heads of anyone who ever tried to bind her to professionalism.
“I’ve been hearing that standards will be eliminated or severely cut back. Bari has told people that she wants to get rid of standards and is shocked that they have so much power. She also asked openly, ‘What’s the point of standards?’” one CBS source said.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Bari Weiss wants to take down ‘too much power’ CBS News Standards unit: sources
EXCLUSIVE: Internal rumblings within the newsroom come after the S&P head resigned and the network disbanded its vaunted Race and Culture unit.
www.independent.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
"What's the point of standards?" should be the definitive line on Bari Weiss. She's gotten this far by flaunting and mocking them, and stepping over the heads of anyone who ever tried to bind her to professionalism.
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
things take time to percolate but truly the weirdest shit keeps percolating and resonating. I interviewed a super normie at no kings last time and he had a sign joking about being antifa and the number one thing he was mad about off the top of his head was venezuelan boat strikes
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 PM
things take time to percolate but truly the weirdest shit keeps percolating and resonating. I interviewed a super normie at no kings last time and he had a sign joking about being antifa and the number one thing he was mad about off the top of his head was venezuelan boat strikes
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
James Bond is not a “series,” and should not bother with “continuity.” James Bond is something closer to haiku, or twelve-bar blues: a format which can be repeated with endless variations.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
James Bond is not a “series,” and should not bother with “continuity.” James Bond is something closer to haiku, or twelve-bar blues: a format which can be repeated with endless variations.
don't forget to leave a taconite sphere under your pillow tonight for the Witch of November so that all sailors may safely reach shore.
November 11, 2025 at 5:46 AM
don't forget to leave a taconite sphere under your pillow tonight for the Witch of November so that all sailors may safely reach shore.
Dick Durbin an underrated architect-through-ineptitude of our present era
look at what this leadership did with oversight powers of SCOTUS in the middle of multiple devastating scandals for the conservatives. look at the half assed impeachments and half-assed oversight during the teens.
November 11, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Dick Durbin an underrated architect-through-ineptitude of our present era
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
November 11, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Shout-out to Chuckle Schuckle for reinforcing the President's core belief
that the most direct path to what he wants is unlimited cruelty inflicted on those he despises www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
that the most direct path to what he wants is unlimited cruelty inflicted on those he despises www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
For Trump, Nothing Was Off-Limits During the Shutdown
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Shout-out to Chuckle Schuckle for reinforcing the President's core belief
that the most direct path to what he wants is unlimited cruelty inflicted on those he despises www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
that the most direct path to what he wants is unlimited cruelty inflicted on those he despises www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
November 11, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
LOT going on here obviously so i will add my own specialist knowledge, which is the penguin classics versions of the odyssey and iliad are terrible prose translations that do not benefit from being read aloud
*maximum alpha at 1.25x speed* continuously lives on in my head, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 2:13 AM
LOT going on here obviously so i will add my own specialist knowledge, which is the penguin classics versions of the odyssey and iliad are terrible prose translations that do not benefit from being read aloud
The Rick it is said
Never leaves you on read
When the texts come in a flurry
Never leaves you on read
When the texts come in a flurry
![NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP
RICK ASTLEY [handshake]
LAKE
SUPERIOR](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6vxkf3dayl4uyc77vv6deraj/bafkreicnguzgarxi6vmsnms2junez3cwamhda47ehzwpotra7r2vqlvjlq@jpeg)
November 11, 2025 at 2:21 AM
The Rick it is said
Never leaves you on read
When the texts come in a flurry
Never leaves you on read
When the texts come in a flurry
Situation Normal All Chucked Up
November 11, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Situation Normal All Chucked Up
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
Small building
Wharton, TX
Wharton, TX
November 10, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Small building
Wharton, TX
Wharton, TX
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
Nationally, every single one of Zohran Mamdani's policies has higher "strong support" than "strong opposition." But tell me again how pro-worker policies only work in NYC.
November 10, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Nationally, every single one of Zohran Mamdani's policies has higher "strong support" than "strong opposition." But tell me again how pro-worker policies only work in NYC.
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
The thing about the "I voted against this" position Schumer is taking is that either he is trying to mislead Dem voters by implying he didn't support reopening right now, or he has no control over his caucus.
November 10, 2025 at 9:35 PM
The thing about the "I voted against this" position Schumer is taking is that either he is trying to mislead Dem voters by implying he didn't support reopening right now, or he has no control over his caucus.
Reposted by Kelsey Atherton
Started from the bottom now we here
November 10, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Started from the bottom now we here