Carlyn Zwarenstein
@carlynzwaren.bsky.social
Science writing & literature / biology, nature & power structures.
✍🏼recently: Salon, MEE, Undark, Filter & others.
📚 On Opium (‘21, ‘23): drugs, pain, capitalism, & the consolations of literature.
www.carlynzwarenstein.com
Signal: carlynzwarenstein.29
✍🏼recently: Salon, MEE, Undark, Filter & others.
📚 On Opium (‘21, ‘23): drugs, pain, capitalism, & the consolations of literature.
www.carlynzwarenstein.com
Signal: carlynzwarenstein.29
Pinned
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?”
Hinternet Essay Prize Contest, 2025
open.substack.com
I won an essay competition! This was previously subtitled How to Save Us from the Worst of Us.
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Carney government wants to let ministers decide what (non-criminal) laws apply, when. www.thestar.com/politics/pol... via @althiaraj.bsky.social
Althia Raj: Mark Carney is quietly giving sweeping new powers to his ministers
Sneaking a change of this magnitude into a 600-page bill that will not get parliamentary scrutiny raises a red flag, Althia Raj writes.
www.thestar.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Carney government wants to let ministers decide what (non-criminal) laws apply, when. www.thestar.com/politics/pol... via @althiaraj.bsky.social
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.
Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court
More than a dozen undocumented minors were forced to make their case in front of an immigration judge as the Trump administration ramps up removal proceedings.
coppercourier.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
The GBD libertarians declare victory
December 7, 2025 at 6:05 AM
The GBD libertarians declare victory
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
"The secret of Nazism in practice, as Mein Kampf states time and again, is to do the most outrageously secret things quite openly. The Nazi success with this practice has been so great that there is nothing they will not dare."
- Bella Fromm, Berlin, 3/20/1938
- Bella Fromm, Berlin, 3/20/1938
December 6, 2025 at 5:30 PM
"The secret of Nazism in practice, as Mein Kampf states time and again, is to do the most outrageously secret things quite openly. The Nazi success with this practice has been so great that there is nothing they will not dare."
- Bella Fromm, Berlin, 3/20/1938
- Bella Fromm, Berlin, 3/20/1938
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Trump says that price of beef is down. The receipt from my last trip to the grocery store says it is up. For busy shoppers, it can be hard to know who to trust.
December 6, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Trump says that price of beef is down. The receipt from my last trip to the grocery store says it is up. For busy shoppers, it can be hard to know who to trust.
No literature, no science. Sagan himself'd have trouble grasping our impoverishment as a result of the wealthy global kakistocracy's deployment (military analogy deliberate) of what cld be amazing technology. Impoverishment (material & cultural) will persist til current power structures dismantled.
This has infected all science & the science publishing industry- which was bad- before but now is pushing for AI “peer” review given the volumes of papers & that no one wants to review anymore
What’s real science? what’s bullshit? It’s all going down the shitter
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
What’s real science? what’s bullshit? It’s all going down the shitter
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’
AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:53 PM
No literature, no science. Sagan himself'd have trouble grasping our impoverishment as a result of the wealthy global kakistocracy's deployment (military analogy deliberate) of what cld be amazing technology. Impoverishment (material & cultural) will persist til current power structures dismantled.
These people are an inspiration but should not have to be. No one should be forced to succumb or survive, despite creating beauty and shaming the world with their courage, in misery and constant danger. To enrich and empower those who allow this racist genocide and occupation to continue.
Despite Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, the skilled Attallah family of artisan potters continue working in their damaged workshop, preserving a craft and heritage that has survived for generations.
December 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
These people are an inspiration but should not have to be. No one should be forced to succumb or survive, despite creating beauty and shaming the world with their courage, in misery and constant danger. To enrich and empower those who allow this racist genocide and occupation to continue.
The people need to take back control of computation, artificial intelligence, and energy from the handful of gazillionaires driving us & our planet towards extinction, with stops for steeply declining quality of life for us masses along the way.
This is like if Tyson stopped selling consumer chicken. RAM is about to cost as much as a brand new pc. The cost of everything from tablets, to phones, to laptops will skyrocket. All because AI data centers are consuming all the available RAM they can get.
www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the...
www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the...
Crucial memory will soon be a memory itself as Micron abandons consumers in favor of AI data centers
The RAM crisis is just getting started.
www.pcgamer.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The people need to take back control of computation, artificial intelligence, and energy from the handful of gazillionaires driving us & our planet towards extinction, with stops for steeply declining quality of life for us masses along the way.
This is horrifying. More MAHA recklessness in drive 2 make as much $ as possible from as much grift as possible & 2 profit from their own underfunding & decimation of actual medical research & treatment. Extremely well-done article by @sarahdigregorio.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘It’s absolute anarchy’: Oxygen therapy chambers have led to horrific deaths. Why are Maha elite raving about them?
Touted as a cure for everything from wrinkles to autism, the treatment has been hyped by Robert F Kennedy Jr and various celebrities. Experts say it needs to be regulated
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:37 PM
This is horrifying. More MAHA recklessness in drive 2 make as much $ as possible from as much grift as possible & 2 profit from their own underfunding & decimation of actual medical research & treatment. Extremely well-done article by @sarahdigregorio.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
rfk jr wants to kill your kids, it’s really that simple.
Kennedy’s Methodical 2-Decade Quest to Dismantle Vaccine Policy
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:14 PM
rfk jr wants to kill your kids, it’s really that simple.
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
"Does this feel like or look like a well-run competent administration? It took them 10 months to discover that the United States doesn't grow bananas and that therefore if we tariff bananas that that's not going to bring banana factories on shore."
December 4, 2025 at 12:52 PM
"Does this feel like or look like a well-run competent administration? It took them 10 months to discover that the United States doesn't grow bananas and that therefore if we tariff bananas that that's not going to bring banana factories on shore."
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
If you want to learn more about the extraordinary side benefits of vaccination that are currently being lost, along with their advertised benefits, thanks to RFK Jr., I wrote about what's called their 'non-specific beneficial effects' a few months ago for @salon.com. www.salon.com/2025/07/12/b...
December 2, 2025 at 5:40 PM
If you want to learn more about the extraordinary side benefits of vaccination that are currently being lost, along with their advertised benefits, thanks to RFK Jr., I wrote about what's called their 'non-specific beneficial effects' a few months ago for @salon.com. www.salon.com/2025/07/12/b...
I won an essay competition! This was previously subtitled How to Save Us from the Worst of Us.
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?”
Hinternet Essay Prize Contest, 2025
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I won an essay competition! This was previously subtitled How to Save Us from the Worst of Us.
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?” open.substack.com/pub/hinterne...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
There’s something visceral about blowing up defenseless men clinging for life in the ocean
I'm shocked but somewhat pleased the mainstream media is going all Watergate on the Hegseth war crimes in the Caribbean. "Morning Joe" (yes, I know, don't @ me) has talked about little else for 2 hours
I'm not 100% convinced that this is the turning point but it might be, with Trump at just 36%
I'm not 100% convinced that this is the turning point but it might be, with Trump at just 36%
December 1, 2025 at 2:29 PM
There’s something visceral about blowing up defenseless men clinging for life in the ocean
“…he was like a poisonous mushroom with a beard, emitting a bilious cloud…“
You shld of course read @angierasmussen.bsky.social 4 the content, to stay on top of the US admin’s so-far-successful attempts to send the world careening back to medieval times, medically-speaking. But also for the style.
You shld of course read @angierasmussen.bsky.social 4 the content, to stay on top of the US admin’s so-far-successful attempts to send the world careening back to medieval times, medically-speaking. But also for the style.
If you disliked Vinay Prasad's CBER memo that outlined his plans to destroy evidence-based vaccine regulation based on unsupported claims that COVID vaccines kill children, you are REALLY going to hate what is going down at this week’s ACIP meeting.
rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-vaccin...
rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-vaccin...
The Vaccinated Dead Make Their ACIP Debut
What happens at FDA CBER doesn't stay at FDA CBER
rasmussenretorts.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
“…he was like a poisonous mushroom with a beard, emitting a bilious cloud…“
You shld of course read @angierasmussen.bsky.social 4 the content, to stay on top of the US admin’s so-far-successful attempts to send the world careening back to medieval times, medically-speaking. But also for the style.
You shld of course read @angierasmussen.bsky.social 4 the content, to stay on top of the US admin’s so-far-successful attempts to send the world careening back to medieval times, medically-speaking. But also for the style.
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Climate Action Tracker's update on Canada's climate policies is a grim read.
"Our rating of Canada’s policies and action has worsened to 'Highly Insufficient', with the latest emissions projections now higher than previous updates"
climateactiontracker.org/countries/ca...
"Our rating of Canada’s policies and action has worsened to 'Highly Insufficient', with the latest emissions projections now higher than previous updates"
climateactiontracker.org/countries/ca...
November 18, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Climate Action Tracker's update on Canada's climate policies is a grim read.
"Our rating of Canada’s policies and action has worsened to 'Highly Insufficient', with the latest emissions projections now higher than previous updates"
climateactiontracker.org/countries/ca...
"Our rating of Canada’s policies and action has worsened to 'Highly Insufficient', with the latest emissions projections now higher than previous updates"
climateactiontracker.org/countries/ca...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Many people don't realise how climate change is already - not in the future - affecting our lives. And it's doing so in ways that, once our eyes are opened, we can notice!
For example, food. h/t @climatecentral.org
For example, food. h/t @climatecentral.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Many people don't realise how climate change is already - not in the future - affecting our lives. And it's doing so in ways that, once our eyes are opened, we can notice!
For example, food. h/t @climatecentral.org
For example, food. h/t @climatecentral.org
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Les lois de la physique se foutent de l'unité nationale du Canada.
Développer le marché des sables bitumineux, c'est comme boire de l'eau de Javel.
S'y opposer n'est pas une question de coeur, c'est une question de raison.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/p...
Développer le marché des sables bitumineux, c'est comme boire de l'eau de Javel.
S'y opposer n'est pas une question de coeur, c'est une question de raison.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/p...
Entente entre Ottawa et l’Alberta | Steven Guilbeault quitte le Cabinet
Le gouvernement Carney est secoué par une première crise : le ministre Steven Guilbeault, principal architecte des politiques de lutte contre les changements climatiques, claque la porte du Cabinet al...
www.lapresse.ca
November 27, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Les lois de la physique se foutent de l'unité nationale du Canada.
Développer le marché des sables bitumineux, c'est comme boire de l'eau de Javel.
S'y opposer n'est pas une question de coeur, c'est une question de raison.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/p...
Développer le marché des sables bitumineux, c'est comme boire de l'eau de Javel.
S'y opposer n'est pas une question de coeur, c'est une question de raison.
www.lapresse.ca/actualites/p...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
calmly explaining why we shouldn't bomb random venezuelan boats to people who argued we should torture random iraqis and then won an election by saying they were against a war they advocated for
November 29, 2025 at 4:35 AM
calmly explaining why we shouldn't bomb random venezuelan boats to people who argued we should torture random iraqis and then won an election by saying they were against a war they advocated for
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
The architects of the sixth mass extinction are woefully short on honesty.
We call ourselves “rational actors” as ecosystems collapse around us.
Self-deception may be the only thing we’ve mastered at scale.
apple.news/AaF6VkKwrQay...
We call ourselves “rational actors” as ecosystems collapse around us.
Self-deception may be the only thing we’ve mastered at scale.
apple.news/AaF6VkKwrQay...
The 6th Mass Extinction Is Further Along Than We Thought — Popular Mechanics
It's getting late.
apple.news
November 28, 2025 at 12:13 PM
The architects of the sixth mass extinction are woefully short on honesty.
We call ourselves “rational actors” as ecosystems collapse around us.
Self-deception may be the only thing we’ve mastered at scale.
apple.news/AaF6VkKwrQay...
We call ourselves “rational actors” as ecosystems collapse around us.
Self-deception may be the only thing we’ve mastered at scale.
apple.news/AaF6VkKwrQay...
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
"How to describe the laundry list of climate-killing gifts to Alberta that the MOU spells out? The depth of the betrayal goes beyond words. I felt ill as I read it," writes @arnokopecky.bsky.social
Read it and weep: This pipeline agreement is a document of betrayal
How to describe the laundry list of climate-killing gifts to Alberta that the MOU spells out? The depth of the betrayal goes beyond words. I felt ill as I read it. It’s not just the hard-won ground lo...
www.nationalobserver.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:39 PM
"How to describe the laundry list of climate-killing gifts to Alberta that the MOU spells out? The depth of the betrayal goes beyond words. I felt ill as I read it," writes @arnokopecky.bsky.social
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Even if the Alberta government doesn’t get a pipeline built, never underestimate their ability to leverage projects to nowhere that move public dollars into private pockets.
Meanwhile, they’ll divide FNs against one another and deepen colonial harms. It’s their MO, and increasingly Carney’s too.
Meanwhile, they’ll divide FNs against one another and deepen colonial harms. It’s their MO, and increasingly Carney’s too.
plus obliterating Indigenous consultation through ministerial discretion, which is the win-win for the UCP and feds. Now the UCP get to combine lack of consultation with virtually unlimited criminalization powers via Critical Infrastructure Act.
November 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Even if the Alberta government doesn’t get a pipeline built, never underestimate their ability to leverage projects to nowhere that move public dollars into private pockets.
Meanwhile, they’ll divide FNs against one another and deepen colonial harms. It’s their MO, and increasingly Carney’s too.
Meanwhile, they’ll divide FNs against one another and deepen colonial harms. It’s their MO, and increasingly Carney’s too.