Michael Kaufman
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kaufmanwrites.bsky.social
Michael Kaufman
@kaufmanwrites.bsky.social
4.8K followers 2K following 4.5K posts
Writer--mysteries, YA and non-fiction. Worked in 50 countries engaging men to support women's rights & positively transform men's lives. Latest: "The Male Ally Handbook" & "Moon Storm Rising" (K Quinn) & "The Last Resort" both with climate change themes
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Reposted by Michael Kaufman
gbrockell.bsky.social
When I took the history reporter job, I told my editor I would never "both sides" the Civil War, Confederates or slavery. I never did.

But here, ChatGPT (pic 1) has turned my work (pics 2,3) into whitewashed pablum and put MY FUCKING NAME on it.

I am livid, I am shaking. I don't know what to do.
A screenshot from ChatGPT: "Amid the tension that led to the Civil War, Lee was presented with a choice: remain loyal to the to Union, or side with his home state of Virginia and the Confederate cause. His decision to join the South has been interpreted in myriad ways. Some point to his deep ties to Virginia, and his personal conviction that he could not raise arms against his homeland. Others argue it was a reflection of a broader worldview, one that saw slavery as integral to Southern society -- a worldview that Lee never fully rejected despite his many claims of personal discomfort with the institution. A screenshot of my actual WaPo writing on Lee: "Lee is sometimes defended as a "man of his times," who, by the standards of the day, could not have concluded that slavery was wrong or that he could choose loyalty to the United States over Virginia. The former claim ignores the millions of Black Americans who were able to divine slavery's evil at that time, not to mention White abolitionists and White Southerners such as Cassius Marcellus Clay, James Birney and Elizabeth Van Lew, who inherited enslaved people and freed them. As for the latter claim it is worth noting that other high-ranking military officers from Virginia remained loyal to the United States, among them generals Winfield Scott and George Thomas." A screenshot of my actual work reading: "And despite what old revisionist history or social media memes claim, Lee owned enslaved people. He drove them hard, and he pursued and punished them when they escaped. He separated families to pay off debts and fought in court to prevent them from being freed."
April 22, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Michael Kaufman
finnfox.bsky.social
Great piece, I think worth noting though that LGBTQ rights are not a mere wedge issue but have always been on the agenda for patriarchal agitators because the control & overt performative control of sexuality, gender & reproduction & of course women is a key aim; it's method as well as destination.
March 17, 2025 at 3:03 PM