Tripping the Light Fantastick
@ttlfb.bsky.social
"Com, and trip it as it falls
O, the light fantastick balls"
🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 🇵🇸
Cyborg. Doctorate in either a social science or the humanities, depending on who you ask.
O, the light fantastick balls"
🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 🇵🇸
Cyborg. Doctorate in either a social science or the humanities, depending on who you ask.
Pinned
"humans can do this" "LLMs can't do that" some of you have never meditated upon "neti, neti" to attain jñāna and it shows
I literally never even know when an Avatar movie is coming out until it has already made eleventy bajillion dollars
December 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
I literally never even know when an Avatar movie is coming out until it has already made eleventy bajillion dollars
And of course that’s what is already happening.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
If the past is any prologue, Bari will find a way to cast herself as the victim here, perniciously reframing running interference for an authoritarian president - spiking a segment critical of his concentration camps- as an act of brave truth-telling amidst attacks by the woke mob
CNN’s @brianstelter.bsky.social reports that some CBS News employees are now threatening to quit
December 22, 2025 at 12:52 PM
And of course that’s what is already happening.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
The poor, innocent, smol girl Editor in Chief was just trying to make sure Stephen Miller’s voice was included.
The fact that he will never agree to appear in the story is not relevant; he simply must, or the story would be unfairly unbalanced.
People comparing smoking in public to LLMs existing, I’m sorry but you’re fucking insane
I lived thru the end of public smoking. Early in my career I presented to city councils who were smoking, in front of audiences who were smoking.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
It’s crazy that people used to be able to just smoke cigarettes wherever they wanted
December 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
People comparing smoking in public to LLMs existing, I’m sorry but you’re fucking insane
Had an intensely weird dream that there was a new Superman movie out and that the plot of it revolved around “Raingirl”, a little girl who could control the rain
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
December 20, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Had an intensely weird dream that there was a new Superman movie out and that the plot of it revolved around “Raingirl”, a little girl who could control the rain
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
It was an excellent movie and the people chasing Superman were all heavily inconvenienced by it being so rainy. Raingirl saves the day.
trying to imagine picking two people whose opinions about religion I value less than steven pinkerton and ross douchehat
December 20, 2025 at 2:44 AM
trying to imagine picking two people whose opinions about religion I value less than steven pinkerton and ross douchehat
I read through Mein Kampf as an edgy teenager and thought “this guy fuckin sucks”
December 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I read through Mein Kampf as an edgy teenager and thought “this guy fuckin sucks”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
You're mad because you expect a "software update" to make things work better. You will only be free when you understand this to be an illusion and accept the fact that software is suffering
December 19, 2025 at 2:27 PM
You're mad because you expect a "software update" to make things work better. You will only be free when you understand this to be an illusion and accept the fact that software is suffering
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
Anyway, liberalism and socialism are not enemies, and to the extent that you insist that they are, you are clinging to Ego. You have failed to apprehend the true meaning of "Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form." I will now give you a firm thwack with the keisaku.
December 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Anyway, liberalism and socialism are not enemies, and to the extent that you insist that they are, you are clinging to Ego. You have failed to apprehend the true meaning of "Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form." I will now give you a firm thwack with the keisaku.
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
December 18, 2025 at 9:01 PM
NB: When I, a professor of law, profess that an act is unlawful, I am not doing it to inform the lawbreaker, but rather to inform you, the reader.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
So the question “what, like you think he cares?” is inapposite. The question is whether *you* care. I think you should, which is why I bother.
Trusty old “Trans people are the elite”
Dr Oz: "The creation of a penis costs on average in America $150,000 per child ... if you add testicles, that's extra"
December 18, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Trusty old “Trans people are the elite”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
The Bundy occupation at Malheur in early 2016 (and the lack of consequences they faced for it) was a sign of what was to come. Right wing white anti-government vigilantes cast as “patriots.”
NEW: Tina Peters is rejecting a J6er's call to storm a Colorado prison and free her.
Peters is distancing herself from the jailbreak scheme and violent actions after allies and her attorney talked about using force or violence to free her and punish those keeping her in prison.
Peters is distancing herself from the jailbreak scheme and violent actions after allies and her attorney talked about using force or violence to free her and punish those keeping her in prison.
December 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
The Bundy occupation at Malheur in early 2016 (and the lack of consequences they faced for it) was a sign of what was to come. Right wing white anti-government vigilantes cast as “patriots.”
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
December 15, 2025 at 7:26 PM
i have said this before but if you are actually interested in influencing people beyond a narrow circle of too-online journalists you will be making direct to camera videos on tiktok, instagram and youtube. if you primarily post on text-based social media then you're just dicking around.
Wikipedia says this is one of the contributions of the 1968 book Sound Pattern of English: “context-sensitive rules transform the underlying form of a sequence of words into the final phonetic form that is uttered by the speaker.”
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
Hockett’s dissertation (which he wrote in 1939 as a 23 year old before getting distracted by serving his country in WW2) contains ORDERED GENERATIVE, TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES that produce an infinite number of surface representations from an abstract underlying base
December 13, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Wikipedia says this is one of the contributions of the 1968 book Sound Pattern of English: “context-sensitive rules transform the underlying form of a sequence of words into the final phonetic form that is uttered by the speaker.”
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
That’s ALL AREADY IN PLACE BY 1939 WHEN CHOMSKY WAS 11 YEARS OLD
He has been erroneously credited with contributing transformational rules to linguistic theory by people who have not read enough Bloomfieldian structuralism to see that THEY HAD BEEN DOING THAT FOR THIRTY YEARS
Noam Chomsky made it very clear that he was a scumbag when he denied the Khmer Rouge genocide back in the 1970s: if you’ve been trying to deny the obvious about him ever since, well, that’s on you.
Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.
December 13, 2025 at 3:52 AM
He has been erroneously credited with contributing transformational rules to linguistic theory by people who have not read enough Bloomfieldian structuralism to see that THEY HAD BEEN DOING THAT FOR THIRTY YEARS
This is a plot point in my homebrew fantasy setting
the sun went down and the baby (18 months) looked out the window and started yelling “MOON? WHERE MOON? GUYS! NO MOON?”
December 13, 2025 at 3:41 AM
This is a plot point in my homebrew fantasy setting
The power went out for a few moments partway through the Sex and the City movie and i thought the women around me were going to burn the building down
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
December 13, 2025 at 12:09 AM
The power went out for a few moments partway through the Sex and the City movie and i thought the women around me were going to burn the building down
All you had to do to find out Chomsky was an asshole would be to ask a non-generativist linguist tbqh
Well, there's a photo I never expected to see in my life. Noam Chomsky palling around with Steve Bannon.
December 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
All you had to do to find out Chomsky was an asshole would be to ask a non-generativist linguist tbqh
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
This. This was the formative event of my generation & our entire politics in 🇺🇸. The structural break after which we were no longer a full democracy, when 5 Wizards In Robes decided they were a super-legislature & counting all the actual votes didn’t matter. The rest has been 25 years of commentary.
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
December 12, 2025 at 7:50 AM
This. This was the formative event of my generation & our entire politics in 🇺🇸. The structural break after which we were no longer a full democracy, when 5 Wizards In Robes decided they were a super-legislature & counting all the actual votes didn’t matter. The rest has been 25 years of commentary.
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
@typst.app really is as good as the hype.
December 10, 2025 at 6:17 PM
@typst.app really is as good as the hype.
Reposted by Tripping the Light Fantastick
Another thing is that way too many people don’t understand that even during the worst periods of the most appalling despotisms that they’ve read about a significant number of people could still live relatively “normal” lives
It did and it is. Including but certainly not limited to the sky high dictator caricature levels of corruption. Trump and his gang have made the Marcos family look small time in a very short period of time. You can claim American exceptionalism exists. Emphasis on claim
I think one of the biggest reasons it’s happening here is that many people still believe it can’t happen here.
December 9, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Another thing is that way too many people don’t understand that even during the worst periods of the most appalling despotisms that they’ve read about a significant number of people could still live relatively “normal” lives
If the republican justices end birthright citizenship and declare that the presidents official actions are de facto constitutional, democratic presidential candidates should commit to making their first official action REDACTED John Roberts with a tire iron
I feel like if the Court tries to nullify birthright citizenship then House Democrats should commit to impeaching all the Republican justices as soon as they get a majority. Even if the Senate won’t convict, make them make a spectacle out of it.
December 6, 2025 at 8:39 AM
If the republican justices end birthright citizenship and declare that the presidents official actions are de facto constitutional, democratic presidential candidates should commit to making their first official action REDACTED John Roberts with a tire iron
Keep your stick on the ice
December 6, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Keep your stick on the ice
I hate to say this but I do think they will find an imaginary original public meaning and rule that the constitution is wrong
This will be another fun instance of "will the Republican majority of SCOTUS follow the very clear text of the constitution or will they rule in favor of Trump being a special birthday boy"
*SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ROLLBACK
December 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I hate to say this but I do think they will find an imaginary original public meaning and rule that the constitution is wrong
i was working with an organization once and propublica laundered far-right accusations against them without fact checking the fascists or contacting us
December 5, 2025 at 1:27 AM
i was working with an organization once and propublica laundered far-right accusations against them without fact checking the fascists or contacting us
There’s something endlessly fascinating about the idea that the ability to speak a human language is crucially a function of context, and that the meaning of a word is a function of every time you’ve ever encountered it
December 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
There’s something endlessly fascinating about the idea that the ability to speak a human language is crucially a function of context, and that the meaning of a word is a function of every time you’ve ever encountered it