This is humanistic political philosophy. Not just because he explicitly reaches out to nonreligious voters, along with Jewish voters and voters of every religion. But because of THIS ideal: "What would we build -- what would we do -- if we treated all of our kids like they were *all* of our kids."

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 12h ago

El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"

Seconded. It’s wrong on principle, it’s unamerican—we rejected religious tests for office and dual loyalty smears with JFK, Jewish Americans, more—and every minority (especially but not exclusively religious) should recognize it as yet another assertion that only white Christians are real Americans.

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 21h ago

i really have no patience whatsoever for people who are scared of muslims having elected office

Little known but this was actually the one point on which Sun Tzu and Lao Tzu were in complete agreement

Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social · yesterday

Sun Tzu: The wise warrior uses all of their missiles as quickly as possible

It's always weird and funny knowing that to some I sound like a weird Old person when I point out that doing stuff *without* computers is frequently faster, easier, and way more efficient. (and also usually a lot cheaper / free)

Greg M. Epstein@gregmepstein.bsky.social · yesterday

While we're focused on big-picture issues like creating AI Gods, banning social media, or regulating a many-trillion-$ industry, have we considered our whole society might lose its damn mind "saving time" emailing/texting about emotionally laden topics that should be CONVERSATIONS. Because it might.

This is probably my most important skeet of the year, TBH. We are in DANGER

Greg M. Epstein@gregmepstein.bsky.social · yesterday

While we're focused on big-picture issues like creating AI Gods, banning social media, or regulating a many-trillion-$ industry, have we considered our whole society might lose its damn mind "saving time" emailing/texting about emotionally laden topics that should be CONVERSATIONS. Because it might.

While we're focused on big-picture issues like creating AI Gods, banning social media, or regulating a many-trillion-$ industry, have we considered our whole society might lose its damn mind "saving time" emailing/texting about emotionally laden topics that should be CONVERSATIONS. Because it might.

Just came in 3rd place in a jalapeno eating contest, clap slash pray for me 🌶️🌶️🌶️.

The very first lesson I was taught, 26 (!) years ago, the first day of 5+ years of training to be a humanist rabbi: when someone calls to ask for a wedding officiant, the first word you say in response is "Congratulations!" You don't ask the partner's religion, gender, anything. You celebrate love.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg@theradr.bsky.social · 5d ago

A couple of days ago the denomination that ordained me, which I have since left, made a big! deal! about issuing a ruling letting everyone know that they have made a big! decision! not to treat interfaith families like absolute garbage as much now even though they still won't do their weddings

This is also book burning. 👇🏻 An AI Fahrenheit 451.

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

I had somehow missed this story and, wow. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · last wk.

I wonder if he has such pointed questions for his daughter’s abuser, Rep Max Miller.

“It means something is closing. Something is ending. It means that the qualifications she (@janerosenzweig.bsky.social) has, which are in how to teach undergraduates how to write, are no longer meaningful at Harvard,” she said. Yuck. The heart of college today should be teaching how to write/think.

Mary Lewis@profmarylewis.bsky.social · last wk.

It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Solidarity with @janerosenzweig.bsky.social

Mary Lewis@profmarylewis.bsky.social · last wk.

It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

I am determined that all eventual eulogies and obituaries of me will be able to include the line, "He never visited Threads, not even once"

onekade@onekade.bsky.social · last wk.

Does anyone on here use threads? If so what’s the vibe like? Just brands and stuff?

Yes, and also Hasbara is a politicized version of what in the studies-in-religion world we call apologetics, or attempts to persuade via theology. I've been listening to tech CEO interviews as apologetics for the past seven years and it has never disappointed or steered me wrong.

Ami Fields-Meyer@fieldsmeyer.com · last wk.

Start listening to tech CEO interviews like you listen to Hasbara. Everything will be clearer and more hilarious.

We seem to be entering a new phase of declarations from the heads of tech companies heralding the arrival of “AGI” (Altman) or “superintelligence” (Zuckerberg). Both those men have paired their announcements with op-eds outlining their visions for “democratic” AI. 1/4

Kol Tregaskes@koltregaskes.bsky.social · last wk.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote a WSJ opinion piece attacking AI doom narratives and arguing for distributed superintelligence.

I remember driving across Wyoming years ago and seeing the sign for a town, "Population 1." I'm tempted to joke that such a town would probably produce great philosophers. But nah. In an age in which thinking itself is under threat, we need a philosophy of togetherness, more than ever

Samantha Brennan@samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Wyoming will become the first state in the US where you cannot receive a B.A. in Philosophy." dailynous.com/2026/07/23/u...

This got right at something I've been thinking about for months, and that I hope the ambitious students I serve as a chaplain will think about. Amidst extraordinary uncertainty, is forever more work the answer, the god even, that we take it to be? And if not, how can we get closer to better answers?

Emi Nietfeld@eminietfeld.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ambition requires a belief that you have meaningful control over your future. With so much uncertainty today, it can feel pointless to prepare for tomorrow. My latest @nytopinion.nytimes.com ! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/o...

Abbie Boggs with a super helpful thread on why the 4.5 year limit on student visas will be disastrous for PhD students, and the history of international students within federal immigration policy. (Abbie’s book Degrees of Empire is out this year! Preorder it now! fordhampress.com/degrees-of-e...)

Degrees of Empire - Abigail Boggs

A sweeping history of how noncitizen students shaped U.S. universitiesFrom colonial missionary schools to the globalized university of the twentieth century, U.S. higher education has long depended on...

fordhampress.com

Abbie Boggs@abbieboggs.bsky.social · 2w ago

On 7/17, the Federal Register published a new rule to tighten the conditions on student visas. Now it goes to Congress for review and likely applications starting 9/15. My students are getting official emails and starting to ask questions, so wrote up some observations based on my research: 1/

Wow, the AI scam game is getting stronger and stronger. Now we're out here trying to phish Harvard professors into panicking that parents of students are complaining about their courses, huh? That is...niche. But I mean, when even the Nigerian prince's email scammer job isn't safe...

New York City is under a tornado watch, because, of course. Absolutely no climate issues to see here, move right along with your visions of tech utopia and/or doom as the only thing anyone needs to pay attention to. Well, move along but try not to move into, you know, a giant twisty cloud?

Judy Garland as Dorothy Crying

ALT: Judy Garland as Dorothy Crying

static.klipy.com

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick AI glasshole ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.

Victor Tangermann@vtanger.bsky.social · 2w ago

i should really watch They Live futurism.com/future-socie...

Weirdly I have come to suspect that the biggest victims of cognitive surrender right now are some people who work in the AI industry

Aurelien Mondon@aurelmondon.com · 2w ago

"Cognitive surrender" is a fascinating concept to think about the impact of AI as it exists under reactionary tech Preventing people from thinking for themselves and imagining different worlds is a godsend for authoritarians thenextweb.com/news/wharton...

"Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death." -Neil Postman. In 1985.

Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com · 2w ago

we're so cooked www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...

Difficult not to imagine what Darwin – who famously had a penchant for beetles – would make of this. Not the 'war of nature' he was thinking of. P.S. Command and Conquer's 'Hell March' is a fitting tune for a beetle battling a robotic imposter. P.P.S. Here's one of our favourite Darwin quotes.

Digital Brain@yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 3w ago

A bio-inspired robot crosses paths with a real insect , 400 million years of evolution face to face with human engineering.

I love new music but lately I've been streaming new stuff, then letting the algorithm take over. But it's so boring and a bit humiliating to let a hyper-capitalist robot pick my tunes. So I switched to a local college radio station's app. SO much better. Better picks than the robot, every. time.

I never said there were ZERO good uses of AI

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 2w ago

Spain edited Trump out of its celebratory photo.

Thinking of printing this up on yellow cards and handing them to people like in a soccer match

Brielle 💖@briellebear.bsky.social · 3w ago

I really hate the “I don’t owe anyone anything” mentality because we actually owe each other and this planet a lot. You don’t have to be selfless all the time or burn yourself out but you should be kind and helpful and compassionate to the best of your ability. We need to care about each other more

Btw I'm not sure so please let me know if it is still legal to use the term "white privilege" in a social media post in the year of our (over)Lord(s) 2026

Greg M. Epstein@gregmepstein.bsky.social · 3w ago

No no no please tell me this isn't real. Seems to be designed in a lab to freak out every parent organization in America. But maybe people are ignoring because white privilege? "Salamanca is the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation." 👇👀

No no no please tell me this isn't real. Seems to be designed in a lab to freak out every parent organization in America. But maybe people are ignoring because white privilege? "Salamanca is the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation." 👇👀

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 3w ago

A rural New York school district has teamed up with a crypto/sex doll company to deploy a "lifelike" robot and avatar teaching assistant in the classroom this fall

💯 agree w/ @whipkclark.bsky.social (in Politico): "This is a cynical effort with this amendment to divide people...but it is also a chance to say clearly that the status quo is not acceptable.” TLDR in my best nasal Michael Stipe voice: "It's the end of the world, as we know it, and I feel fine..."

Almost Half of House Democrats Vote to End Aid to Israel

The measure failed, but the level of support among Democrats exposed a stark shift in the party away from backing the Jewish state.

nytimes.com