jacobtorbeck.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

It’s definitely possible, even probable that race, gender, class, etc is driving someone’s thinking or behavior, & it’s eminently reasonable to ask if that’s the case, but to actually know, you need to have evidence beyond the mere presence of demographic markers & an argument for its relevance.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

the 20th century got all the cool innovations (for good and ill) and we just have lying theft robot that sucks

submitted 3 days ago • 11 comments

The kind reassurance here reminds of Herbert’s “Love (III),” and I like it very much right now in this month of the sacred heart. <3

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

They do this in Belgium and I’m told it’s awesome. Congrats, NYC!

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

This is the whole purpose of this tech according to the people who are funding and creating it. It should basically be banned for this reason alone. Even the most public critics of AI (ie the Vatican) are too hesitant in pushing back. The upsides to this tech are minimal— the dangers catastrophic

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.

submitted 11 days ago • 142 comments

Breaking: author who died in 1987 failed to account for social developments in four future decades…

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

@governorwalz.mn.gov: "The road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you you're overreacting."

submitted 16 days ago • 66 comments

A couple of months ago, I posted a checklist of things one could do to be useful in these days of rising fascism. Here’s Part Two of that list—more focused on ways to protect you and those in your tightest circles of care. Part One is embedded and also skeeted below.

submitted 17 days ago • 21 comments

“But perhaps the affirmation of being valueless to a culture with questionable values…is one of the best things we can pass along to others, in whatever conditions of struggle they might find themselves in, and in whatever form they stumble upon theology.” Great piece from @beamarovich.bsky.social

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Tariffs & ICE raids are connected insofar as they are attempts to blame economic & social conditions entirely on the actions of foreigners while attempting to paint domestic enemies as a traitorous fifth column working with the foreigners to undermine the country

submitted 20 days ago • 22 comments

if your country’s lawyers begin bringing up Carl Schmitt unprompted it’s a sign that things have gone horribly wrong

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

St. Oscar Romero, pray for us!

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

still trips me, sometimes.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I'm trying to pun on this, but Joan of Arby's just doesn't work the way I'd like it to.

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

Brueggemann's "The Prophetic Imagination" is a book every seminary student should be required to read.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Carlo Acutis, Ora pro nobis

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Ah, Iowa…

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

"Disarm us, O Lord — our minds, lips, hearts, and hands — that we may more perfectly love you. / We repent from our own political violence."

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Why should we work for unity? The simplest reason is because Christ desires this for the church. And, more recently, Pope Leo XIV has made it clear that he desires this as well. A meditation on today's beautiful Gospel reading. outreach.faith/2025/05/why-...

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

In Baroque art (example below), there’s a lot of memento mori imagery, often a skull, which is supposed to remind you to confess your sins and be charitable because you might die at any time. In MAGA art, memento mori means “don’t be poor.”

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

I get that the Catholic Church is a… less than credible proponent of radical humanism bc of gestures at its entire modern history but also it’s not going anywhere and the alternative is Vance-ism and worse.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Spicy takes over here.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

This boba place just won this religion prof over.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

My siblings and I may have wildly different personalities and views on things, but we all agree that "The Monster at the End of This Book" is a pinnacle of literature

submitted 29 days ago • 49 comments

"'Won’t You Be My Neighbor?' would be an important film to watch any time, but is an especially healing balm right now, in the midst of a dark and uncertain time characterized by increasing cynicism." (2018)

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments