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

This is the most wretched campaign of deliberate, explicit persecution the United States has perpetrated against a minority group in decades. Many of the most important people in politics and journalism are busying themselves trying to figure out how little to say or do about it.

submitted 18 hours ago • 190 comments

New: My dispatch from the hottest club in New York City on Friday — the Luigi Mangione hearing. Truly one of the most fascinating scenes I’ve ever witnessed. With illustrations from inside the courtroom by the great Molly Crabapple www.theverge.com/law/617946/l...

submitted 17 hours ago • 12 comments

It’s wild watching these clips, and the ones of Musk a couple days ago — the two most powerful people in the world, blustering and muttering utterly incoherently. Two husks, animated entirely by the brute forces of grievance, racism and capitalism

submitted 14 hours ago • 8 comments

I've subscribed. As someone who works in Tech, I really appreciate his in depth articles and knowledge of the tech space. Well worth the support!

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Long live General Ludd. 🔨

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Good thing Elon Musk has nothing to do with DOGE, otherwise this might look a bit shady www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

100% this

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

There is a real and growing popular resistance to Musk, Trump, and DOGE, with wide support, and it's just begun. We joined a Tesla Takedown protest, interviewed some participants, and sat down with @alexwinter.com, who's been a major force in spreading the word. Meanwhile, Tesla's stock is falling.

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

AI has entered its empire era. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-in-i...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

For decades, the US government has painstakingly kept American science #1 globally—and every facet of American life has improved because of it. The internet? Flu shot? Ozempic? All grew out of federally-funded research. Now all that's being dismantled. 1/ www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...

submitted 1 day ago • 81 comments

Gift link. A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone. And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration. If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...

submitted 1 day ago • 32 comments

On the century-long fantasy of replacing teachers with machines, and the utter contempt for people it demonstrates to be touting this vision right now 2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/automated-co...

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

I just finished Blood in the Machine by @bcmerchant.bsky.social and it was awesome. Excellent book that compares the parallels of today’s tech revolution to the Industrial Revolution. The robots aren’t taking your jobs. The billionaires are. The ceos are. Robots can’t do shit without people.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Vance says the US will dominate AI. Meanwhile his administration is kneecapping the source of AI talent and emboldening China to move in Taiwan, a major source of superconductors in the US. I guess this makes sense if one thinks Grok is the peak of AI?

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The more vexing ai alignment problem as stated by @katecrawford.bsky.social "What we saw at the summit was a different type of alignment problem, which was a misalignment from very concentrated corporate power and the interests of civil society in general.”

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

'AI is in its empire era. More, more, more data centers—despite non-American competitors like DeepSeek demonstrating other routes are possible. Possible, but not desirable, because the American approach to AI is empire-building" @bcmerchant.bsky.social www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-in-i...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

New: The FTC was set to tackle "surveillance pricing" and "surveillance wages" before Trump took office. Now consumer and worker advocates are taking the battle to the states instead—and four have already introduced bills to ban the practices: wapo.st/4iacqAZ (w/ @laurenkaorigurley.bsky.social)

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

My dear colleagues who have fought the good fight over #AIgovernance it is time to recognize that this effort has for the time being at least failed. The "governance of AI" is quickly being replaced by "AI itself as governance". www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-in-i...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Funny story. In 2024, people who were convinced immigrants and foreign trade had stolen their jobs voted into office an administration that set about replacing human workers entirely with AI. Also the AI sucked. The end.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Age of Scampire..?

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

It does not — and they don't much care. It's an excuse to consolidate and exercise elite power; if government services suffer, that's fine by them, that's almost a bonus; means they can blame more stuff... on the government, on public servants who remain

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

AIge of Empires

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

JD Vance is proclaiming to the world that the US's AI industry will dominate, Elon Musk and DOGE are hollowing out the government with an AI-first strategy, and Silicon Valley's is stuck on a growth-at-all-costs AI approach. As @katecrawford.bsky.social put it: 'AI is in its empire era'

submitted 2 days ago • 14 comments

In @bcmerchant.bsky.social's 'Blood In The Machine' he lays out how during the Industrial Revolution factory owners courted younger, more precarious child labor to man their machines because they're unable to convince the more experienced tradesmen (who recognize the threat they pose) to do so

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

There is no more tech policy, only technopolitics. The liberal rules-based order has past & power is uninterested in performing reforms. Advocating tech sustainability, regulation and inclusion makes us the enemy within, and we need to focus on movement building and resistance.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

oh hell yes

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: DOGE put a $1 spending limit on government employee credit cards. Employees say overspending and fraud in the program was exceedingly rare. www.wired.com/story/doge-g...

submitted 2 days ago • 109 comments