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

We regard life "as something that must be first be mediated through questions of deserved + not deserved, ... subject to increasingly strict definitions of whether or not it has been earned... We know that the scarcity mindset is a lie" ... [1/2]

submitted 1 hour ago • 1 comment

I love how the various threads seeded by this post have allowed countless pundits to casually mention and marshal their near-perfect SAT scores as they argue that quantified intelligence is methodologically flawed and eugenicist 😉

submitted 1 hour ago • 4 comments

being obsessed with IQ is a good sign that you have nothing in your life to give you actual meaning. (also a good sign you have bell curve-esque beliefs about human equality)

submitted 2 hours ago • 150 comments

This is such a beautifully written piece by Anne Helen Petersen, distilling what sort many of us have been talking about and feeling in our cores.

submitted 1 hour ago • 1 comment

"...funding for the military, which is abs. not profitable, remained 👍. But funding for the arts, education, + care work — easily ✂️. Why fund schools if you don’t have kids in them? Why fund art you, personally, wouldn’t choose? Or a park you don’t visit? Or rsch to cure a disease you don’t have?"

submitted 2 hours ago • 10 comments

“You not only have to use your hands to turn the page,” Shannon Mattern... tells me. “But in this case you have to get down off the ladder, physically slide the thing—your whole body has to move. It’s... a scaling up of the analog engagement with the book.”

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

If you want to bld civic participation, "see what's going on in the community... 👀 if there are any other folks doing those things already + get involved. Are there social studies teachers who are looking for resources? Are there libraries that interested in getting more ppl involved in civic life?"

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

A lot of people who’ve posted that “I don’t know how to explain that you should care about other people” quote need to know that they should care about other people. I want my tax dollars to go to paying for insulin for the most vile MAGA asshole you ever heard of; that’s part of “everyone”.

submitted 3 hours ago • 67 comments

Fantastically brutal review of Palantir CEO Alex Karp's new book, The Technological Republic by @lioneltrolling.bsky.social. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

submitted 3 hours ago • 34 comments

From Fashioning Wonder:

submitted 12 hours ago • 1 comment

“Filtering urban design through algorithms and interfaces tends to bracket out those messy and disorderly concerns that simply ‘do not compute.’ We're left with the sense that everything knowable and worth knowing about a city can fit on a screen—which simply isn't true.” @shannonmattern.bsky.social

submitted 3 hours ago • 2 comments

1/ Town halls continue to go badly for GOP congresspeople, an ongoing thread: www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2Pc7F6y/

submitted 22 hours ago • 108 comments

“More than a quarter of the contracts listed by DOGE were actually already paid, the Journal found, saving no money. For instance, DOGE listed $168,000 in savings for terminating a contract with HHS for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit. It had already been fully paid.” Beyond parody.

submitted 11 hours ago • 583 comments

Fantastic news. More countries should do the same.

submitted 12 hours ago • 18 comments

this person said it so good so here it is

submitted 2 days ago • 17 comments

Brilliant protest. Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down American flag — traditionally a symbol of distress or a national threat — thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan.

submitted 11 hours ago • 79 comments

Social Security has a payment accuracy rate of over 99 percent. Only 0.3 percent of Social Security benefits are improper payments, which are typically caused by mistakes or delays. That's better than any private insurance company. www.cbpp.org/blog/setting...

submitted 1 day ago • 27 comments

“This is effectively the future Trump and Musk want. It is one in which many good people would be made to witness terrible, preventable catastrophes… If and when this happens, DEI will once again be the alibi and then, again, the motive: a way to divert blame and an excuse for further sabotage.”

submitted 12 hours ago • 1 comment

From Fashioning Wonder:

submitted 12 hours ago • 1 comment

The Gilded Age is Trump's ideal--let's check the stats, shall we? --most Americans disenfranchised --most Americans in extreme poverty --most Americans worked 12 hour workdays, 6-7 days a week --most Americans consumed unsafe food, water, medicine The Gilded Age was great only for the rich folks

submitted 16 hours ago • 155 comments

Ladies and gentlemen, our municipal politicians.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Any talk you hear from the current administration about making the US more competitive in science and technology is utter bullshit. What they are doing is sabotaging our country for years if not decades to come.

submitted 18 hours ago • 36 comments

Separately, on Musk's email, a point I think is not being made enough is that federal payroll makes up less than 5% of US government spending. Federal workers are 1.4% of all workers, but they're responsible for how 25% of US GDP is spent. This has nothing to do with saving money

submitted 17 hours ago • 8 comments

So. It has officially happened. I have been officially let go from my position at CDC. I wasn’t a probationary employee. I had stellar performance reviews every year. I’ll be ok. But please understand that many worked HARD to get into these positions and were doing great public health work.

submitted 1 day ago • 1864 comments

But... but... but... the DOJ said that Elon had no authority other than to advise the President.

submitted 16 hours ago • 25 comments

A new website created by about a dozen federal employees, called “We the Builders,” aims to be a secure outlet for government workers to share stories about how their workplaces are being impacted by DOGE, and a place to explain the real-world impact of its access to government tech systems.

submitted 1 day ago • 151 comments

Elon Musk threatens FBI agents and air traffic controllers with forced resignation if they do not respond to an email (sound familiar?) www.wired.com/story/doge-e...

submitted 17 hours ago • 55 comments

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

submitted 21 hours ago • 1962 comments

I am sad to share that all Retirement & Disability Research centers have been ordered to stop work. My fellowship will no longer exist, and the work of so many talented researchers and dedicated staff will be cut short. www.ssa.gov/news/press/r...

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

This is where we are now: An elementary school at Fort Campbell has removed all books from its library that so much as allude to slavery or the civil rights movement. The wholesale erasure of history in real time.

submitted 7 days ago • 2110 comments

I math-ed it out, and right now your DOGE dividend is on track to be $4.29. Let me show my work.

submitted 20 hours ago • 54 comments