Non-theist Christian and elder in Community of Christ. I have Mormon roots and aspirations to do better with justice and peacemaking—especially in the digital sphere but also in Lexington, Kentucky, the U.S., and the world more broadly.

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I was really hoping to make something special of Advent this year, but the past three weeks have just kind of sucked, and I don’t know if the next one will be any better. I don’t know that I have a takeaway from this, except that maybe it’s okay to have a sucky Advent.

🔗 linkblog: Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors - The Verge'


Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse. Will be really interested to see if Dorsey gets banned.

🔗 linkblog: Elon Tries (Badly) To Defend The Banning Of Journalists As Twitter Starts Blocking Links & Mentions Of Mastodon | Techdirt'


I’ve posted a bunch of articles about this already, but Masnick’s take is super helpful.

🔗 linkblog: Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.'


Free speech is genuinely important, but it’s hard to take the ideal seriously when its advocates twist it to mean something specific and self-serving.

🔗 linkblog: Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon - The Verge'


I’ve been trying to avoid dire predictions for Twitter since Musk took over, but this seems more and more like a turning point in the identity and reputation of the platform.

🔗 linkblog: Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter - The Verge'


I mean, I’m willing to wait a bit and see what Twitter and Musk have to say about this, but this sure doesn’t seem like the approach that a free speech absolutist would take.

🔗 linkblog: Elon’s Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account | Techdirt'


Musk is getting pettier and more self-centered.

🔗 linkblog: Experts Warn ChatGPT Could Democratize Cybercrime - Infosecurity Magazine'


Well, this is terrifying.


Streisand Effect must be real, because I’ve never cared this much about a single plane in my whole life.

🔗 linkblog: Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account | Techdirt'


How does such an already bad story get so much worse over the course of a single day?

🔗 linkblog: Twitter Bans Elon Musk Flight Tracking Account After He Said It Wouldn’t, for Free Speech'


Twitter left up other flight tracking accounts but took down Musk’s?

🔗 linkblog: Twitter suspends @ElonJet after Musk promises not to ban it - The Verge'


This is petty and concerning.

🔗 linkblog: Twitter ditches Trust and Safety Council as Musk tweets fuel harassment | Ars Technica'


I think this headline captures one of the worst parts of all of this: Musk isn’t just dismissing concerns about behavior, he’s fueling that behavior.

🔗 linkblog: Goodbye, Twitter - by Ken White - The Popehat Report'


I haven’t been following Ken White as much as I used to, but this reminds me why I appreciate his perspective. This is someone who knows what free speech is and advocates for it, not someone who uses it as a buzzword justification for reprehensible behavior, à la Musk.

🔗 linkblog: TSA Quietly Deploying Facial Recognition Scanners At Major US Airports | Techdirt'


Oh please no.

🔗 linkblog: Before Musk Riled Everyone Up With Misleading Twitter Files About ‘Shadowbanning,’ Musk Used The Tool To Hide Account Tracking His Plane | Techdirt'


If I could pick one story to demonstrate that Musk’s Twitter tenure has been blundering and inconsistent…

🔗 linkblog: The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files | WIRED'


I have deliberately not been following the Twitter Files stuff, but I did read this and found it helpful.

🔗 linkblog: Thanks to AI, it’s probably time to take your photos off the Internet | Ars Technica'


Good thing engineers really anticipated and considered these consequences before developing this software, right?

🔗 linkblog: ChatGPT, Galactica, and the Progress Trap | WIRED'


A helpful and thoughtful critique of how people are doing AI text generation.

🔗 linkblog: It’s Not Just You: Businesses Are Making Their Phone Numbers Hard to Find - WSJ'


What a crappy future we are heading toward.

🔗 linkblog: Mormons in Mexico and the Search for Truth, Pipe Wrench no. 8:'


Long read but a good read.

🔗 linkblog: Brave Sir Bentham, Utilitarian Knight - Existential Comics'


Only thing better than a critique of utilitarianism is a critique of utilitarianism in the form of a comic.

🔗 linkblog: The 4th Nephi Dystopia – Wheat & Tares'


I have to admit I was skeptical of the title, but this is a very interesting reading, and I’ll never read 4th Nephi the same again.


I’m about to set up a Graceland University login because I’m registering for (non-credit-bearing) courses at Community of Christ Seminary. I know I’m not the first person in history to enroll at both BYU and Graceland during my lifetime, but it still tickles me to think about.

🔗 linkblog: Lexington, Ky Mayor wants to expand license plate cameras | Lexington Herald Leader'


I have written council representatives about this more than anything else, and yet I suspect that it will go through again without a fuss. This isn’t the worst form of surveillance, but it is still surveillance, pure and simple.