What's going on here?
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3/
Koch Network
Building a White Supremacist Constitution one brick at a time over 60 years.The hate is now automated, corrupt, & well funded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html
The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show
Right-wing political group Americans for Prosperity, backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, sees data centers as part of a larger pro-fossil fuel agenda.
DeSmog (www.desmog.com)
Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher (New Documents)
Many have noted that the Koch Brothers' dad was a Bircher, but new documents show Charles was, too.
Progressive.org (progressive.org)
With AI, the wealthy skip paying for hate-for-hire campaigns like Facebook, Tenet Media, or the Russian Internet Research Agency
Top Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg just apologized for racist ad targeting
She was “disgusted and disappointed.”
Mother Jones (www.motherjones.com)
The Kochs’ Anti-Civil Rights Roots: New Docs Expose Charles Koch’s Ties to John Birch Society
The Progressive magazine and Center for Media and Democracy have released new documents that show billionaire oil industrialist Charles Koch was an active member of the controversial right-wing John Birch Society during its campaigns against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Charles Koch was following in the footsteps of his father, Fred Koch, a leader of the John Birch Society from its founding. We speak with The Progressive’s Lisa Graves about her new article, “The Koch Cartel: Their
Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org)
Who Sponsored the Hate?
Jane Mayer on the Koch brothers’ surprising disapproval of Donald Trump, and their own history of toxic rhetoric.
The New Yorker (www.newyorker.com)
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(thehill.com)
Did the John Birch Society Win in the End?
Modern conservatism was built by purging the right’s reckless conspiracy theorists—but now they’ve taken over.
(www.thebulwark.com)
4/
Steve Bannon’s Stay-Out-of-Jail Strategy: ‘Flood the Zone With Shit’
Steve Bannon’s lawyers invited the jury in his contempt of Congress trial down a rabbit hole to a land where they must doubt everything.
VICE (www.vice.com)
This infamous Steve Bannon quote is key to understanding America's crazy politics
A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
WRAL.com (www.wral.com)
Trump's Firehose of Falsehood
His refusal to concede is more than sour grapes. It's an information-warfare tactic to leave the public bewildered and cynical.
(www.persuasion.community)
Pam Bondi's performance in congressional hearings was an excellent example of Russian-style media manipulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehoodFirehosing & automation
https://mediamanipulation.org/definitions/distributed-amplification/ -
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart this seems so unlike Benji Edwards, I'm really surprised
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4/
Steve Bannon’s Stay-Out-of-Jail Strategy: ‘Flood the Zone With Shit’
Steve Bannon’s lawyers invited the jury in his contempt of Congress trial down a rabbit hole to a land where they must doubt everything.
VICE (www.vice.com)
This infamous Steve Bannon quote is key to understanding America's crazy politics
A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
WRAL.com (www.wral.com)
Trump's Firehose of Falsehood
His refusal to concede is more than sour grapes. It's an information-warfare tactic to leave the public bewildered and cynical.
(www.persuasion.community)
Pam Bondi's performance in congressional hearings was an excellent example of Russian-style media manipulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehoodFirehosing & automation
https://mediamanipulation.org/definitions/distributed-amplification/Bondi's rendition looked more like the classic (and abhorent) cartoon version of hysterical female pms. Not how to impress the board in the western world. These women Trump goes for are all broken and the men stupid.
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@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart
and while this was a faster response than the trans hit piece of a couple years ago, it's the same playbook: lock comments, promise an investigation, and hope it dies down over the weekend.
A pity really. A place I used to value. For me, the anti-trans piece was the end. -
@mttaggart @catsalad wait, was there *any* truth in there whatsoever? Like, it sounds like it was 100% made up?
Just like the Daily Mail is known for?
@http_error_418 @mttaggart @catsalad No, I saw the original Git page yesterday and there was a blog post from him after.
It's a mess, but it's real.
Edit: now with receipts!
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@bnys @mttaggart Berger is an embarassment
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UPDATE: They pulled the story, but I had it up and had SingleFile in my browser, so: https://mttaggart.neocities.org/ars-whoopsie
They surely pulled it and it now has their moonshark 404 page, the moonshark ate the AI slop.
Edit: since the story itself was about an AI agent, we can dub this a clusterfuck.
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
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@mttaggart ALAS, THE MOONSHARK HAS EATEN YOUR LINK.
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Aaand the full comments thread from the original story: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name.1511649/
@mttaggart did you archive that?
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart@infosec.exchange dead internet theory is true again
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@mttaggart so, ars technica is now merely slop as well?
@mttaggart ah:
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.
OK, we’ll wait and see…
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart@infosec.exchange
Hey remember in 2022 when @arstechnica@mastodon.social published a story about a hoax which the source they used admitted was a hoax but they wrote the article as if it was real? That article is still up.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250921080857/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/11/oculus-co-founder-makes-a-vr-headset-that-can-literally-kill-you/
RE: https://transfem.social/notes/ae7rksgrr9t400e0 -
Aaand the full comments thread from the original story: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name.1511649/
@mttaggart Fuck! I thought that was real
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@mttaggart Fuck! I thought that was real
@staringatclouds The event is real. The quotes in the story were hallucinated.
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2/
Russia & Putin
Putin deluded himself that AI-enabled warfare will solve his manpower problems & population bottlenecks. 1.3 million dead soldiers so far in Ukraine.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/putin-links-nuclear-buildout-to-russias-ai-ambitions/
How technophobe Putin led Russia to surrender in the AI arms race
The Kremlin made Yuri Gagarin the first man in space but now lags Luxembourg in AI — which the president seems to regard as a challenge to his authority
(www.thetimes.com)
Need more evidence? Evil.
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UPDATE: They pulled the story, but I had it up and had SingleFile in my browser, so: https://mttaggart.neocities.org/ars-whoopsie
@mttaggart I'd have more respect for them if they replaced it with a retraction page. But then, I have low expectations for Ars.
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
"If irony were made of strawberries we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now."
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart Makes me want to delete AT from my regular sources, but I'll hold off. They should issue an apology if they haven't.
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UPDATE: They pulled the story, but I had it up and had SingleFile in my browser, so: https://mttaggart.neocities.org/ars-whoopsie
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