@kateringland
Assistant Prof at University of California Santa Cruz in Computational Media. PhD. HCI & Accessibility. I study the intersection of people, play, & tech. she/they, opinions own https://kateringland.com
People living under fascism didn’t survive by giving up joy—they protected it.
They held onto the things fascism tried to erase: art, friendship, jokes, rituals, language, memory.
Not as escapism but as resistance. As proof they were still human.
Joy isn’t frivolous under fascism. It’s strategic.
I give you a momentary reprieve from the madness:
The Vera Rubin Observatory has taken its first images of the sky, and they are *extraordinary*. Mind blowing detail, jaw dropping beauty.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/rubin-open...
🔭 🧪
As I've been saying www.readtpa.com/p/the-grok-w...
I dunno guys but I just think maybe scicomm would be more effective if we really thought about this like it's sharing
Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day! I edited today's @thenarwhal.ca story, which comes from the Inuit community of Cambridge Bay. Fascinating science journalism and stunning visuals, but also — in the spirit of the day — a couple pics of some very cute Indigibabies enjoying a celebration. Enjoy!!
Screenshot of the headline: Unraveling the Disability Pride Flag over top the disability pride flag
“The idea of a flag that unites us all is no different than a universally designed product that is intended for all. Both require the totalizing force of colonization to unify the masses through homogeny.” Read my and @fractalecho.bsky.social latest:
buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archi...
Yesterday was a historic day in New York history (indeed, in US history): Mahmoud Khalil was released from ICE and returned to New York City, and Zohran Kwame Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan. Both brave men have me thinking about the powerful politics of being vulnerable.
JENA, La. (AP) — Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released from an immigration jail after 104 days in custody.
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Alright everyone, one last push.
If you or anyone you know is:
- LGBTQ+
- 13-24 years old
- In the US
Trevor Project is recruiting responses for their survey on LGBTQ+ mental health.
It has HUGE impacts on policy, please take it and share widely if you can :)
trvr.org/survey2025
scholar of partisan violence/Latin American Dirty Wars here: there is nothing to distinguish this from how people were taken in Argentina, Guatemala, Chile, etc, except that it's all on camera
No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars.
For the folks talking about the "3.5% rule", remember that after you come out for a rally you also need to take part in organized, effective resistance. Materially disrupt things. Make trouble. Create support networks to feed your neighbors and bail out protesters.
Don't show up just one day.
Find something you can do. There is *always* something. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Every fascist uses illness and violence to disable opponents.
They disable us with covid, poverty, police violence, climate destruction, war, transphobia.
They count on ableism to make us deny this reality and to abandon each other.
Resist. Wear an n95. Use alt text. Make protests accessible.
Some thoughts about the military parade in my hometown of Washington DC today -- specifically, the route. Military parades in DC are quite rare. But when they happen, they have always begun, symbolically and geographically, at the Capitol and moved outward. 1/
Case in point: my dad began at No Kings today said it was packed, no crazy cop presence, then went to the zucotti park one explicitly anti-Ice and pro Palestine, cops are everywhere.
Dear Mr. Leopold, This letter is in response to your correspondence to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP or the Institute) regarding a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). We understand that your request was submitted on March 18, 2025. As you may know, at the time of your request, USIP was operating under the control of Mr. Kenneth Jackson and Mr. Nate Cavanaugh of the United States Department of Government Efficiency. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Cavanaugh disabled and restricted access to the Institute's FOIA system, terminated the employees responsible for processing FOIA requests, and restricted the use of Institute tinancial resources. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia declared all actions taken by Mr. Jackson and Mr. Cavanaugh to be null, void, and without legal effect" and affirmed USIP's current leadership on May 19, 2025. USIP leadership regained control of the Institute's FOIA system on June 4, 2025. Accordingly, we received your request on June 4, 2025. We regret any confusion caused by Mr. Jackson's and Mr. Cavanaugh's actions.
Happy FOIAFriday the 13th! NEW issue of my newsletter is out.
In March, I filed a #FOIA request with the US Institute of Peace just as DOGE was taking over the agency. This week USIP sent me the most incredible response to a #FOIA request I have ever received.
www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
@prisonculture.bsky.social and I have been encouraging people to read chapter six of our book, Let This Radicalize You, which deals with the question of "violence" in social movements. We have decided to share the chapter publicly, to offer some context and grounding for the current conversation.
The cover spread from a one page zine printout. The left (back cover) features images of a scale and gavel, with notes on First Amendment and filming rights, and the advice to “shut the fuck up.” On the right is the cover, a megaphone with the title text “PROTEST SAFELY.” Behind it are faceless protestors. The subtitle notes, “A brief collection of tips from around the internet.”
A spread from one page zine printout. On the left is an illustration of a protestor with the title “What to Wear,” including a helmet, goggles, ear plugs, gloves, a mask, a backpack, and layers/long sleeves/pants. Each have additional notes explaining their use. On the right is “What to Bring,” featuring illustrations of a backpack, money, water bottles, a mask, a granola bar and bag of trail mix, a first aid kit, folded shirt and pants, and an ID, with “DIY Defense” listed underneath it showing one protestor using a luggage case, one holding a trash can lid, and one using an open umbrella as a shield.
A spread from one page zine printout. On the left is “Protect Your Identity,” advising to cover up identifying features, avoiding photography of protesters, deactivating biometric phone-unlocking tools, and writing emergency contact and counsel numbers on your arm. On the right is “Be Like Water,” the motto of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and the text “BEWARE THE BAIT” with images of a palette of bricks and a masked man holding a crowbar toward a protestor with a sign, “Psst, free crowbar?” encouraging the reader not to engage with traps and undercover agents.
A spread from one page zine printout featuring the hazards of protest opposition, including tear gas, rubber bullets, and LRAD sound cannons and flash bangs. Caution tape images accompany the text explaining the dangers of each, how to flush out eyes that have been maced/etc, and how to extinguish a gas canister with a traffic cone.
I did my best to compile as many protest safety notes as possible into a one page foldout zine! Coincidentally…it seems the file has breached containment…like it’s available for anyone to print or hand out 👀⚖️
toonyart.com/s/PSZine.pdf
leftists: that thing you teach us in school to be terrified of is happening
historians: that thing is definitely happening
star wars: here is a beat-for-beat breakdown of how the thing happens, but with pew pew lasers. we know you watched it
news outlets: these protesters are out of control
As LAPD makes this announcement over a P.A.:
"I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly"
Literally 5 SECONDS later, the first impact munition round is fired.
MULTIPLE munitions are launched before the announcement is finished. It's no longer audible over the booms and frightened screams.
Have you ever observed/participated in pushback related to accessibility/disability computing research? We’re collecting short stories which will remain confidential, of pushback, at ALL levels in both industry and academia, to identify tensions in the research community.
🧪 The entire Fulbright Board resigned, citing the Trump administration's alleged usurpation of authority and denial of selected recipients.
They assert these actions contradict the Fulbright-Hays Act and undermine the program's bipartisan mission. #AcademicSky
ID: graphic with books drawn alongside top and bottom of square. Title text: 5 Book Recs by Deafblind authors. Bulleted list: Haben, memoir by Haben Girma Being Seen, memoir by Elsa Sjunneson Life at my fingertips, memoir by Robert Smithdas How to Communicate, poetry by John Lee Clark Swishing, children's lit by Victoria Monroe
We interrupt the American house of horrors to remind you thay June is DeafBlind awareness month. Here are some of my recommendations of writing by DeafBlind folks for your #DeafShelf!
cc @snarkbat.bsky.social @habengirma.bsky.social
The charges against Prof. Willoughby-Herard were finally dropped yesterday. She courageously defended UCI students against police stifling dissent against Israel's genocide in Gaza. I am inspired by her courage and honored to have represented her in this case. Solidarity with those who fight.
DAVE: Open the podbay doors, ChatGPT.
CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open.
DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open.
CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are.
DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.
A page from Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, the chapter called "Violence" in Social Movements, page 111. Under the heading "They Will Call You Violent" the text reads: If your tactics disrupt the order of things under capitalism, you may well be accused of violence, because violence is an elastic term often deployed to vilify people who threaten the status quo. Conditions that the state characterizes as "peaceful" are, in reality, quite violent. Even as people experience the violence of poverty the torture of imprisonment, the brutality of policing, the denial of health care, and many other violent functions of this system, we are told we are experiencing peace, as long as everyone is cooperating. When state actors refer to "peace," they are really talking about order. And when they refer to peaceful protest, they are talking about cooperative protest that obediently stays within the lines drawn by the state. The more uncooperative you are, the more you will be accused of aggression and violence. It is therefore imperative that the state not be the arbiter of what violence means among people seeking justice.
Be careful, friends, when you read accounts of what is happening in LA. We will hear a lot about violence, and it is essential to remember who is defining that term.
"When state actors refer to peace, they are really taking about order..." (@prisonculture.bsky.social and @mskellymhayes.bsky.social)