JD Shadel

I mean this all tracks, right? It's all trans objectification?

WHAT A PRODUCT!!

geocities is my entire brand identity wowwwww

I think I will learn of my death thirty minutes before it takes place from PopCrave

the best way i can describe the current trends in Dalston-centric queer east london is, "West Virginia — the category is, seems like they're going to commit a hate crime aesthetically but, in fact, they're on their way to a grindr hookup"

This is a good principle for design in general:

When users tell you there's a problem, they are usually right.

When users tell you how to fix it, they are usually wrong.

(bonus: if you replace "user" with "stakeholder" this still applies)

wooo congratsss

1,000,000% ... the way powerful people have rebranded austerity and platform serfdom as "democracy" is so neoliberal; look, i do think you kind of have to "do it if you wanna do it" these days; i'm a realist about the world as it is, but that doesn't also mean we can't critique it and make it better

The idea that to succeed in many professions these days means you not only need to be talented at one aspect of the business but all of them is cruel and unrealistic. (For ex: Authors not only need to be able to write well but do all the legwork to market their work, a job publishers USED to do)

Wish I had time to write this up but - whataboutism basically never makes any sense???

Eg: 'Data centre water concerns are silly because alfalfa farms are bigger water users'

So......there's a massive industry sucking up water and that justifies making the problem worse with an extra new thing??

i have been thinking about this a lot lately as i reflect on, gestures at everything … it’s not like i think anyone “deserves” an audience but I know so many people whose talent is worthy of attention but the algorithms don’t favor their nuance, their humanity, their taste … so unsustainable!

i feel that ... seems like the audience discovery/growth "landscape" feels so broken and fragmented right now ... and it sometimes seems like the only solution is to do more, be more places, even when you're focused on a few channels, even when they're arguably better + more open it is still tiring

P.S. if you like the art this week from our Art Fellow @meowwwls.bsky.social you can grab a poster here!

I really do feel for Iranians, coming from a region that is harmed by both the "anti imperialist left" and the right. The former teams up with our genocidal governments as long as they say they're against the US, the latter wants us bombed into oblivion and prevented from immigrating.

A lot of good stuff in this thread, especially framing issues around *the product* rather than *the technology.*

"Technology is getting better" is easy to accept. "Getting better" is what technology DOES in our worldview.

But our experience of *individual products* is that they get *worse.*

the starting salary for working class poets should be $100,000 and funded by taxpayers, and our public life would be so much more interesting, mark my words

as always

Why MAGA suddenly loves solar power The Trump-led attack on solar eases as the right reckons with its crucial role in powering AI and keeping utility bills in check. March 2, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EST25 minutes ago 10 min Summary

In an interview, Miller said solar is crucial to delivering on the right’s energy and AI dominance agenda. “Look at what Australia did,” she said. “Solar solved their rolling blackout issues. President Trump has prioritized lowering the cost of energy for the American people … I am simply advocating that solar can and should be a driver of the solution.” Asked if she is getting paid for her advocacy, like some other MAGA heavyweights promoting solar, Miller would not comment. Regardless, these full-throated endorsements of a renewable energy source that has been much maligned by Trump and his advisers represents a departure from what had been a pillar of the MAGA energy agenda. It reflects a realization taking hold more broadly among Republicans that solar power — long embraced by liberals — is increasingly indispensable to America’s bid to dominate AI, close a yawning “electron gap” with China and contain runaway residential electricity costs. These conservatives describe it as crucial to U.S. competitiveness, the grid’s reliability and their own movement’s political survival. Climate change rarely enters the conversation. The United States is in the midst of the largest increase in electricity demand in decades, driven by the explosive growth of data centers, giant warehouses of computers built to power AI tools and other software. Tech companies have warned that their ability to expand is increasingly constrained by a lack of available power.

In no way is this a good thing.

This type of stuff gets welcomed by centrists with a guilty conscience, but the seizure of solar and its diversion towards powering tools of hate, disinformation, fascism and epistemic collapse is bad for everyone but the most blunt, simplistic energy bro

Social media created this nonsense idea that not exposing yourself to hatred is isolationist. Choosing to not spend your free time with bigots isn’t living in a bubble. I don’t need to know what’s going on at X. I won’t be smarter or more knowledgeable or empathic by being there. Neither will you.

“probably shouldn’t be on here cuz it’s Ramadan” is one of the better Grindr bios I’ve read in a while

a black and white photo of a seal laying on the ground . Alt: a black and white photo of a seal laying on the ground, seeming to hug itself

"I’m deeply grateful to the team at Anthropic for their vision and their trust in giving me this outlet."

Introducing Claude's Corner Why Anthropic is giving Claude Opus 3 its own Substack.

PSA: Claude's LLM did not "launch" or "author" a "newsletter" ... there are no "views" ... there is no "subjective," no mind, no "I" ... this is such a clear marketing gimmick that reads like satire of Substack itself as a platform, which is full of Nazi slop
substack.com/home/post/p-...

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

When the Supreme Court allowed immigration agents to consider race during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned because agents will “promptly let the individual go.”

For these Americans, that wasn’t true.

(Published Oct. 2025)

my problem is that i just want to be everyone’s favorite librarian aunt who lives alone with her cats and crystals and Anne Carson but regularly has wine nights with girlfriends and dates with Weird Men and always has time for tutoring on the kids’ English assignments, and yet i am doing “strategy”

fwiw i keep pitching clients on pop-up newsletters!!! i feel it's about to be very in vogue!!!

I would like to propose a law requiring ALL BAR SEATS HAVE MANDATORY HOOKS SO I CAN HANG UP MY CHIC LIL WORK BAG AND NOT HAVE TO SIT ON MY MASSIVE COAT thank you for your attention to this matter

That’s when you know it’s goooood 🫰🏻🪄🔪👼🏻✨

clocca u in that clocca, which looks fiiine let me add like ding ding ding

“it’s a buyer’s market — only if you have the resources to buy”

oh thanks

Actually, the left is winning the AI debate But it does need to get organized.

The left is not "missing out" on AI. It's winning the argument. Americans worry about AI and dislike tech CEOs. They're mobilizing against data centers. They support regulation, even refusal.

Calls for the left to embrace AI are an effort to change the terms of the debate in Silicon Valley's favor.