Aug 2, 2026, 1:17 PMIf useful, here's my attempt to process my feelings about how I feel sadly kinda — or rather very — sick from all this AI fascist nonsense as an academic. 😶🌫️
I'd be pleased if even one person finds something useful because there's something to be said for processing this all together, so, um, enjoy?
Aug 2, 2026, 1:17 PMINB4: use the rainbow at the top right for those who hate the colours.
Aug 2, 2026, 1:29 PM@olivia thank you for this, and solidarity ✊ 💞
Aug 2, 2026, 1:41 PM@amyfou 💗
@olivia I feel this now, with the aggressive "AI transformation" my employer carries out in the whole company, with silent firings in the background and loud, pro-LLM and "growth culture" propaganda in the foreground...
Aug 2, 2026, 1:31 PM@glitc_ yeah it's not... how to put it... Good 🥲
@olivia each day I say "what the actual FUCK" as more, more, more of this happens, like those self-copying Smith agents in The Matrix trilogy.
@olivia solidarity
Aug 2, 2026, 2:32 PM@otfrom 💖
@olivia Incredible essay. Bravo. 👏 I have highlighted several passages.
This echoes so much of how I feel. Seeing so many of my fellow computer programmers fall prey to the hype, leaving behind all semblance of ethical duty, has been truly demoralizing. But at the same time, many programmers are resisting! It's a true bifurcation. I suspect no industry is immune from this.
"Resistance is futile!" they want us to believe. Our job is to say no, that's a game we refuse to play.
Aug 2, 2026, 2:33 PM@jaredwhite oh, goodness, exactly!
It's easy to know what to do but much harder to emotionally get things in order and actually do it. And then failure creates doubt, is it even worth it to resist?
I'm tired...
Aug 2, 2026, 6:24 PM@tesmaia @jaredwhite yeah, it's a moral imperative. Remember those who don't like being on what they see as the losing side last century would have just joined the Nazis.
@jaredwhite @olivia Honestly, if resistance truly were futile, they wouldn't feel the need to lecture us about why resistance is futile.
@olivia I am not an academic, which makes my ability to relate to your current situation imperfect. But I do strongly relate to the anxiety in general around AI, my own career heavily impacted. I have this idea from other bubbles that we are nearing the end. We are almost at the point where people start saying "yes, we all know it is a bubble, but" and that is the final gasp. Those same people will eventually deny they ever fell for it as things settle down, however they decide to settle.
Aug 2, 2026, 3:15 PM@Fulk_It I hope the bubble bursts with the fewest human casualties and the maximum harm to the AI sector — thank you!
@olivia Planning to read. Love the unique style - that I can already tell.
@olivia I'm still reading, and want to give some time to digest, but I see you, and I have solidarity with everything you've said so far.
As an American with Mediterranean heritage, I am expressive in both tone and physicality. I talk with my hands like I'm signing ASL, and I'm easily excitable and prone to joy and spontaneous outbursts of happiness.
This confused the Dutch when I lived there. I often got looks that made me feel like an exhibit who had escaped. ;)
Aug 3, 2026, 4:40 AMI feel this so much, thank you for expressing it so clearly.
Aug 3, 2026, 4:40 AMOne sentence that stuck with me is "Attacking educators and researchers is not a coincidence".
I was wondering why they're focusing so much on (destroying) education, and why the education "sector" (how much capitalistic capture this common expression betrays!) is so permeable to the attack by "AI", which is so obviously its enemy.
But sadly it makes sense and we mustn't, aren't allowed to let that happen ...
Aug 3, 2026, 9:30 AM@quincy thank you 🫶🏼
The great care you have for your profession, and humanity in general, is evident. Please recognize that emotional affection is a symptom of this.
I, many times, feel existential working in IT as I am told it's inevitable. Maybe a consequence of an individualistic society, where actions can't extend from oneself? — Which doesn't play well in the dilemma's "AI" seems to propose.
Thank you for writing this, and I invite you to feel bittersweet pride for doing what you think is right.
Aug 3, 2026, 10:21 AM@Compeuter I agree and thank you for saying it. You're so kind to articulate it that way. 🫶🏼
@olivia Thanks so much for sharing! I struggle with how to present to my students that I am personally against generative “AI” while not judging them. At my uni, there is a generel permission to use this technology, with a range of caveats, a decision fostered partly by employers asking that our candidates know how to use it, partly by the realization that we can’t prove that a student used it anyway. But I want my students to learn, I want them to experience what it means to struggle to understand something and then suddenly find that it clicks into place, I want them to be critical and reflective. And I do my best to teach in a way that gives them all that—but I fear that my misgivings about LLMs will make some of them fear my judgment and therefore conceal that they use them. Sigh, this is enormously frustrating!
Aug 3, 2026, 10:33 AM@tanyakaroli I am sorry you have this extra complexity!
@olivia Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
As some version of 'Early Career Researcher' in Digital Humanities, you touched upon so many points I see & feel as well 🫂
Aug 3, 2026, 2:59 PM@lavaeolus thank you for saying that 🫂
@olivia Thanks, this is extremely relatable!
Aug 3, 2026, 2:59 PM@raphv 🫶