Late stage capitalism hater 🇨🇦

My niece Kylie (18) is a gritty, undersized, high IQ point guard with quick hands who defends her butt off. Here she is getting the loose ball and scoring a layup in what ended up a double digit win in yesterday’s OBL U-13 basketball matches.

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking AI to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable. Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used AI models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations. The first thing they measured was how often AI agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the AI simply told you what you wanted to hear instead. Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the AI endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described. The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic AI or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable AI came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use AI again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding. The AI is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months. Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight. Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use AI as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now. She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the AI felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

Carney cut the capital gains tax his first day in office and his first budget cut luxury taxes on yachts and private jets. The public service is facing its largest round of cuts in 30 years.

Hasn't even been a year and Zohran's governance is having a massive impact on my family. Our daycare was able to open a 15-seat 3K program because of the 2,000 extra seats the admin funded. Everyone we know got in somewhere they wanted. This is gonna save us almost 50 grand.

Bezos ended shopping malls. Big box stores. Family owned boutiques, book stores, and businesses of all kinds. He strip-mined the US economy and left you in poverty, a slave to your internet connection. All you've got now is that fucking cell phone. You'll never own a house or buy another new car because of this jackass and his broligarch friends.

Jacob’s acceptance speech for Heated Rivalry at the Television Academy Honors, May 21, 2026 “You know when you option pornography… [audience laughs] Uhhh this has been— I mean— I don't know why it's really hitting me tonight? I don't know if it's Padma Lakshmi talking about my show or just being here in this company? Uh it— This show has been a surprise every step of the way, and I can safely say that the biggest surprise—and the one that I'll probably take with me the farthest and the longest and that means the most to me—is that I found a network at home in my country— Crave, a lot of my folks are here tonight—and they let me make a show. And they did not note me to death, and they trusted me, and they let me make THIS show. And it's such a real pleasure to work with you guys. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for making this show with me. Thank you to our friends at HBO for picking it up and showing it all over the world. Thank you to my two wonderful people in my life here—my agent and my lawyer. [Joking] Like really, really? My agent, really? [audience laughs] You can say what you want about my agent, Matt Smith at CAA, but I've been to both of his weddings, and I've known him for decades.” 🗣️Television Academy Honors, May 20, 2026 ▶️ @cheerok/post/DYlrXf1FUQ2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">threads.com/@cheerok/post/… ✍🏼 transcription by @heatedrivalnews (please credit if reposting)

This sounds nice, but it's a great way to undermine the welfare state. The strongest welfare states in the world (the Nordics) tax everyone, including nurses. And they give everyone universal healthcare, childcare, pensions, education in return. When the middle class has skin in the game, they defend the system. When welfare is 'just for the poor', it becomes a poor program: stigmatized, underfunded, easy to gut. That's why billionaires keep pushing this idea. The real scandal isn't that this nurse pays $12k. It's that Jeff Bezos pays $0.

It’s a relief to hear the Prime Minister express some moral outrage over Ben-Gvir’s brutish behaviour, outrage which has been missing during Israel’s attack on Iran, bombardment of Lebanon and ongoing genocide in Gaza. But strong words must be followed by strong action. Sanctioning individual ministers is not enough when this cruelty is mirrored in Israeli state policy. Close the loophole on arms sales, cancel the free trade agreement and use every tool in Canada’s diplomatic arsenal to end Israel’s impunity.

Milly Alcock addresses the backlash she received after saying that “simply existing as a woman is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies.” “I didn’t even say ‘men’ — I said ‘people!’” Alcock says. “And they got so angry. I was like, ‘You’re proving my point. You’re proving my point!’” “And [the backlash] is from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you’re pissing the right kind of people off, you’re doing OK.” wp.me/pc8uak-1lHi9I

When the internet showed up the response was largely excitement; older folks were more apprehensive while younger generations were enthusiastic. AI is the opposite: boomers lap it up and rich people shove it down our throats while everyone else is saying “ew gross”.

Canada Post supplies community hubs, local jobs and revenue to rural and remote communities across Canada. Its an important public service, and its value can't be assessed like a private business. Do we ask how much profit our police make?

“It’s ableist to expect writers to write.” “Academics can’t read papers.” “How can a student possibly write a short essay?” You guys are slowly talking yourselves out of doing ANYTHING. It’s shameful how we now avoid any sort of intellectual effort. This is how brains die.

Are there any good search engines left -- genuine question! I need a replacement.

it is my honour to introduce you to the wemby stopper, collin murray boyles

No. You have it backward. They're wearing the Habs jersey. They're doing their dancing for the team. They're fans. This is what it's all about. Community. They're not demanding some separate Indian team. They want to be Canadiens fans. Let's fucking go boys.

This afternoon I hand-delivered a letter to the office of the Canadian Prime Minister signed by the family, friends, and loved ones of 11 people with Canadian passports who were sailing onboard the most recent civilian flotilla headed to Gaza, illegally intercepted by Israeli military in an act of maritime piracy yesterday. They have all been kidnapped by Israel. The Canadian government can never say they didn’t know. Letters have been delivered in person, by mail, and electronically by email. The loved ones of those previously onboard and now remain in Israeli custody deserve a response.

The first major university that publicly commits to a total AI ban in its undergrad teaching (no AI in class, in creating syllabi or class prep, creating & completing assignments, or grading) and makes that part of its brand will see a major surge in applications & enrollment.

I just don’t get it, you could literally read a book every day until you die and not even scratch the surface of what’s been written. The bottleneck has never been quantity, who is demanding more poorly written crap

All intimate scenes in Heated Rivalry are done tastefully with no frontal shots below only butt yet it was called porn. After seeing the Off Campus scenes suddenly we got no complaints and it’s not called porn. The issue was always homophobia.

No one believes me when I say this, but the decline in reading is already having dire consequences for art & culture. The media you loved in your youth—shows, albums, films—was made by artists who were widely read. You will not have that quality of art in a post-literate world.

NEW: Multiple ICE warehouses were sold by people in Trump's circle who were sitting on the properties and losing money. We dug into it, and found that some properties were bought by the feds for 10x their list price. It's a new level of corruption — and you're paying for it.