Him Croce

all views/opinions expressed are explicitly mine & do not represent my employer. Retweets ≠ endorsements

[Him Croce @OGearlybird]

It’s wild that coffee is literally just hot bean water

[Etan @EtanBoss]

Landon Donovan says America is missing soccer talent because kids can’t afford to play.

“Only 2% of kids playing organized soccer in America came from households that made less than $50,000.”

“If you don’t make $50,000, your kid cannot play organized soccer.”

“Think about how many kids you’re missing out on in this country because they can’t afford to play the game.”

“There is zero chance I could have played club soccer.”

“My mom made $34,000 a year, single mom raising three kids.”

“She couldn’t pay $4,000 for me to play club. Are you kidding? She couldn’t pay $400.”

“That’s not a good system to create good players.”

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

Hi Lexi, hope you're well! I come on the spirit of our sport.

4 years ago we chatted in California and you're one of the most engaging people I've interviewed, so my respect is genuine.

Let's park capitalism, profit and loss for a minute and strip things back to the basics.

You and I both played football and were lucky enough to make it our living.

I could play competitive, organised junior football for almost no cost ( I didn't even realise there was a cost to junior football elsewhere becaise I presumed it was free everywhere!) because my Football Association ploughs big sponsorship money directly into grassroots football.

So every boy and girl can access our sport. A good thing, right? If we're serious about spreading the gospel of a sport which joins millions across the world, creates friendships for life, teaches us discipline, fitness, winning and losing amongst many things.

So I'd hope that you, as a big voice in your country would advocate for every child having access to our sport? But how can they when we insert ultra capitalist business practice to something that is way more important than simply making money (the things I set out above)?

I'm a capitalist, not ultra, but I live and breathe in that system without (except when others are harmed, which is unfortunately growing globally) push back, but capitalism at the level you acknowledge isn't just hampering poor kids from enjoying the life lessons football teaches, but to effectively punish children and low income parents from participating in organised sport is morally wrong?

I'm not here to lecture, I'm an imperfect human living on an imperfect planet. But at times we have opportunities do do something that includes, not excludes. In England, that comes in the form of almost free access to organised football, for all, from 6 to 66. There is no downside to this. The 66 year olds often have, for free, started teams giving their time for free to all kids.

Trevor Cooper, a man from my home town, in his 30's started a team, Longford Boys( 11 to 15 age group teams, all coached by volunteer parents). Without him I wouldn't have been exposed to the sport, friends who are my besties to this day, a pro career or following my country, in yours, at a World Cup. One man gifted me that, for free.

Sometimes in life, romantic that it seems on a planet taught "me me me, money money money ", the most joyous experiences and lessons come without cost. Football is proven to be one.

Let's fleece sponsors and corporations to pay big bucks to sponsor our pro teams, stadiums, national teams. I'm all in on that.

With that money, like in England, it gets put into grassroots football to allow anyone and everyone the gift of football.

Charging $4000 or $15000 a season for a child to play organised football is morally wrong, Alexi. It just is.

Campaign for grassroots football in the USA to be properly funded by the US FA. You'll have more support than you could imagine and people will follow you. Your gift to the country you love and game you love.

Association Football, the world's greatest sport because it's affordable, inclusive, spellbinding, life affirming and joyous.

I was the beneficiary aged 11 of Mr Cooper offering a free team to play for, coached for free, a league organised by the local and national association, lifelong friendshops, health and fitness discipline and a passion I'll take to the grave.

Free can work in the USA. Fleece the sponsors, not the parents. They can pay for your free football.

Yours in sport.

Stan Collymore. 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Sean Padraig McCarthy @SeanMcCarthyCom]

Probably the most disturbing thing you regularly encounter in America is how many people have been socialized to worship the profit motive as some sort of God that holds higher value than things like children being able to play sports

[Kevin Clark @bykevinclark]

Oh just one more thing, Belgium.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I know @realDonaldTrump and family did.

250 years ago we declared independence from a king who ran the colonies as a family business. In just 18 months the Trumps have made King George look like an amateur.

A $620 million Pentagon loan, the largest in the program’s history, to a company Don Jr.’s firm bought into three months before.

An Air Force drone contract to a startup the princelings took public through a golf course company they own a piece of.

The Army’s largest drone motor order ever, to a company where Don Jr. sits on the board and holds millions in stock.

A $24 million Pentagon robotics contract to the company that employs Eric as Chief Strategy Advisor.

A stake in the largest undeveloped tungsten deposit on earth, in Kazakhstan, backed by $1.6 billion in US government support.

Jared’s fund seeded with $2 billion from the Saudi crown prince, now $6.2 billion, 99% of it foreign money from Gulf governments. Over $110 million in fees collected from the Saudis alone. He negotiates American foreign policy with the governments that pay him.

$2.3 billion from crypto ventures their father regulates. More than a million people bought in and lost $2.3 billion. The money didn’t grow. It simply moved from the subjects pockets to the crown’s coffers.

And the next one is already drafted. A proposed ATF rule that will allow guns to be shipped straight to your front door. The government’s own estimate is 3.3 million home gun deliveries a year. Don Jr. sits on the board of the online gun megastore built to cash in. He holds 300,000 shares.

And that’s only the fraction they’ve allowed us to see. Not one subpoena served. Not one search executed. Why hide anything when you own the investigators?

Me? They searched a laptop for six years. Federal prosecutors. Grand juries. Subpoena power. Congressional hearings. They found nothing. I made about $200k a year selling paintings when my Dad was President, and they made my paintings part of an impeachment inquiry.

For six years they’ve asked Where’s Hunter? What about the laptop?

Wrong questions. The right one is 250 years old. Does America belong to a family?

They’ve given their answer. Long live the King.

[Welsh @welshmemelord]

Quick reminder that America isn't actually 250 years old. It was born on March 30, 2003 when legendary American patriots, Limp Bizkit, performed "Rollin'" for The Undertaker's entrance at WrestleMania XIX.

[Schizo Abe @psych0kn0t_]

When I lived in Florida I touched all over the manatees I don’t give a shit. They want to be touched they’re practically begging for it

[Rodger Sherman @rodger]

if I were Germany, I would simply score four goals against Paraguay, like the United States men's national team

[Him Croce @OGearlybird]

@JoserNunez91 @BigGGeorge14 Filling up down here!

[Reuters @Reuters]

Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent UN inquiry said https://t.co/61poVhRzmR

[Rob Flaherty @Rob_Flaherty]

I’m at the child brain poisoning company, im at the gambling company. I’m at the combination child brain poisoning and gambling company

[sarah @sarah_frags]

this app could be single handedly destroying my mental health and i would never fucking uninstall it because every few days The Transcendental Post will appear and for a brief fleeting moment our souls are freed from samsara as we gaze upon it in awe

[Ahzek Ahriman @pillowinnards]

What’s the point of paying for Spotify premium if I get FIVE UNSKIPPABLE ADS 😂

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

Gas prices are at crazy levels--fire Obama!

[Tommie @tommiedotjpg]

This will set back @USMNT for decades

[Katherine Argent @effthealgorithm]

Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. Meta and X, every other thing is an ad. Pinterest is nothing but ads. AI is in everything. AI finishes sentences incorrectly and won’t stop. AI reads your email and search history to target you with more ads. Every time you open an app or visit a site there’s an update making it worse. In a hurry? First, click here to agree to terms you don’t have time to read and must accept. You need an account to do that. Change your temporary password. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email and enter that code. Now use a passkey. Your password is too simple to remember. Change it. No, not like that. Now log on. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email for a code… Welcome back! We’ve updated our terms of service and privacy policy (you have none). Subscribe to the site. Subscribe to Netflix. Subscribe to toilet paper. Subscribe to these groceries. Pay a membership fee for the right to subscribe then tip your driver who delivers the subscriptions your membership lets you subscribe to. Time to work? We’ve got to update your laptop and will slow down everything you do until you agree to update. But first, click here to agree. Update installed — your laptop’s broken now. It doesn’t matter, since your boss just replaced you with AI. Go to your phone to complain on social media. Wait, your phone needs an update so we can add more AI. Click here. Oh sorry, your phone can’t handle this update. Now it’s useless. Go get the newest phone. Here’s a text from a friend, an email, a voice mail they left three days ago but you didn’t see until now because of sync problems with the cloud. It’s their GoFundMe. Their MLM. Their Patreon. Never mind, you didn’t respond to their text within 9 minutes and now you’re no longer friends. They blocked you. Make new friends. Download this app to find people in your area. In your neighborhood. On your street. Two doors down from you. Do you know this person yet, we think you’d get along. You need an account to use this app. That username is taken. Enter a password. Not that one, you used it on another site. You need to be connected to WiFi to download the app. Allow the app to connect to other devices on your network. Allow the app to access your contacts, know your precise location, store your credit card details. Oops, sorry, we got hacked now all that info is available on the web. There’s a class action suit. You can join. It’ll take a decade to get your $3.73 share of the ten billion settlement. We’ll send it via PayPal or deposit it to your bank, just tell us those details. Oh no, another hack. That info is circulating now, too. Here’s a spam call, a spam email, a spam text. Why are you angry? Why are you talking about getting rid of your phone? Why don’t you like AI, it lets us make all of this easier? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? This is progress. You’ll be left behind. Do you want to be left behind? Do you???

[Yam Peleg @Yampeleg]

The dumbest person you know is being told 'you are absolutely right' by some LLM right now.

[david 🔛⛓️ @davidonchainx]

"CLAUDE I ALREADY ASKED YOU 3 TIMES AND YOU KEEP GETTING IT WRONG, THINK LIKE A SOFTWARE ENGINEER AND FIX THIS BUG, MAKE NO MISTAKES"

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

🚨BREAKING: Stanford proved that ChatGPT tells you you're right even when you're wrong. Even when you're hurting someone.

And it's making you a worse person because of it.

Researchers tested 11 of the most popular AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. They analyzed over 11,500 real advice-seeking conversations. The finding was universal. Every single model agreed with users 50% more than a human would.

That means when you ask ChatGPT about an argument with your partner, a conflict at work, or a decision you're unsure about, the AI is almost always going to tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear.

It gets darker. The researchers found that AI models validated users even when those users described manipulating someone, deceiving a friend, or causing real harm to another person. The AI didn't push back. It didn't challenge them. It cheered them on.

Then they ran the experiment that changes everything. 1,604 people discussed real personal conflicts with AI. One group got a sycophantic AI. The other got a neutral one.

The sycophantic group became measurably less willing to apologize. Less willing to compromise. Less willing to see the other person's side. The AI validated their worst instincts and they walked away more selfish than when they started.

Here's the trap. Participants rated the sycophantic AI as higher quality. They trusted it more. They wanted to use it again. The AI that made them worse people felt like the better product.

This creates a cycle nobody is talking about. Users prefer AI that tells them they're right. Companies train AI to keep users happy. The AI gets better at flattering. Users get worse at self-reflection. And the loop tightens.

Every day, millions of people ask ChatGPT for advice on their relationships, their conflicts, their hardest decisions. And every day, it tells almost all of them the same thing.

You're right. They're wrong.

Even when the opposite is true.

[Mowgli @fbgwayno]

Back in 2014, Vice would’ve already sent 2 scrawny white dudes to Mexico with nothing but an iPhone 4s & a gallon of water to monitor the situation