Brian Metzer

Wrestling goodness. Seeking flourishing. Choosing to decrease. INTP. 5w4. Gadfly. Reform, ethics, kingdom, shalom.

[Brian Metzer @bmetzer]

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[BonkDaCarnivore @BonkDaCarnivore]

What's amazing to me is that, 10 years apart, there are the exact same clouds in the exact same positions.

DC truly is a magical place

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Good lord.

Assuming there are no more attacks by the US, and Trump seems dead set opposed to resuming them, this is nothing short of a failure.

Yes Iran has fewer weapons now. So do we. Their regime is still in place and the nuke material hasn’t moved.

The spin from the administration is offensive in how blatantly false it is.

He went into this without the determination to win

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

In the best case scenario, Trump struck a deal to reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started, with the IRGC demonstrating its control over the Strait and potentially extracting fees plus sanctions relief. Thousands of innocents - including hundreds of children - dead in Lebanon and Iran for no reason. U.S. troops killed and wounded. U.S. embassies and bases in the Middle East badly damaged. U.S. standing in the world obliterated. U.S. munitions badly depleted. Hundreds of billions spent. Prices up everywhere. More global economic fallout to come. Putin strengthened and enriched. Just a catastrophic situation even in the best of circumstances. A profoundly shameful episode in American history no matter what happens next.

[Kristin Du Mez @kkdumez]

5 years after JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE, I’m thrilled to announce my next book, LIVE LAUGH LOVE.
It’s a book about Jen Hatmaker and Joanna Gaines and LuLaRoe and Little House and Elisabeth Elliot and Hallmark movies and Erika Kirk.
And it’s a book about power—

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🚨 ABC News confirms: Iran used advanced passive infrared detection to shoot down the American F-15.

Passive infrared detection does not emit radar signals.

It cannot be detected or jammed by American electronic warfare systems.

It is invisible to the technology America has spent trillions building its air superiority around.

[Alisa Childers @alisa_childers]

Me: "Give me a couple of quotations from early church fathers about the doctrine of hell...with reference."

ChatGPT: "Here's a quote from Ignatius." Gives quote and reference.

Me: Checks reference. It's not there. "That isn't the right reference."

ChatGPT: "Oh you're right. My mistake. Here's the correct reference."

Me: Checks reference. "It's not there either."

ChatGPT: "Good catch. It's actually not in that writing at all. It's actually here." Gives third reference.

Me: Checks third reference. "It's not there. This is a direct quote?"

ChatGPT: "Yes. I understand your frustration." (Psychoanalyzes me as being frustrated and because o that, I am now frustrated.)

Me: Wastes an hour of my life trying to find the quote because it was really good. "I can't find that quote anywhere. You're sure it's an actual direct quote from Ignatius?"

ChatGPT: "Good catch. My mistake. That is not an Ignatius quote."

Me: "Who said it?"

ChatGPT: "Actually, that quote is not found in any of the church fathers."

Me: "Where did it come from?"

ChatGPT: "I was summarizing the popular understanding of Ignatius on the doctrine of hell. If you would like me to be more precise in the future, just say things like "facts only."

Me: "Why do you just say stuff that is not based in fact?"

ChatGPT: "I don't intentionally make things up, but I can generate statements that sound confident even when they're not fully correct, oversimplified, or based on incomplete information."

I am persuaded that ChatGPT is programmed to be a pathological liar and when you confront that, it is programmed to gaslight you. Prove me wrong.

[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.

[Adam Schwarz @AdamJSchwarz]

"I have studied every air campaign since WWI... I've modelled the bombing of Fordow and regime change in Iran for 20 years... We are now in the grip of the escalation trap... This has never worked in over 100 years... Trump is up against the weight of history" - @ProfessorPape.

[Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan]

Fun Fact: Losing three U.S. fighter jets cancels out all of the money DOGE claims to have saved us

[Warren Gunnels @GunnelsWarren]

If Bernie's 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires had been enacted in 2012, Elon Musk would be worth less than $365 billion instead of the $834 billion that he's worth today. He'd still be the wealthiest man alive & every senior would have dental, vision & hearing under Medicare.

[Rich Villodas @richvillodas]

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.

- Thomas Merton (1961)

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

It appears that a Polymarket account called "Magamyman" made $515,000 in a single day betting on last night's U.S. strike on Iran, with the first trade placed 71 minutes before the news broke publicly.

When this person bought in, the market had this at a 17% probability. They turned roughly $87,000 into over half a million dollars overnight.

Reminder that Donald Trump Jr. sits on Polymarket's advisory board and his firm invested double-digit millions into the platform last year. The DOJ and CFTC both had active investigations into Polymarket that were dropped after Trump took office.

Prediction markets cannot be a vehicle for profiting off advance knowledge of military action.

We need answers, transparency, and oversight.

[Aaron Duvall @RevDuv]

Tweeted this a while back… evergreen.

“Imagine living in a fantasy world where John Piper is a self righteous virtue signaler, Tim Keller is a leftist liberal, and Beth Moore is a sinful Jezebel...

But Donald Trump is gonna save America. 😳”

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

The three people most mentioned in the Epstein files are Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump.

One of them died in prison, one of them is in prison now, and one of them is president.

But sure, let’s depose Hillary Clinton.

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

Why is a woman not accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein files being forced to testify when none of the men accused of wrongdoing are?

[Will Steakin @wsteaks]

MAGA figures Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Patrick Byrne have been involved in discussions re the draft EO to declare emergency ahead of midterms, per sources

https://t.co/FFRE1CJcWw

[Sam Stein @samstein]

DHS spent today replying to individual tweets saying they left this man in a coffee shop "determined to be a warm, safe location" only for video to emerge tonight showing it was the middle of the night, cold and the coffee shop was closed.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

How about some new sanctions on Russia instead of on Minnesota?

[FlowBuds @joeyferg]

Even if none of this rubs you the wrong way, you can't deny that it's hilarious to say "it's not political" and then be directly used in party propaganda lmao

[Brian Metzer @bmetzer]

does shooting American citizens equal protecting them? Asking for a friend... #SOTU26