Ben West 🦋

@benwest

"Seasoned" campaigner & aspiring computer whisperer. Anxious dog person. Rewiring broken systems. Climate solutions, democratization, infosec and anti-surveillance advocate. He/They 🍉 📍Huron-Wendat and Anishinaabek Territory

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Ben West 🦋@benwest· 21h

Maddening bs as usual from Trump. He's posting AI slop about Keystone XL pipeline being back from the grave. And meanwhile the proposal requires State approvals, is a smaller pipe and only goes to Wyoming instead of Texas. Se routed to void Montana. Everything is a psyop with him. #cdnpoli

CBC news showing the ridiculous AI slop that President Trump shared on his social media. It's DJT holding onto a big falic pipeline coming up between his spread legs next to a tombstone that reads burried by Biden and ofcourse a couple America flags. Honestly it's so dumb I wouldn't be surprised if he made it himself with Grok or some SuperGrok BS he uses. The only upside was getting to listen to CBC reporters try to carefully describe what they are looking at.

A screen shot from CBC news showing the route of the proposed Keystone XL "Bridger" pipeline, which makes clear that this is in fact not at all the keystone pipeline. Don't get me wrong, we need to be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels not expanding it. This proposal is bad too. But it's not Keystone XL. Just wanted to point that out. They can argue it's a first step towards thus being built, albeit smaller. But that isn't the point of course. Its about keystone XL as a symbol. What's notable is how they need to route around montano. Its funny in this diagram as you see the pipeline route proposal now going way out of its way and turning a couple times to stay outside of that state.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· 16d

Getting tired of memes like this going around every time we have bad forest fires. We are not adequately angry at the the Epstein class, the end times fascists and their boot licking troll armies. Time to get in touch with our anger? #memes #fascism #forestfires #fossilfuels #climatechange

A screenshot of a Facebook post with Bette Midler sharing a picture of a raging forest fire, I think the recent ones in Ontario Canada. It says Petition to stsrt naming heatwaves after oil companies and wildfires after their CEOs.

It has 39.7k likes, 400 comments and 2.5k shares.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· 26d

I almost feel bad for Bill Oliver now that his Wikipedia prominently highlights this "gotcha" moment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Oliv… I assume there is no family relation here to John Oliver but maybe @lastweektonight.com could do something with the aforementioned naming proposition. Cheers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Honourable
Bill Oliver
MLA
Oliver in 2024
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
In office
October 7, 2020 – November 1, 2024
Preceded by Daniel Guitard
Succeeded by Francine Landry
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
In office
November 9, 2018 – September 29, 2020

William George Oliver is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 2014 provincial election. He represents the electoral district of Kings Centre as a member of the Progressive Conservatives.

In 2026 Oliver faced scrutiny after he gave a speech in the Legislative Assembly against creating energy advocacy offices which included a comment that appeared to have come from an AI chatbot rewriting the speech to seem more "flowing... rather than a series of short points".[2][3]

Ben West 🦋@benwest· 26d

I formally propose that the preamble before the main section of LLM output be called the "gotcha". Because it's a gotcha moment when we see brainless repetition of #AI text like this #Canadian politician did. Also the AI agent is mimicking cognition saying I gotcha, you want this, not that.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· 28d

My friend @dawndreams.bsky.social sent me this video and honestly it's amongst my favourite videos ever. I raise my hat to you Donttarob (not sure if they are on here) for your socio political analysis of backyard animals. #politics #video #analysis #funny #economics #animals #capitalism

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jul 19

WTF is this cringe FIFA anthem? Gross. #FIFA #WorldCup

Some annoying celebrities singing the FIFA anthem... Captions on the screen show them singing about Jesus, Lord.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jul 8

Good morning. Everything is totally normal in the world. Carry on. #dogsofbluesky #dog

A totally normal picture of the most normal dog in the world. Her name is River and cuteness flows out of her. She is a pot hound from Barbados who hates mosquito and prefers to be outside in the winter. She wants belly rubs to get over the trauma that is the outside world. Her signature underbite is the more adorable thing on planet earth. Thank you for your attention to these details.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jun 15

Wait what happened to #PattieGonia on @bsky.app? Is this related to her lawsuit with @patagonia.com? 👀👀👀

A screenshot of PattieGonias account on bluesky showing its been suspended.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Apr 6

Data viz to show just how bad Twitter really is these days. #dataviz #datascience #Twitter #Elon #Facism

A tweet from Nate Silver that includes a data visualization of the most engagement on Twitter accounts with Right wing accounts in red. The chart is mostly red with all the biggest circles in the middle being red. The biggest being Elon Musk followed by Eric Dougherty, Libs of Tim Tok, Wall Street Apes, Maga voices, Caturd and similar accounts.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Feb 26

Are you all seeing this pro Canadian Military slop propoganda on YouTube? They really are trying a militarization psyops right now. These are just a few examples I saw today. It's relentless and pretty gross. #cdnpoli #psyops #YouTube #propoganda #military #caf #Canada #CanadianArmedForces

The 17M ice break: shattering 30 inch Ice to save lives. Features and image of a hovercraft looking cool. From Pure Engine (whoever that is... A clone of pure engineering?).

American reacts to Canadian Soldiers.

Features a black and white image from ww2 era that looks AI generated with a guy reacting to it with the classic shocked or suprised look from all YouTube thumbnails and us and Canadian flags.

Attach to Canadian Special Ops in the Bloodiest...

Features a thumnain with an American guy (based on his dirty us flag hat) reacting to an image of a convoy of military humvee's. It's says Operation Medusa at the bottom of the image and says Kinetic as Hell at the top.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Feb 19

The "defense industry" propganda right now in Canada is awful. "Long awaited"?!? "Boost the share of defense acquisitions awarded". To who? Our strategy is to expand our role as arms dealers? Fuck this. 6.6 Billion for a 125,000 jobs. Surely we could create far more jobs other ways. #cdnpoli

Screenshot of news story with Marc Carney and Melanie Joie smiling a lot while talking about military spending. Carney is at a podium that says building Canada Strong.

"This is an entire culture change, and this is the first time Canada has a defence industrial strategy, so good news," she also said, pointing to defence procurement deals the Liberals have signed since last April's federal election. "I'm as impatient as you, but I really think that things are moving ahead."

According to a technical briefing by government officials to journalists ahead of the announcement, the number of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms was 43 per cent last year.

Industry Minister Melanie Joly insists the federal government will move quickly on implementing its new five-pillar, defence industrial strategy, despite the delays in producing the plan in the first place.

The Liberals' long-awaited $6.6-billion national defence industrial strategy lays out its plan to prioritize homegrown production, promising to boost the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70 per cent, double Canada's defence exports, and create 125,000 new jobs over the decade.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jan 21

Aurora over Greenland:

The Aurora Borealis but if says fuck off trump in the sky.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Dec 31

Going into the new year like this:

A close up photo of an orca doll that was given to me as a holiday gift. Its bendy and has a funny face with bulgy eyeballs and teeth that look like an underbite. It looks menacinf from this angle and the folds in the plastic exterior are reflecting light in a way that resembles a scar or weathering of some kind. The orca looks determined and undettered. From the side or above it would be more clear that this is an ornately designed piece of interlocking plastic art sitting on a stool with a black and white ancient Greek pattern... Or something like that. Its propped up as if emerging on a granite coaster.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Dec 29

The New Look... Or the current reality? Just started watching this show on a free trial of Apple TV. Watched Napolean last night. France is a wild place. Viva la résistane. #resist #Facism #Nazis #Authoritarianism

A photo of a scene from the pilot episode of the show The New Look.

CoCo Chanel sits with Nazis in a restaurant discussing her business situation (she lost control of her business and her partner's were Jewish).

The Nazi officer says to her "Are you aware of the Aryan Laws".

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Dec 2

Good morning. #dog #dogsky #doggo

A lovely Autumn coloured dog upside and stretching on the couch. She is a Black Mouthed Cur.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Dec 1

A who's who of surveillance and invasive anti-privacy technology is already being used at scale in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada. #Canada #Cdnpoli #infosec #privacy #humanRights

A screenshot of a list of surveillance tech and applications and services used to extract data from private devices. Vendors include Cellebrite, Magnet Forensics, MSAB, SCG CAnada, Digital Intelligence, Asenal Recon and others.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 28

Creepy orb iris scans now banned in Thailand? www.biometricupdate.com/202511/thail... #WorldCoin #infosec #privacy #identity #tech

A screenshot from a news site. Thailand's shuts down iris scanning operation. Pirctured is the world coin orb with a person pointing to where to put your face for an iris scan.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 22

Nazi resting face.

A scene from the film Killing Heydrich. The dark and brooding yet emotionless facr of a Nazi officer.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 9

There is a reason her name is Autumn 🍂 #dogs #doggo #Dogsky #camouflage

Arguably one of the cutest dogs on earth looks back st tbe camera over her shoulder. Her Carmel colouring blends into the leaves on the ground.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 4

"If this budget goes over like a broccoli cake at a kids birthday party... Then we will see what happens" Has to be the best line of the day in Canadian Budget coverage. #cdnpoli #budget2025 #Canada

A screenshot of Rosie Barton and guests on a budget 2025 broadcast. Closed captions cover Rosies face (sorry Rosie) saying the words if the budget goes over like broccoli at a... Which was a small typo he said brocolli cake.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 4

Sometimes you just need to tolerate your "little" sister. #dogs #dogsky

two dogs spoon on a couch. The older one has an ear sticking up and her underbite sticking out and a funny look in her eyes. Her now much bigger younger sister, has her paw around her older sisters waist and seems very happy to be cuddling.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Nov 2

Weekend activities.

A peak inside the back of a new corne split keyboard with a purple circuit board.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Oct 26

Good morning #dogs #sunrise #ontario #dogsky #sunday

Sunrise over Georgian Bay a dark haired dog investigates the sand on a rocky beach.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Oct 17

Interesting new program for EV drivers in Canada via this Ontario company: club.grizzl-e.com How Grizzl‑E Club Works United Chargers provide Grizzl‑E Club members with a free EV Charger and cashback rewards by using Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR). #climate #ev #cdnpoli

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Oct 11

Fuck ICE, today and every day.

An illustration that says frogs against fascism. A person in a frog costume (reminiscent of the photo that looked like this scene from Portland recently) standing in front of a group of militarized and masked officers. A word bubble says Fuck ICE.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Oct 11

He's talking to you. #meme #bathroom #animals

A cute pig standing next to a trough with words saying wash your hands you filthy animal

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Sep 19

Oooof... #tech #life #meme #notFunny

A six panel comic illustration grid. In the first panel a figure lies in bed, sick and old. I'm dying my life flashes before my eyes it says. The frame now is eye shaped for the next 4 panels. The character gets older in each panel and their computer monitor that they're sitting in front of gets more modern. It's a story of how their entire life was spent in front of a computer. In the last frame, we'll return to the figure in their hospital bed and it just says nice little little tear in their right eye. And the person looking over them who seemed concerned before now looks happy.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Sep 14

This is very relatable content. Ergonomics is important. #ergonomics #mindfulness #fascism #USpoli #cdnpoli #memes #art #funny #notfunny

How to watch the collapse of civilization.

A person is shown sitting slouched with a red x and then up with a green check mark.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jun 27

Enough is enough! #funny #meme

This vase has had more than enough of your shenanigans.

A vase with handles that looks like a parent with hands on their hips.

Ben West 🦋@benwest· Jun 16

I'm not going to lie... getting these two likes on this tweet from these icons, even if it was in the dumpster fire, still made my day. I would rather watch the world burn from over here together these days but still... 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦄💫 🫶 @trixiemattel.bsky.social @contrapoints.bsky.social #trans #drag