Michael Sappir

Socialist, Jewish-Israeli, text guy, against apartheid and genocide. Never not mad at Germany. Founding editor @thediasporist.bsky.social, co-host parallelweltpalaestina.info 📍Chicago, via Leipzig and Jerusalem

1,589 Following2,501 Followers1,724 Posts

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Michael Sappir@m· 1d

Veratify emphasizes transparent, verifiable sources—which sounds great. But its "source standards" raise questions. Questions such as "what Media Bias/Fact Check credibility data, specifically?" and "using .gov as a source of truth? in 2026?? seriously?!" 5/

Screenshot reading:
Source standards
Veratify uses Media Bias/Fact Check credibility data to help screen for the most credible news outlets.
It also prioritizes .gov and .mil sites, official releases, public records, and other authoritative primary sources.

Primary sources first
Official statements, public records, agency releases, court materials, and other direct evidence carry the most weight.
High-credibility news outlets
Media Bias/Fact Check credibility data helps narrow the news sources Veratify relies on for reporting support.
.gov and .mil sources
Government and military domains are treated as key authoritative sources when they bear directly on the factual claim.

Michael Sappir@m· 1d

First of all, this is obvious bot behavior, but the bsky account is not labeled as a bot, and the site doesn't really say anything about its process behind the scene. It does, however, say—falsely—that it declines to fact-check jokes and hyperbole 🙃 Primary source: www.veratify.ai 2/

Screenshot from veratify.ai website:
Statements that are not assertions of fact
Speech that is not intended as literal fact is outside Veratify’s scope.

Satire and parody
Content not meant to be taken literally is not adjudicated.
Jokes and hyperbole
Figurative and exaggerated speech is not adjudicated.
Fiction
Invented content and the statements within it are not adjudicated.
Quoted fictional content
A character’s words are not an assertion of fact.
Hypotheticals
Conditional framings offered for argument are not adjudicated.
Poetry and lyrics
Artistic expression is not adjudicated.

Michael Sappir@m· 1d

So this weird bot just showed up, "fact-checking" an obvious joke. I got curious and checked out its website (veratify.ai) and what I found was...odd. 1/🧵

@ianboudreau.com post:
A lot of people don't know this, but when you brush a cat, you are legally required to show them the wad of cat hair that came off of them and tell them "this is enough for another whole cat"

@veratify.bsky.social reply:
V found this claim is false. This is a well-known internet joke; there are no laws in any jurisdiction requiring pet owners to show cats their shed hair or say this phrase.

Real-time fact-checks on your feed: https://veratify.ai
Errors or comments: info@veratify.ai

Michael Sappir@m· 20d

sittin' in an airport across from a guy reading a @ifbookspod.bsky.social classic

Michael Sappir@m· Jul 12

Well, some of us would like to be represented by people who treat Graham and his ilk as enemies to be defeated, not colleagues.

Michael Sappir@m· Jul 11

Israeli grief was predestined to be drowned in blood – by Israeli violence.

Our failure to mourn In the time since October 7, Jewish Israelis and foreign sympathisers have never ceased to publicly castigate the world for failing to mourn our losses. Some highlight the first two days of fighting, when Israeli troops had not yet entered the Gaza Strip and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had not yet declared the "complete siege" for which he now stands accused of genocide. Viewing the global response to Israeli suffering during those two days as insufficient, Zionist bodies such as the World Jewish Congress quickly
found confirmation of the world's ancient,
ineradicable hatred of Jewish people.

as the failure to mourn comes from our own
society first, from its reflex to seek revenge. From the very first news of Hamas's incursion, there was no doubt that Israel's response would be violent beyond all proportion. This is not only demonstrated by the government's established track record, but also declared in established military. doctrine, and continuously reinforced by political rhetoric. If people of conscience were hesitant to engage with Israeli pain, it is not because they deny us our common humanity, but because they sensed that our pain was predestined to slip into visiting death upon others. Our grief was condemned from the very beginning,
doomed to drown in blood.

Michael Sappir@m· Jul 4

Yes! Or as I recently put it… midwestsocialist.com/2026/06/28/a... (no paywall)

That claim is, well, bullshit. But it's not merely bullshit marketing.
Bullshit is also inherent to the technology itself: LLMs cannot help but make shit up. Their output is inevitably bullshit, and, crucially, it always will be.
By now, everyone has heard about 'Al hallucinations', but this term is in itself another bullshit obfuscation. An LLM cannot "hallucinate', because it does not think, it does not sense, and it does not imagine.
It is designed to give people the impression that it is thinking, but that impression is pixel-deep. It truly is just glorified AutoCorrect: based on statistical analysis of massive amounts of (ill-gotten) text, it generates phrases, sentences, and paragraphs statistically likely to pass for what you asked for.
At no point in this process does the model reflect on, consider, or imagine anything. Above all, it does not hear, see, or otherwise sense a world outside of the texts it is based on. It doesn't get the world wrong - it has no world to get right. As one literacy specialist put it, LLMs have a "baked-in indifference to the truth." They have no grasp on reality. The closest they get is testing outputs against documents they have already ingested. They are like a ghost trapped in a massive library with no real memory of the world - only what it has read about it. It makes things up without noticing.

Michael Sappir@m· Jul 1

This is not only very dumb, but pretty racist itself. Just accepting the categories of racialization practiced by US white supremacy as essentially real and assuming groups that would be the same ‘race’ in the US can’t be racist against each other. Unserious and harmful shit.

“VIVEK CHIBBER It seems to me a pretty clear-cut principle, which is you should allow only as many immigrants in as your infrastructure and your political culture can absorb. Now, that's not giving any numbers. That's not giving any clear laws, but it's a principle. So in certain countries, that'll mean a fairly restrictive immigration policy.
Look at South Africa right now: South Africa has an immigration debate, because Zimbabwean migrants are coming into the country. And for the American left, this is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, you can't say it's racism. The American left loves to go to race as the explanation for all this stuff. And there is not a racism problem in South and Southern Africa. It is national. It is cultural. And that's why I said people are now attached to their national identities in a way that wasn't true 120 or 150 years ago.”

Michael Sappir@m· Jun 18

A window into the mind of the Israeli right. This is a key idea: that everything would have worked out if only Israelis were allowed to do more violence, but they were foiled by legalities, hostile world leaders, or a soft-hearted fifth column. It’s a self-reinforcing motor of radicalization.

These are Kurdish militias you're talking about?
Not only. Israel can provide them with weapons. This was part of the plan. And then, to our amazement, Trump said the Kurds didn't want to fight. But, really, Trump is the one who forbade them from fighting, because Erdoğan put pressure on him not to do it. (Highlighted:) Israel had a brilliant plan and spent a lot of money, and shocked the Iranians in the beginning of the war. But you prevented the militias from acting, and now you ask why the regime didn't fall. Because you didn't give us the chance. In Gaza. In Lebanon. In Syria, In Iran. (End of highlight) Everything we wanted to do, you prevented us from doing it.
If you go to war, and you define the goal of the war, do it. If not, don't do it. It's not only that you don't do it, but you falsely blame the Kurds and the Israelis. And you give in to all the demands of Iran. And they won't stop. Tomorrow, they might say, If you don't close the Embassy in Jerusalem, we will close the strait. Then what do you do?

Michael Sappir@m· Jun 15

how the fuck was this the middle of the episode whose ending made me cry like this?!

A shot from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 1, episode 7, "The Elysian Kingdom". Doctor M'Benga (dressed as a king) uses a tricorder to scan a tiny dog in the arms of La'an, dressed as a princess, while Nurse Chapel, dressed as a witch, watches on in fascination.

Michael Sappir@m· Jun 5

I bumped into this historical poster from the Spanish Civil War at a flea market in Madrid once, and I liked it so much I got it both as a poster and as a postcard. I love that they were in a bitter and ultimately doomed fight for their lives and they still prioritized mass political education. 💔

Spanish Civil War poster; a hand reaches in from above, offering a book titled "historia" to two welcoming hands from below. The text in rough translation: "Read! Combating ignorance you will defeat fascism. The Ministry of Public Education is opening the libraries to the people. If you cannot read in the library, borrow books there to read at home."

Michael Sappir@m· May 10

Tonight in Chicago! Reflections on Marxist Political Economy Today. How can returning to Marx’s Capital help us reexamine our present conditions with fresh eyes? Let's discuss! With @gabrielwinant.bsky.social and @ramsincanon.bsky.social (and a little bit of me). @chicagodsa.bsky.social

Flyer with an image of Karl Marx:
REFLECTIONS ON MARXIST POLITICAL ECONOMY TODAY –
SUNDAY MAY 10, 7PM - 8:30PM
KALAPRIYA INDIAN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER – 2101 S . WABASH SUITE 1, CHICAGO, IL 60616

Join Chicago DSA for a discussion on the enduring relevance of Marxist political economy today with historian and AAUP chapter president Gabriel Winant and writer and DSA organizer Ramsin Canon.

Michael Sappir@m· May 2

Chicago, let's talk Marx! Panel discussion with @gabrielwinant.bsky.social and @ramsincanon.bsky.social on Sunday, May 10 in the South Loop – and a reading group starting Monday, May 18, in Bridgeport. Coordinated by yours truly for @chicagodsa.bsky.social's Political Education Committee.

(Different) flyer with an image of Karl Marx:
CAPITAL BY KARL MARX READING GROUP SERIES – Monday, May 18th, 6-8pm
Unity Center, 3339 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL

Join Chicago DSA's reading group series for the latest English translation of Capital by Karl Marx.
Monday, May 18th, 6-8pm is our first meeting of the series. Please RSVP for more information and the full reading schedule – via link in the next post.

Michael Sappir@m· Apr 30

Graffiti showing a caricature of Hitler shooting himself in the head and text reading: follow your leader

Michael Sappir@m· Apr 11

Michael Sappir@m· Apr 10

This is the only Worf I’d work with. Anyway, thank you for the surprisingly rare name joke!

Michael Sappir@m· Apr 10

Gotta love AI transcription 🤭

Podcast transcript about a website with a whole page of “Hezbollah” featuring Dershowitz and Bari Weiss (actually Hasbara of course)

Michael Sappir@m· Mar 30

Michael Sappir@m· Mar 23

Logischerweise müssen alle, die geschichtsbewusst jede Relativierung ablehnen, bedingungslos diesen Staat verteidigen 🫡

Echtes Bild aus dem Twitterkonto des israelischen Außenministeriums, der Iran als Kopf einer Krake darstellt, deren Tentakel u.a. Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ und Houthis sind

Michael Sappir@m· Mar 5

If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 30

Bruhhh

In 1968 Rejwan wrote to a Canadian colleague that antisemitism was "a totally foreign importation" into the Arab world. Laying bare ambiguities that continue to haunt us today, he went on:
“Harkabi gives me the feeling that he wants to eat the cake and have it. He himself, as a Zionist, would not really make any distinction between Zionism and Judaism, Israeli and Jew-but he asks the Arabs to do so, and the trouble is that even if they do so, he would not agree; he would still call them anti-Semites since, as is often said here, you cannot draw the line between Zionism and Judaism as the former is the "national liberation movement" of the Jews.”

In a long letter to the American critic Irving Howe, Rejwan wrote about the growing prevalence of the term Arab anti-Semitism. He agreed that antisemitic literature in Arabic was worryingly popular and he had no doubt about its pernicious character, but he still had misgivings.
Quote: All this granted, for me it remains almost the ultimate in irony that what Arab anti-Semites have been doing is nothing more horrible than accepting Zionism's own definition of itself!.. After 1948, Israel-the consummation, however partial, of Zionism-defined itself in such a way and promulgated laws and regulations of such a nature that it virtually turned all the 90 percent of Jews living outside its borders into Israeli "nationals." Who are we, then, to accuse Arabs of anti-Semitism when all they have done is fallen right into the ideological trap which the Zionists set for them?

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 29

Germany's progressive campaign group Campact started a petition to the European Commission to ban all ICE agents ("Trump's violent authority") from entering the EU for the Winter Olympics. After one day it's already at 119k signatures and still picking up steam. weact.campact.de/petitions/tr...

An: Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen und die EU-Kommission
Trump stoppen: Einreiseverbot für ICE-Agenten in die EU!
Gestartet von Anna di Bari
ICE STOPPEN
Einreisverbot für Trumps Gewaltbehörde in der EU jetzt!

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 27

Took some notes so I can stay on point:

Talking points for calling senators
* Placing restrictions on ICE is not enough, the DHS has to be defunded. Call it a temporary pause if you need to.
* Compromising with the fascist GOP is stupid, they will not respect the rules you agree on.
* Kristi Noem and Steven Miller have got to go.
* Public opinion is with you, MAGA is in crisis, do not back down now with our democracy and our lives at stake. Your constituents and history will not be forgiving if you do.

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 26

Und sofort wird noch ein Jude (ich) vom „Arbeitskreis gegen Antisemitismus“ geblockt. Es handelte sich um diesen Post (das Bild stammt nicht von mir)

AK gegen
Arbeitskreis gege...
@akgegenantisem.bsky.social
Als erkennbare Mitglieder einer der ältesten antifaschistischen Organisationen hatten sie ihren Spaß daran, ein Banner mit der Aufschrift "FREE ANTIFA FROM ZIONISM" zu tragen. Frei übersetzt: "VVN JUDENFREI".
Als erkennbare Mitglieder einer der ältesten antifaschistischen
Organisationen hatten sie ihren Spaß daran, ein Banner mit der Aufschrift
"FREE ANTIFA FROM ZIONISM" zu tragen. Frei übersetzt: "VVN JUDENFREI".
2/3

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

4/4

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

3/4

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

2/4

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

Hab mal die Bilder für Dokumentationszwecke heruntergeladen (🧵 1/4) (Kein Alttext weil zu viele Bilder und zu wenig Zeit, Verzeihung)

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

mal kurz gesucht: hier der einzige bsky-post des typs mit "gaza" drin – vor fast 2 jahren, und nur um den genozid zu leugnen. (google war indes weniger ergiebig.) diese deutsche heuchelei ist nicht schwer zu ahnen, aber hier scheint meine ahnung sich bestätigt zu haben

Michael Sappir@m· Jan 17

Kann man aus Wut lesen? Wenn, dann das