I do think it’s important to understand the more esoteric political threads in natconism but frankly this sounds no different from George Wallace.
PhD in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis, postdoc at Stanford. Interests in disability, myth, economics, and materiality. More at www.blindscholar.com.
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I do think it’s important to understand the more esoteric political threads in natconism but frankly this sounds no different from George Wallace.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes, I've heard it mostly in the context of fantasy worldbuilding. It's all the history, mythology, magical mechanics, etc., that go into making the story richer but aren't necessarily part of the story. Long expositional historical chapters will be called "lore dumping," for example.
Folks spend way too much time lecturing trans people and Palestinians about what they gotta say and do to be treated like people with human rights
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Early Christianity/Late Antiquity folks: was a distinction ever maintained in Christian architecture or terminology between the Lord's table and the altar, or were these conflated from the earliest?
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Interesting. Hell precludes meaningful utopianism. You hear a lot about how pie in the sky replaces pie down here, but less about how fire down below replaces transformation up here.
“i’m an ally, but only if you’re sufficiently deferential and nice to me” is one of the most embarrassing statements imaginable, yet so many people feel perfectly comfortable shouting it from the rooftops absolutely mortifying
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
When I was a kid I rode the bus to school every day. We were only ever in one accident, when our bus driver hit a parked police car in the school parking lot at about 4 mph. It was not covered in the news.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
So good, and immediately practicable.
When you're working on a solo project and you lose so much momentum that everything grinds to a screeching halt, what you are suffering from is a lack-of-feedback loop. It's time to show what you have to someone who is not you. Is what I'm doing worth it? Is it good? Entertaining? GO FIND OUT!
This is an excellent thread.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Plenty of grift to go around!
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Agreed. And I think it's important to maintain that distinction between players and spectators (and, probably, vendors at the stadium).
🧵re: slamming Dems for losses without mentioning the fact the far-right is a well-funded well-organized highly-effective fascist machine.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Yup. Admitting they were/are wrong means ceding power to people they absolutely loathe and would never tolerate sharing power with. The remaining option is engaging more and more belligerent and aggressive means to maintain power. Better to reign in Hell than share power with libturds.
I would even say that a big part of the REASON the right is the way it is, is that it is wrong about everything. I know it could be the other way around but they definitely wouldn't have to feel so much that universities, all media, and scientists were against them if they were ever right
When I talk to people who are immersed in mainstream Dem culture about this they say it's how presidential politics works. Citation needed!
this analogy is fucking excellent:
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Whoa, meta. As if no one is working to make presidential politics work that way.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Right. So much of it is about social bonds. There's a lot of cognitive dissonance in admitting you'd rather hang with the liars and those who side with them because you like them better than the people who are right but grate on you.
things that are exciting: starting a new project things that are less exciting: still having the "turn-the-dissertation-into-a-book" item on my to-do list
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
But in each case, there's an opposing team trying to defeat them, to put them or keep them down. In reactionary politics, that opposition thrives by making itself invisible. We should surface it every chance we get.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
The same model can apply to any issue: women, people of color, immigrants, LGBT (esp. trans) people, homeless people, poor people, etc. All of these groups are presented as causing their own problems and creating their own opposition.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
In this model, the backlash to climate scientists was grassroots, spontaneous, and had literally nothing to do with the billions spent by fossil fuel companies and their lobbying arms to actively spread lies that they knew full well were lies.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Politics, on the other hand, is about how we structure our shared life together, so there are deep moral stakes. In the last such conversation I had, my interlocutor acknowledged that climate change activists were largely correct, but blamed them for their own failures because they were annoying.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Trans people face hate because there is a movement filling media with a constant drumbeat of lies about them. The real difference is that in football the point of the game is competitive opposition and there is moral equivalence between the teams pursuing it.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
The QB can't make the pass because he's passing under pressure. Climate scientists can't convince people because they're opposed by a well-funded and orchestrated climate denial propaganda machine. The receiver fell down because he got tackled.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
If you just don't mention the opposition, any behavior seems absurd. Why can't the QB make the connection? Why can't climate scientists convince people? Why did the receiver catch the ball and then fall over? Why do trans people keep pissing people off?
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
The answer, of course, is that pass completion rates are low because there is ANOTHER TEAM TRYING TO STOP THEM. It's almost too obvious to say about football, but for some reason some people find it difficult to imagine that the Left fails because it is intentionally and actively opposed.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
It's like trying to describe the behavior of a football team without referencing its opposition. What's a good pass completion rate for an NFL QB? Like 50−60%? That's terrible! I've seen drunk guys at tailgate parties complete more passes than that. Why is the NFL hiring such incompetent QBs?
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
This sums up so many conversations I've had where someone simply cannot imagine political agency on the right. It's wild and it leads to absolute absurdity. I've come up with an analogy I've started using:
What these Schatz posts say to me is that Dem elected officials like him seem incapable of perceiving the right as a *political movement.* The response to Covid mitigation and the Floyd protests was not a spontaneous reaction...it was a right wing backlash organized by a reactionary movement.
Keep an eye out for my book in the coming weeks! Just from the TOC, I hope to make it evident that slavery touches every aspect of early Christian thought: theology, pneumatology, ecclesiology, literate labor, ethics, agency, spirit possession, and so much more
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Oh no "my cranky mode is pedantic" is me to a T, lol.
seems like a lot of people agree that public education should tap students' unfulfilled potential while affording them opportunities to live dignified lives and i think art and contemplation should be part of that
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Them: "You learned cuneiform?" Me: "Well..."
gotta say if nothing else Andor is refreshing in that it reminds people Star Wars was an anticolonial story the whole time
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
No money but I'll sign on!
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
This. Cuneiform is alive and well in Asia, and China in particular has made a point of training scholars in top US and European institutions to teach at Chinese universities. Our self-inflicted wound will only shift knowledge centers around.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
This is the key. It's not an easy nut to crack, but it's necessary.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Also, does TAH know there are whole other countries where they study ancient languages? Without a much larger chain of shocks, cuneiform knowledge is not going to blink out. Our self-inflicted wounds may be gains for cuneiform studies elsewhere.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Our humanities powerhouses were always too concentrated, so while I'm sad about this news I can't hold that all is lost if Chicago falls.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
So many programs have downsized at the same time, all assuming the others will hold the line.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
I'm torn about this, as someone who learned cuneiform well at Not Chicago, but since my own program and many others have since been eviscerated, the alarm call is warranted. Academia is necessary to the preservation of knowledge and we need to rebuild more durable distributed knowledge networks.
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
My job now is to go school to school, university to university trying to help them sort through the challenge of teaching in a world with AI and the first thing I recommend to improve the teaching of writing is cut the number of students per instructor in half. No one is going to do that, though.
some of you working super overtime trying to justify being playground bullies and I see every single one of you if you cannot pursue your justice justly, you become the fascist when you have power. ask me how I know.
A good friend told me a few weeks ago: "I thought I would be different under fascism but I'm just the exact same person and it's profoundly disappointing to me." I think this is a more widespread view than is publicly discussed. I think that disappointment in ourselves is morphing into negativity.
The young people who would have been most likely to lead the domestic anti-fascist fight in 2025 were repeatedly arrested, beat, jailed, mocked by elites and non-elites over the past 5 years. This was bipartisan. I find it interesting whenever some people ask 'where the young people are' now.
lol, economists.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Again, I'm old enough to remember when a pig had to climb a ladder with a bucket of paint to change sources of truth.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
want to know if there are deeper analyses to read.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
a lot of suffering with your wealth but are actively choosing not to at every moment. It is the cognitive and emotional drain of withholding, of maintaining a differential of wealth, and the anxiety of the inherent instability of that. Several discourse topics have reflected this to me, and...
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Has anyone done a good job theorizing the particular paranoia of plutocracy? I think the constant experience of hoarding wealth in proximity to poverty cultivates this fear that everyone will come to steal what you have. Perhaps it comes from the suppressed knowledge that you could alleviate...
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
The ACLS is such a vital institution right now, still funding exciting and important work in the humanities. And you can be confident they'll follow through on their grants.
Apply now for a 2025 ACLS Fellowship, supporting scholars in the humanities and social sciences! Awards of $30-60K + additional funding for independent scholars, adjunct faculty and faculty in teaching-intensive roles. Deadline Sept. 25, 9PM ET https://bit.ly/3Q0Oi5I
*breathe in* I am not a dumpster fire. *breathe out* I am a dumpster phoenix.
I had a professor of Jewish Studies at UChicago who made the administration very angry because every year he made a proposal for the university to create an on-campus memorial to the worldwide victims of the UChicago economics department.
A middle school I interact with is in a state with a school cellphone ban and y’all everybody in there is relieved. EVERYBODY. The kids, the teachers, the janitors. They are so relieved. Nobody is really uptight about it…except some parents.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
This is one of the reasons I try to distinguish "academia" from "higher education." Education is part of what academia does, but it is not all. It also has important knowledge production and conservation functions, etc.
So many religion departments in the US have been gutted in recent days (Virginia Tech, Oregon) that it feels churlish to announce that my Religion Department is hiring a TT professor of Religion in the United States. Or maybe it's actually the right time for it. slc.peopleadmin.com/postings/2425
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
Then she wanted K-Pop Demon Hunters with a cast of Star wars droids. She said Baby Saja should be C-3PO: "Goo goo ga ga. I am Baby Saja, demon-cyborg relations!"
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
"But the tiger comes at niiiiight, and their bird friend with that hat on..."
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
In case you need some joy today, the 6yo suggested a mashup of K-Pop Demon Hunters and Les Miserables, so now we've been singing things like "One more day until the concert, we will steal all of their souls!" and "And now I'm all alone again, no one to trust, to show my patterns..."
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Cosign. I'll even let them borrow my kettlebells.
look I'm not myself a political scientist so I can't say what effects it would have for a spate of politicians to crop up saying "the enemy is the oligarchy" and "the enemy is billionaires" while swinging a kettlebell but I think we should try it for science and see what happens
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Josh Gondelman is like a guy who is good at analogies, but if that guy was also good at making the analogies funny.
Here's the wager: invest your time in reading and writing and, if they're right, then you haven't lost anything; if they're wrong and you go along, you've lost a skill you should have been developing *and* you've been distracted then whole time
one last thing, hopefully not for you, but nevertheless: keep doing the work, humanists. keep writing the stuff that pisses all the right people off, keep teaching your students to imagine better futures, keep learning all kinds of nerdy stuff. we’ll need that knowledge. and that heart. 💜
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
No, Shaily! This is horrible!
everything bad in cali comes back to prop 13
Yet again: please do not share image posts without alt text. It makes it harder to turn doing alt text into the norm. Also: if you share videos here, alt text is not the way to make videos accessible. Please do a video description post after the video post. 1/?
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Labubu is not Pazuzu, but you know what does sound like Labubu? Labbu, an ancient Mesopotamian monster, a bašmu (serpent) or mušḫuššu (lion-headed serpent), whose body was 50 or 60 leagues long. Unfortunately, some heroic deity killed it long ago, so you can’t hook it onto your purse.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
It's very useful if you want to constrict the field of debate, but yeah, it's like they keep trying to tell us the 40 yard line is the end zone. Or the 49th parallel is the North Pole. Nothing beyond that point, folks!
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Last day for free downloads!
This book is free to download for another couple of days: Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel www.cambridge.org/core/element...
I am very pleased to share the conversation I had with the brilliant @moudhy.bsky.social We talk all about ancient Mesopotamia, ancient texts, and much more. Hope everyone enjoys! open.substack.com/pub/convergi...
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
I'm sure I do somewhere, but it's not being easy to find right now. It was a Roman-era doorpost socket that someone had placed over a hole in the ground, so it was very much a humble DIY affair, not anything fancy.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
As someone who uncovered an Umayyad toilet on an archaeological dig, can confirm.
Philip Larkin said "What will survive of us is love," but research based on previous collapsing civilizations suggests it's more likely to be inorganic items that can be buried, burned, or struck without significant degradation. Likely what will survive of us is ceramic toilets.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reposted
Just 1 more weekend to get my little book for free! This book has everything: - divine labor militancy - AI and automation* - floods sacrifices - banquets - class struggle funny Easter eggs - serious academic analysis? - gardening https://tinyurl.com/2ahr97an
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Increase a band: Mumford and Progeny
If your child is struggling to read at grade level or at all, KEEP READING! Let them see you read. Talk about what you read, what they read. Reread their favorite books. Read them aloud! Have them read the physical book while listening to and reading along with the audiobook. 🧵 1/2
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
This is an interesting point. If the highest wisdom is encapsulated by ancient (or just old) sources, then wisdom must be entirely disconnected from scientific knowledge or other cumulative aspects of human culture and knowledge.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Any professional athletes want to chat with me about labor, sacrifice, economic extraction, and creation mythology? 🙏
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
* By which, of course, I mean the creation of human beings, which are both artificial intelligences and attempts at labor automation in the cosmic economy. No, I don't frame it this way in the book.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Just 1 more weekend to get my little book for free! This book has everything: - divine labor militancy - AI and automation* - floods sacrifices - banquets - class struggle funny Easter eggs - serious academic analysis? - gardening https://tinyurl.com/2ahr97an
Did you know that @katherinesouthwood.bsky.social is the new series editor of our Biblical Interpretation series? We’re seeking proposals - especially those engaging with new methodologies and hermeneutics! Got a book idea or manuscript ready? Get in touch with me! www.brill.com/BINS
"...most faculty have given up on 'cop shit' in their classroom a long time ago. My goal is not to 'catch' my students cheating, but to create situations where cheating isn’t seen as a viable recipe for success in the class." mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/t...
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
😭 We can do better!
The long-term Republican strategy to impose national Jim Crow can and should be distinguished analytically from the Trump regime. The former is durable and slowly but steadily expanding. The latter is flailing
Can’t say that Apple TV’s adaptation of Foundation is very good. But all the faults are worth it if the show helps get folks to Stop. Asking. Us. About. Gloves.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
You mean they actually have to *write* that? It should be implicit.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
I barely kid. I've watched enough undergrads learn the difference between Modern Hebrew or day school Hebrew and Classical Hebrew the hard way to know the distinctions are not as well known as they should be!
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Ok I very seldom add images to my posts, but it's awesome to see the "Copy text from image" button to automate alt text in the Skeets app! Serious a11y win there.
Say it again for those in the back: HUMANITIES USUALLY SUBSIDIZE STEM at most R1s. Yes we have receipts.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Grad program requirements: - BA or MA in a related field - Native speakers of Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian preferred
"The dog understands: 'Take it!' It does not understand: 'Put it down!'" True 3,900 years ago when a young Mesopotamian scribe copied the proverb onto a round school tablet; still true today! #cuneiform #Mesopotamia #dogs Tablet: BM U.17207.77, CDLI P346305; sculpture: Louvre AO 4349, CDLI P386356
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social) reply parent
As someone who had a NEH grant canceled mid-stream, nope. Not only is it a far less certain proposition, but getting the grant opens you to surveillance and discipline mechanisms not present elsewhere.
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
Slightly diminish a band: Gang Meteorr Cupcake Dr. Teeth and the Steam-Powered Mayhem
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. (@blindscholar.bsky.social)
To labor is human, to revolt, divine. Feeding and caring for gods in antiquity took a lot of work, and deciding who should do it was a big economic deal. Download my book while it's free and learn all about it! https://tinyurl.com/2ahr97an
