Trump: don’t take acepitoemponoene RFK Jr: *moth crawls out of mouth* A nude man is in the background, only referred to as “the colonel” Person watching on tv: well if they say so
Historian of scientific, economic and colonial projects in early modern Britain, Ireland, and the Atlantic; books http://bit.ly/3HYwNiA & http://bit.ly/3rKdAvt; http://memoriousblog.com; views mine; he/him. Montrealer in Philly, except when I’m in Montreal
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Trump: don’t take acepitoemponoene RFK Jr: *moth crawls out of mouth* A nude man is in the background, only referred to as “the colonel” Person watching on tv: well if they say so
I don't think the fact that people who advocate war crimes or genocide or eugenics also have kids, pets, or hobbies is the revelation we've been encouraged to think it is. Humanizing the dehumanizers seems like getting a key relation wrong
OMG I just looked in the medicine cabinet and all my Tylenol vanished
more like crapture, amirite
rule by just asking questions
honestly it’s just radical centrism, if we really need a label
it’s not fascism, it’s anti-anti-fascism
At Marquette U. next week. My talk begins in the present, moves to 19th c migration laws, circles back to the present to underscore that the dividing line between fed & state control on immigration is politically determined in every era. States today have a choice whether to cooperate w/feds.
it is simple, I’ll give it that
I think some of them know it too, or at least fear it might be the case, but the most common result of that awareness seems to be leaning into it all the more unapologetically now
My contribution, "Reclaimed Land," looks at how 17th-century natural histories were entangled with projects of colonial trade and conquest by virtue of their capacity to both present and obscure past interventions in local landscapes, underlining the promise and the necessity of new transformations.
I don't think I've ever been so keenly aware that I'm watching people do and say the kinds of things they'll be lying to their grandchildren about
Very happy to announce that the @jhokjournal.bsky.social special issue "Knowledge and Power: Projecting the Modern World," edited by Vera Keller, Kelly Whitmer, and me, is starting to be published: the first three articles are here, the rest to follow. journalhistoryknowledge.org/Knowledge_an...
*Kelly Whitmer (I have no idea how that typo made it in)
Charlie's legacy is repression, and perhaps, now that his loudest acolytes are screaming it on live TV, some of the abject fools who posted so much nauseating fanfic last week might rethink their role in abetting it
BBC too
Oh, I know. But Vance is, so I’m not sure it matters
also entirely possible that Vance demands a fast-tracked Charlie sainthood or else 300% tariffs on the Vatican
the funniest, crassest, tackiest and therefore likeliest thing is they mass-produce aluminum Charlies with profits from state-mandated purchases by all public universities split between Trump and TPUSA
anyone have the number for whoever did that Lucille Ball statue
“not a cult,” as the radical centrists used to say
Charlie Kirk died for free speech. Anyone who says different should be fired, arrested, and kicked out of the country
It’s the news version of Debate Me, but news is actually supposed to be about finding things out
Both-sidesism consistently confuses having a comeback with having an answer
Trump sending the National Guard to Ottawa to protect Morrissey/pick up garbage
your reminder that Canadians are neither inherently less violent nor better writers than Americans, they just don't own as many very large guns. legally I mean
As usual with this issue, Harris is calling for a compromise that already exists. Every sporting body has standards for how long athletes must be on hormones before they can compete as women. The problem isn’t that we’re ignoring ‘reasonable concerns,’ the problem is that republicans are lying.
thaaat’s right
iirc the friend in the song apologizes. way too woke for today’s Free Speech™️ vigilantes
you could practically feel the frisson of thrilled self-regard coming off all those edgy, knowingly counterintuitive “better know a Nazi” pieces from ten years ago. What argument do you have for not playing with fascists that promises that same feeling?
on op-ed pages, “of course I believe in rights for all, but some of my closest friends and allies are eugenicists and TERFs” is presented and perceived as moral courage instead of hypocritical cant. It’s a cultural achievement of sorts and as such is not something you can quickly argue people out of
the trick to centrism is defining who “we” refers to narrowly enough that bigots feel at home, while underlining “all” so liberals feel they’ve done their bit for inclusion by hosting them
weird to think this character was the future of mainline conservative thought
"graduate major" is just above captain, for those unfamiliar
I for one am shocked that a proud [campaign slogan] family could have produced Political Violence
what a sad phrase
"a proud MAGA family"
shocking and obvious
martyr, murderer, it's just a few letters' difference, I guess what a legacy
this exists it is called thinking
that would be terrible! but I’m willing to watch
No mention of medical/health professionals. No mention of researchers. No mention of academics. Just: oh no, what will happen to the industry that can best afford this and helped elect the guy doing it?
It was amazing to me that the report I heard on this *only* mentioned effects on tech. Especially given the war(s) on universities, and on immigrants, being so visible on other fronts.
People keep talking about tech firms in relation to the H1-B $100k fee but it’s gonna really sink universities.
As America nears a tipping point, Russell Vought desires a radical rightwing “counter-revolution.” For @zeit.de, I wrote a profile of one of Trumpism’s key figures – and one of Trump’s most dangerous henchmen. Some thoughts from the piece (since it is in German):
Wordsworth: welcome to the meeting of Romantic Poets. We need to set our agenda, and I am recommending clouds, flowers, or possibly clouds shaped like flowers Percy Shelley: or the severed head of a tyrant William Blake: or thicc Satan Wordsworth: or what??? Blake: I have produced a sketch-
I guess there’s some novelty in getting to be an “embed” without leaving home
Anything that lets you fabricate “reality” is going to help a fascist project
Remember the AI victim impact statement where the victim forgave his killer? Eventually this crap has to cancel itself out
I can’t suck, I got a 4.0 in Great Guy Studies from the Dudes Rock Institute
C. V. Wedgwood comes to mind
I think leadership as a personal quality was on borrowed time as soon as there were programs in it
[furrows brow, taps pen] now forgive me for contradicting you, Mr. Rabbit, but I was under the impression that Trix are for kids
critical thinking is when you follow the script in your most concerned tone
this is the new Republic of Letters
after that, we ask an AI exec whether investing in AI makes sense
next: a replay of our interview with the TPUSA fan who believes TPUSA is doing good work
thanks to @npr.org for finally answering the burning question of whether troops being sent to police US cities illegally, and who follow whatever orders they’re given, *believe* they are there to help. It matters
There too much family stuff on there from years ago for me to easily delete altogether
I’ve seen those screenshotted on here but mercifully I have too few FB friends to get a representative sample of trends in posting
It’s as if Thomas Kincaid paintings became both self-aware and sociopathic
I went years checking in on it once every 6-9 months but have been on a bit more frequently of late and it’s astoundingly bad. The difference I guess is that so is everything else
AI art appreciation feels distinctly like profiling
the number of credulous comments on the tiny homes with impossible design features and furniture that melts into its context is striking, but I suppose they’re fake too
to judge from FB the main use of AI is to generate images of (1) deaths by natural disaster or mechanical failure and/or (2) tiny homes in fake forests
I would call this “consciousness of guilt” in an eventual domestic trial or international war crimes tribunal.
thanks -- I'll be interested to hear what you think
My contribution, "Reclaimed Land," looks at how 17th-century natural histories were entangled with projects of colonial trade and conquest by virtue of their capacity to both present and obscure past interventions in local landscapes, underlining the promise and the necessity of new transformations.
Very very happy to announce that the @jhokjournal.bsky.social special issue "Knowledge and Power: Projecting the Modern World," edited by Vera Keller, Kely Whitmer, and me, is starting to be published: the first three articles are here, the rest to follow. journalhistoryknowledge.org/Knowledge_an...
that’s right. I’m paying it forward
putting all my old pdfs in a box outside my office door, for the grad students
office door material right here
I mean, they’re not *not* functionally linked
I find the militarized ad campaign that is “the rise of AI” fully as dispiriting as the concomitant rise of a smallish, and to a man unimpressive, crew of incompetent Nazi wannabes to power, and whether or not the two are functionally linked, they reflect some of the same things about their context.
Which brings me to my question: does anyone have an elegant but affordable step-ladder for sale
My office requires a stepladder even for the regular shelves, fortunately/unfortunately
The biggest threat to generative AI is people’s basic desire to know and make things. I believe that that will be what undoes this creeping, cancerous mediocrity, if anything does, because nothing else (including, sadly, respect for life or others) is strong enough or ineradicable enough to persist.
“It’s true that smoking causes lung cancer,” a company executive admitted. “But the fact is everybody will have lung cancer in 3-5 years,” he continued. “It’s the future. Can you afford *not* to give that to your children?”
ICE continues to assault us. We are peacefully protesting. They are kidnapping and hurting us.
gonna ask this at the gleaming new antiwoke Smithsonian in 2028 and watch the docent age to death in 15 seconds like that guy in The Last Crusade
what on earth can “lowering the temperature” mean at this point it’s a metaphor being used for opposite things at the same time
if civilization evolved from Europeans how come there are still Europeans
now you’re just boasting. and it’s worked
This, the fruit of a week’s abject institutional submission to horseshit hagiography, is about ten times the number of specific anecdotes of Republicans being purged from academia that TPUSA fans have ever mustered
Steve Inskeep will nod sagely as Charlie’s childhood best friend explains that it’s necessary, as Republicans had been purged from comedy
TPUSA Comedian Watchlist any minute now
American acceptionalism
this aggression will not stand
In the smallest possible news, all of the books in my office have homes that are not the floor
But Her Use Cases
I will say my first thought on reading this quotation was that the existence of the professional opinion-having “position” people like Ezra Klein occupy is, ultimately, part of the problem, because ultimately the people in a position like that are going to behave like Ezra Klein
I’ve already shared this, but it is good and worth your time. There is no excuse for the way supposedly free and responsible media outlets, including @npr.org, have helped and are still helping this fiction along
And, as Nick stresses, the Kirk situation is just an outgrowth of a wider and long-term trend in our political media.
“A democratic society needs people in Ezra Klein’s position to treat Charlie Kirk’s anti-democracy stances as disqualifying, rather than pretend they’re just another policy opinion…” @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social w/an excellent critique of Kirk hagiography www.arcdigital.media/p/ezra-klein...
“If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?”
Agree, but Dems would have to want faculty protected first
Gnome Chumpsky, III, esq 
