The brain drain will devestate humanities education in Texas.
Students "are the ones who are going to bear the thrust of this. It’s not going to fall on anyone making this decision. It’s going to fall on 18-year-olds who are not getting the same education they were able to get this time last year.”
A group of A&M alums have formed Aggies Forward, a new alumni group advocating for academic freedom and institutional independence. Please sign and share this with alumni and allies -- and anyone you know who wants to protect free speech and academic freedom in Texas and across the country:
1.) Social movements have several elements that help build momentum against the status quo. Arguably the most important is SIZE. Demonstrating the massive size of opposition helps attract people to dissent because the risk is distributed. Protests demonstrate SIZE most clearly.
Minimizing the impact of consistent episodic community-centered protests only serves the interests of the ruling elite and undermines efforts to build political pressure (even and maybe esp. on elected Democrats) AND political cover.
Farm workers are proud to stand in solidarity with Starbucks workers.
Los campesinos se enorgullecen de solidarizarse con los trabajadores de Starbucks.
#NoContractNoCoffee
Must be nice to have no oligarchs on your supreme court.
-The 13th amendment only passed after a provision was added that allows for carceral slavery. This is why Jim Crow laws included severe penalties for little things like loitering, and why most convicts for those "offenses" were black. So they could be incarcerated and used as slave labor.
-During the constitutional convention, there were multiple proposals to remove slavery from the new US society. These proposals were hotly debated and not only was slavery maintained, it was ratified in the constitution through the 3/5ths compromise.
-Thomas Jefferson's original Declaration of Independence listed slavery among the abuses incurred against the colonies by England/George III. This was removed from the list to appease slavers.
Centrist politics has always been about compromise with the racists. Check the comments for a little dose of foundational US history some may have missed:
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Feed the poor? No
Look after the sick? No
Welcome strangers? No
But put the 10 commandments in every classroom (in TX), force 12 year olds to birth their rapists' babies, and kill lgbtq+ folks? Yes.
The right's Christianity: built on power and control, not love and acceptance.
A society built on empire, greed, and gain was always already authoritarian. Was always already controlled from the top down. There has never been "We the People" in the US--because "the people" have never had a voice.
But the protests' focus on Trump and figure-head authoritarianism misses the mark and misses the bigger picture.
Only the capitalists, only the neo-aristocrats, only the "representatives" have ever had a say. The No King's protests were a good rallying point--another chance for education and consciousness-raising.
A society built on empire, greed, and gain was always already authoritarian. Was always already controlled from the top down. There has never been "We the People" in the US--because "the people" have never had a voice.
Yes Trump's discourse has ushered in unabashed racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and a hard shift towards explicit authoritarianism, outright fascism. But focusing our protests on one person misses the point. He wasn't the mastermind behind everything that's happening--there is no one mastermind.
When AI generates our vonnegutian foma, we'll truly be living out the history of human stupidity.
This is the man who has been wreaking havoc on our government systems for months. Cost taxpayers more than he "saved." The epitome of corruption.
If you're rich, drug use gets you more money and more power. If you're poor it gets you stigmatization, ostracization, and incarceration.
They used chatgpt. Hallucinated sources.
Are you self or other oriented?
"Facts and rational inquiry are inimical to dictatorial power. So this administration is engaged in a ceaseless war on the truth."
On the pod, @katherinestewart.bsky.social is so good on the deeper authoritarian impulses driving Trump's lawless assault on Harvard:
newrepublic.com/article/1958...
Another big FU from Harvard… free online courses on the US government, the US constitution, civic engagement, and more.
pll.harvard.edu/subject/gove...
Did you like breathing? Oh, maybe you should have voted.
Horrifying.
It's tough to refer to someone as a criminal if you've given them no due process to determine whether they're a criminal. Like if you get arrested and get a trial and are convicted of 34 felony counts. That's due process. You can call that guy a criminal.
"You’re not here to win arguments.
You’re here to win people — or walk away knowing you kept your soul intact.
The revolution needs empathy and armor. Bring both."
