if you hear someone talking about the west, about shared Judeo-Christian heritage, about Jerusalem and Athens, what they’re peddling is a fake solidarity that will have you identifying with billionaires against your own interests
'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3
“I have seen:
The race is always to the swift
And the battle to the strong,
So does food come to the wise
And wealth to the brilliant
And favor to the learned;
time and chance only matter for losers.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11
In addition, there are some really good chapters in France in the World that might provide some helpful further reading recs.
Peter Sahlins, 1688:The Year of the Animal in France. Global connections are not the focus, but I found it interesting to think through alongside Appleby’a Shores of Knowledge and Cañizares-Esguerra’s How to Write the Hist of the New World.
Just saw this while listening to the new They Might Be Giants Song "Wu-Tang." Everything's a mashup now.
A cropped frame from the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, depicting a very young Jonathan Ke Quan wearing a backwards baseball cap and pointing viciously at someone off screen. He has a pack of playing cards in his other hand
HEY LADY! YOU CALL HIM DR JESUS!
This is maybe the coolest thing I’ve seen on the internet. No joke.
The war against “radical gender ideology” has been staggering. The ascent of President Trump brought calls for the elimination of women’s and LGBTQ centers, rollbacks on Title IX protections, the exclusion of trans women from college sports and the purging of gender and sexuality studies from college curricula throughout U.S. institutions and higher education. These actions signal a massive backlash against the decades-long fight for gender equality and are inseparable from the administration’s wider assault on Civil Rights-era protections for people of color.
However, this moment is nothing new. It echoes an earlier race- and gender-based backlash in U.S. history over a century ago, when white middle-class American women began to attend colleges in large numbers. Against the backdrop of Black emancipation, the mass migration of racial “undesirables” and the immense success of the feminist movement, white women’s enrollment was seen as a threat, not just to white patriarchy but to the very future of the white race. Today’s backlash is the most recent attempt to restore the status quo—to distinguish between who is and is not entitled to higher education on the basis of race and gender and to safeguard the future of a white nation.
At a moment when democracy is under fire and women, LGBTQ people, and people of color find themselves in constant danger, I offer this piece I wrote for @msmagazine.com showing the longer history of how white supremacy and misogyny prop one another up. Pls share: msmagazine.com/2026/04/13/h...
Keep Ithaka always in your mind./Arriving there is what you’re destined for./But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,/so you’re old by the time you reach the island,/wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,/not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Seriously looks like an AI mashup of NYC public landmarks: the arch at Wash Sq Park, the lions outside the NYPL, the golden Victory atop the Bronx soldiers memorial...
Texas A&M has suffered a great loss: the resignation of Dr. Martin Peterson.
First Plato, now Dr. Peterson!
Out the Door at TAMU....
BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms
I profiled @mollycrabapple.bsky.social for @us.theguardian.com. We discuss her timely new book, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
I have been outspoken throughout my career about the unique evils of nuclear weapons but I also think we need to be wary of a nuclear fetishism that lets conventional warfare off the hook. I increasingly feel that aerial bombardment per se should be our target.
I think one of the problems is AI for ed is that it's all bronze shoes and bronze windows rather than cups and plates.
🔥
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
Mirrors the nightmare scenarios at educational institutions: ai writes assignment prompt, writes assignment, grades assignment, writes assignment commentary
This was an interesting breakdown of Claude Code’s leak, and I’m still loling at the “sentiment analysis“ code.
If you want Claude to know you’re mad, you better say “wtf,“ “shit,“ “fuck,” “horrible,“ “awful,“ or “terrible.” Don‘t try to get fancy with “atrocious“ or “balls.”
WE CAN TRY!
Need to ride this
Neoliberal Consensus: College should be about ROI
Humanists: Um, no
NC: Sorry yes
Humanists: Ok your premise is flawed but also humanists have really strong ROI data and have for decades.
NC: We're pivoting to AI
www.startribune.com/what-should-...
Writing a book is having—and forgetting—the same epiphany over and over until you die or finish the book, whichever comes first.
why bother asking the joker who actually chose what to put on a restaurant's wine list and has tasted everything on it when you can ask ChatGPT to recommend a sparkling Montepulciano from South Africa made from a blend of syrah savagnin mondeuse and pinot meunier and aged 17 years on the lees?
At the rally, PSC members delivered 5000 letters demanding reinstatement of the Fired Fourth to @cuny.edu Execs. The letters were also sent to @brooklyncollege.bsky.social President Anderson, Provost Bedford, @cunychancellor.bsky.social Félix Matos Rodríguez & Board Chairperson William Thompson
Absolutely no self-awareness that these folks would be the ones pushing the hemlock in the first place.
