Overhead just now words almost identical to my mother’s: “If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, find another room.” 😂😂
Deborah McDowell
@dem8z.bsky.social
Reader, writer, teacher, gardener, seamstress, contrarian. Alice Griffin Professor Emerita of English, Former Director-Carter G. Woodson Institute, U of Virginia. Please, no DMs unless I know you. For professional matters, please contact me via UVA.
I've read most of the books on @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's proposed reading list and plan to read the rest. These are excellent recommendations. In fact, @gilduran.com (author of The Nerd Reich) will be a guest on Movement Memos soon.
Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)
A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.
nytimes.com
"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality." -James Baldwin
Newsflash, John: It's possible to admire Ossof, Buttigieg, AND El-Sayed. No contradiction there at all.
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
So many people I encounter, especially in HigherEd, believe the only strategy for this moment is "keep your head down." @debtcollective.bsky.social didn't change priorities in 2024, nor in 2020, nor in 2016. They barreled ahead. There first big win was $800 million. This one is $11 billion.
Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 6h agoCongratulations to everyone who worked their asses off for something that any semi-decent and ultimately self-interested government should have done in penance www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...
Greetings, Psst, most academics aren't making much money from their book publications. They can't use their royalties. This means we are not popping our collars and purchasing prosecco or NA prosecco. The few scholars who are making bank are not publishing with university/academic presses.
Why are Abdul El Sayed and Mamdani so utterly terrifying to the Democratic Establishment and its corporate donors? Ask yourselves.
"I won't back down." — Tom Petty · "I Won't Back Down" (1989) Every HOA letter, every code citation. Read this. Send the reply. 🎵 https://open.spotify.com/search/Tom%20Petty%20I%20Wont%20Back%20Down -A Bee
The president wants to let people pay for early access to his social media posts. This would give wealthy people and corporations access to market-moving information before anyone else. It’s another case of corruption for this administration.
Ahhh I'm so excited to watch you enjoying this! @readywriting.bsky.social and I listened to the audiobook together all the way through while she was visiting.
"We are the data species. Long before we wrote stories, we kept score." (p2) This is such a hot take (in the good way). And should be narrated at the beginning of a trailer. Ok at this rate I'll never finish the book let me plow on.
Inspired by @walshbr.bsky.social's live posting, I'll be skeeting "book reactions" of all the (mostly) DH reading I'll be doing this fall. Starting with the very hot Data Empire by @roopikarisam.bsky.social : [Reactions will be posted as replies.]
When we don't adequately fund public universities, and instead force students to take out loans, what we as a society are really doing is borrowing money from the younger generation—their hard-earned future income—to fund a necessary project that benefits us all: building an educated society.
Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 2d ago1. This is bullsh*t & an epically stupid policy completely detached from any empirical evidence: bsky.app/profile/mcop... 2. We could simply avoid this entire issue by <all together now> Funding. The. Damn. Public. Universities. Like. We. Used. To: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
My Latest: I am not a gambler. But if I were, I would always bet against congressional Republicans acting with integrity or demonstrating political courage. newsletters.democracydocket.com/tillis-and-c...
Tillis and Cornyn had nothing to lose — and still folded
newsletters.democracydocket.com
Even when Dad is the primary contact, schools often call Mom first. Just another part of the #BackToSchool mental load that often falls on moms. theconversation.com/better-call-...
The driving course is over. The certificate of completion is in hand!!
The road to hell is paved with appeals to civility
Yep. Earlier this year I was interviewed by Sharyn Alfonsi of 60 Minutes about my Epstein investigation. Subsequently, CBS pulled the segment and fired the reporter. The MAGA buyout of media is aiding the Trump administration’s Epstein cover up.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · yesterdayBanks permitted millions in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein—and former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago. But the report would never air. trib.al/ZShZlIS
I will say it again, when Americans accepted the movie line "greed is good," the fall of the United States started.
A lot of these jobs also HELP women disproportionately -- like classroom aides and social workers and care workers generally. They know that if you get rid of lower-level care workers you can ALSO make it harder for other women to work.
Years ago when I wrote this under the first Trump admin, I had a similar thought. Once a hierarchy of disposability is normalised anyone can be rendered disposable, even those who otherwise or at other times have been privileged. somatosphere.com/2020/necropo...
COVID-19, the Freedom to Die, and the Necropolitics of the Market
Field hospital constructed in Gothenburg, Sweden in March 2020. Photo: Helén Sjöland. While reading Giorgio Agamben’s (2020) anthropological note on the “danger” of habituation of Italians to …
somatosphere.com
Disability is another vector of unworthiness in their worldview. So important to constantly remind ourselves that it’s the majority of folks that they want to cull
They seem to want disabled people of all races gone. Remember what Trump said to his own nephew about the nephew's disabled child, Trump's own white flesh & blood (see below). Point being: Trump wants everyone who doesn't please him to die. That's ~70% of the US. www.theguardian.com/books/articl...
Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says
Fred C Trump III calls comment ‘appalling’ in new book All in the Family, to be published next week
theguardian.com
It’s also about eliminating care work, which furthers their eugenicist desire to cull the unworthy racial others. Control of the reproductive power of white women and the letting die of poor racialized people are two sides of the same coin
"don't make enough money" is a fig leaf All those degree programs--social work, art, etc.--have disproportionately female student bodies. This is designed to make it harder for women to attend college--college education being a key factor in women's autonomy from men & left-leaning voting pattern.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Plus you only start paying when income is above the average wage based income.