@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

Zeb_Larson

@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us

Hello! I'm a former #academic who still considers himself a #historian. While I've left #academia behind, I still work as a #writer, mostly of essays and history pieces. Some of my pieces can be found in Jacobin, Teen Vogue, Smithsonian, and Belt. My PhD is in #history, and I studied the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. Today, I write about a variety of topics. When I can, I listen to #music and play #games.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Zeb_Larson, to random
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

As an addendum to my previous post about my Mastodon community feeling more vibrant lately, Bluesky feels...dead.

One of the things I actually liked about Mastodon was being able to see which accounts I followed that had gone dormant. Had I the time and patience, I expect that a lot of the accounts I follow would be dormant.

Zeb_Larson, to random
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

This is a very well-written piece, but nestled in here is a humbling fact: Israeli military action has killed more hostages than it has saved. Most of the hostages who have been saved were through negotiation, ceasefire, and prisoner transfers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/opinion/israel-icj-genocide-south-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU0.3yfi.VkCcLHsw5kdK&smid=url-share

Zeb_Larson,
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

Even if Israeli lives are your chief consideration (and if you think the dead of October 7th will be avenged by 9,000 dead Gazan children and counting, your moral compass is fucked), this is not succeeding.

petrillic, to random
@petrillic@hachyderm.io avatar

Teen Vogue continuing to do the work the NY Times, WaPo, and others refuse. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/second-ku-klux-klan

Zeb_Larson,
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

@MayInToronto @petrillic You're out here spreading the word about my piece! I gotta step it up.

And yeah, TV really does fight the fight. I never thought there would be any appetite for these pieces but I think this was my 6th explainer for them, and I have more I plan to pitch.

Zeb_Larson,
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

@inquiline @MayInToronto @petrillic No harm in me asking — the fact that all of my pieces seem to circulate absurdly well here might say something.

Zeb_Larson,
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

@simon_lucy @janl @danhon @inquiline @MayInToronto @petrillic It might help if your criticism was more specific — what is it that you don’t want?

Zeb_Larson, to history
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

Anyway, I wrote this about the rise of the Second KKK for Teen Vogue, and I guess I’m going to be getting fan mail about it?

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/second-ku-klux-klan

Zeb_Larson, to random
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

I’m…glad he liked it?

Zeb_Larson, to random
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

For $150,000,000, the NYPD managed to catch $104,000 worth of fare skippers and oversee a 2% dip in crime -- a grand total of 48 crimes. Even with the fact that a lot more people are commuting and the opportunity for crime rises in theory with that, it's hard to see this as anything other than rent-seeking by the NYPD.

https://hellgatenyc.com/the-nypd-spent-150-million-to-catch-farebeaters-who-cost-the-mta-104000

Zeb_Larson, to history
@Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

I got bored last year at work and wrote a series of drinking games for people attending career panels at academic conferences. Since the AHA is going on right now, I decided to slap it together and write it up so that people can sit through them the right way. I don't have a whole lot of respect for these (which is funny, because I do them from time to time), and I'd like to see this as a way to call attention to their foibles. Or get drunk.

https://medium.com/@zeblarson/the-academic-humanities-career-panel-drinking-game-d7fcd8d080f9

@academicchatter

seachanger, to random
@seachanger@alaskan.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @seachanger Weekday evening plans are a mirage I haven't learned to stop chasing

    Zeb_Larson, to random
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    One of the stranger things I’ve seen on Mastodon are Covid-cautious accounts claiming vaccination doesn’t protect at all against Long Covid. Obviously right-wing Covid misinformation has done a lot more damage, but I also don’t think we do anybody any favors by making things out to be worse than they are, and there’s a growing body of evidence that yes, vaccination helps. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @inquiline That makes sense, and obviously they’re not a magic bullet — they never were, and weren’t meant to be.

    Zeb_Larson, to history
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    "Out of 1799 historians who received a PhD in the US between 2019 and 2020, 175 have full-time faculty positions."

    Good to be in the majority, at least. The whole profession feels like it's dying.

    https://contingentmagazine.org/2023/01/07/a-profession-if-you-can-keep-it/

    CindyWeinstein, to generationx
    @CindyWeinstein@zirk.us avatar

    washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/01/millennials-keep-living-at-home/ (gifted)

    Even if can afford to buy a house, the fact that the big companies -- at least in -- aren't writing homeowner policies make such an investment really risky. I wish this article had mentioned these 2 things: 1) the fact that , , , and are "putting a pause on these policies" (words used by agent) because of 2) .

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @CindyWeinstein And it's going to spread beyond California. The midwest is going to see an uptick in flooding and there are a lot of homes built in flood plains. We bought our house in no small part because it was in a flood-safe area, but we paid more for it even then -- what's it going to be in ten or fifteen years? What's it going to look like when nobody can get flood insurance?

    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    Via Jon Favreau:

    Yet another reason to defeat :

    "If Republicans successfully defend all their current seats and win Manchin’s seat in West Virginia, as expected, and if the party’s nominee also wins the White House, Republicans will control the in 2024, thanks to the new vice president’s tiebreaking vote, without picking up any other seats." https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/republicans-have-a-great-chance-to-retake-the-senate-in-2024-9b33b1e3

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @GottaLaff @PJ_Evans It’s really not that many “ifs”. Democrats have to defend Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester in MT, and Sinema’s seat in AZ, and while I think that Brown is a fighter, it will absolutely be a fight. WV is lost, just bank on it. The easiest Senate pickup Dems have is in Texas and Florida…so not easy at all.

    In short, keeping the Senate will be hard, and it’s all defense for Dems.

    seachanger, to random
    @seachanger@alaskan.social avatar

    bury me
    with my bicycle and plant a tree
    in the center of a triangle formed by a thrift shop, taco truck, and library, my holy trinity.
    say this is the only space in our society where she felt free
    and got to be
    with the ones she loved
    📚 🌮 👕

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @seachanger That plane illustration is perfect. My childish love of seaplanes is one that I hope never leaves me.

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @seachanger My uncle did concert posters in the late '60s and early '70s, and he went through a line art phase that almost made them look like woodcuts. This one was for Pink Floyd in 1970. I've wanted to track this one down for a while and buy an original, but...it's priced accordingly.

    Zeb_Larson, to random
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    Mastodon’s trolls are…earnest, at least? They’re not looking for ways to annoy you, they’re just being themselves — doesn’t really redeem them exactly, but definitely better than X/Facebook/etc

    Zeb_Larson, to random
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    When Vannevar Bush went to Carnegie in '38, he gutted the funding for the institution's journal of science history. There's something so darkly fitting in him, one of the leading people who helped ensure that STEM would be SM in service of TE, also burning down any sense of its relation to humans.

    inquiline, to academicchatter
    @inquiline@union.place avatar

    One thing I try to impress on students or early-career researchers I'm mentoring is: say thank you. It costs nothing; people notice when you don't; and in some cases it is part of the habit and ethic of citing. (You can thank someone for a conversation in a FN; I do it all the time)

    (This is not about anything in particular.)

    @academicchatter

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @inquiline In general, just thank people -- when you don't, people like me might notice. I referred a guy from my old coding boot camp (who I also mentored) for a job at my company a year and a half ago after putting it on his radar, and he got it. He wrote up a lengthy LinkedIn post thanking all of the people who had helped him in his career -- and left me off. It was noticed.

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @inquiline That's good though that you're framing it this way for students! I've complained before that there's a really weak reciprocity culture within academia and that lots of structures incentivize people acting like sponges to try and get ahead. It's good to hear people pushing back on that.

    Zeb_Larson, to random
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    Good piece on the impact of the British Library hack, and what the long-term effects will feel like. It goes beyond just being able to check out books. https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-disturbing-impact-of-the-cyberattack-at-the-british-library

    Zeb_Larson, to random
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    Aldi is the Linux of grocery stores.

    Zeb_Larson,
    @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us avatar

    @inquiline I’m choosing violence

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • GTA5RPClips
  • DreamBathrooms
  • everett
  • magazineikmin
  • Durango
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • kavyap
  • ethstaker
  • megavids
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • cisconetworking
  • osvaldo12
  • khanakhh
  • ngwrru68w68
  • modclub
  • tester
  • anitta
  • normalnudes
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •