xankarn

xankarn, 1 month ago to random

Today in my politics of history course we discussed how historical thinking features in political rhetoric.

I asked students to read two political speeches:

Trump’s inaugural address (Jan 20, 2017)

and

Biden’s inaugural address (Jan 20, 2021)

🧵 A few observations…

xankarn, 2 months ago to books

I chair the campus committee that selects the annual “Community Read.” This book is assigned to all incoming first-year students, but faculty, staff, alumni, and the entire learning community are encouraged to engage. It’s one of the cooler parts of my job.

This year, we’ve narrowed things down to these three:

Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed

Matthew Desmond, Poverty, By America

Kristen Radtke, Seek You

#books #reading #community

Final selection today!

xankarn, 1 month ago to histodons

@histodons

Cultural history class this week includes the bicycle boom of the 1890s.

Newspapers from this period are filled with the complaints of men who say bicycles ruined their marriages, since wives only care to ride and no longer tend to their "duties."

The Rev. Thomas Gregory saw the bike as a threat to his parishioners' intellect and health.

"It annihilates the reading habit. The libraries are deserted. It is a menace to domestic virtues. It breaks up and destroys the home."

🚲

xankarn, 2 months ago to random

One of the tragedies of the two-party system is the way it reduces every issue and collective challenge to a partisan binary.

Like cancer and heart disease, poverty doesn’t care a shred about red v blue.

Journal of the American Medical Association cites poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the USA (2023).

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2804032

xankarn, 25 days ago to random

Intro to cultural history once again.

We're doing a unit on sub-culture and counter culture. Earlier this week, we focused on jazz hipsters and beatniks. Today we looked at Teds, Mods, Hippies, and Punks.

One of the key points in today's discussion was the absence of girls and women in histories of postwar counter-culture. (I told them about Kathleen Hanna's new memoir, which was reviewed positively in the NYT yesterday).

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/arts/music/kathleen-hanna-rebel-girl-memoir.html

xankarn, 4 months ago to random

Today in fake outrage.

Claudine Gay had to go because…plagiarism.

Meanwhile…

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/07/19/politics/melania-trump-michelle-obama-speech/index.html

xankarn, 10 months ago to histodons

Sorry, US @histodons. Looks like you’ve been scooped.

xankarn, 1 month ago to random

Adam Gopnik review of Tim Ryback’s new book, Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power in March 25 New Yorker:

“What was once callled the petite bourgeoisie was key to his support—not people feeling the brunt of economic precarity but people feeling the possibility of it. Having nothing to fear but fear itself is having something significant to fear.”

xankarn, 5 months ago to random

Dec 2023 issue of The Atlantic, devoted to Reconstruction, “America’s most radical experiment,” is essential reading.

Peniel Joseph (U Texas) kicks things off w an essay that challenges the idea that Reconstruction ended w the withdrawal of Union troops from the South: “We should consider a long Reconstruction—one that stretches well beyond 1877, and offers a view that transcends false binaries of political failure and success.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/

xankarn, 3 months ago to history

Like caffeine, alcohol, heroin, and cannabis, history and historical knowledge are psychotropic. 1/

#histodons

xankarn, 1 month ago to random

MAGA and the new GOP complain about the burdens of "political correctness," but they’re fully prepared to make “woke-ness” into a prosecutable thought crime.

#uspol #fascism #CivilLiberties #democracy #MAGA #GOP

https://literaryactivism.substack.com/p/louisiana-hb-777-would-criminalize?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=dy9km&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

xankarn, 28 days ago to random

In No Exit by Sartre, the condemned must live for all of eternity without mirrors, which they depended on during the course of their lives to maintain their self-image.

In hell, they will only be allowed to know themselves as they are seen and comprehended by others.

That’s what I suspect these long days in court are like for Trump. 1/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/us/politics/trump-trial-analysis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE0.s_6B.jsgLo7pP1Ijq&smid=url-share

xankarn, 11 months ago to random

I’m shook.

Just rode an #ebike for the first time. I’ve been intrigued for a while, but figured I would stick with human power for as long as my legs could turn unassisted.

This ride was so much fun and gave me a completely different experience of urban mobility. Only traveled a few miles—from Capitol Hill to Dupont Circle—but it was like being a kid again. Best two-wheeled experience in ages. Face hurts from smiling.

#WorldBicycleDay #bicycles #bike

xankarn, 8 months ago to random

Mass intoxication first requires small, private capitulations. The force of the group substitutes for the weakness of the individual.

xankarn, 1 year ago to politics

It's frustrating and upsetting to cast a ballot for what you perceive as "the lesser of two evils."

Meanwhile, arithmetic is real and so is the "greater of two evils."

When you can prevent or mitigate harm, ethics compel you to do so.

#politics #elections #democracy

xankarn, 8 months ago to journalism

#NYT content to let Bret Stephens spout utter shite about US withdrawal from #Afghanistan and how #Biden must bear ultimate responsibility for making the world a more dangerous place. Basic fact-check would have underscored that #Trump admin negotiated the withdrawal terms as well as the fact that troop levels had been reduced from 13K to 2.5K before the Nov 2020 election. #media #journalism #democracy

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

xankarn, 1 year ago to random

Defending #democracy from the center is tricky but also crucial. It doesn’t work if you think liberal values are equally threatened by insurrectionists/election deniers on the one hand and college kids trying to disinvite the speakers they oppose on the other. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/04/democracy-challenged-right-left/

xankarn, 5 months ago to random

Pulitzer winner Matthew Desmond:

“Poverty is often material scarcity piled on chronic pain piled on incarceration piled on depression piled on addiction—on and on it goes. Poverty isn't a line. It's a tight knot of social maladies. It is connected to every social problem we care about - crime, health, education, housing - and its persistence in American life means that millions of families are denied safety and security and dignity in one of the richest nations in the history of the world.”

xankarn, 6 months ago to ukteachers

The most recent Brookings Survey of American Attitudes has some interesting data for @histodons.

Asked whether “We should teach our children both the good and bad aspects of our history so that they can learn from the past,” 94% of respondents answered positively.

The book ban people, the Moms for Liberty types, the anti-CRT clique is minuscule and WAY out of touch with the cultural mainstream.

So, feel free to call them on their bullshit.

#education #histodons

https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2023-AVS-Presentation.pdf

xankarn, 7 months ago to random

Pod Save America interview w former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson is interesting.

She talks abt her blue collar upbringing and her strong belief in the value of public service. She also describes things that she “pushed to the back of [her] mind” beginning with 2016 campaign events.

I’m not sure if this is a failure of critical thinking (missed the hypocrisy/dishonesty?) or too-clever-by-half rationalization (a balance sheet approach that moves morality to the side).

https://crooked.com/podcast/could-trump-become-speaker/

xankarn, 6 months ago to random

I can understand why people would choose to remain anonymous online. It’s a hellscape (at times) filled w bad actors, bigots, trolls, etc.

But can we also admit that anonymity changes/degrades the info ecosystem since it gives us no chance to weigh the credentials of the writer behind the content?

There are some great blogs out there. But if you’re unwilling to attach your name to what you’ve written, doesn’t basic info literacy suggest that your writing should be discounted to some degree?

xankarn, 2 months ago to random

Is there a party that wants to control what you read?

A party that wants to strip women of the right to choose?

A party that rejects LGBTQ+ people and denies them equal citizenship?

A party that denies racial inequalities?

A party that gives tax breaks to mega-corps and the super rich?

A party that seeks to wipe out Medicare and Social Security?

A party that rejects climate science?

A party that views violence as an option?

If there is, would it be worthwhile to stop these things?

xankarn, 8 months ago to cycling

Ridiculously dangerous conditions at yesterday’s #LaVuelta TTT. Several squads sent out in near darkness and start ramp was a skating rink thanks to torrential downpour. Lots of kms ahead, but riders deserve better. #CouchPeloton #cycling

xankarn, 6 months ago to random

Just did a mic check with Maria Ressa for tonight’s event!

Streaming live at 6:30 pm (New York). Link below.

I gave her the sticker I made!

#protectdemocracy #holdtheline

xankarn, 7 months ago to fediverse

#Fediverse #Mastodon question for the experts.

I have two Mastodon accounts (personal and org).

Is there an easy way for me to import/export followers so that the folks I read in one place will also appear in the other?