fieldmousemax.bsky.social
19 posts
17 followers
62 following
Conversation Starter
comment in response to
post
Dynamics will change, of course, in ways we can't expect. But at the moment, as a pure bet, I'd say that another "term" of Trump is the most likely option. Again, we have a scale of work to do to prevent this we don't yet have the tools to measure.
comment in response to
post
Horrible, indeed. But that also took place under shared Republican and Democratic rule, allowing for some checks. And it coincided with a conscious, federally-directed build-up of U.S. intellectual resources—eventually the base of the '60s resistance—in the form of the modern research university.
comment in response to
post
In the terrible event of a bird flu pandemic in humans under Trump II, we--unbelievably--stand to lose even more. All this to say that we shouldn't underestimate the scale of both threat and its necessary remedies.
comment in response to
post
During all the wars you list, World War I to Iraq, U.S. deaths totaled a bit more than 500,000. We lost over 1,200,000 during Covid, managed by the Trump I.
comment in response to
post
Good to meet you as well. All the major events you list after the Civil War sparked genuine threats to domestic civil liberties. But they were not self-imposed in their entirety, as this crisis is, and almost all took place during eras of shared party power.
comment in response to
post
Um, aside from the Civil War, we actually haven't survived worse, unfortunately. (I'm a professional American historian, by the way, if that still matters a whit.)
comment in response to
post
Maybe if you smoked more you'd quit relying on another classic logical fallacy, reductio ad absurdum.
comment in response to
post
We're with you, and will be with you when the going gets even rougher. Just please remember our common commitments and fate when they come for us directly as well (it's already been happening in the wildly hyperbolic attacks on "DEI").
comment in response to
post
A professional—and temperamental—humanist here, agreeing with you 100 percent (hope I've got the math there correct). We all of us on the qualitative side of the fence see the attacks on research science as what they are, attacks on the university, even on the Enlightenment itself.
comment in response to
post
I'[d venture to say that being accurate is a fundamental aspect of writing well. Wildly inaccurate writing—which AI now typically generates—ain't the right kind of miraculous.
comment in response to
post
On the bright side, with the boldly alliterative "masculine maximalism," you all did manage to invent a fresh synonym for what's normally called fascism. We'll be needing a lot more of these.
comment in response to
post
It's now time for those of us in suits to hit the streets. Hating on the kids who had the foresight to see the depths to which Trump and Netanyahu would take us (basically, erecting Trump Hotels on Palestinian bones) is a misprojection of righteous anger.
comment in response to
post
One reason—a big reason—that college protestors who (rightly) opposed ethnic cleansing in Gaza last spring aren't active now is because they learned that protesting, met with arrests and suspensions on campuses all over the country, can be very costly in these bad new days.
comment in response to
post
What I'm trying to say here, if you'll stop with the ignorant, ad hominem insults and let me say it:
comment in response to
post
I voted for Harris, in fact, and have never been more proud of that fact.
comment in response to
post
You're as reasonable, as communicative, and as charming as Trump himself. Thanks for making my point for me.
comment in response to
post
What's bullshit about it, exactly? How many articles calmly detailing the penalties would you like to receive?
comment in response to
post
Cute, Bradley. But hundreds of those same college kids were arrested, expelled, suspended, and/or dragged before disciplinary boards last spring by administrators terrified of being targeted by the same people who now want to make Gaza a Trump Hotel.
comment in response to
post
Not bad. But this assumes that there will be (1) open media platforms left on which to run these ads; and that (2) there'll be another national election that isn't delayed or perverted to avoid "fraud." We need much quicker, much more potent medicine.