❤️

“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.

Abstractly, if I told you there was an entity in the United States roving around cities and killing people, busting into people's homes, and kidnapping children, you wouldn't say "let's reform it," you'd do everything in your power to put an end to it.

“the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.” State. Approved. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

I missed the end of your question! My advice to folks outside of Minnesota is to start organizing NOW. Attend an ICE Watch training and bring three friends with you. Start volunteering at the orgs that you know will be crucial—like food pantries and PTOs.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Many have now seen the casual brutality of masked federal agents in Minnesota. But we're also seeing casual intimidation and surveillance [via plate #s] of folks giving rides, food or aid. An unknown agent followed a mom I know into a mall parking lot. “Go home to your children, Samantha,” he said.

Fun fact: Your local bookstore is doing more to protect you and your neighbors than Amazon is.

Why Parents and Students Should Care About Academic Freedom ncnewsline.com/2026/01/26/w...

People at taken to Whipple are released into the cold in whatever they were wearing without their phones and IDs. Volunteers meet them at release (or find them left in parks and the woods) get them a burner, warm clothes, food, a ride home, etc (GFM in next post) www.instagram.com/reel/DTzJde9...

You could actually structure your moral code around the idea that law enforcement doesn't exist to execute people. You don't have to create perfect victim narratives, you can just refuse to accept that the state gets to kill people.

DHS has shot 12 people during immigration enforcement operations since September:

Protesters chanting "We're not cold, we're not afraid, Minne[apolis/sota] taught us to be brave" in Boston tonight outside Government Center station.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

I know the idea of “better” policing is as old a demand as civil rights movements in this country, the impulse to call for it at this moment is so terribly cruel that it can only be understood as aligned with the terrorists.

ICE have committed 2/3 of the murders in Minneapolis this year, so if they’re hunting violent attackers, they need look no further than their comrades in arms

He was a nurse.

Protester in Minneapolis just before disappearing in gas: "Fuck you! Stop. Damn! I'm 70 years old and I'm fuckin' angry!"

If you’re feeling like none of this stuff is big enough, know that it’s these kinds of small actions done by hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans that built the resistance you’re seeing. Doing something is always better than nothing. Just do something and trust it will inspire others to do the same

I am trying not to post on these events in this state of mind but: I hope people understand what the observers are doing is brave and dangerous.

The Department of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill invites applications for a Teaching Assistant/Associate Professor (teaching track) to begin July 1, 2026. Review of applications will begin February 16, 2026. More details here: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/312...

I especially love the places closed for regular business but offering meals, coffee, a warm spot.

Quite the dramatic poll of NC by TIPP. It’s a sample that reports having voted Trump 45/42. His approval rating among these respondents is now 39/53. Roy Cooper’s fave rating is 54/32. And Cooper leads the Senate race 48/24, with a ton of undecided. Cooper still pulls 21% of Republicans.

And I fucking hate the caveats especially "NO CRIMINAL RECORD." People who have criminal records ALSO deserve dignity. OK.

Springsteen at an unbilled performance at a Parkinson’s benefit Sat. in NJ— “…send a message to this President. And as the Mayor of that city has said, ‘ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.’ So this one is for you, and the memory of the mother of three and American citizen Renee Good.”

Minneapolis.

Please share this! I sent a version of these stories (before this was published today) to a non-Minnesota work network, w donation links, & asked people to share what’s happening Just got an email from someone who sent it to her mom, who sent it to her church, where it‘s inspiring resistance plans

pulling this reflection on white silence/fear over here, too:

I tried to turn my rage yesterday into something that brings us some light. For @newrepublic.com, I wrote about how 2020 prepared Minneapolis for the current crisis of Trump's DHS. newrepublic.com/article/2050...

Minnesota Public Radio says today marks the first and only shooting and homicide in Minneapolis in the year 2026

tomorrow's not real it can't hurt us

oh shit tomorrow is circle back day already

It did not "go viral". It was intentionally filmed and disseminated using a network of coordinated bots, amplified by an algorithm designed to spread this kind of content quickly. This was a harassment campaign, intended to silence everyone. Call it what it is.

The lecturer in question is our colleague in children’s literature studies. She is a brilliant scholar and from all accounts a gifted teacher. This ruling is infuriating… at the end of the day, it is our students’ education that will suffer.

There's a difference between traditional public records requests and a searchable database and a system that considers this their property.

Friends please stop saying immigrants are treated poorly because they are “seen as criminals” as tho if they were “criminals” it would justify torture or no medical care or food. The violence we acquiesced to is what got us here. High time we recognize NO human deserves to be treated this way.

If you haven’t had your pre-christmas meltdown yet there’s still time

Actual policy linked in thread.

“This is a student who did nothing wrong on a campus that is already in mourning,” says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on the "enraging" story of right-wing figures falsely claiming with zero evidence the Brown University gunman was a Palestinian student.

yeah yeah yeah be careful with how scientific studies get reported, pay attention to details, etc. etc. etc. Also: sometimes I just want to enjoy the headline.

IM GONNA LIVE FOREVER

“Kai Erikson, Who Studied the Collective Trauma Left by Disasters, Dies at 94 - He said Hurricane Katrina was ‘far and away the most telling disaster of our national experience’.” www.wsj.com/health/kai-e...

Hey sociology lovers! After losing our program to Hurricane Katrina and a 20-year hiatus, Tulane University is re-launching its PhD in sociology! If you'd like to learn more, please reach out at [email protected]. I'd be happy to chat to prospective students or faculty who might send some our way.

This entire weekend

Horrifying. All of it, god.

People are taken back when many academics respond so viscerally to so many uses of GenAI, but this is why. One of the only really good values you learn in academia--or at least in my corner of it--is citation. Choosing not to cite just makes you a low-down thief.

"Rachel Friedberg, a Brown economics professor, said the mass shooting happened in a review session for the final exam of her Principles of Economics course. She said she learned what happened from a teaching assistant who led the session. Friedberg herself was not present."

Love to everyone at Brown today. Also: repeal the damned 2nd amendment and ban all the guns already. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...