Here's what this is actually about, dumbass

People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.

I’ve had some papers published recently so I’m gonna post brief summaries and links here. They’re all dealing with the metaphysics of consciousness, though in one case with an overlap into, uh, philosophical entomology?

Texas censorship news.

Sometimes I defend high-minded principles of peace and goodwill that I think consonant with leftist values, but my opponents are always able to cite all the worker led socialist paradises that ruthless willingness to deploy violence have wrought so I'm forced to bow before their superior pragmatism.

Our November 7 day of action to defend higher education has taken the country by storm! ✊ “There is only one way forward in saving higher education and democracy writ large and that is students, faculty, staff united...We have to become a new political force.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Hear @proftwolf.bsky.social: “OUR compact is: higher education as a public good—that means free college for all; that means an end to student debt; that means work with dignity for everyone on our campuses; it means freedom to teach and freedom to learn without Big Brother on our back!”

Trump: "Hear me, President Trump, when I say this: to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us."

At this point, anyone—a university, a law firm, a corporation, a Democrat—bending the knee to Trump is doing it because they want to, not because of any political reality.

“Individuals on the ground sent a message that reached us Monday morning that 1,200 were dead,” Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said. “By that evening, they said 10,000. By Tuesday, we couldn’t reach them anymore. We assume our ground contacts are dead.”

On November 17 and 18, there will be an online launch of the book “Are ant colonies conscious? Collective minds and philosophical implications,” with the participation of the authors. We invite all interested parties to attend the event. Registration via QR CODE.

This week at The Junkyard: A post by Luke Roelofs junkyardofthemind.com/blog/2025/10...

Join us tomorrow at No Kings II! AAUP members will be out in force. indivisibletompkins.org/event/no-kin...

Check out AAUP’s statement denouncing the Trump admin’s compact and undemocratic loyalty oaths here👇

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

This is big government run amok; will Texas students have to endure government officials censoring professors in the classroom? That isn’t Texas and it isn’t America. 4/5

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads theconversation.com/studying-phi...

"Because reactionary centrists do not really have values, they struggle to understand the motivations of those who do." www.thebulwark.com/p/when-moder...

If you started paying attention to the US in 1960, this sure feels like the darkest timeline. But unfortunately, purges against Black & brown people are normal US behavior. You know what's NOT normal US behavior? This is the first time there's been a mass movement to STOP a purge in real time.

hands-down the best thing i've read about the sex wars (and why they still really matter for today's politics) jude-doyle.ghost.io/this-is-how-...

RIP Helen De Cruz (1978-2025) 💔 Helen De Cruz @helendecruz.net), professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, has died. dailynous.com/2025/06/20/h...

I looked this up, and yes, it is real. I've included an article about it in the comments. Please share for those who may need it. Thank you!

Some topical listening...

Honestly surprised I haven't seen more use of this clip today

First the AHA, now the APA, comes out in opposition to Texas Republicans attempts to kill higher education by a thousand cuts: www.apaonline.org/news/702273/...

Absolutely co-signing this defene of empathy, as a source of knowledge and a form of strength, that we need more of rather than less.

Had a great chat recently with Jack Sezer at Veridical Podcast! Mostly about abortion but more broadly about the philosophy of mind and contemporary politics. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

"Fuck you, make me" (@clairewillett.bsky.social's phrase) turning out to have an incredible win rate so far in this administration

RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory. arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

ACTION ALERT: Texans, stop a state takeover of higher ed! This alert from Texas AAUP-AFT asks your legislators to oppose SB 37, a power grab that would give administrators full control over curricular and grievance decisions. Tell your representative— vote no! secure.everyaction.com/0zggTzaLTEmP...

I like this analysis of the “long 90s”, as a political/economic/social settlement that solidified in the 80s and has now broken down. (The economic and social dimensions definitely extend to countries outside the US, not sure how far the political stuff does)

🔔 Here is the full list of our online panels, workshops and teach-ins today, April 17. There is still time to register for one or all of these events. Some will be recorded but others will not, so don’t miss out!! 👇👇 #DayofActionforHigherEd #FreeHigherEdNow

This is how you do it. The "Mutual Academic Defense Compact". The moral imperative may be to fight... but the strategic imperative is to not fight alone: www.gazettenet.com/UMass-Amhers...

Five alarm fire for academic freedom in Texas, which now threatens to close programs that teach factual history.

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Texans, stop this state takeover of higher ed! This @texasaaup.bsky.social alert asks your legislators to oppose SB 37, a power grab to give administrators full control over curricular and grievance decisions. Tell your senator to vote no! secure.everyaction.com/wJsYTW_hD0e_...

I was on the fence about Colossal at the wolves at first: they’re not sure wolves, they’re GMO gray wolves with a superficial resemblance, but I can extend benefit of the doubt to people doing cool stuff with science, and a degree of public exaggeration isn’t unusual. archive.ph/2025.04.10-1...

In the last few weeks I read several times about how "Nazis destroyed German Universities, and the country haven't recovered since", and thought "surely it's a bit of an exaggeration". But this chart of Nobel laureates over time shows just how (relatively) abrupt the end of the "German era" was

if we want to rebuild american institutions and earn back the world’s trust after this we cannot settle for half-measures. lots of people need to go prison. lots more need to be permanently stripped of wealth and power.

my competitive advantage for Great Depression II is that i love beans and rice

Fairly undeniable at this point that abolish ICE was always the only reasonable position

What's most significant about today's day of action is the sheer number of locations where protests took place -- more than 1000 towns and cities, all over the country. That's only happened one or two times before *in all of American history.*

the porn brain of the new right. the reactionaries dreaming of rape. the unsettledness of all things. is there a better way? yes. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-new-gend...

AAUP has just published a memo laying out the many legal reasons why universities should not hand over the names & nationalities of their students or faculty, as the Trump admin has asked. Please share freely with your friendly university admin! @aaup.bsky.social www.aaup.org/news/institu...

another thread i want to emphasize--and one that came up in my discussion with bret devereaux last week--is how successfully responding to a constitutional crisis requires understanding the nature of that crisis. it's therefore worth considering what trump+musk *think* they are trying to do--

Currently at this cool event, thinking about links between the different elements of a movement for social change bioneers.org,

NYU canceled an invited talk by the former president of Doctors Without Borders, out of fear her talk would be accused by the government of being both anti-Trump and antisemitic: ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/215...

people really want the current divisions in the D party to be left/center. they aren't really though. the big division right now is currently fight/don't fight.

The most obvious lesson to draw from the leaked Signal chat is that these people really are morons. It's not a public act, it's not a schtick, there's not some secret back room where they drop the facade. They are genuinely stupid, incompetent people.