Employers still value Ivy League degrees and conduct interviews without even considering GPA. The recent anti-grade inflation policies promote meritocracy, but they won’t be worth much if Ivies continue to reproduce class difference.

*flinching* happy graduation! your 20s will be great!

the publishers who drove Aaron Swartz to suicide for stealing their databases are now selling them wholesale to AI companies

If you've ever thought to yourself, "I wish there were a theorist of ecological communism who also made great wallpaper," then I have an article just for you. doi.org/10.1177/1474...

Vance is Milton’s Satan made for reality TV

Faisal Devji’s argument that with ‘jihadi violence’ effects are severed from causes still holds, albeit with inverted referents: the US that has abandoned ‘the politics of control. Its violence towards Iran floats free of an underlying strategy, enacting a potentially exploitable risk environment.

One thing‘s clear: war & sanctions hinder Iran’s freedom struggle. Bc of the US & Israel, Iran is in a state of emergency and the IRGC is in power. Don't use the Islamic Republic as a racist caricature against which to take pleasure in your 'civilized' facade. The caricature’s a lie. So are you.

Imagine if Kissinger accidentally leaked plans to drop napalm over Vietnam to the New York Times and the public outcry was over the breach of confidentiality.

The last ep. of Severance frames the procedure—the regulation of alienation under capitalism—as the rationalization of religious alienation. Abstract labor, the projection of human qualities on an external being and the second term of the outtie’s unhappy consciousness, is returning to itself.

I've enjoyed teaching at the University of Arkansas, but my contract sadly terminates at the end of the semester. If anybody knows of any teaching opportunities for next year, please keep me in mind. I can teach Political Theory, Comparative Politics, Black PT, & Middle East Studies.

The consent to oligarchical/monarchical rule isn't mutually exclusive from libertarianism. Libertarians confuse freedom with abandonment: to be free is to be free to secure a livelihood; any social arrangement that maintains freedom is domination; the state's role is to enforce non-domination.

The past is present: during the Gilded Age, the GOP imposed high tariffs to protect capital while advocating for Social Darwinism to give ideological justification to the oligarchy's right to exist.

lenin failed to consider a decade where a decade happens

From the Chicago Boys' 'structural adjustment programs' in Chile, neoliberal restructuring has been complemented by programs that bolster the repressive state apparatus. In the Global South, the US spearheaded a two-pronged project: knee-capping the welfare state & bolstering the military/police.

Chronic understaffing amongst air traffic controllers started after Reagan cracked down on the PATCO strikers: jacobin.com/2023/09/reag...

in 2016, the flurry of executive orders was so rapid & scattered our collective attention was scattered too. part of what this does, intentional or not, is it overwhelms & exhausts us. working out this 'collective action problem' of sorts of how to focus & direct attention, & energies, is crucial

the politically neutered celebration of diversity has finally brought us to its last stage: fascists are neurodivergent

we can debate whether he's a fascist based on whether it was really a Nazi salute or just, you know, listen to the words that come out of his mouth

MLK, “The Other America” (1967)

who wore it better?

watching a two hour TSA recruitment ad (Carry On)

Millennial time is Macaulay and Mario in the 1990s, Kieran and Luigi in the 2020s

sometimes people say “disavowal” and they really just mean “nuh-uh”

universal healthcare would be the most rational “deterrent”

a big go fuck yourself to the ends of the earth to matt gaetz

Often when theorists ask, “What does X mean?” they’re actually asking, “How does X mean?”

We’ve already had a reality TV show called Big Brother

looking forward to debating whether this is technically fascism or not with you in the re-education camp mess hall

Every headline is like: President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Vlad the Impaler to head the Department of Impalement Prevention

I’m feel like I’m in the WPSA hotel lobby here

i'm old enough to remember finger wagging and warnings about inflammatory overreach by scholars describing Israel with the term "settler colonialism"

This is my Roman Empire.

I'm happy to share my newly published chapter in Prehistories of the War on Terror: A Critical Genealogy

writing 'cringe' instead of 'awkward' on student papers

The next months will be easier if the left acts with the knowledge that the voting booth is actually where politics ends & that voting is not a direct expression of moral vision. On those terms, once the decision of a nominee’s been made, the endless talk about them is a waste of time and energy.

A syllabus for intro to political theory (for an app). Suggestions welcome.

When Fox News foretold the 'anarchy of epistemic authority' to come, Jon Stewart's efforts to fact-check his way to a moral order was tragic; today it's a farce. Back then, he disavowed ideology, insisting on a middle ground: "sanity." What if that 'position' isn't available? What if it never was?

reading through this now and reader, it is good. if you’re in nyc, consider dropping by for this conversation

I wonder how many syllabi I'll eventually come up with just applying to positions...Anyway, here's one:

Teaching Leviathan today

I'm presenting the first chapter of my book mss at the Minnesota Political Theory Colloquium next week. Please come if you're in the area!

same energy

BREAKING: SEGA workers in California have voted 91-26 in favor of unionizing. They span multiple SEGA of America departments, making them the first multi-departmental union at a video game company in U.S. history.

MIB reception history, from Roxanne Varzi’s Warring Souls

In Early Graduate School, I Learned Too Much About Heidegger. This Is My Confession.

aside from citations, another chapter complete