Alan Richardson
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alanrichardson.bsky.social
Alan Richardson
@alanrichardson.bsky.social

Professor of Philosophy, UBC
Faculty Member, Science and Technology Studies Graduate Program, UBC
Philosophy of Science
History of Philosophy of Science

Philosophy 46%
History 20%

Reposted by Alan Richardson

An (embarrassing) mastery of the passive voice, here.
President Donald Trump gifted the world with nearly 200 Truth Social posts (and counting) on Christmas Day, where he amplified conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and called for a member of Congress to be deported.
Trump Posts Nearly 200 Times in Unhinged Christmas Day Spree
The president amplified conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and called for a member of Congress to be deported.
trib.al

Cool—the USA hasn’t really done Christmas bombing since Kissinger
Trump on Christmas: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria.”
Trump on Christmas: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria.”

Reposted by Alan Richardson

The @theatlantic.com claims that Canadians will use "treachery" to make America and its media look "silly".
No, we are a democratic people who hate thugs and their pusillanimous enablers.
Deal with it.

Reposted by Alan Richardson

What is it with California governors and destroying the state's higher education system? (Reagan started the destruction.)
In their approach to higher education, Trump and Newsom shared one thing in common this year: reducing funding for colleges and universities. bit.ly/4jadlD4

📸 Adriana Heldiz

If I were writing a gay romance about a winter sport, I’d go with curling. It has a more apposite vocabulary than hockey does.
Here’s the U.S. government being officially religious in a country with no official religion.
Fun fact from our textbook (to illustrate how crime is socially constructed) to bug the Christian nationalists with: it was a crime to celebrate Christmas from 1659 to 1681 in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Reposted by Alan Richardson

The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility. https://to.pbs.org/4sesdVc
Christmas Eve jazz concert at Kennedy Center canceled after Trump name added to building
The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.
www.pbs.org
The federal government abruptly cut nearly $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics in retaliation for criticizing policies of Health Secretary RFK Jr., the organization alleged in a new lawsuit.
National pediatrics association sues, claiming HHS grant cuts were retaliatory
The American Academy of Pediatrics says nearly $12 million in grants cuts were made because it criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies.
www.washingtonpost.com
Trump: I am fine. You sound beautiful and cute. How old are you?

Caller: I am eight

She showed a decent level of awareness that something called “the Bible” exists
one little thing that really rankles about the reporting on this story is how they say she "cited" the bible. no she didn't! she alluded to it at best
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 1d
The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.” https://cnn.it/4b6g3rd

Reposted by Alan Richardson

one little thing that really rankles about the reporting on this story is how they say she "cited" the bible. no she didn't! she alluded to it at best
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 1d
The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.” https://cnn.it/4b6g3rd
Oklahoma instructor removed from teaching for failing a Bible-based gender essay | CNN
The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.”
cnn.it

Reposted by Alan Richardson

… were they still in the Mar A Lago bathroom?
A million pages is conservatively 400 bankers boxes.
A million pages is conservatively 400 bankers boxes.
Once again: an authoritarian using the government to punish private institutions is not a "duel". www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...
In Private Letters, Harvard and Trump Administration Escalate Duel
www.nytimes.com
Jack Smith is calling for the House Judiciary Committee to release the recording of his full closed-door deposition before the panel.

"Doing so will ensure that the American people can hear the facts directly from Mr. Smith, rather than through second-hand accounts."
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:

My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.

Huh? When did I say that?!
And human beings are not packages, you fascist ghouls 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
New Bari Weiss & CBS leadership note to staff—

“…Americans say they do not trust the press…To win back their trust, we have to work hard.”

“Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories…sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.”

I am giving everyone a jigsaw puzzle this year but I am mixing all the pieces together and then reseparating them into 1000 piece chunks. “Solution not guaranteed!”
- Oregon is leading a group of states in suing over RFK Jr.'s efforts to bar any federally-funded medical providers from providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors. The case is assigned to Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (Biden).

Complaint: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Reposted by Alan Richardson

The American right, including Jay Bhattacharya, is trying to weaponize free speech by crying censorship.

But freedom of speech isn't freedom of reach.
To fight back, scientific institutions should say that junk science is junk.

New post from me:
1/
Saying bad ideas are bad isn't censorship
The core goal is a free and fair public debate, and billionaires promoting their favored speech tilts the free marketplace of ideas.
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com

More Canadian treachery brewing

Gave paper exams for the first time in years this year because AI cheating. Not one student complaint. I never recognize the universities described in American media.
Does anyone else bristle at this framing? WSJ says blue books are “torturing” students with hand cramps, and “nobody likes them.”

Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.
They Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now Blue Books Are Back.
Cheating with ChatGPT has become a huge problem for colleges. The solution is painfully old-school.
www.wsj.com
thomas chatterton williams, whose main literary output is three memoirs of declining quality, and who has written the same essay ad nauseam for 10 years, nonetheless has a sinecure at the atlantic, a teaching job at an elite college, and a nice handful of prestigious fellowships

It is so fatuous. I don’t want anyone staying in my apartment but that means exactly nothing re who I think should be deported.
Not wanting to host a stranger at your home, of course, is the standard for locking someone up in a foreign concentration camp.

Do I want the Salvation Army singers at my house? No. Off to the forever prison then, those are our only two options I’m afraid.

This is a nice Christmas story
"Santa, your failure to plan for an extremely common weather occurrence has led you to devise a murderously reckless plan, just the latest crisis brought on by late capitalists’ misguided faith in 'innovation' and 'disruption' as ends in themselves."
Rudolph the Red Won’t Guide Santa’s Bourgeois Sleigh Tonight
First, let’s get one thing clear, Santa: I ain’t a scab. The collective bargaining agreement clearly mandates the sleigh be led by a union-approved...
buff.ly