Dave Mazella
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davemazella.bsky.social
Dave Mazella
@davemazella.bsky.social
3.4K followers 4.2K following 7.8K posts
eighteenth-century scholar in Heatstroke, TX. let's see how this goes.

Book: Making of Modern Cynicism, now in paperback from UVA press: https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2793/
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davemazella.bsky.social
Dave Mazella @davemazella.bsky.social · Oct 25
My book on ancient and modern cynicism, The Making of Modern Cynicism (2007, UVA press), is now available again in paperback!

Because cynicism never goes out of fashion.

www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2793/
The Making of Modern Cynicism
<div><p>Once describing a life of exile, self-denial, physical rigor, and mastery of one’s desires, cynicism now describes a life of political quietis
www.upress.virginia.edu
davemazella.bsky.social
👇👇👇👇
figgityfigs.bsky.social The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 4h
The thing about all the Newsom posting is that people are giving themselves negative feelings about the party as a whole based on something at best hypothetical (more likely imaginary) and after the thing doesn’t come to pass, those negative feelings will remain, searching for justification.
February 13, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
jamellebouie.net
related to the view among the professional commentariat that only students at ivys and boutique liberal arts colleges actually matter
mcopelov.bsky.social Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 8h
This elitist view that only rich/Ivy/private school kids should study/have access the liberal arts is so deeply ingrained in so many highly educated Democrats’ views (including tons who majored in the lib arts themselves) that they don’t even realize they hold it, let alone how ugly & elitist it is
asheeshksi.bsky.social Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshksi.bsky.social · 9h
(3) But the Democrat view is also bad: while it's fine for people at Princeton and Harvard to study Latin and Sanskrit, public higher education is about job training and $ ROI. There is no room for the idea that curiosity-driven inquiry is a good that should be supported by the public.
February 13, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
marcelias.bsky.social
🚨BREAKING: In a big win for Virginia Democrats’ efforts to counter President Donald Trump’s GOP gerrymanders in other states, the Virginia Supreme Court said the state can hold its special election on the redistricting plan. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
In victory for Democrats, Virginia Supreme Court says redistricting vote can go forward
Voters will get to decide on a proposed “10-1” map that could deliver four more Democratic seats in Congress.
www.democracydocket.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
johndownesangus.bsky.social
Have been talking with @manshel.bsky.social about this for a while—I have a lot to say, but will say generally that I’d much rather think about my work in conversation with him and other humanities scholars, rather than with what some McKinsey alum thinks public school kids should all do.
manshel.bsky.social Alexander Manshel @manshel.bsky.social · 5h
As some of you may know, I’m writing a book on the history of high school English in the United States, and I’m excited to share a new article from that project—“High School English and the Making of American Readers”—out today in American Literary History! 🧵

academic.oup.com/alh/article/...
High School English and the Making of American Readers
Abstract. The high school English classroom is the most influential literary institution in the United States, and the most overlooked by literary scholars
academic.oup.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
chadloder.bsky.social
It's not enough to criminally prosecute these people when Trump is out of office. We need to be going after their fucking money relentlessly, hounding them and their families and dismantling their financial empires like a resurrected Thomas Dewey from the 1930s.
February 13, 2026 at 5:40 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
These look really good
roperlou.bsky.social Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 7h
#earlymodern
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 12h
‘Couriers communicated gossip, rumour and political intelligence between cities and states, labourers in a vast information infrastructure that worked across languages and borders.’

@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on early modern news.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
February 13, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
hyperallergic.com
Without warning, the University of North Texas abruptly shuttered an exhibition of works by Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez, whose practice centers the lived experience of immigrants in the United States and their inhumane treatment by federal agencies.
University of North Texas Shutters Exhibition of Artworks Critical of ICE
Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez, a Mexican-American artist whose work centers immigrant experiences, said the school closed his show without notice.
hyperallergic.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
roopikarisam.bsky.social
So excited for next month's (in-person) Data in Action Symposium! Artificial intelligence has made one thing unmistakably clear: data matters. This symposium examines what happens when social life is translated into data. Learn more and RSVP: sites.dartmouth.edu/dhse-symposi...
Flyer for Data in Action Data, Power, and Public Life SYMPOSIUM MARCH 11, 2026 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Drop-ins Welcome HAYWARD ROOM • HANOVER INN SPEAKERS Abigail Echo-Hawk Scott Weingart Jennifer Guiliano Yanni Loukissas Eli Holder RSVP & DETAILS dartgo.org/datainaction2026
February 13, 2026 at 6:41 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
a bad idea (cops in schools) that's always been bad has now been made far worse (school cops doing immigration enforcement on children)
us.theguardian.com Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 10h
Police departments across the US are quietly leveraging school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement campaign, an investigation by @the74.bsky.social reveals.
Headline card with text at the top that reads: "Local police aid ICE by tapping school cameras amid Trump's immigration crackdown". A photo illustration shows ICE officers arresting someone overlaid with a yellow pedestrian crossing sign.
February 13, 2026 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
sardonicus.eu
Klaus Kinski (left) and a dog.
man in bed holding a dog and a gun, he looks alarmed
February 13, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
c18ah.bsky.social
On this day (322 years ago), Robert Dodsley (1704-1764)’s birth date.

Poems are included in the #EighteenthCenturyPoetryArchive:
https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00023.shtml

#c18th #poetry #DH #18thCentury #OnThisDay #OTD
Robert Dodsley (1704-1764) / © National Portrait Gallery, London
February 13, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
huber-digital.bsky.social
We've refreshed the Huber Digital website!

Huber Digital is a Digital Humanities consultancy focussed on open scholarship, engaging and accessible interfaces, citability, and long-term sustainability.

New look, same focus on thoughtful digital humanities work: hubers.org.uk

#DigitalHumanities
Screenshot of the new Huber Digital website
February 13, 2026 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
lromeranth.bsky.social
Being mad at Mellon's tastemaking power, without asking why the funders of humanities research with more conservative agendas lack the same prestige, is a symptom of a terminal populism brain. This conflation of class and prestige makes these folks prime dupes for right-wing culture war discourse.
February 13, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
gregsargent.bsky.social
The extraordinary courage of people who are documenting ICE atrocities in places like Minneapolis, at great personal risk, are also achieving something else: They're changing the public's mind about immigration. We have a rare opportunity here. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
How the Democrats Can Play Offense on Immigration
Typically, Democrats run for the hills when immigration comes up. But as two blue-state governors are showing, the winning play is actually to confront ICE and MAGA xenophobia head on.
newrepublic.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
Everyone’s competing for the World’s Worst Boss prize
davidjroth.bsky.social David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 19h
It's not a new observation at this point but that wild Noem/Lewandowski story in WSJ really brings home the extent to which all the Trump 2 cabinet-level goblins see their jobs as flying private, doing short-form video, and screaming at underlings. They all hate each other and none of them can read.
February 13, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
sownow.bsky.social
Remembering author Kurt Vonnegut today. At the age of 22, he was an American prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany.
It was on this day in 1945 that England’s Royal Air Force began the overwhelming aerial bombing of Dresden.
#War #Bombing #POW #WWII #History #OTD #WriterSky #BookSky #BookHistory
The U.S. Army Air Force started flying bombing missions attacking Dresden the next day, February 14th. Over three days, the combined amount of explosive ordnance dropped on Dresden exceeded 3,900 tons. The sustained attack caused a firestorm that engulfed the city and destroyed more than 2 and a half miles of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure. The American author Kurt Vonnegut was a 22-year-old U.S. soldier held as a prisoner of war in Dresden on the days of the attack. Eventually he wrote about his experience in the novel Slaughter-House 5, the name of the building he was in as the bombs fell. A b/w photo of the aftermath of the Dresden fire bombing of 1945 Photo credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Image source: History.com
February 13, 2026 at 1:58 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
If this doesn’t get turned into a comic or movie I’ll be v disappointed
February 13, 2026 at 2:53 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
👇👇👇👇
jonathanstegall.bsky.social Jonathan Stegall @jonathanstegall.bsky.social · 10h
Five years ago @ashoncrawley.bsky.social posted a thing about care that feels really timely again. www.facebook.com/ashon/posts/...
a facebook post from Ashon Crawley on February 13, 2021. It reads: i am sympathetic to folks that say *the* reason why the black panther party of self defense was a threat was because of the breakfast program. i am also sympathetic to the folks that say that is too reductive, that they were more than a breakfast progrum.* i think it’s in the middle: the BPP was a threat because they practiced care. and care showed up *as* a breakfast program, yes, but also as health clinics, as armed defense, as reading groups. care work as political organizing. care as the grounds for its emergence. care. one reason i’ve focused on care in my own work for years now is because black feminist thought informs my own, and black queer critique. and because care is often considered the antithesis of “serious things” and i’m just fundamentally against this. if care is soft or frilly or whatever, we need to have a preferential option for softness. care is something white supremacist capitalist patriarchy cannot give nor withhold, even when it tries to privatize care as an industry that is primarily about making money and exploiting workers. care is not private property, it only exists when it is shared. care is the antithesis and alternative to white supremacy, to riff on cedric robinson, because it must be. but it is so much more. it exceeds the logic of reactive response to practices of violence. it precedes the violence and political economy of extraction and exploitation. care, even if soft, ain’t easy. it takes courage. and conviction. and clarity. (i’m a former preacher, so the alliteration is a throwback lol.) you only have care when you share it. and sharing it is difficult precisely because the political economy of racial capitalism wants us to privatize and hoard what we consider it to be. care. let it flower and bloom. selah. 🌸💕
February 13, 2026 at 2:44 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
Just radically unfit to do their jobs
talkingpointsmemo.com TPM @talkingpointsmemo.com · 10h
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee keep decrying nominees as unqualified extremists. They also keep voting to turn those nominees into life-tenured federal judges.
talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-are...
Why Are Senate Democrats Still Voting to Confirm Trump’s Judicial Nominees?
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first in a series of eight...
talkingpointsmemo.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
texasaaup.bsky.social
“Abolishing those programs and the lessons about gender they have taught, will, Trump and his acolytes hope, undermine our ability not just to condemn, but also to critically analyze the policies and practices they want to impose.” ⬇️

apple.news/AKMfWvNjjS8i...
Opinion | Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why — Guardian US
Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why
apple.news
February 13, 2026 at 2:19 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
More evidence that CBP is bigger, more violent, & more criminal than anyone they’ve picked up
sanho.bsky.social Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 10h
“The population of CBP agents and officers who have been arrested would make it roughly the nation’s fourth largest police department — equal to the size of the entire Philadelphia police.”🤯
brunojnavarro.bsky.social Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 11h
Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...
February 13, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
brunojnavarro.bsky.social
Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...
Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005. CBP's misconduct scandal is so long-running that today it would be old enough to drink. In total, according to CBP's own discipline reports, over the 20 years from 2005 to 2024 - the last year numbers are available - at least 4,913 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents have been arrested themselves, some multiple times. (In 2018 alone, a single CBP employee was arrested five times.) To put that number in perspective: • The population of CBP agents and officers who have been arrested would make it roughly the nation's fourth largest police department - equal to the size of the entire Philadelphia police.
February 13, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
daviddarmofal.bsky.social
Bad news for Ohio State’s right-wing Salmon P. Chase Center that was forced on OSU by the authoritarian Republicans who run Ohio:
People magazine has now picked up the story.
Professor Filmed Allegedly Tackling Documentarian to the Ground on Campus. A Day Later, He Was Put on Leave
On Monday, Feb. 9, Luke Perez, an assistant professor at Ohio State University, was captured on camera tackling a filmmaker to the ground. The next day, he was placed on leave pending an investigation...
people.com
February 13, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Dave Mazella
maxberger.bsky.social
The problems with AI are primarily ones of corporate power and governance—a tiny handful of billionaires are deciding the future of this increasingly powerful technology.

I tend to believe the whistleblowers here; but whether you do or not, the real problem is that the public doesn’t decide.
Anthropic safety researcher quits, warning ‘world is in peril’
Other AI safety researchers have also left leading firms, citing concerns about potentially catastrophic risks.
www.semafor.com
February 12, 2026 at 6:39 PM
davemazella.bsky.social
Cool to center the white guy & make Crockett AI Ochre
diplomatofnight.com Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 21h
who the hell is on the right
newrepublic.com The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 22h
A base that has long made pragmatic, sober decisions appears increasingly attracted to charismatic outsiders who promise to break from the party’s failures of the last decade. They see their party’s leaders as feckless and inept.

It’s the Democratic Tea Party, with a twist. trib.al/mC5cBDA
February 13, 2026 at 3:05 AM