Werner Herzog's Bear
@jasontebbe.bsky.social
Teacher, historian, and blogger. Born and raised in Nebraska, working in NYC, living in Jersey.
Substack: I Used to Be Disgusted, Now I Try to Be Amused https://jasontebbe.substack.com/
Substack: I Used to Be Disgusted, Now I Try to Be Amused https://jasontebbe.substack.com/
“Whether we want it or not, our next constitutional moment is upon us. At Liberal Currents, we intend to arm liberals to take advantage of that moment, rather than allowing ourselves to be dragged along by events.”
The past year has been terrifying. Really, the past two—I lost a lot of sleep in 2024 over the promises of the Trump campaign, promises they immediately sought to make good on. But at the end of the first year of his would-be dictatorship, I am calling it: we are going to win.
We Are Going to Win
Trump's revolution will fail, but we still have a long and painful road ahead of us.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM
“Whether we want it or not, our next constitutional moment is upon us. At Liberal Currents, we intend to arm liberals to take advantage of that moment, rather than allowing ourselves to be dragged along by events.”
At my old school I taught a lot of kids of famous people but always kept things professional. However I almost shouted out “hot damn, it’s the Soggy Bottom Boys!” when I saw Tim Blake Nelson on parents’ night.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
December 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
At my old school I taught a lot of kids of famous people but always kept things professional. However I almost shouted out “hot damn, it’s the Soggy Bottom Boys!” when I saw Tim Blake Nelson on parents’ night.
Reposted by Werner Herzog's Bear
The biggest mistake liberalism made was to watch conservatives worship the constitution and “the founders” like idols for decades and believe they really meant it.
The constitution and the rule of law they hold dear are the versions in their heads where they get to do whatever they are want.
The constitution and the rule of law they hold dear are the versions in their heads where they get to do whatever they are want.
December 30, 2025 at 1:49 PM
The biggest mistake liberalism made was to watch conservatives worship the constitution and “the founders” like idols for decades and believe they really meant it.
The constitution and the rule of law they hold dear are the versions in their heads where they get to do whatever they are want.
The constitution and the rule of law they hold dear are the versions in their heads where they get to do whatever they are want.
I have started writing a private log reflecting on the books I read (partially to assist my aging memory) and decided to write up some highlights in case you need book tips. open.substack.com/pub/jasonteb...
My Year in Books
In 2024 I decided to start logging the books I read.
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:38 PM
I have started writing a private log reflecting on the books I read (partially to assist my aging memory) and decided to write up some highlights in case you need book tips. open.substack.com/pub/jasonteb...
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A lot of people are trying to justify their own desire to surrender to Trump early in the year
I am annoyed by the persistence of 'resist libs are tired of resisting Trump' line.
No Kings put record-breaking numbers of people into the streets, specials/off-years are at D+10 or more.
I don't think the resist libs are tired. I think some writers are tired of writing about resist libs.
No Kings put record-breaking numbers of people into the streets, specials/off-years are at D+10 or more.
I don't think the resist libs are tired. I think some writers are tired of writing about resist libs.
December 29, 2025 at 11:40 PM
A lot of people are trying to justify their own desire to surrender to Trump early in the year
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So much of what is going on is an assault by the willfully ignorant against the idea of truth. And yes it is authoritarian but it isn’t calculated or planned. It is petulant, stupid and primal.
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
December 30, 2025 at 4:59 AM
So much of what is going on is an assault by the willfully ignorant against the idea of truth. And yes it is authoritarian but it isn’t calculated or planned. It is petulant, stupid and primal.
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I hate how Gen X likes to post on social media about how we weren't allowed in the house and had to drink from the hose, but people really were very mean and racist and cruel back then in ways you just can't show on TV. Not all of them, and not all the time, but enough to leave wounds.
I told my tech coordinator and her partner my issue with Stranger Things was the adults and kids weren't mean enough and they *laughed at me.*
December 30, 2025 at 3:41 AM
I hate how Gen X likes to post on social media about how we weren't allowed in the house and had to drink from the hose, but people really were very mean and racist and cruel back then in ways you just can't show on TV. Not all of them, and not all the time, but enough to leave wounds.
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There are many examples of this even beyond those in the piece below - from specialized dance expertise to travel league soccer to fencing, sport is less and less an outlet and a place for growth among children and it is more and more another stressor and arrow in their resume-building quiver.
“There’s this push to specialize earlier and earlier,” said Meredith Whitley, a professor at Adelphi University who studies youth sports. “But at what cost? For those young people, you’re seeing burnout happen earlier because of injuries, overuse and mental fatigue.”
As Youth Sports Professionalize, Kids Are Burning Out Fast
www.nytimes.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:45 AM
There are many examples of this even beyond those in the piece below - from specialized dance expertise to travel league soccer to fencing, sport is less and less an outlet and a place for growth among children and it is more and more another stressor and arrow in their resume-building quiver.
Reposted by Werner Herzog's Bear
unstoppable force (US/UK boomer need for care labour) vs immovable object (the global g20 rage against immigrant labour)
The largest generation in U.S. history is in their 70s now. And Stephen Miller’s podcaster wife thinks it’s suspicious that there’s a huge surge in home health aides.
December 29, 2025 at 11:08 PM
unstoppable force (US/UK boomer need for care labour) vs immovable object (the global g20 rage against immigrant labour)
Reposted by Werner Herzog's Bear
The idea that we should be happy all the time, and that if we're not happy there is something wrong with us, is arguably one of the worst ideas propagated by the late 20th century. Maybe unhappiness is a rational and healthy response to whatever situation you're presently in.
could the “you should be able to be happy living anywhere, and if you’re not able to do that, it’s a skill issue” contingent tell that to my winter seasonal depression, please?
because MAN would that simplify my life if the cure, which I somehow never thought of before, was that easy
because MAN would that simplify my life if the cure, which I somehow never thought of before, was that easy
December 30, 2025 at 1:05 AM
The idea that we should be happy all the time, and that if we're not happy there is something wrong with us, is arguably one of the worst ideas propagated by the late 20th century. Maybe unhappiness is a rational and healthy response to whatever situation you're presently in.
Reposted by Werner Herzog's Bear
Microplastics are here to stay; that's why we need to eat them responsibly in the classroom
August 3, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Microplastics are here to stay; that's why we need to eat them responsibly in the classroom
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This is MTG'w bill. She personally authored. It's happening now, not in the past.
Spare me her redemption arc.
Spare me her redemption arc.
December 29, 2025 at 6:37 PM
This is MTG'w bill. She personally authored. It's happening now, not in the past.
Spare me her redemption arc.
Spare me her redemption arc.
It’s kinda wild that we all got to live at the moment of peak human literacy.
December 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
It’s kinda wild that we all got to live at the moment of peak human literacy.
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🎶Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes🎶
It brings on many changes🎶
The US invented the solar panel & wind turbine, notes @billmckibben.bsky.social:
"We could have owned these technologies, & instead we’ve just ceded them to our theoretical main rival... I don’t think there’s been an act of national self-sabotage quite like this." www.theguardian.com/environment/...
"We could have owned these technologies, & instead we’ve just ceded them to our theoretical main rival... I don’t think there’s been an act of national self-sabotage quite like this." www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘This is the Costco of energy, man!’: author Bill McKibben on the promise of renewables
The activist and author of Here Comes the Sun discusses rapid advances in solar and wind power and how the US ceded leadership in the sector to its main rival
www.theguardian.com
December 28, 2025 at 11:20 AM
🎶Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes🎶
It brings on many changes🎶
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This was the best Bond:
December 28, 2025 at 3:33 AM
This was the best Bond:
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"I love living in a city, but I hate dealing with other people. I shouldn’t be subject to the whims of my neighbors, something I constantly scream at them during city council meetings." #McSweeneysTop25of2025
The Problem with My City Is That It’s a City
Our 23rd most-read article of 2025. - - -I’ve lived in this city for decades, but I’m noticing more and more problems. There’s crowding, congestio...
buff.ly
December 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
"I love living in a city, but I hate dealing with other people. I shouldn’t be subject to the whims of my neighbors, something I constantly scream at them during city council meetings." #McSweeneysTop25of2025
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A telling episode.
Well worth reading.
(And not just because @schmidtsam.bsky.social quoted me in the piece.)
Well worth reading.
(And not just because @schmidtsam.bsky.social quoted me in the piece.)
OF ALL THE VESSELS SUNK BY THE U.S. it was the likeliest to have been carrying drugs: a semisubmersible with at least one convicted trafficker on board. The U.S. blew it up, destroyed the evidence and let the survivors go GIFT LINK @schmidtsam.bsky.social @alexhorton.bsky.social
wapo.st/4qq5ymS
wapo.st/4qq5ymS
The U.S. sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — and let them go
In blowing up the vessel, destroying evidence and repatriating the survivors, the U.S. cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:03 AM
A telling episode.
Well worth reading.
(And not just because @schmidtsam.bsky.social quoted me in the piece.)
Well worth reading.
(And not just because @schmidtsam.bsky.social quoted me in the piece.)
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Always come back to this observation from @adamserwer.bsky.social
December 27, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Always come back to this observation from @adamserwer.bsky.social
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Imagine it being easier to just pay the 8 billion dollars and it won't affect you in the slightest. Man what have we done lol
Zuckerberg settles $8 billion lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica scandal, avoids testifying www.france24.com/en/americas/... @carolecadwalla.bsky.social
Zuckerberg settles $8 billion lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica scandal, avoids testifying
Mark Zuckerberg and current and former Meta executives agreed on Thursday to settle a $8 billion shareholder lawsuit alleging the company’s directors failed to prevent billions of dollars in fines and...
www.france24.com
December 28, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Imagine it being easier to just pay the 8 billion dollars and it won't affect you in the slightest. Man what have we done lol
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Jo Ann Allen Boyce's life was disrupted not only by standard-issue US white supremacy, but also by a particularly virulent strain of American fascism. School integration in Clinton, TN began fairly peaceably, until a neo-Nazi associate of George Lincoln Rockwell named John Kaspar showed up.
Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; She was one of the Clinton 12, a group of Black students who faced white mobs when desegregating a Tennessee high school in 1956 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; Braved Mobs in Integrating a School
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Jo Ann Allen Boyce's life was disrupted not only by standard-issue US white supremacy, but also by a particularly virulent strain of American fascism. School integration in Clinton, TN began fairly peaceably, until a neo-Nazi associate of George Lincoln Rockwell named John Kaspar showed up.
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Leftists have memed themselves into "communism is good but spreadsheets are scary" as a position so they're reduced to small-scale communitarianism that involves just passing money back and forth until GoFundMe transaction fees eat 100% of it
Guys I know you’re all going to yell at me here but mutual aid is not meaningfully distinct from the kind of privatized community charity system where poor people go to the church and hope someone has donated a hot meal. It’s not progressive, it’s not effective, it’s not good service provision.
"poor enough to need mutual aid"
Everyone needs mutual aid.
Everyone needs mutual aid.
December 27, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Leftists have memed themselves into "communism is good but spreadsheets are scary" as a position so they're reduced to small-scale communitarianism that involves just passing money back and forth until GoFundMe transaction fees eat 100% of it
Radio On is weird and slow but it evokes the malaise of late 70s Britain perfectly
Name your fav film that nobody else knows about
December 27, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Radio On is weird and slow but it evokes the malaise of late 70s Britain perfectly
This dude is going to be making statements about protecting his “purity of essence” pretty soon.
JD VANCE THINKS BRITAIN & FRANCE ARE AMERICAS LIKELY ENEMIES.
The world is getting bizarrely screwed with this kind of bull being spewed out.
The world is getting bizarrely screwed with this kind of bull being spewed out.
December 27, 2025 at 12:37 AM
This dude is going to be making statements about protecting his “purity of essence” pretty soon.
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vance is a genuine lunatic
JD VANCE THINKS BRITAIN & FRANCE ARE AMERICAS LIKELY ENEMIES.
The world is getting bizarrely screwed with this kind of bull being spewed out.
The world is getting bizarrely screwed with this kind of bull being spewed out.
December 26, 2025 at 9:39 PM
vance is a genuine lunatic
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Name your fav non James Bond spy movie.
December 27, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy