J. Sam Drolet
@jsamdrolet.bsky.social
Personal account. He/him/his.
I disagree. Americans are not paying any attention to statements like this, but Europeans are. Democrats need to be calibrating their message here to the people who are actually listening and actually care, which does not include anyone in the Trump administration.
tbh, i more or less don't care about how Europeans receive domestic messaging meant to prevent the moral and practical catastrophe of an invasion of Greenland. this is a failure because it fails to reach Americans, who are really the only meaningful audience for this sort of thing.
i feel like Americans don't get the level of eye-rolling this is getting from Europe
January 19, 2026 at 5:41 AM
I disagree. Americans are not paying any attention to statements like this, but Europeans are. Democrats need to be calibrating their message here to the people who are actually listening and actually care, which does not include anyone in the Trump administration.
"Cuts both ways like a Bowie knife" is an analogy that I think could be used more.
Like a Bowie knife.
January 19, 2026 at 5:15 AM
"Cuts both ways like a Bowie knife" is an analogy that I think could be used more.
Hilarious that he would ask this of Ganz of all people.
January 19, 2026 at 4:54 AM
Hilarious that he would ask this of Ganz of all people.
Getting a lot of traction on this one, which I think is a sign I should do more archaeology threads.
The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum don't really think of non-Americans as real people. For them events outside the US exist purely as a backdrop for disputes within it.
i feel like Americans don't get the level of eye-rolling this is getting from Europe
January 19, 2026 at 4:39 AM
Getting a lot of traction on this one, which I think is a sign I should do more archaeology threads.
The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum don't really think of non-Americans as real people. For them events outside the US exist purely as a backdrop for disputes within it.
i feel like Americans don't get the level of eye-rolling this is getting from Europe
January 19, 2026 at 4:20 AM
The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum don't really think of non-Americans as real people. For them events outside the US exist purely as a backdrop for disputes within it.
Reposted by J. Sam Drolet
Some time in the next few weeks, I’m expecting certain people to learn about the existence of Saint Pierre & Miquelon.
January 19, 2026 at 1:58 AM
Some time in the next few weeks, I’m expecting certain people to learn about the existence of Saint Pierre & Miquelon.
The idea that swing voters have consistent principles that they apply the same way each time is the biggest fallacy about swing voters.
No one knows anything about policy, especially swing voters. It's 99% affect and vibe, and "does this person think you're trustworthy or selling them bullshit?" is a big part of how the vibes are.
January 19, 2026 at 3:29 AM
The idea that swing voters have consistent principles that they apply the same way each time is the biggest fallacy about swing voters.
Finally, for the Southwest, here's a quick thread on the Patayan of western Arizona and adjacent parts of Nevada and California. These on the brown sites on this map.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
January 19, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Finally, for the Southwest, here's a quick thread on the Patayan of western Arizona and adjacent parts of Nevada and California. These on the brown sites on this map.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Oh man, this Bears game.
January 19, 2026 at 2:34 AM
Oh man, this Bears game.
Next, I'll do a couple of short threads about the "peripheral" Southwestern archaeological cultures. First up, the Fremont. Here's a map. Fremont sites are in green, Ancestral Puebloan sites in orange, Archaic sites in gray.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
January 19, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Next, I'll do a couple of short threads about the "peripheral" Southwestern archaeological cultures. First up, the Fremont. Here's a map. Fremont sites are in green, Ancestral Puebloan sites in orange, Archaic sites in gray.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Another thread about Southwestern archaeological site patterns, this time focused on the "interstitial" cultures: the Sinagua and the Salado.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
January 19, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Another thread about Southwestern archaeological site patterns, this time focused on the "interstitial" cultures: the Sinagua and the Salado.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Reposted by J. Sam Drolet
neolithic guys get pissed if you tell them their cultures are organized by the type of pots and jewelry they made. "we called ourselves the blood hunters" "we conquered villages far beyond this horizon" sorry bud you're the western linear pottery culture now
January 17, 2026 at 2:52 PM
neolithic guys get pissed if you tell them their cultures are organized by the type of pots and jewelry they made. "we called ourselves the blood hunters" "we conquered villages far beyond this horizon" sorry bud you're the western linear pottery culture now
“Oh no! The dumbass teenagers we recruited to our fake school by promising not to enforce sexual harassment laws immediately started sexually harassing each other! How could this have happened?!”
Very funny that this happened on literally the first day of classes.
January 17, 2026 at 7:34 AM
“Oh no! The dumbass teenagers we recruited to our fake school by promising not to enforce sexual harassment laws immediately started sexually harassing each other! How could this have happened?!”
Reposted by J. Sam Drolet
Since the Nobel Prize is in the news rn, here is one of my favorite historical stories. It's about the Nobel Prize and it's ALSO about resisting the fucking Nazis, so it's a perfect time to re-up!
Okay, here's the story of George de Hevesy vs the Nazis! I really do love telling this story.
First, some background: George de Hevesy was a Hungarian-Jewish chemist, but he spent most of his career post-1920 attached to the Niels Bohr institute at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark. (1/n)
First, some background: George de Hevesy was a Hungarian-Jewish chemist, but he spent most of his career post-1920 attached to the Niels Bohr institute at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark. (1/n)
January 16, 2026 at 4:56 AM
Since the Nobel Prize is in the news rn, here is one of my favorite historical stories. It's about the Nobel Prize and it's ALSO about resisting the fucking Nazis, so it's a perfect time to re-up!
Ha. Oh Fairbanks.
January 16, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Ha. Oh Fairbanks.
Great thread about why Social Security is not actually doomed, which is a surprisingly common belief among people my age and younger.
You may have heard that "social security is going to go bankrupt." Many younger people assume social security will not be there for them when they retire. In my latest paper I correct the record. SS is not going bankrupt but we'll need to revisit it soon 🧵
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
“Will Social Security Run Out?” Is the Wrong Question: How Lawmakers Can Protect Beneficiaries and Strengthen OASI
Is Social Security really in crisis? This report examines the OASI Trust Fund, lessons from 1983, and policy options to secure benefits for the future.
rooseveltinstitute.org
January 16, 2026 at 6:49 PM
Great thread about why Social Security is not actually doomed, which is a surprisingly common belief among people my age and younger.
The Gay American Novel. You know the one.
Yeah, no, it's very much "boat full of men, isolated from society for years at a time, let's fucking go." Totally unapologetically! It's wild.
January 16, 2026 at 7:23 AM
The Gay American Novel. You know the one.
Okay, another thread on public archaeological site locations, here talking about the Southwest. I'm going to do a series of these on various regions of interest. Here's a regional map:
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
January 16, 2026 at 5:57 AM
Okay, another thread on public archaeological site locations, here talking about the Southwest. I'm going to do a series of these on various regions of interest. Here's a regional map:
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Okay, here's a thread with some general comments on the distribution of sites based on this map. Focusing on the contiguous US. Here's a zoomed-in screenshot:
January 15, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Okay, here's a thread with some general comments on the distribution of sites based on this map. Focusing on the contiguous US. Here's a zoomed-in screenshot:
Reposted by J. Sam Drolet
Okay, here's the initial version of the public archaeological sites map. Currently just US (including territories) but I'll add more countries over time. I'll do a series of threads pointing out some noteworthy regional patterns. General notes in this thread.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Ancient America - Google My Maps
Publicly visible locations of prehistoric archaeological interest.
www.google.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:09 AM
Okay, here's the initial version of the public archaeological sites map. Currently just US (including territories) but I'll add more countries over time. I'll do a series of threads pointing out some noteworthy regional patterns. General notes in this thread.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
And then Paul is even worse! James is good stuff but basically just Judaism that gets mostly ignored by later Christianity.
Before reading the NT (after reading the OT/HB) I did briefly wonder if doing so would make me more sympathetic to Christianity. Turns out, no! Jesus is a huge dick in the Gospels, especially to his disciples. Which is fascinating, but not at all sympathetic.
*I* recognize that reference despite not being Christian, because I've read the New Testament. But it's actually not that central to Christianity as presented in American popular culture, which is the main way an American Jew like me or Ezra Klein would encounter it.
January 14, 2026 at 9:13 AM
And then Paul is even worse! James is good stuff but basically just Judaism that gets mostly ignored by later Christianity.
Before reading the NT (after reading the OT/HB) I did briefly wonder if doing so would make me more sympathetic to Christianity. Turns out, no! Jesus is a huge dick in the Gospels, especially to his disciples. Which is fascinating, but not at all sympathetic.
*I* recognize that reference despite not being Christian, because I've read the New Testament. But it's actually not that central to Christianity as presented in American popular culture, which is the main way an American Jew like me or Ezra Klein would encounter it.
January 14, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Before reading the NT (after reading the OT/HB) I did briefly wonder if doing so would make me more sympathetic to Christianity. Turns out, no! Jesus is a huge dick in the Gospels, especially to his disciples. Which is fascinating, but not at all sympathetic.
I actually think it's fine for people to not be familiar with scriptural references from religions they don't belong to.
Holy shit, has Ezra Klein been living under a rock? You don’t have to be any kind of Christian to know this reference.
January 14, 2026 at 8:51 AM
I actually think it's fine for people to not be familiar with scriptural references from religions they don't belong to.
We're like three weeks away from mandatory asbestos in new construction. A little surprised he hasn't ordered it yet actually.
Trump: "We're canceling the EPA's absurd tailpipe emissions standard, one of the worst ever"
January 14, 2026 at 8:23 AM
We're like three weeks away from mandatory asbestos in new construction. A little surprised he hasn't ordered it yet actually.
Okay, here's the initial version of the public archaeological sites map. Currently just US (including territories) but I'll add more countries over time. I'll do a series of threads pointing out some noteworthy regional patterns. General notes in this thread.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
Ancient America - Google My Maps
Publicly visible locations of prehistoric archaeological interest.
www.google.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:09 AM
Okay, here's the initial version of the public archaeological sites map. Currently just US (including territories) but I'll add more countries over time. I'll do a series of threads pointing out some noteworthy regional patterns. General notes in this thread.
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...