kennan
@kennan.bsky.social
Political theory &c. Emphasis on the &c.
Pinned
kennan
@kennan.bsky.social
· Oct 17
Greene is perhaps the first person to convince me of the legitimacy of the “horseshoe theory of politics.”
November 9, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Greene is perhaps the first person to convince me of the legitimacy of the “horseshoe theory of politics.”
Reposted by kennan
My old pal Pete Coviello — one of the best writers and thinkers I've ever known — wrote the piece of the moment
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:17 AM
My old pal Pete Coviello — one of the best writers and thinkers I've ever known — wrote the piece of the moment
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by kennan
I skipped this article for a while because I figured I'd read enough about the NYT's Mamdani coverage. I don't want to say the headline does the article a disservice - it is also very much about that - but goes well beyond as well
This is fucking brilliant, and you should read it: lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:13 AM
I skipped this article for a while because I figured I'd read enough about the NYT's Mamdani coverage. I don't want to say the headline does the article a disservice - it is also very much about that - but goes well beyond as well
Reposted by kennan
There is something really wrong with people who need workers to be not just competent, but slavishly fake-happy. "Slavishly" used on purpose, bc that's where this grotesquerie comes from.
"Store employees are now required to smile if they are within 10 feet of a shopper.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
Target is now requiring its employees to smile more
As the holiday season fast approaches, Target is urging its employees to add a little more “jolly” to their work routine.
www.wilx.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:12 PM
There is something really wrong with people who need workers to be not just competent, but slavishly fake-happy. "Slavishly" used on purpose, bc that's where this grotesquerie comes from.
Who is the best contemporary theorist of lustration?
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Who is the best contemporary theorist of lustration?
Reposted by kennan
UT Austin is discussing eliminating or consolidating our departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican/American and Latino/Latina Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Here is what AAADS alumni have to say. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
UT Austin is discussing eliminating or consolidating our departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican/American and Latino/Latina Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Here is what AAADS alumni have to say. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
hoping that someone with fp chops such as @abuaardvark.bsky.social will write an essay on real estate diplomacy
Reports across the Middle East that Syria has given the US an airbase outside of Damascus and has given the Trump organization exclusive rights to build a new hotel there. www.reuters.com/world/middle...
November 7, 2025 at 1:34 AM
hoping that someone with fp chops such as @abuaardvark.bsky.social will write an essay on real estate diplomacy
Reposted by kennan
Important thread about your settings on here, and how they restrict, well, everything
Remember that people do abuse these tags to keep you from seeing content they don't like. You may think you don't want to see threats but conservatives flag anything hostile toward their Great Leader as threats, for example. Keep that in mind as you pick your filters.
November 7, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Important thread about your settings on here, and how they restrict, well, everything
Reposted by kennan
is a sandwich a speech act
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 PM
is a sandwich a speech act
Reposted by kennan
The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout:
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
November 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout:
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
Reposted by kennan
INTERVIEWER: Any comment on Zohran Mamdani's victory and what it says about immigrants and trans rights?
LABOUR POLITICIAN: (panicking) I've never heard of New York
LABOUR POLITICIAN: (panicking) I've never heard of New York
November 5, 2025 at 1:15 PM
INTERVIEWER: Any comment on Zohran Mamdani's victory and what it says about immigrants and trans rights?
LABOUR POLITICIAN: (panicking) I've never heard of New York
LABOUR POLITICIAN: (panicking) I've never heard of New York
Is the motivating factor here:
A) Speed
B) Potential for corruption
C) Top-down control
D) Leverage over contractors
A) Speed
B) Potential for corruption
C) Top-down control
D) Leverage over contractors
Draft memo reveals potentially sweeping Pentagon acquisition reforms
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/11/dod-draft-memo-acquisition-reform-hegseth-commercial-scorecard-exclusive/
Draft memo reveals potentially sweeping Pentagon acquisition reforms
Breaking Defense obtained the draft memo just days before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to address a crowd of defense CEOs and top military acquisition officials on Friday, where he is expected to announce significant changes to how the Pentagon buys weapons.
breakingdefense.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Is the motivating factor here:
A) Speed
B) Potential for corruption
C) Top-down control
D) Leverage over contractors
A) Speed
B) Potential for corruption
C) Top-down control
D) Leverage over contractors
All those times you want to follow along as someone skeets a trial, but you lack the legal knowhow to tell what is happening: this one is for you:
Big day at U.S. District Court in D.C. where Sean Dunn, the D.C. Sandwich Guy, is on trial for misdemeanor assault of a federal officer.
Border Patrol agent Gregory Lairmore is on the stand narrating surveillance video of the sammie toss.
'Now he’s struck me with the sandwich,' Lairmore says.
Border Patrol agent Gregory Lairmore is on the stand narrating surveillance video of the sammie toss.
'Now he’s struck me with the sandwich,' Lairmore says.
November 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM
All those times you want to follow along as someone skeets a trial, but you lack the legal knowhow to tell what is happening: this one is for you:
Reposted by kennan
It is worth saying that putting “Africana studies” in scare quotes as if it’s a ridiculous concept is not a political argument. It’s just racism. “Africa is not worthy of a major” is the implication. Yeah dude you’re just racist. (From Gerard Baker at the WSJ today)
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
November 4, 2025 at 1:36 PM
It is worth saying that putting “Africana studies” in scare quotes as if it’s a ridiculous concept is not a political argument. It’s just racism. “Africa is not worthy of a major” is the implication. Yeah dude you’re just racist. (From Gerard Baker at the WSJ today)
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
www.wsj.com/opinion/mamd...
Reposted by kennan
The old world is dying and the new world (whisper whisper) oh, so it’s just the dying then?
November 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The old world is dying and the new world (whisper whisper) oh, so it’s just the dying then?
The essence of “running the government like a business” is treating all citizens as workers, viz. subject to every demand of the boss and forced to express gratitude for their subservience
November 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM
The essence of “running the government like a business” is treating all citizens as workers, viz. subject to every demand of the boss and forced to express gratitude for their subservience
Reposted by kennan
Vermeule being explicit that he thinks anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes are on his team shows terrible judgment. Worse even than the time he called John Rawls "a master of rhetoric and evocative phrasemaking"
November 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Vermeule being explicit that he thinks anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes are on his team shows terrible judgment. Worse even than the time he called John Rawls "a master of rhetoric and evocative phrasemaking"
Reposted by kennan
Tiny interesting thing I am seeing at work: Tech vendors selling to government agencies are moving away from calling everything "AI" and hedging it with reintroducing the term "machine learning." Govies still flock to info about "AI" but vendors preparing for backlash?
November 2, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Tiny interesting thing I am seeing at work: Tech vendors selling to government agencies are moving away from calling everything "AI" and hedging it with reintroducing the term "machine learning." Govies still flock to info about "AI" but vendors preparing for backlash?
Reposted by kennan
RIP Peter Watkins, whose film about the 1871 Paris Commune treats it as if it were a current news event, with participants talking to reporters. It runs to nearly six hours & was shot in less than a fortnight in an abandoned factory www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDTT...
la commune.2000.peter watkins.film complet en francais
YouTube video by natasha fossati
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:02 AM
RIP Peter Watkins, whose film about the 1871 Paris Commune treats it as if it were a current news event, with participants talking to reporters. It runs to nearly six hours & was shot in less than a fortnight in an abandoned factory www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDTT...
Reposted by kennan
This dismissal opinion on a failed ICE arrest that @seamushughes.bsky.social found is worth reading in its entirety. Come for the debunking of DHS "fiction," stay for the snark about wiener dog, but definitely take time to read the 18 USC 111 analysis.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
![The sworn affidavit submitted in support of the Criminal Complaint in this matter tells a
very different—and largely fictional—story. For example, Special Agent Steven Fuentes of ICE,
HSI, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) swore to the following:
On June 20, 2025, [HSI, ICE-ERO, and TxDPS] were conducting
surveillance at a residence on Benrus, in San Antonio, Texas, in the Western
District of Texas. Database checks indicated that Jaime Albert
QUINTANILLA-Chavez, with a Final Order of Removal from an
Immigration Judge, was residing at the above address. At approximately
0715 a.m., QUINTANILLA exited the residence and entered a white Dodge
Ram. The Dodge Ram was towing a trailer containing construction
equipment. Both license plates for the truck and trailer were expired.
ECF No. 1 ¶ 2 (emphasis added). Fuentes also swore that (1) the Defendant refused to “follow any
commands”; (2) after the Defendant was blocked in between the officers’ vehicles, he was given
“multiple verbal commands to exit the vehicle”; and (3) the Defendant “fought the law
enforcement officers.” Id. ¶¶ 3–4. Fuentes further testified at the preliminary hearing that the
Defendant was surveilled (and taken into custody) because he was subject to a Final Order of
Removal from an Immigration Judge. See ECF No. 12, 6/26 Preliminary Hr’g Tr. at 4:20–25.
Despite HSI’s sworn statement to the Magistrate Judge that the vehicle was stopped
because of expired license plates, the Assistant U.S. Attorney conceded at a bond hearing in July
2025 that Fuentes had “misrepresented what was going on.” ECF No. 29, 7/10 Hr’g Tr. at 8:12–](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreie6x3oqkmgiyywtsyowz35tyuqw2ra27hpaxj2h2npzdlaskrurjm@jpeg)
October 31, 2025 at 11:37 AM
This dismissal opinion on a failed ICE arrest that @seamushughes.bsky.social found is worth reading in its entirety. Come for the debunking of DHS "fiction," stay for the snark about wiener dog, but definitely take time to read the 18 USC 111 analysis.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by kennan
The most completely mundane replies being hid in my mentions without my consent or control is absolutely ridiculous and outrageous.
@pfrazee.com y’all gotta give us back control of our own accounts this is out of hand.
Literally hid a cat picture someone sent me.
@pfrazee.com y’all gotta give us back control of our own accounts this is out of hand.
Literally hid a cat picture someone sent me.
November 1, 2025 at 11:34 PM
The most completely mundane replies being hid in my mentions without my consent or control is absolutely ridiculous and outrageous.
@pfrazee.com y’all gotta give us back control of our own accounts this is out of hand.
Literally hid a cat picture someone sent me.
@pfrazee.com y’all gotta give us back control of our own accounts this is out of hand.
Literally hid a cat picture someone sent me.
Students at the University of Ibadan leading the world.
« Coconut Head Generation », quand la jeunesse nigériane s’affirme citoyenne
« Coconut Head Generation », quand la jeunesse nigériane s’affirme citoyenne
À l’occasion du lancement du Mois du doc en novembre, Mediapart diffuse le passionnant « Coconut Head Generation » d’Alain Kassanda dans lequel l’amphithéâtre d’un ciné-club se transforme en une véritable agora politique. Du patriarcat à la démocratie en passant par le logement, tous les sujets témoignent de la vivacité critique d’une jeunesse étudiante en lutte.
l.mediapart.fr
November 1, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Students at the University of Ibadan leading the world.
Reposted by kennan
Not now, widening gyre
August 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Not now, widening gyre
Reposted by kennan
i'm sure the "faculty forum" on "reducing burnout" and "enhancing resilience" will include helpful things like "join your faculty union" and "here's a bucket of money" and "we hired a bunch of new full time faculty to reduce the teaching load across the university"
October 30, 2025 at 7:17 PM
i'm sure the "faculty forum" on "reducing burnout" and "enhancing resilience" will include helpful things like "join your faculty union" and "here's a bucket of money" and "we hired a bunch of new full time faculty to reduce the teaching load across the university"
Reposted by kennan
People keep talking about this guy as the savvy political choice but imagine an entire 18 month campaign cycle of story after story like this coming out. He can't even pretend to be a decent guy for five fucking minutes for a high-profile magazine feature! Get him as far from power as possible.
October 30, 2025 at 2:58 PM
People keep talking about this guy as the savvy political choice but imagine an entire 18 month campaign cycle of story after story like this coming out. He can't even pretend to be a decent guy for five fucking minutes for a high-profile magazine feature! Get him as far from power as possible.