Max Coleman
@maxecoleman.bsky.social
Sociology prof at the U of Utah studying health inequalities (especially mental health) from a social psych perspective. 🏳️🌈
Husband to @robrankin.bsky.social
Also: jazz 🎶, hiking 🏔️, loose-leaf tea 🍵 , politics 🗳️, and our cat Milo 🐈⬛.
Husband to @robrankin.bsky.social
Also: jazz 🎶, hiking 🏔️, loose-leaf tea 🍵 , politics 🗳️, and our cat Milo 🐈⬛.
This is the kind of situation where more solidarity is needed. This lecturer should sue the living daylights out of the university, and she should have her legal fees paid for by the AAUP, Lambda Legal, FIRE, and more.
Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings
A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”
www.texastribune.org
December 26, 2025 at 2:12 PM
This is the kind of situation where more solidarity is needed. This lecturer should sue the living daylights out of the university, and she should have her legal fees paid for by the AAUP, Lambda Legal, FIRE, and more.
28. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” I like the contrast between the generic song title and its strangely urgent subtitle. … It’s like if you had a song called “Hanukkah (Son, If You Can Hear This, I Forgive You)” or “Easter (WE ARE SURROUNDED).”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...
Opinion | A ranking of 100 — yes, 100 — Christmas songs
From "Little Drummer Boy" to "I Farted on Santa's Lap," here's where they stand.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
28. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” I like the contrast between the generic song title and its strangely urgent subtitle. … It’s like if you had a song called “Hanukkah (Son, If You Can Hear This, I Forgive You)” or “Easter (WE ARE SURROUNDED).”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/201...
Currently grading my third research paper with AI-generated citations. Thank you SO MUCH to Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and all the other titans of industry for making our lives that much easier. 🙄
December 15, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Currently grading my third research paper with AI-generated citations. Thank you SO MUCH to Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and all the other titans of industry for making our lives that much easier. 🙄
Why is this so hard in our own country??
Australian leaders promised Monday to immediately overhaul already-tough gun control laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. https://to.pbs.org/4oWMBY3
Australian leaders promise to tighten gun laws after Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre
Among the new measures proposed Monday would be a limit on the number of guns someone can own and a review of licenses held over time.
to.pbs.org
December 15, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Why is this so hard in our own country??
After President Trump makes light of the murder of a famous American—even implying that he brought it upon himself—I assume Republicans will call for him to be fired?
Just a reminder that at least 600 Americans were fired for failing to show sufficient respect after Charlie Kirk's murder.
utterly incapable of grace
December 15, 2025 at 3:38 PM
After President Trump makes light of the murder of a famous American—even implying that he brought it upon himself—I assume Republicans will call for him to be fired?
Great piece on the corporate & institutional pressures to assign fewer books to students. Less about what kids “can’t” do (because of dwindling attention spans), and more about the incentives that are pushing educators away from books and toward excerpts.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Great piece on the corporate & institutional pressures to assign fewer books to students. Less about what kids “can’t” do (because of dwindling attention spans), and more about the incentives that are pushing educators away from books and toward excerpts.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
Stunning new research from Pew on racial disparities in the use of social media, the internet, and AI chatbots among American teens. For example, only 27% of White youth say they're online almost constantly, compared to 55% of Black youth. (Thread) www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...
Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025
Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they are on TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. At the same time, 64% of teens say they use chatbots, including about three-in-ten who do so daily.
www.pewresearch.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Stunning new research from Pew on racial disparities in the use of social media, the internet, and AI chatbots among American teens. For example, only 27% of White youth say they're online almost constantly, compared to 55% of Black youth. (Thread) www.pewresearch.org/internet/202...
Reposted by Max Coleman
Thank goodness Trump didn’t call half of Somalis something like “deplorable” else it would have been the biggest scandal ever
CURTIS: All of us need to wake up every morning & say, 'what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome' regardless of an individual says
BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage
C: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter
BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage
C: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter
December 7, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Thank goodness Trump didn’t call half of Somalis something like “deplorable” else it would have been the biggest scandal ever
My vote is Daniel Radcliffe!
December 7, 2025 at 1:46 AM
My vote is Daniel Radcliffe!
Reposted by Max Coleman
In retrospect having an elite class composed of people who are really good at rising through the ranks by not rocking the boat left us in a really, really bad place at the moment that elite institutions faced their greatest moral test
One of my most conservative-coded opinions is that one of the reasons we're in this mess is because of the profound decadence, solipsism, moral rot, and general lack of personal virtue afflicting much of the upper PMC / bourgeoisie.
December 4, 2025 at 9:09 PM
In retrospect having an elite class composed of people who are really good at rising through the ranks by not rocking the boat left us in a really, really bad place at the moment that elite institutions faced their greatest moral test
Reposted by Max Coleman
The impact of the destruction of USAID is so wide-ranging. We got a field report from one of the poorest states in India, where foreign aid funded "TB champions" who educate and assist tuberculosis patients. Without their help, advocates expect a 36% increase in cases & 68% rise in deaths from TB.
Losing India’s Guardian Angels - The American Prospect
USAID funding supported efforts to eradicate tuberculosis in India, one of the country’s deadliest diseases. Now, that money and support is gone.
prospect.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The impact of the destruction of USAID is so wide-ranging. We got a field report from one of the poorest states in India, where foreign aid funded "TB champions" who educate and assist tuberculosis patients. Without their help, advocates expect a 36% increase in cases & 68% rise in deaths from TB.
“Modernity was a package deal, and the price of its benefits was the loss of much that made life livable.”
A fantastic essay on the value of classical social theory in understanding today’s world.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/therapists...
A fantastic essay on the value of classical social theory in understanding today’s world.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/therapists...
Therapists Can’t Fix What Society Broke
What the Classical Social Theorists Knew about the Price We Pay for Progress—and We’ve Forgotten
stevenmintz.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:47 PM
“Modernity was a package deal, and the price of its benefits was the loss of much that made life livable.”
A fantastic essay on the value of classical social theory in understanding today’s world.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/therapists...
A fantastic essay on the value of classical social theory in understanding today’s world.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/therapists...
Reposted by Max Coleman
Are human beings becoming invisible?
The Unseen
(Allison J Pugh • Aeon)
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.
aeon.co/essays/our-c...
The Unseen
(Allison J Pugh • Aeon)
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.
aeon.co/essays/our-c...
Our crisis is not loneliness but human beings becoming invisible | Aeon Essays
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being
aeon.co
June 24, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Are human beings becoming invisible?
The Unseen
(Allison J Pugh • Aeon)
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.
aeon.co/essays/our-c...
The Unseen
(Allison J Pugh • Aeon)
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.
aeon.co/essays/our-c...
“It is not healthy for a party to be this out of step with its own voters and stated beliefs. The simplest thing to do would be the right thing: refuse to provide military assistance to a government that has committed war crimes,” reject annexation, and more.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...
Opinion | This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza
www.nytimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:29 PM
“It is not healthy for a party to be this out of step with its own voters and stated beliefs. The simplest thing to do would be the right thing: refuse to provide military assistance to a government that has committed war crimes,” reject annexation, and more.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...
Reposted by Max Coleman
Google has started automatically opting you in to let it read your stuff to train AI. You need to turn this off in SEVERAL places in your settings (not just for Gmail), if you want to maintain privacy and confidentiality.
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
A new Gmail update may allow Google to use your private messages and attachments for AI training. Here's how to turn it off.
www.malwarebytes.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Google has started automatically opting you in to let it read your stuff to train AI. You need to turn this off in SEVERAL places in your settings (not just for Gmail), if you want to maintain privacy and confidentiality.
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
My husband is an amazing composer and thinker — I know I’m biased but I highly recommend this lecture!
I filmed a made-for-home-video version of a lecture I gave at the University of Utah’s Fridays With Faculty series, about how musical structures can “behave” or mirror extra-musical concepts.
robrankin.substack.com/p/form-as-me...
robrankin.substack.com/p/form-as-me...
FORM AS METAPHOR
How Extra-musical Ideas Can Exist In Abstract Music
robrankin.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:24 PM
My husband is an amazing composer and thinker — I know I’m biased but I highly recommend this lecture!
It’s refreshing to hear a Senator speak so plainly in the face of authoritarianism — I just wish that courage weren’t so rare.
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
November 20, 2025 at 9:43 PM
It’s refreshing to hear a Senator speak so plainly in the face of authoritarianism — I just wish that courage weren’t so rare.
Reposted by Max Coleman
👇🎯
It's not a sophisticated reaction, but my response to both "quiet, piggy" and the Coast Guard okaying swastikas and nooses is a deep sadness that the compassion we're working so hard to foster in our children will not just be challenged by schoolyard bullies but by the highest levels of society.
November 20, 2025 at 9:07 PM
👇🎯
This is so abhorrent. Trump has now re-pardoned a Jan 6 felon because the original pardon didn’t clear his (unrelated!) felony gun convictions.
The man “has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
The man “has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Trump re-pardons a Jan. 6 defendant to erase unrelated gun conviction
The new pardon ends a legal clash over the limits of Trump’s sweeping Day One clemency for those who stormed the Capitol.
www.politico.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
This is so abhorrent. Trump has now re-pardoned a Jan 6 felon because the original pardon didn’t clear his (unrelated!) felony gun convictions.
The man “has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
The man “has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
“‘People were hurt so badly,’ said Mr. Trump, whose administration fought in court to not fund food stamps, tried to fire thousands of federal workers and threatened to withhold back pay from others during the shutdown.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
Government Reopens as Trump Signs Bill to End Nation’s Longest Shutdown
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:35 PM
“‘People were hurt so badly,’ said Mr. Trump, whose administration fought in court to not fund food stamps, tried to fire thousands of federal workers and threatened to withhold back pay from others during the shutdown.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
"In conditions of hegemony, even the righteous anger of the oppressed can be incorporated into a toothless identity politics in which difference becomes a hot commodity."
—Patricia Hill Collins, "Fighting Words"
—Patricia Hill Collins, "Fighting Words"
November 12, 2025 at 9:06 PM
"In conditions of hegemony, even the righteous anger of the oppressed can be incorporated into a toothless identity politics in which difference becomes a hot commodity."
—Patricia Hill Collins, "Fighting Words"
—Patricia Hill Collins, "Fighting Words"
Reposted by Max Coleman
Harm to SNAP recipients, federal workers, and others is real. In a normal democracy it’d make sense to prioritize reducing that harm in the short term.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
two contradictory ideas that i hold in my head at the same time: 1) i think the threat to both SNAP recipients and federal workers is significant enough now that even bad deals are worth making to prevent further harm, and, 2) everyone who caves now should retire in shame
November 10, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Harm to SNAP recipients, federal workers, and others is real. In a normal democracy it’d make sense to prioritize reducing that harm in the short term.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
@ezralevin.bsky.social Can Indivisible coordinate with other orgs on a massive grassroots campaign to replace Schumer as minority leader? Maybe someone like Chris Murphy — or anyone else who is a fighter?
November 10, 2025 at 2:55 AM
@ezralevin.bsky.social Can Indivisible coordinate with other orgs on a massive grassroots campaign to replace Schumer as minority leader? Maybe someone like Chris Murphy — or anyone else who is a fighter?
What will it take for the Senate to remove Schumer as minority leader?
November 10, 2025 at 2:50 AM
What will it take for the Senate to remove Schumer as minority leader?
Reposted by Max Coleman
My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
November 10, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.
We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.