The Pedantic Professor
@pedanticprof.bsky.social
Pinned
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I wrote a little thing about "Fairytale of New York" and about hope for a better year, but mostly I wanted to share the rendition of the song played at Shane MacGowan's funeral in 2023 because it's so beautiful. Happy Christmas, I love ya baby. dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...
I've got a feeling / This year's for me and you | dansinker.com
dansinker.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I wrote a little thing about "Fairytale of New York" and about hope for a better year, but mostly I wanted to share the rendition of the song played at Shane MacGowan's funeral in 2023 because it's so beautiful. Happy Christmas, I love ya baby. dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the American city bombing we rushed to forget about: Christmas 2020 in Nashville.
December 24, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the American city bombing we rushed to forget about: Christmas 2020 in Nashville.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
The U.S. is giving dying mall vibes.
I can't explain it, but you know I'm right.
I can't explain it, but you know I'm right.
December 17, 2025 at 8:56 PM
The U.S. is giving dying mall vibes.
I can't explain it, but you know I'm right.
I can't explain it, but you know I'm right.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Forest and trees re Epstein documents, as of now.
Trees: Controversies about particular documents.
Forest: Virtually none of the key documents, ones that we know exist, the ones the victims and knowledgeable observers have been demanding to see, have been released.
And so the coverup continues.
Trees: Controversies about particular documents.
Forest: Virtually none of the key documents, ones that we know exist, the ones the victims and knowledgeable observers have been demanding to see, have been released.
And so the coverup continues.
December 23, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Forest and trees re Epstein documents, as of now.
Trees: Controversies about particular documents.
Forest: Virtually none of the key documents, ones that we know exist, the ones the victims and knowledgeable observers have been demanding to see, have been released.
And so the coverup continues.
Trees: Controversies about particular documents.
Forest: Virtually none of the key documents, ones that we know exist, the ones the victims and knowledgeable observers have been demanding to see, have been released.
And so the coverup continues.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
In case you're unclear on what JD Vance is trying to do here maybe it will help to recall Italian writer Ignazio Silone's 1938 description of what fascism is:
“Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.”
“Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.”
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
In case you're unclear on what JD Vance is trying to do here maybe it will help to recall Italian writer Ignazio Silone's 1938 description of what fascism is:
“Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.”
“Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.”
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Reminder:
All
People
Had
To
Do
Was
Fill
In
A
Little
Oval
Next
To
The
Smart
Black
Lady’s
Name.
All
People
Had
To
Do
Was
Fill
In
A
Little
Oval
Next
To
The
Smart
Black
Lady’s
Name.
April 7, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Reminder:
All
People
Had
To
Do
Was
Fill
In
A
Little
Oval
Next
To
The
Smart
Black
Lady’s
Name.
All
People
Had
To
Do
Was
Fill
In
A
Little
Oval
Next
To
The
Smart
Black
Lady’s
Name.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I'm not in marketing but an angry guy shrieking "Guess what asshole...AI isn't going away so you might as well accept it!" doesn't strike me as the way you'd pitch an ostensibly useful product
December 21, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I'm not in marketing but an angry guy shrieking "Guess what asshole...AI isn't going away so you might as well accept it!" doesn't strike me as the way you'd pitch an ostensibly useful product
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
One of the central tenets of AI artists is that their refining prompts makes them equal (or even superior) to any artist, analog or digital.
They are so, so close to a breakthrough but they always U-turn just in time to avoid it.
They are so, so close to a breakthrough but they always U-turn just in time to avoid it.
December 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM
One of the central tenets of AI artists is that their refining prompts makes them equal (or even superior) to any artist, analog or digital.
They are so, so close to a breakthrough but they always U-turn just in time to avoid it.
They are so, so close to a breakthrough but they always U-turn just in time to avoid it.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
U.S. Democracy fails when we convince ourselves that voters are always right & should be told what they want to hear to earn their vote.
Actually, a healthy democracy MUST contradict voters. Leaders MUST tell ignorant voters what they NEED to hear when they don't know how the world works. 🧵
Actually, a healthy democracy MUST contradict voters. Leaders MUST tell ignorant voters what they NEED to hear when they don't know how the world works. 🧵
December 20, 2025 at 10:08 PM
U.S. Democracy fails when we convince ourselves that voters are always right & should be told what they want to hear to earn their vote.
Actually, a healthy democracy MUST contradict voters. Leaders MUST tell ignorant voters what they NEED to hear when they don't know how the world works. 🧵
Actually, a healthy democracy MUST contradict voters. Leaders MUST tell ignorant voters what they NEED to hear when they don't know how the world works. 🧵
It me.
"Unlike the music from his day, he thinks everything the youth are listening to is just a bunch of noise, noise, noise, NOISE."
Is He the Grinch or Just a Gen-X Man at Christmas?
“Why, for fifty-three years, I’ve put up with it now! I MUST stop this Christmas from coming! But HOW?” — Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas...
buff.ly
December 21, 2025 at 5:54 PM
It me.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Neither is herpes, but I’ll keep doing my work without either.
AI is not going to go away
December 21, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Neither is herpes, but I’ll keep doing my work without either.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Epstein redactions aren't believable, and they are valuable to fascists specifically because they aren't believable.
Fascists prefer lies to truth. Believing in a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate.
Believing lies dominates truth. So they believe lies.
Fascists prefer lies to truth. Believing in a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate.
Believing lies dominates truth. So they believe lies.
December 21, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Epstein redactions aren't believable, and they are valuable to fascists specifically because they aren't believable.
Fascists prefer lies to truth. Believing in a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate.
Believing lies dominates truth. So they believe lies.
Fascists prefer lies to truth. Believing in a lie is preferable to believing a truth, if what you want is to dominate.
Believing lies dominates truth. So they believe lies.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
December 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
The faction of the GOP that pretends to like Jews to send them to hell is at war with the faction that wants to skip the "pretends to like" part.
FoxNews: Deepening MAGA rift comes to a head at TPUSA's AmericaFest 2025
www.foxnews.com/media/rift-m...
www.foxnews.com/media/rift-m...
Rift in MAGA movement on full display at TPUSA's AmericaFest as Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson battle it out
Conservative personalities clashed at TPUSA's AmericaFest 2025 with Ben Shapiro condemning Tucker Carlson for platforming Nick Fuentes and other controversial figures.
www.foxnews.com
December 21, 2025 at 11:25 AM
The faction of the GOP that pretends to like Jews to send them to hell is at war with the faction that wants to skip the "pretends to like" part.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I feel like "academic hiring" discourse is always kind of downstream of the fact that in the 50s we started building a giant public system to make a college education almost universally available and in the 80s and 90s we started taking it apart to go back to the only-the-rich model
December 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
I feel like "academic hiring" discourse is always kind of downstream of the fact that in the 50s we started building a giant public system to make a college education almost universally available and in the 80s and 90s we started taking it apart to go back to the only-the-rich model
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I don’t know how anyone can still talk about “the AI revolution” with a straight face. Reuters story about a railroad company that has sunk $300,000 into “developing AI products” and appears to have made…a chatbot that doesn’t work?
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
December 21, 2025 at 3:14 AM
I don’t know how anyone can still talk about “the AI revolution” with a straight face. Reuters story about a railroad company that has sunk $300,000 into “developing AI products” and appears to have made…a chatbot that doesn’t work?
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
archive.is/2025.12.17-0...
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Someone should stamp these words in metal on a big sign so that when they’re wrong (which is already the case since Trump is censoring BLS data and fired the respected economist who ran the operation because he didn’t like the result) no one ever takes these guys seriously again.
December 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Someone should stamp these words in metal on a big sign so that when they’re wrong (which is already the case since Trump is censoring BLS data and fired the respected economist who ran the operation because he didn’t like the result) no one ever takes these guys seriously again.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I mean, if we're talking about the red meat in the era of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, sure.
A diseased product sold by hucksters that wreaks havoc and even causes death, forcing the federal government to step in with harsh regulations?
Yeah, man, that works.
A diseased product sold by hucksters that wreaks havoc and even causes death, forcing the federal government to step in with harsh regulations?
Yeah, man, that works.
“AI” is the new “red meat”.
December 21, 2025 at 1:06 AM
I mean, if we're talking about the red meat in the era of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, sure.
A diseased product sold by hucksters that wreaks havoc and even causes death, forcing the federal government to step in with harsh regulations?
Yeah, man, that works.
A diseased product sold by hucksters that wreaks havoc and even causes death, forcing the federal government to step in with harsh regulations?
Yeah, man, that works.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Really enjoyed this fantastic piece by @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social and @cnygren.bsky.social
Here are few favorite pull quotes of mine + one little quibble at the end:
Here are few favorite pull quotes of mine + one little quibble at the end:
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
www.publicbooks.org
December 21, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Really enjoyed this fantastic piece by @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social and @cnygren.bsky.social
Here are few favorite pull quotes of mine + one little quibble at the end:
Here are few favorite pull quotes of mine + one little quibble at the end:
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
I’m laid up with the flu, but I had to peek my head out and say that this is *so* much worse than it seems.
And it’s already pretty fucking bad!
bsky.app/profile/gbbr...
And it’s already pretty fucking bad!
bsky.app/profile/gbbr...
"Has feminism failed women brought to you by bank of america" is my MKULTRA sleeper agent activation phrase
December 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I’m laid up with the flu, but I had to peek my head out and say that this is *so* much worse than it seems.
And it’s already pretty fucking bad!
bsky.app/profile/gbbr...
And it’s already pretty fucking bad!
bsky.app/profile/gbbr...
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
Coming back to this, I'm still struck by the implication that academics should care if the AI pushers "trust" all our work that's done without AI.
I don't know, man, you all seemed to trust our work enough to steal it from us wholesale.
I don't know, man, you all seemed to trust our work enough to steal it from us wholesale.
I would struggle to trust an academic who doesn‘t know how to
use AI tools.
Which is not the same as not being critical.
use AI tools.
Which is not the same as not being critical.
December 20, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Coming back to this, I'm still struck by the implication that academics should care if the AI pushers "trust" all our work that's done without AI.
I don't know, man, you all seemed to trust our work enough to steal it from us wholesale.
I don't know, man, you all seemed to trust our work enough to steal it from us wholesale.
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
You can’t “trust” a scholar who actually does all of their own thinking and writing without the hallucinating bullshit machine?
What?
What?
I would struggle to trust an academic who doesn‘t know how to
use AI tools.
Which is not the same as not being critical.
use AI tools.
Which is not the same as not being critical.
December 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
You can’t “trust” a scholar who actually does all of their own thinking and writing without the hallucinating bullshit machine?
What?
What?
Reposted by The Pedantic Professor
It's the exact same grift since God and Man at Yale in 1951. Religious and market fundamentalists ideas have little merit.
They demand that the majority take their nonsense seriously while also hating DEI measures which empower the people they pretend to speak for (see male college admissions).
They demand that the majority take their nonsense seriously while also hating DEI measures which empower the people they pretend to speak for (see male college admissions).
The lack of empirical evidence in the “anti-conservative bias in higher education” panic is really striking.
We’ve had more than a decade of elite consternation about this so-called crisis based on a handful of anecdotes.
We’ve had more than a decade of elite consternation about this so-called crisis based on a handful of anecdotes.
Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers.
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
December 20, 2025 at 10:14 PM
It's the exact same grift since God and Man at Yale in 1951. Religious and market fundamentalists ideas have little merit.
They demand that the majority take their nonsense seriously while also hating DEI measures which empower the people they pretend to speak for (see male college admissions).
They demand that the majority take their nonsense seriously while also hating DEI measures which empower the people they pretend to speak for (see male college admissions).