Andrew Reeves
@andrewsshi.bsky.social
I'm a history professor at Middle Georgia State University. I hold a PhD in medieval studies and post entirely too much about my cats and hobbies.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
If you followed me for what seems a good political take, don't be offended if I don't follow back. We're not quite a quarter in to the second Trump presidency and I have precisely zero desire to work myself into a coronary by mainlining politics with respect to stuff out of my control.
November 11, 2025 at 10:41 AM
If you followed me for what seems a good political take, don't be offended if I don't follow back. We're not quite a quarter in to the second Trump presidency and I have precisely zero desire to work myself into a coronary by mainlining politics with respect to stuff out of my control.
Okay, if you're going to humanize a Predator, the most you should do is Worthy Adversary Who Will Kill You But Still Believes in a Fair Fight. Basically humans are bulls, Predator is matador.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Okay, if you're going to humanize a Predator, the most you should do is Worthy Adversary Who Will Kill You But Still Believes in a Fair Fight. Basically humans are bulls, Predator is matador.
As a guy who spends every September and October of even numbered years walking from door to door and does the thankless job of serving on a County Democratic Party, I am well within my rights to say that *even under one Donald J Trump* the politics obsessives need to log the eff off for a bit.
November 11, 2025 at 12:37 AM
As a guy who spends every September and October of even numbered years walking from door to door and does the thankless job of serving on a County Democratic Party, I am well within my rights to say that *even under one Donald J Trump* the politics obsessives need to log the eff off for a bit.
Did a Bluesky search of "respectability politics," and even on a social media site that is much better educated and highly literate, composed of people with advanced degrees, most of them don't actually get the *why* of it. It's not about Being Nice and asking for rights!
November 10, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Did a Bluesky search of "respectability politics," and even on a social media site that is much better educated and highly literate, composed of people with advanced degrees, most of them don't actually get the *why* of it. It's not about Being Nice and asking for rights!
Begging people to consider that maybe The Democrats do not have a magic wand that they simply choose not to use at their disposal.
November 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Begging people to consider that maybe The Democrats do not have a magic wand that they simply choose not to use at their disposal.
Random thoughts from my continuing adventure as a pretend Americanist.
I would desperately like to see the US History textbooks get somehow de-Boomerized. Why does an 18-year-old undergrad need to read that The Fifties May Have Seemed Like Ozzy And Harriet But It Wasn't?
I would desperately like to see the US History textbooks get somehow de-Boomerized. Why does an 18-year-old undergrad need to read that The Fifties May Have Seemed Like Ozzy And Harriet But It Wasn't?
November 10, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Random thoughts from my continuing adventure as a pretend Americanist.
I would desperately like to see the US History textbooks get somehow de-Boomerized. Why does an 18-year-old undergrad need to read that The Fifties May Have Seemed Like Ozzy And Harriet But It Wasn't?
I would desperately like to see the US History textbooks get somehow de-Boomerized. Why does an 18-year-old undergrad need to read that The Fifties May Have Seemed Like Ozzy And Harriet But It Wasn't?
Sunday afternoon is when all Politics Followers / News Jukies need desperately to touch grass, watch a game, read a book, paint a model, watch a movie, disassemble and clean a rifle, etc.
November 9, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Sunday afternoon is when all Politics Followers / News Jukies need desperately to touch grass, watch a game, read a book, paint a model, watch a movie, disassemble and clean a rifle, etc.
This whole chain of conversation is making me realize how much wealthier the US has been than Western Europe for a long time now.
As far back as WW2, British enlisted were complaining about how much better their American counterparts' pay was.
(And WW2 American enlisted pay was not great...)
As far back as WW2, British enlisted were complaining about how much better their American counterparts' pay was.
(And WW2 American enlisted pay was not great...)
Funny seeing the responses to this from British people who are like “my dad’s family didn’t have central heating until the 1960s!”
Nobody in Ireland had that shit until the 90s
Nobody in Ireland had that shit until the 90s
It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.
November 9, 2025 at 8:59 PM
This whole chain of conversation is making me realize how much wealthier the US has been than Western Europe for a long time now.
As far back as WW2, British enlisted were complaining about how much better their American counterparts' pay was.
(And WW2 American enlisted pay was not great...)
As far back as WW2, British enlisted were complaining about how much better their American counterparts' pay was.
(And WW2 American enlisted pay was not great...)
You don't realize exactly how *good* Games Workshop minis are until you take on a painting (and flash trimming, etc.) job for a friend's made in China or 3d printed minis.
November 9, 2025 at 8:48 PM
You don't realize exactly how *good* Games Workshop minis are until you take on a painting (and flash trimming, etc.) job for a friend's made in China or 3d printed minis.
I love you nerds, but I would ask you to consider how the person without a first-rate education and who isn't obsessively reading all the time consumes their news. (Hint: they don't think, "Their use of the conditional mood in the second paragraph's topic sentence indicates Trump isn't that bad.")
Modal Bluesky poster: "I can't *believe* how the shifting to the passive voice in this third paragaph of this article shows a complete right-wing capture of the media!"
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
November 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM
I love you nerds, but I would ask you to consider how the person without a first-rate education and who isn't obsessively reading all the time consumes their news. (Hint: they don't think, "Their use of the conditional mood in the second paragraph's topic sentence indicates Trump isn't that bad.")
Okay, I absolutely prefer waking with the sun as opposed to basically getting up in the middle of the night, but it's very weird for the sun to already be down by six.
November 8, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Okay, I absolutely prefer waking with the sun as opposed to basically getting up in the middle of the night, but it's very weird for the sun to already be down by six.
Reposted by Andrew Reeves
what star wars really need is a HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER style submarine thriller
November 8, 2025 at 6:48 PM
what star wars really need is a HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER style submarine thriller
Fleeing fascism to a 2/2 teaching load with TA support and relying on [checks notes] an imaginary line on a map to protect you from the most powerful military in the history of mankind.
Jason Stanley isn’t afraid to use the F-word when talking about President Donald Trump.
The author of How Fascism Works and Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future is clear: He believes the US is currently under an authoritarian regime led by a fascist leader.
The author of How Fascism Works and Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future is clear: He believes the US is currently under an authoritarian regime led by a fascist leader.
I study fascism. I’ve already fled America.
On this week’s “More To The Story,” former Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley explains his recent move to Canada and calls the Trump administration’s takeover of the US government a “coup.”
www.motherjones.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Fleeing fascism to a 2/2 teaching load with TA support and relying on [checks notes] an imaginary line on a map to protect you from the most powerful military in the history of mankind.
One thing that I've spent basically the last sixteen years since grad school learning is that a lot of metaphors, similes, etc. that seem very basic will actually fly over people's heads. These days, when I'm teaching survey classes, I often pause and say, "Okay, this is a metaphor..."
there's a weird double standard where it is socially acceptable to be bad at math ("it's not for everyone") and its a crime that people can't do content analysis of media. it comes from the sense that math is something too esoteric for normies to master but everyone is equally able to do reading
November 5, 2025 at 6:53 PM
One thing that I've spent basically the last sixteen years since grad school learning is that a lot of metaphors, similes, etc. that seem very basic will actually fly over people's heads. These days, when I'm teaching survey classes, I often pause and say, "Okay, this is a metaphor..."
I have thoughts on things allegedly written for teens, actually read by thirty-year-olds like, e.g., YA books and that one magazine that just laid off its politics writers, but these thoughts are probably a bit too spicy for BlueSky...
November 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I have thoughts on things allegedly written for teens, actually read by thirty-year-olds like, e.g., YA books and that one magazine that just laid off its politics writers, but these thoughts are probably a bit too spicy for BlueSky...
The thing about Racist Tradcaths is that they're basically trying to reverse-engineer their own bespoke Christianity based on a combo of criticisms leveled at the Church by liberal society and Warhammer memes. It's like if you tried to reconstruct Judaism from the pages of Mein Kampf.
racist tradcath has to be seen, I think, as its own form of heresy
It's quite fascinating how tradcath converts like JD Vance and Kevin Roberts are increasingly at war with much of a more liberal Catholic Church hierarchy in the United States
November 5, 2025 at 3:22 PM
The thing about Racist Tradcaths is that they're basically trying to reverse-engineer their own bespoke Christianity based on a combo of criticisms leveled at the Church by liberal society and Warhammer memes. It's like if you tried to reconstruct Judaism from the pages of Mein Kampf.
Modal Bluesky poster: "I can't *believe* how the shifting to the passive voice in this third paragaph of this article shows a complete right-wing capture of the media!"
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
November 5, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Modal Bluesky poster: "I can't *believe* how the shifting to the passive voice in this third paragaph of this article shows a complete right-wing capture of the media!"
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
Median voter: "It sure seems from the push notifications of my phone's default news app that The Orange Man is Bad."
A lot of our weird neuroses about the Civil Rights Movement happen because what we remember is the elementary school Stylized Facts version.
Teaching dual-enrolled students US history has me really sort of chewing on the question of how one deals with history in its complexity, the usefulness of stylized facts, but also teaching the truth underneath the stylized facts.
November 5, 2025 at 2:43 PM
A lot of our weird neuroses about the Civil Rights Movement happen because what we remember is the elementary school Stylized Facts version.
Honestly, the days when your political news came in the morning paper or 6:00 PM evening news in a single discrete bundle were healthier all around. Which is also to say that the voter whose news consumption comes from the push notifications of their phone's default news app is doing better than us.
November 5, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Honestly, the days when your political news came in the morning paper or 6:00 PM evening news in a single discrete bundle were healthier all around. Which is also to say that the voter whose news consumption comes from the push notifications of their phone's default news app is doing better than us.
Teaching dual-enrolled students US history has me really sort of chewing on the question of how one deals with history in its complexity, the usefulness of stylized facts, but also teaching the truth underneath the stylized facts.
November 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Teaching dual-enrolled students US history has me really sort of chewing on the question of how one deals with history in its complexity, the usefulness of stylized facts, but also teaching the truth underneath the stylized facts.
Genuinely enjoying how well my student game's players are taking to Imperium Maledictum. It's always a bit iffy taking 18-22 year-olds, saying we're going to be doing the 40k setting, but no Astartes and instead it's grubby cloak-and-dagger stuff. But they're doing the Spy Games really well!
November 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Genuinely enjoying how well my student game's players are taking to Imperium Maledictum. It's always a bit iffy taking 18-22 year-olds, saying we're going to be doing the 40k setting, but no Astartes and instead it's grubby cloak-and-dagger stuff. But they're doing the Spy Games really well!
Okay, can the rest of America now stop paying attention to New York City for a little bit?
November 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Okay, can the rest of America now stop paying attention to New York City for a little bit?
Every Cold War spying case is like:
UK: He was recruited to MI6 from Oxford, where he was founder and president of the Friends of Stalin chapter. He was assigned to the Moscow desk for 20 years.
US: His 4th Bugatti that he paid for in cash on a civil servant's salary stated to arouse suspicion.
UK: He was recruited to MI6 from Oxford, where he was founder and president of the Friends of Stalin chapter. He was assigned to the Moscow desk for 20 years.
US: His 4th Bugatti that he paid for in cash on a civil servant's salary stated to arouse suspicion.
November 4, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Every Cold War spying case is like:
UK: He was recruited to MI6 from Oxford, where he was founder and president of the Friends of Stalin chapter. He was assigned to the Moscow desk for 20 years.
US: His 4th Bugatti that he paid for in cash on a civil servant's salary stated to arouse suspicion.
UK: He was recruited to MI6 from Oxford, where he was founder and president of the Friends of Stalin chapter. He was assigned to the Moscow desk for 20 years.
US: His 4th Bugatti that he paid for in cash on a civil servant's salary stated to arouse suspicion.
I sometimes think about how Saddam Hussein made so many canny decisions to become dictator of Iraq and then more or less threw it away in a series of terrible calls between 1980 and 91.
November 4, 2025 at 1:40 AM
I sometimes think about how Saddam Hussein made so many canny decisions to become dictator of Iraq and then more or less threw it away in a series of terrible calls between 1980 and 91.
The thing that always surprised me about Western Europe (to include the UK) was the extent to which the content of all those Warsaw Pact arsenals *didn't* end up in the hands of criminals in the 1990s, not really.
Manchester in the 1990s was a great example of what a place with a lot of low-level violence (by developed, peaceful standards) but without freely available guns looks like. The average number of gun deaths during the years of "Gunchester" was 4. Annually.
November 3, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The thing that always surprised me about Western Europe (to include the UK) was the extent to which the content of all those Warsaw Pact arsenals *didn't* end up in the hands of criminals in the 1990s, not really.