Bill Girard
@billgirard.bsky.social
Anthropologist.
New project: Christianity and Fossil Fuels (what I call "Carbon Christianity").
Ongoing Research: Honduras, Christianity, Secularism, Race and Religion.
https://mtholyoke.academia.edu/WilliamGirard
New project: Christianity and Fossil Fuels (what I call "Carbon Christianity").
Ongoing Research: Honduras, Christianity, Secularism, Race and Religion.
https://mtholyoke.academia.edu/WilliamGirard
In the midst of all the discussion about what a loathsome human being Larry Summers is, wanted to make sure this dimension of his loathsomeness didn't get lost.
From James Ferguson, Global Shadows, 70.
From James Ferguson, Global Shadows, 70.
November 14, 2025 at 4:21 PM
In the midst of all the discussion about what a loathsome human being Larry Summers is, wanted to make sure this dimension of his loathsomeness didn't get lost.
From James Ferguson, Global Shadows, 70.
From James Ferguson, Global Shadows, 70.
Reposted by Bill Girard
I honestly don't think the NY Times has been this bad in my lifetime, it's deeply shameful.
October 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I honestly don't think the NY Times has been this bad in my lifetime, it's deeply shameful.
Reposted by Bill Girard
the democratic party’s basic problem is it has almost no control over how its message reaches the ears of voters, especially outside of presidential election years. but rather than devote serious time, attention and cash to that problem its consultants and pundits want to fight factional battles
October 27, 2025 at 6:29 PM
the democratic party’s basic problem is it has almost no control over how its message reaches the ears of voters, especially outside of presidential election years. but rather than devote serious time, attention and cash to that problem its consultants and pundits want to fight factional battles
Reposted by Bill Girard
The huge No Kings protests, an estimated 7 million people addressing America's worst crisis since the Civil War, get a tiny headline on the New York Times homepage, with no photo.
Why does NYT think change happens only when politicians hold news conferences and not when everyday people take action?
Why does NYT think change happens only when politicians hold news conferences and not when everyday people take action?
October 19, 2025 at 12:43 PM
The huge No Kings protests, an estimated 7 million people addressing America's worst crisis since the Civil War, get a tiny headline on the New York Times homepage, with no photo.
Why does NYT think change happens only when politicians hold news conferences and not when everyday people take action?
Why does NYT think change happens only when politicians hold news conferences and not when everyday people take action?
Reposted by Bill Girard
Yesterday's No Kings protests were apparently the largest since the first Earth Day in 1970
The NYT covered that story with a six column headline across the top of the paper and two full pages inside
Today, two small pics below the fold and a story on page A23
They constantly let America down
The NYT covered that story with a six column headline across the top of the paper and two full pages inside
Today, two small pics below the fold and a story on page A23
They constantly let America down
October 19, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Yesterday's No Kings protests were apparently the largest since the first Earth Day in 1970
The NYT covered that story with a six column headline across the top of the paper and two full pages inside
Today, two small pics below the fold and a story on page A23
They constantly let America down
The NYT covered that story with a six column headline across the top of the paper and two full pages inside
Today, two small pics below the fold and a story on page A23
They constantly let America down
Reposted by Bill Girard
If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry began on this day in 1859.
October 16, 2025 at 11:29 PM
If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."
The Democrats struggles to elect culturally conservative white working class voters has been an issue for at least 50 years. And yet so much of the current commentary treats it as a recent phenomenon, a matter of a few election cycles.
October 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
The Democrats struggles to elect culturally conservative white working class voters has been an issue for at least 50 years. And yet so much of the current commentary treats it as a recent phenomenon, a matter of a few election cycles.
Reposted by Bill Girard
Absolutely brutal.
Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
www.youtube.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Absolutely brutal.
Reposted by Bill Girard
another odd piece to all this is that many people are remembering a wave of "cancel culture" firings over insufficient wokeness that never happened.
September 14, 2025 at 1:50 PM
another odd piece to all this is that many people are remembering a wave of "cancel culture" firings over insufficient wokeness that never happened.
Reposted by Bill Girard
Good summary of how the "Big Beautiful Bill" undoes (and then some!) the huge strides the Biden Administration made on climate.
The Republican budget is a climate horror
Not content to ignore climate change, they decided to make it even worse.
www.publicnotice.co
July 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Good summary of how the "Big Beautiful Bill" undoes (and then some!) the huge strides the Biden Administration made on climate.
Reposted by Bill Girard
NEW CHART: Trump's "big beautiful bill" & other efforts to dismantle climate policy means the US will add an extra 7bn tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere from now until 2030, compared to meeting its former climate pledge under the Paris Agreement 🫠
www.carbonbrief.org/...
www.carbonbrief.org/...
July 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
NEW CHART: Trump's "big beautiful bill" & other efforts to dismantle climate policy means the US will add an extra 7bn tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere from now until 2030, compared to meeting its former climate pledge under the Paris Agreement 🫠
www.carbonbrief.org/...
www.carbonbrief.org/...
The Biden Administration's failure (inability?) to convey what a massive leap forward the IRA was for combating climate change means that a lot of people:
1. Don't realize what was achieved.
2. Don't realize what's about to be taken away.
1. Don't realize what was achieved.
2. Don't realize what's about to be taken away.
June 30, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The Biden Administration's failure (inability?) to convey what a massive leap forward the IRA was for combating climate change means that a lot of people:
1. Don't realize what was achieved.
2. Don't realize what's about to be taken away.
1. Don't realize what was achieved.
2. Don't realize what's about to be taken away.
Reposted by Bill Girard
Just use footnotes. No one likes checking references at a later page.
June 25, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Just use footnotes. No one likes checking references at a later page.
Every time I think I've got a good sense of what Billy Graham was all about, I read something new that makes me feel like I don't get him at all.
June 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Every time I think I've got a good sense of what Billy Graham was all about, I read something new that makes me feel like I don't get him at all.
Excellent reflection on the state of critique in academia. About literary theory, but could easily apply to anthropology or much of the humanities, I imagine.
One quote, "And beneath [the] impasse [in the debates about critique] lies a still deeper dilemma: what the fuck is all this even about?"
One quote, "And beneath [the] impasse [in the debates about critique] lies a still deeper dilemma: what the fuck is all this even about?"
Crise en Abyme | Colin Vanderburg
Anyone who has ever emerged from a multiday academic conference will recognize this truth: as the sun sets on the jetsam of crumpled programs and the custodians vacuum the carpet, you set out for the ...
www.nplusonemag.com
June 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Excellent reflection on the state of critique in academia. About literary theory, but could easily apply to anthropology or much of the humanities, I imagine.
One quote, "And beneath [the] impasse [in the debates about critique] lies a still deeper dilemma: what the fuck is all this even about?"
One quote, "And beneath [the] impasse [in the debates about critique] lies a still deeper dilemma: what the fuck is all this even about?"
Reposted by Bill Girard
In old enough to remember the campaign to “find the liberal Rush Limbaugh.” This will work as well.
The GOP didn’t build Rogan, and Democrats sure won’t be able to build a liberal one.
They should focus on funding existing liberal outlets and local newspapers and Spanish language radio and TV.
The GOP didn’t build Rogan, and Democrats sure won’t be able to build a liberal one.
They should focus on funding existing liberal outlets and local newspapers and Spanish language radio and TV.
NEWS:
Democratic mega-donors are debating plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on a range of influencer plans to "find the liberal Rogan."
We've got pitch decks, investor meetings, and internal docs.
One Democrat has a spreadsheet of 26 different proposals.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/u...
Democratic mega-donors are debating plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on a range of influencer plans to "find the liberal Rogan."
We've got pitch decks, investor meetings, and internal docs.
One Democrat has a spreadsheet of 26 different proposals.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/u...
Democrats Throw Money at a Problem: Countering G.O.P. Clout Online
www.nytimes.com
May 21, 2025 at 12:44 AM
In old enough to remember the campaign to “find the liberal Rush Limbaugh.” This will work as well.
The GOP didn’t build Rogan, and Democrats sure won’t be able to build a liberal one.
They should focus on funding existing liberal outlets and local newspapers and Spanish language radio and TV.
The GOP didn’t build Rogan, and Democrats sure won’t be able to build a liberal one.
They should focus on funding existing liberal outlets and local newspapers and Spanish language radio and TV.
"What is it about the way we frame manhood that, even today, it still depends so on "feminine" dependence for its survival?" (Faludi, Backlash 79)
May 19, 2025 at 10:11 AM
"What is it about the way we frame manhood that, even today, it still depends so on "feminine" dependence for its survival?" (Faludi, Backlash 79)
Over the past 4 or 5 years, I must have read 150 or so books on US history. Here is one thing I can confidently report: nothing we're seeing today is new. From Susan Faludi's Backlash...
May 7, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Over the past 4 or 5 years, I must have read 150 or so books on US history. Here is one thing I can confidently report: nothing we're seeing today is new. From Susan Faludi's Backlash...
I can remember as clear as day taking a course on the Holocaust in college and the professor said that when the government starts asking you to identify yourself as Jewish, it’s time to start thinking about getting out.
U.S. Texts Barnard Employees and Asks if They Are Jewish
A questionnaire from a federal commission also inquired about whether professors and other college staff members had been harassed.
www.nytimes.com
April 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
I can remember as clear as day taking a course on the Holocaust in college and the professor said that when the government starts asking you to identify yourself as Jewish, it’s time to start thinking about getting out.
If you've never read it before, today would be a perfect time to take a look at Pope Francis's moving encyclical on the perils of climate change, Laudato Si'. (Definitely don't need to be Catholic or even religious to appreciate it)
Laudato si' (24 May 2015) | Francis
Encyclical Letter Laudato si' of the Holy Father Francis on care for our common home (24 May 2015)
www.vatican.va
April 21, 2025 at 12:32 PM
If you've never read it before, today would be a perfect time to take a look at Pope Francis's moving encyclical on the perils of climate change, Laudato Si'. (Definitely don't need to be Catholic or even religious to appreciate it)
Reposted by Bill Girard
reagan/bush judges: "this administration's shocking arguments would reduce the rule of law to lawlenssness"
neocons: abolish ICE
david brooks: communist manifesto
Dem leadership, top liberal consultants/pundits: the latest NYT/Ipsos has Trump up +4 on immigration, +9 with noncollege men
neocons: abolish ICE
david brooks: communist manifesto
Dem leadership, top liberal consultants/pundits: the latest NYT/Ipsos has Trump up +4 on immigration, +9 with noncollege men
April 19, 2025 at 12:21 AM
reagan/bush judges: "this administration's shocking arguments would reduce the rule of law to lawlenssness"
neocons: abolish ICE
david brooks: communist manifesto
Dem leadership, top liberal consultants/pundits: the latest NYT/Ipsos has Trump up +4 on immigration, +9 with noncollege men
neocons: abolish ICE
david brooks: communist manifesto
Dem leadership, top liberal consultants/pundits: the latest NYT/Ipsos has Trump up +4 on immigration, +9 with noncollege men
Out of a seeming endless parade of bizarro experiences over the past decade, few of them have been more disorientating for me then coming to the end of this article and having the thought, "David Brooks is right!"
Opinion | What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.
It will take a concerted effort by every sector of our society to respond to Trumpism’s threat.
www.nytimes.com
April 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Out of a seeming endless parade of bizarro experiences over the past decade, few of them have been more disorientating for me then coming to the end of this article and having the thought, "David Brooks is right!"
Reposted by Bill Girard
For years they’ve been screaming about the victimization of “conservatives” by “woke” “cancel culture” on university campuses, even though that’s mostly fantasy; and they’ve been fantasizing about revenge — meaning instituting their own blanket cancel culture on all their perceived enemies.
March 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
For years they’ve been screaming about the victimization of “conservatives” by “woke” “cancel culture” on university campuses, even though that’s mostly fantasy; and they’ve been fantasizing about revenge — meaning instituting their own blanket cancel culture on all their perceived enemies.
Reposted by Bill Girard
Donna Haraway leading #StandUpForScience at #UCSC. Situating science in helping us live together in better ways. She's giving deets on cuts to science, incl #Indigenous science, ag, USAID, medicine, dangers to farm workers, dangers of data loss. Donna's a master at connecting all the relations. ❤️
March 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Donna Haraway leading #StandUpForScience at #UCSC. Situating science in helping us live together in better ways. She's giving deets on cuts to science, incl #Indigenous science, ag, USAID, medicine, dangers to farm workers, dangers of data loss. Donna's a master at connecting all the relations. ❤️