Mark Byrnes
@byrnesms.bsky.social
Professor of History at Wofford College.
Author, _Radio and the Great Debate over US Involvement in World War II_ (2022)
Author, _Radio and the Great Debate over US Involvement in World War II_ (2022)
“Guilty people claim to be innocent, so we have no choice but to randomly arrest innocent people.”
In the era of slavery, free black people had to carry their "free papers" with them so they could prove to the authorities that they were free, or else they would be thrown in jail and sold.
BASH: If ICE says it doesn't arrest US citizens, why do we keep seeing incidents of them aggressively pursuing citizens?
HOMAN: I can't tell you how many times an illegal alien claims to be a US citizen. It happens all the time.
HOMAN: I can't tell you how many times an illegal alien claims to be a US citizen. It happens all the time.
December 7, 2025 at 7:35 PM
“Guilty people claim to be innocent, so we have no choice but to randomly arrest innocent people.”
This is undeniably true, and has been for decades. More than 25 years ago, someone at one of the elite liberal arts colleges in the country told me that without affirmative action for men, their students would be 2/3 women.
Ending DEI practices in college admissions will expose an uncomfortable truth. Women now outperform men academically.
If universities stop trying to gender balance incoming classes but instead admit based on merit, they’ll reject men at higher rates than they do today.
If universities stop trying to gender balance incoming classes but instead admit based on merit, they’ll reject men at higher rates than they do today.
Trump’s attack on DEI may hurt college men, particularly White men
The Trump administration’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion also targets gender. The ban may impact gender balancing practices that often benefit college men.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:33 PM
This is undeniably true, and has been for decades. More than 25 years ago, someone at one of the elite liberal arts colleges in the country told me that without affirmative action for men, their students would be 2/3 women.
And if you do it for Donald Trump, you get a pardon.
Patel on J6 arrest: "When you attack American citizens, when you attack our institutions of legislation, when you attack our nation's Capitol, you attack the very being of our way of life."
December 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM
And if you do it for Donald Trump, you get a pardon.
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
This is just my opinion, but I don't think departments need to change their strategy for reading or grading student work.
Departments need a strategy for responding to harassment and attacks.
Departments need a strategy for responding to harassment and attacks.
December 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM
This is just my opinion, but I don't think departments need to change their strategy for reading or grading student work.
Departments need a strategy for responding to harassment and attacks.
Departments need a strategy for responding to harassment and attacks.
The conservative cultural project right now is to use the coercive power of the state to do affirmative action for bigots.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen multiple times:
Bruce Springsteen
Lyle Lovett
Elvis Costello
Elton John
Lucinda Williams
Bruce Springsteen
Lyle Lovett
Elvis Costello
Elton John
Lucinda Williams
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen multiple times
R.E.M.
OutKast
Radiohead
Beastie Boys
The Roots
R.E.M.
OutKast
Radiohead
Beastie Boys
The Roots
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —
NIN
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Soul Coughing
Poe
Tom Morello
NIN
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Soul Coughing
Poe
Tom Morello
November 28, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen multiple times:
Bruce Springsteen
Lyle Lovett
Elvis Costello
Elton John
Lucinda Williams
Bruce Springsteen
Lyle Lovett
Elvis Costello
Elton John
Lucinda Williams
These goons with the guns look like they belong in the streets of Iraq in 2005, not the streets of America in 2025. These thugs are the ones I’d like to see arrested and deported. They’re certainly not acting like Americans.
November 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
These goons with the guns look like they belong in the streets of Iraq in 2005, not the streets of America in 2025. These thugs are the ones I’d like to see arrested and deported. They’re certainly not acting like Americans.
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
Would like to thank whoever first tossed a scrap of food to a wolf. Really can’t imagine how I’d be getting by if you hadn’t taken that first step.
November 19, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Would like to thank whoever first tossed a scrap of food to a wolf. Really can’t imagine how I’d be getting by if you hadn’t taken that first step.
Hey NYT— The appropriate word is not “urging.” It is “order”— the fact that presidents are not supposed to issue orders to the Attorney General doesn’t mean that this one doesn’t do it on a regular basis. If you’re a news organization, call it what it is.
November 14, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Hey NYT— The appropriate word is not “urging.” It is “order”— the fact that presidents are not supposed to issue orders to the Attorney General doesn’t mean that this one doesn’t do it on a regular basis. If you’re a news organization, call it what it is.
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
This only strengthens my sense that Trump’s deal with the dictators (maybe informal, maybe not) is that Putin gets Europe, Xi gets Asia, and the US reverts to the 19th century version of the Monroe Doctrine.
November 14, 2025 at 3:07 AM
This only strengthens my sense that Trump’s deal with the dictators (maybe informal, maybe not) is that Putin gets Europe, Xi gets Asia, and the US reverts to the 19th century version of the Monroe Doctrine.
It seems clear to me now that the play here with the shutdown was to put on a big show of being fighters before the election in order to get the benefit from that at the polls. Having gotten the benefit that they were looking for, they shut the whole thing down.
“If Schumer really wanted to use his considerable influence and leverage to stop this, he could have done that,” a senior Democratic Senate aide tells Zeteo. “He didn’t.”
Furious Liberals Call for Schumer to Step Aside, Senate Dems Mostly Quiet
After their shutdown surrender, liberal lawmakers are begging their base to unite behind them anyway – as Trumpland celebrates that their opposition is a bunch of 'p*ssies.'
zeteo.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:02 AM
It seems clear to me now that the play here with the shutdown was to put on a big show of being fighters before the election in order to get the benefit from that at the polls. Having gotten the benefit that they were looking for, they shut the whole thing down.
I don’t have much good to say about Ingraham, but I’ll give her this: she does not hesitate here to let Trump know that she thinks what he just said is flat-out stupid. I wish journalists would do that. 
Trump says that HBCUs would be "all be out of business" if fewer Chinese students were allowed to go to American universities
November 11, 2025 at 1:29 AM
I don’t have much good to say about Ingraham, but I’ll give her this: she does not hesitate here to let Trump know that she thinks what he just said is flat-out stupid. I wish journalists would do that. 
Raise your hand if your life’s dream is to go out and negotiate your own insurance. He’s such an idiot.
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Raise your hand if your life’s dream is to go out and negotiate your own insurance. He’s such an idiot.
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
Not that he didn’t already know, but now Trump knows for sure he can roll the Dems every time and there’s no need to negotiate for anything
November 10, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Not that he didn’t already know, but now Trump knows for sure he can roll the Dems every time and there’s no need to negotiate for anything
@schumer.senate.gov You either approved of this capitulation or were powerless to stop it. Either way, you need to resign as Democratic leader. Coming less than a week after dramatic electoral victories, this is a pathetic surrender.
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 AM
@schumer.senate.gov You either approved of this capitulation or were powerless to stop it. Either way, you need to resign as Democratic leader. Coming less than a week after dramatic electoral victories, this is a pathetic surrender.
This seems so bleeding obvious that I’m amazed that anyone has to say it out loud to what are supposed to be professional politicians.
Chris Murphy: "There will be pretty substantial damage to a Dem brand that has been rehabilitated if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop... if we surrender without having gotten anything, I worry it'll be hard to get them back up off the mat"
November 10, 2025 at 1:45 AM
This seems so bleeding obvious that I’m amazed that anyone has to say it out loud to what are supposed to be professional politicians.
Ok, genius. And when they buy health insurance with the money given them, who gets that money?
The self-same money-sucking insurance companies.
He is so damn stupid.
The self-same money-sucking insurance companies.
He is so damn stupid.
November 9, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Ok, genius. And when they buy health insurance with the money given them, who gets that money?
The self-same money-sucking insurance companies.
He is so damn stupid.
The self-same money-sucking insurance companies.
He is so damn stupid.
So the game later today is Game 5, right?
October 28, 2025 at 6:31 AM
So the game later today is Game 5, right?
Maybe Scherzer should’ve yelled at Schneider again.
October 28, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Maybe Scherzer should’ve yelled at Schneider again.
So now we need a halftime show in the middle of World Series baseball games too? Good Lord. Stop this madness.
October 26, 2025 at 1:34 AM
So now we need a halftime show in the middle of World Series baseball games too? Good Lord. Stop this madness.
I’m in my 60s, and I can do this.
Lecturing active soldiers about being too fat while dropping standards so low for the ICE deportation force that a third of their recruits can't handle the easiest PT test I've ever heard of www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
October 21, 2025 at 1:13 AM
I’m in my 60s, and I can do this.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
“now you can outsource thinking itself.”
Labor-saving devices have been a great boon to humankind. But the one essential labor that cannot be outsourced without producing mental rot is personal thought. Outsource that, and we’re doomed.
“now you can outsource thinking itself.”
Labor-saving devices have been a great boon to humankind. But the one essential labor that cannot be outsourced without producing mental rot is personal thought. Outsource that, and we’re doomed.
Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?
From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently …
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:28 PM
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
“now you can outsource thinking itself.”
Labor-saving devices have been a great boon to humankind. But the one essential labor that cannot be outsourced without producing mental rot is personal thought. Outsource that, and we’re doomed.
“now you can outsource thinking itself.”
Labor-saving devices have been a great boon to humankind. But the one essential labor that cannot be outsourced without producing mental rot is personal thought. Outsource that, and we’re doomed.
Reposted by Mark Byrnes
🔥 Spartanburg, South Carolina showed up strong — voices rising for freedom in the heart of the South. 💙 Peaceful, proud, and powerful, they proved that democracy’s fire burns bright everywhere. 👑❌🇺🇸
#NoKings @jabbott28.bsky.social
#NoKings @jabbott28.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
🔥 Spartanburg, South Carolina showed up strong — voices rising for freedom in the heart of the South. 💙 Peaceful, proud, and powerful, they proved that democracy’s fire burns bright everywhere. 👑❌🇺🇸
#NoKings @jabbott28.bsky.social
#NoKings @jabbott28.bsky.social