M. Elizabeth Thorpe
@thorpe.bsky.social
Mom, wife, teacher, scholar, cat-owner. Into things like identity, the law, and the 1A. Consistently amazed that her colleagues continue to take her seriously. She/her/hers Rhetorician.
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
Damn right.
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Damn right.
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
October 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
It’s too bad only farmers are people and not librarians or artists or healthcare workers or researchers.
October 27, 2025 at 2:32 PM
It’s too bad only farmers are people and not librarians or artists or healthcare workers or researchers.
Co-sign
I fucking love buying books.
October 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Co-sign
Taney:Scott::Roberts:???
September 26, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Taney:Scott::Roberts:???
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
Call me radical, but I think we *don't* need to have polite chats with racists who are spewing conspiracy theories that keep motivating white supremacists to massacre our fellow citizens, and we *don't* need to have bipartisan deals with fascists trying to destroy our democracy and our government.
September 17, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Call me radical, but I think we *don't* need to have polite chats with racists who are spewing conspiracy theories that keep motivating white supremacists to massacre our fellow citizens, and we *don't* need to have bipartisan deals with fascists trying to destroy our democracy and our government.
There are basically two premises I'm working from right now:
I'll n'ya pas de hors-texte
Never argue with someone John Brown would have shot
I'll n'ya pas de hors-texte
Never argue with someone John Brown would have shot
September 7, 2025 at 7:22 PM
There are basically two premises I'm working from right now:
I'll n'ya pas de hors-texte
Never argue with someone John Brown would have shot
I'll n'ya pas de hors-texte
Never argue with someone John Brown would have shot
Every time there's a shooting the GOP screams about how it's a mental health issue, not the guns. The response now is to take away mental healthcare and attack trans people.
But, sure, this is a group of people that have our best interests at heart.
But, sure, this is a group of people that have our best interests at heart.
August 29, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Every time there's a shooting the GOP screams about how it's a mental health issue, not the guns. The response now is to take away mental healthcare and attack trans people.
But, sure, this is a group of people that have our best interests at heart.
But, sure, this is a group of people that have our best interests at heart.
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
It’s continues to be despicable how the media has spent a decade normalizing the orange felon so much so that they are reporting on his authoritarian militarization of Washington DC as if it were a routine military exercise. They deliberately failed democracy for clickbait.
August 27, 2025 at 2:43 AM
It’s continues to be despicable how the media has spent a decade normalizing the orange felon so much so that they are reporting on his authoritarian militarization of Washington DC as if it were a routine military exercise. They deliberately failed democracy for clickbait.
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
A country is real estate. A nation is a brand. Governance is deal-making. Diplomacy is franchising. Services yield profit. Everything is zero-sum. All relations are transactional. This admin is what happens when everyone majors in business or econ… or runs a car dealership.
August 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
A country is real estate. A nation is a brand. Governance is deal-making. Diplomacy is franchising. Services yield profit. Everything is zero-sum. All relations are transactional. This admin is what happens when everyone majors in business or econ… or runs a car dealership.
There are a lots of folx clanging alarm bells about communism b/c major corps are turning over $ to the federal government. But I hate to tell you - that's croney capitalism. This is not the result of a state run market. It's the result of oligarchs. This is still about profit for the capital class.
August 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
There are a lots of folx clanging alarm bells about communism b/c major corps are turning over $ to the federal government. But I hate to tell you - that's croney capitalism. This is not the result of a state run market. It's the result of oligarchs. This is still about profit for the capital class.
If I were a public memory scholar I would be holed up in my bedroom right now, under the covers, crying.
I still might.
I still might.
August 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
If I were a public memory scholar I would be holed up in my bedroom right now, under the covers, crying.
I still might.
I still might.
"Never trust anyone over 30." J. Weinberg
August 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM
"Never trust anyone over 30." J. Weinberg
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
The adamant elite refusal to call bullshit is a big part of How We Got Here.
The prevailing cultural attitude for years is you must not, under any circumstances, treat anything as bad faith. You are obligated to find some reasonable idea and engage with that, even if you distort to get there.
The prevailing cultural attitude for years is you must not, under any circumstances, treat anything as bad faith. You are obligated to find some reasonable idea and engage with that, even if you distort to get there.
August 13, 2025 at 2:07 PM
The adamant elite refusal to call bullshit is a big part of How We Got Here.
The prevailing cultural attitude for years is you must not, under any circumstances, treat anything as bad faith. You are obligated to find some reasonable idea and engage with that, even if you distort to get there.
The prevailing cultural attitude for years is you must not, under any circumstances, treat anything as bad faith. You are obligated to find some reasonable idea and engage with that, even if you distort to get there.
What if instead of fighting fascism and racism and the patriarchy we play with puppies?
Sigh. I guess you're right.
Can we at least do both?
Sigh. I guess you're right.
Can we at least do both?
August 10, 2025 at 7:43 PM
What if instead of fighting fascism and racism and the patriarchy we play with puppies?
Sigh. I guess you're right.
Can we at least do both?
Sigh. I guess you're right.
Can we at least do both?
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
it's so deranged how rich business owners have demanded for decades that they be called "job creators" despite the fact that every single person i know has experienced a rich guy buying out an existing business and firing everyone and usually completely bankrupting it before cashing out and leaving
August 10, 2025 at 6:57 PM
it's so deranged how rich business owners have demanded for decades that they be called "job creators" despite the fact that every single person i know has experienced a rich guy buying out an existing business and firing everyone and usually completely bankrupting it before cashing out and leaving
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
I am re-doing my Freedom of Expression syllabus to be less work and more relevant. I am less and less interested in being a cop and more interested in doing what I can to enrich the students who give a damn as I get older.
August 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I am re-doing my Freedom of Expression syllabus to be less work and more relevant. I am less and less interested in being a cop and more interested in doing what I can to enrich the students who give a damn as I get older.
Reposted by M. Elizabeth Thorpe
"We're all throwing dildos at women athletes to promote our memecoin" really puts a fine point on not just how sexist, mean and stupid so much of right now is, but also the grim degree to which we're just inundated with Stuff a 15-Year-Old Dipshit Would Think is Cool. A confederacy of Beavises.
August 8, 2025 at 3:04 AM
"We're all throwing dildos at women athletes to promote our memecoin" really puts a fine point on not just how sexist, mean and stupid so much of right now is, but also the grim degree to which we're just inundated with Stuff a 15-Year-Old Dipshit Would Think is Cool. A confederacy of Beavises.
The destruction of the Rose Garden is such an apt metaphor.
Also, if this doesn't remind you just a tad of Mussolini then I guess you didn't have to do a paper on fascist art in grad school.
Also, if this doesn't remind you just a tad of Mussolini then I guess you didn't have to do a paper on fascist art in grad school.
August 2, 2025 at 9:56 PM
The destruction of the Rose Garden is such an apt metaphor.
Also, if this doesn't remind you just a tad of Mussolini then I guess you didn't have to do a paper on fascist art in grad school.
Also, if this doesn't remind you just a tad of Mussolini then I guess you didn't have to do a paper on fascist art in grad school.
I love that the NY Post is literally running stories on an impending alien attack and the admin is attacking Beyonce and we are supposed to say to ourselves, nope, definitely, not a diversion. I am very smart and not gullible at all and this all seems totally legit...
July 27, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I love that the NY Post is literally running stories on an impending alien attack and the admin is attacking Beyonce and we are supposed to say to ourselves, nope, definitely, not a diversion. I am very smart and not gullible at all and this all seems totally legit...
Look, I'm not going to give you the context, here, but at 12am my husband and I were Googling whether there was any Roy Orbison cling wrap porn out there.
There is.
There is.
July 25, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Look, I'm not going to give you the context, here, but at 12am my husband and I were Googling whether there was any Roy Orbison cling wrap porn out there.
There is.
There is.
The big news of the day is that the Chicago Manual of Style no longer requires a place of publication in a book citation.
There is a niche group of people, and we are slowly being muscled out by APA, for whom this is very, very exciting.
There is a niche group of people, and we are slowly being muscled out by APA, for whom this is very, very exciting.
July 21, 2025 at 10:45 PM
The big news of the day is that the Chicago Manual of Style no longer requires a place of publication in a book citation.
There is a niche group of people, and we are slowly being muscled out by APA, for whom this is very, very exciting.
There is a niche group of people, and we are slowly being muscled out by APA, for whom this is very, very exciting.
Prediction: as midterms approach ppl like Josh Hawley will propose legislation to negate the most harmful parts of the BBB, putting Dems in the tough spot of supporting a good R cause, or playing obvious politics & opposing it. The Dems and the deficit are the big losers and Hawley comes out on top
July 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Prediction: as midterms approach ppl like Josh Hawley will propose legislation to negate the most harmful parts of the BBB, putting Dems in the tough spot of supporting a good R cause, or playing obvious politics & opposing it. The Dems and the deficit are the big losers and Hawley comes out on top
Just in case you think things are one-sided, I just saw an obviously AI-generated bit of leftist propaganda. It described a conflict between Leavitt & Crockett in a poorly produced AI voice. But the images were just random pics of the them. There wasn't even an attempt to deepfake the exchange.
July 15, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Just in case you think things are one-sided, I just saw an obviously AI-generated bit of leftist propaganda. It described a conflict between Leavitt & Crockett in a poorly produced AI voice. But the images were just random pics of the them. There wasn't even an attempt to deepfake the exchange.