Ashley Pratt
@vaguelyacademic.bsky.social
Rabbinical student. MA in International Relations from King's College London. Boston.
This is actually unhinged, we are so far gone already… www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
Judge Convicted of Obstructing Agents as They Sought Undocumented Immigrant
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This is actually unhinged, we are so far gone already… www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...
Can someone explain to me which Jewish holidays aren’t “family-friendly”?
December 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Can someone explain to me which Jewish holidays aren’t “family-friendly”?
Post-Thanksgiving dinner is objectively the most correct time to swipe on dating apps.
November 28, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Post-Thanksgiving dinner is objectively the most correct time to swipe on dating apps.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
November 23, 2025 at 10:39 PM
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Your yearly reminder that “holiday” celebrations that only include Christian traditions are not, in fact, inclusive even if you don’t use the word Christmas, so tbh I’d rather you just say it’s Christmas.
Until a few years ago, ugly holiday sweaters didn’t exist. They’re ugly Christmas sweaters, with some generic Jewish iconography to be “inclusive.” But the truth is, when I have to buy one to wear to a work party, I feel like I’m in another culture’s drag.
November 22, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Your yearly reminder that “holiday” celebrations that only include Christian traditions are not, in fact, inclusive even if you don’t use the word Christmas, so tbh I’d rather you just say it’s Christmas.
They should talk to the team over at Sky Sports about how the Halo channel launch went before they fully commit to this
If they really wanted to appeal to women they should have made a drink called Monster Fucker.
November 17, 2025 at 6:55 PM
They should talk to the team over at Sky Sports about how the Halo channel launch went before they fully commit to this
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
“there is a point on the graph where things get Worse, and there you will find Ronald Reagan” stays undefeated
it's fascinating that you can see when exactly the Reagan revolution happened
November 15, 2025 at 9:26 PM
“there is a point on the graph where things get Worse, and there you will find Ronald Reagan” stays undefeated
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
“More than once, the name ‘Frantz Fanon’ was broached—which had the virtue of certain hand-showing clarity.” …
“‘People read Foucault,’” the redoubtable David Brooks once wrote, in an actual column…” …
“‘Critics say’ is the tell, and does it ever go on telling.” and it keeps going…
“‘People read Foucault,’” the redoubtable David Brooks once wrote, in an actual column…” …
“‘Critics say’ is the tell, and does it ever go on telling.” and it keeps going…
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:34 PM
“More than once, the name ‘Frantz Fanon’ was broached—which had the virtue of certain hand-showing clarity.” …
“‘People read Foucault,’” the redoubtable David Brooks once wrote, in an actual column…” …
“‘Critics say’ is the tell, and does it ever go on telling.” and it keeps going…
“‘People read Foucault,’” the redoubtable David Brooks once wrote, in an actual column…” …
“‘Critics say’ is the tell, and does it ever go on telling.” and it keeps going…
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 95th day out of the last 107.
12 days of work in 107 days.
With full pay and benefits.
The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown.
It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.
12 days of work in 107 days.
With full pay and benefits.
The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown.
It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.
November 7, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 95th day out of the last 107.
12 days of work in 107 days.
With full pay and benefits.
The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown.
It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.
12 days of work in 107 days.
With full pay and benefits.
The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown.
It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
October 19, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
English Lit Major voice: Akhnai is the oven, not the rabbi
September 28, 2025 at 3:13 PM
English Lit Major voice: Akhnai is the oven, not the rabbi
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
I understand why Western artists and academics immediately see their own fields as the place where they can make a difference but Israeli artists and academics are often (though not always) the ones the Israeli government is, itself, trying to silence.
September 19, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I understand why Western artists and academics immediately see their own fields as the place where they can make a difference but Israeli artists and academics are often (though not always) the ones the Israeli government is, itself, trying to silence.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are very real and powerful forms of bigotry in our modern world, and deserve to be talked about on their own terms. We can do that without taking away one of the words Jews have, rooted in the very particular Jewish experience in modern Europe.
September 15, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are very real and powerful forms of bigotry in our modern world, and deserve to be talked about on their own terms. We can do that without taking away one of the words Jews have, rooted in the very particular Jewish experience in modern Europe.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
So antisemitism refers to Jews, because that was how the term was invented. It was a way of inventing the racialization of the Jews, and it therefore differs from (while still borrowing from) earlier Christian anti-Judaism.
September 15, 2025 at 12:43 PM
So antisemitism refers to Jews, because that was how the term was invented. It was a way of inventing the racialization of the Jews, and it therefore differs from (while still borrowing from) earlier Christian anti-Judaism.
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
It is nearly always clear from context that when people use "during Covid" they mean "during the emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic" (too long to write every time!) and are not making any statement at all about the continued circulation of the virus or the effects of the disease.
Maybe unpopular take but I think "during COVID" is fine!
Death data show a clear acute phase from spring 2020 until spring 2022. Since then deaths have steadily trended downward and this winter fell below flu deaths. You can take COVID seriously and still talk about the worst of it in the past tense
Death data show a clear acute phase from spring 2020 until spring 2022. Since then deaths have steadily trended downward and this winter fell below flu deaths. You can take COVID seriously and still talk about the worst of it in the past tense
September 3, 2025 at 12:44 AM
It is nearly always clear from context that when people use "during Covid" they mean "during the emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic" (too long to write every time!) and are not making any statement at all about the continued circulation of the virus or the effects of the disease.
Have we as a society settled on what you do when you are approaching a location where you’re meeting someone and you see them but you’re kind of a long way away so it’s awkward to acknowledge them but then you’re basically looking right at them for a minute or more as you walk??
August 28, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Have we as a society settled on what you do when you are approaching a location where you’re meeting someone and you see them but you’re kind of a long way away so it’s awkward to acknowledge them but then you’re basically looking right at them for a minute or more as you walk??
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
August 28, 2025 at 10:24 AM
This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
To be more specific: the Trump administration has already taken many steps that will make it harder for the opposition to win. But it's not clear that they're enough, especially if the incumbent is very unpopular. We'll only know then if the consolidation has happened, can't know in advance.
August 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
To be more specific: the Trump administration has already taken many steps that will make it harder for the opposition to win. But it's not clear that they're enough, especially if the incumbent is very unpopular. We'll only know then if the consolidation has happened, can't know in advance.
Yes I’m staring down my first high holidays with a pulpit BUT I bought Tyler Childers tickets for the day after Rosh Hashanah II so I have to survive
August 24, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Yes I’m staring down my first high holidays with a pulpit BUT I bought Tyler Childers tickets for the day after Rosh Hashanah II so I have to survive
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
I’m sure everyone used it that way around you when you were growing up, and you hadn’t even considered the broader implications of the phrase. You weren’t aware, but now you are. So, in the future, if you could please criticize public figures without Jews catching strays, we’d appreciate it.
(3/3)
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August 22, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I’m sure everyone used it that way around you when you were growing up, and you hadn’t even considered the broader implications of the phrase. You weren’t aware, but now you are. So, in the future, if you could please criticize public figures without Jews catching strays, we’d appreciate it.
(3/3)
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Reposted by Ashley Pratt
the regime is weaker than they want you to believe
Fox 17 Nashville reports that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from criminal detention in Tennessee and is on his way home to Maryland.
“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” his attorney, @sean-hecker.bsky.social, said in a statement.
fox17.com/news/local/k...
“Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” his attorney, @sean-hecker.bsky.social, said in a statement.
fox17.com/news/local/k...
Kilmar Abrego Garcia free from Tennessee jail and returning home to Maryland, lawyer says
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been freed from Putnam County Jail and is on his way to reunite with his family in Maryland, his lawyer confirms to FOX 17 News.
fox17.com
August 22, 2025 at 6:45 PM
the regime is weaker than they want you to believe
Sometimes I want to message men on dating apps just to ask, “you do know this is meant to make you seem *appealing*, right?”
August 22, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Sometimes I want to message men on dating apps just to ask, “you do know this is meant to make you seem *appealing*, right?”
Reposted by Ashley Pratt
Too many Christians think Judaism is just Christianity with funny hats
August 19, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Too many Christians think Judaism is just Christianity with funny hats
Nobody — but NOBODY — does yearning like los hispanohablantes
August 17, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Nobody — but NOBODY — does yearning like los hispanohablantes