Alfie Kohn

author and lecturer on topics in #education, #parenting, and human #behavior....
(Personal messages more likely to be read if left on http://alfiekohn.org)
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Last Notes

2026-07-14 12:11:33 UTC

If you had no other information about the legitimacy and moral status of a country's foreign policy, this alone would tell you everything you needed to know:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/marco-rubio-dismantle-international-criminal-court

2026-07-13 21:45:20 UTC

‪When you find yourself denouncing Amnesty International (and becoming an apologist for whoever they've identified as violators of human rights), it's probably time to reexamine your entire moral framework.
cc: defenders of Israel
https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3mqkm7t7pq22e

2026-07-13 12:09:24 UTC

I've written separately about curiosity (https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/curiosity/) and about A.I. (https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/), both in the context of education. Here, a neuroscientist discusses the impact of the latter on the former, and the news isn't good. People in the habit of using A.I. for research, she finds, "become better at extracting ready-made conclusions than building connections of their own": https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/opinion/ai-google-gemini-search-questions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xVA.Z6hF.5r5zk6PAc-kR&smid=url-share
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/912/585/219/580/701/original/ffb6e2ceaf2988a3.png

2026-07-10 12:32:24 UTC

Characteristically pointed piece by Cory Doctorow on the difference between the left and the right, particularly with regard to property rights: https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/08/wilhoitian/#human-rights-v-property-rights
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/895/693/002/597/290/original/c9736ba9d371d4cd.png

2026-07-08 12:46:05 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/884/419/806/348/536/original/56f018f1a9f8aea8.png

2026-07-06 12:32:51 UTC

Helping kids to develop both the capacity and the inclination to question what they’re told — and, when necessary, to refuse to go along. That's on the latest episode of Kohn's Zone: "Raising Reflective Rebels" - https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-06-29 13:58:59 UTC

Political journalist ‪David Roberts‬:
"It is core to the nature of reactionary politics that its adherents *always* conceive of themselves as aggrieved victims, no matter how much power they amass. It's a permission structure for their own lawlessness & violence."
No wonder that such political movements attract individuals who, for psychological reasons, spend their every waking hour stewing in resentment over how they've been treated unfairly or unappreciated (e.g., Trump, Alito, Thomas).

2026-06-27 13:38:29 UTC

Eye-opening passage from Haberman & Swan's new book about Trump during his second term:
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/822/339/075/768/646/original/604d65c1b3777f2d.png

2026-06-26 12:27:28 UTC

Apropos of A.I.:
"When the American biotech industry became worried about the negative potential of genetic engineering tools in the 1990s, it didn’t rush ahead to clone humans before China could get there; it instead lobbied Congress and relevant international bodies to limit the most odious possibilities for these innovations. The possibility that another actor might do something bad doesn’t give you the moral right to do something similar":
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/opinion/ai-dangerous-openai-anthropic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s1A.dLH_.mnIvY4nyoCLk&smid=url-share

2026-06-25 21:32:05 UTC

Jen Sorenson nails it, as always.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/812/876/847/049/933/original/e589fbe0152a7b1c.png

2026-06-25 14:38:57 UTC

Evil on a historic scale. Those who respond to this with rationalization, deflection, or indifference - or who label as "pro-Hamas" (or "antiSemitic") anyone who bears witness to Israel's crimes against humanity - have utterly lost their moral compass. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/world/middleeast/un-report-israel-palestinian-children.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s1A.j5uJ.E8U-VvhaTtTo&smid=url-shareian-children.html

2026-06-02 11:04:50 UTC

Much has been written about Trump's fascist aesthetic: gold and marble everywhere, an enormous arch, huge banners featuring Dear Leader's scowling face on government buildings, and so on. But a spectacle sponsored by the regime in which two people in a cage savagely pummel each other, the goal being to cause agony and/or injury to the point of immobility, for our entertainment? This brings us closer to the core of a true fascist sensibility.

2026-05-30 11:34:34 UTC

We revise our writing by reconsidering the substance of what we're saying. AI doesn't do that. Which is one reason it's unsettling that so many people are relying on chatbots to do their professional and personal writing for them: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/how-to-tell-ai-writing/687345/?gift=7deeCsgE8m50UsuOnXueicTO-LDblTR_0h-AvCWLHhk&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

2026-05-27 12:21:07 UTC

“Of all the vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influence on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences.”
- John Stuart Mill

2026-05-23 11:22:37 UTC

This old study still packs a punch in illustrating how standardized tests simultaneously overestimate and underestimate kids' understanding. (My summary is below; the study itself is here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41193784.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/623/611/662/379/945/original/510eed271629d671.jpeg

2026-05-21 13:23:32 UTC

Intriguing: Research finds that the rank-and-file workers who carry out the immoral orders of authoritarian regimes usually aren't motivated by either ideological commitment or fear. They're "loyal losers" who are offered a way to salvage their careers: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/americas/actually-democracy-dies-in-hr.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j1A.A767.yRU-KeNoO9i_&smid=url-share.
Obvious implications for the U.S.:
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/612/776/821/556/234/original/c4567e6889d1b88a.png

2026-05-18 13:27:28 UTC

"Grade Inflation Is Not the Problem" - my latest podcast episode - explains why those who are most exercised over this issue (based on dubious data) seem to view school as a giant sorting machine rather than a place to help everyone succeed.
Listen here: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-05-16 21:07:15 UTC

Future historians will try to explain how these corporations managed to convinced millions that dystopian developments were actually utopian.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/586/277/660/590/493/original/0e8061f0b6509a92.png

2026-05-14 19:32:58 UTC

The universe - and all known principles of human psychology - again make sense now that our initial assumption has been confirmed: No one has ever loved Stephen Miller.
https://www.rawstory.com/stephen-miller-2676875552/

2026-05-07 15:12:34 UTC

Big internecine dispute in MAGAland: the gung-ho supporters of Israel's war crimes vs. the antisemites. If you're clever enough, you can be a little of both. But "neither" isn't on the menu.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/533/932/057/807/480/original/ffdc6f063e084f63.png

2026-05-07 11:54:19 UTC

"Men have become the tools of their tools."
-Thoreau, 1854
"After just ∼10 minutes of AI-assisted problem-solving, people who lost access to the AI performed worse and gave up more frequently than those who never used it."
- research finding, 2026
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.04721

2026-05-06 18:01:11 UTC

- reply

https://www.ms.now/news/fbi-investigating-leaks-to-journalist-who-wrote-explosive-article-on-kash-patel-sources

2026-05-06 16:37:02 UTC

When experts warn about authoritarianism, these are exactly the kinds of developments they have in mind.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/528/585/127/685/959/original/bd425a1551195fc5.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/528/585/449/158/032/original/efe274c4f4a01ffc.png

2026-05-05 11:59:57 UTC

Drinking salt water when you're thirsty just makes you thirstier.
Competing to feel better about yourself ultimately makes you feel worse about yourself (even if you win).
And guess what new research finds about the effect of interacting with chatbots when you're lonely?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976261427747

2026-05-01 00:54:07 UTC

Did someone say "equal justice under the law"?
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/496/579/445/982/215/original/059cf486969f6925.png

2026-04-27 16:40:32 UTC

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute's new report finds academic freedom declining worldwide, but the "fast and steep deterioration" in the U.S. stands out, leaving us with the most restrictions of any comparable nation. USA! USA! USA!
https://academic-freedom-index.net/research/Academic_Freedom_Index_Update_2026.pdf
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/477/651/636/984/187/original/25611a5e671f5ce7.png

2026-04-25 12:02:35 UTC

"Hezbollah does not resist Israel simply because it is a Shiite organization supported by Iran; it resists Israel primarily because Israel has repeatedly invaded, scorched and occupied Lebanese land, and because Israel uprooted and terrorized its community." Worth a read: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/opinion/israel-exploits-lebanon-sectarian-divides.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dlA.krNC.3JLNP0R2gx_I&smid=url-share
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/465/239/368/161/326/original/0acd3c0e056ed6fd.png

2026-04-24 12:08:25 UTC

Nice piece that draws an analogy between relying on a GPS (vs. developing a sense of direction) to teachers who offer direct instruction of math procedures (vs. helping kids to develop math sense): https://www.middleweb.com/53328/are-you-gpsing-your-students-in-math-class/
Why not just teach kids principles AND procedures? This 1991 study found that the destructive effects of step-by-step direct instruction aren't offset by adding richer content: https://perryresearchgroupatillinois.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/6/7/41674785/perry_1991_cognitive_development.pdf. And this study 25 yrs later confirms it: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306030326_Improving_conceptual_and_procedural_knowledge_The_impact_of_instructional_content_within_a_mathematics_lesson

2026-04-23 12:02:22 UTC

1/3
Superb new book by Nick Chater & George Loewenstein: It’s on You: How Corporations & Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We’re to Blame for Society’s Deepest Problems - https://tinyurl.com/uj4ymmey
Corporations can "deflect pressure for systemic change that might threaten their business models...by reframing problems" as being about indiv behav rather than social policies. They do so despite (or b/c of ) the fact that efforts to nudge those behaviors "are unlikely to have much impact."

2026-04-22 12:09:29 UTC

"Some conservatives have recognized the huge benefits of progressive classroom practices, but they only want them for their own children" - or for those those who can afford them. (For the masses: direct instruction and worksheets.) Short, thoughtful essay by historian Adam Laats: https://iloveyoubutyouregoingtohell.org/2018/02/06/the-tortuous-triumph-of-progressive-education/

2026-04-21 12:57:09 UTC

Let this be a warning to Democrats: If you insist on criticizing a country that kills tens of thousands of civilians, you risk losing the support of people who defend the killing of tens of thousands of civilians.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/442/800/278/623/548/original/1d313ac9b534516d.png

2026-04-14 12:01:52 UTC

More data to challenge (another kind of) controlling teaching: A new study finds that kids on rocker/wiggly chairs who were allowed to move freely were more creative than those told to sit still, with no negative effects on their performance at focused-attention or memory tasks: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397684420_Sit_still_or_move_more_The_impact_of_fidgeting_on_creativity

2026-04-13 11:38:34 UTC

Fascinating: Corporations invented the very idea of disposability - and promoted recycling as a mostly pointless palliative to escape blame. A damning couple of paragraphs from a review of this new book: https://tinyurl.com/bde78zeh
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/397/195/265/939/735/original/ed5a8b511fd2f4ba.png

2026-04-08 12:01:53 UTC

- reply

2/2
Education critics will recognize this rhetorical effort to rule the big questions out of bounds - about, say, grades, standardized tests, or homework. "The question isn't whether to keep doing this; it's how to do this better." Which just means, "I prefer that no one talk about the former."

2026-04-08 12:00:44 UTC

1/2
YouTube's CEO was recently quoted as saying that we should protect "young people IN the digital world," not "FROM the digital world." BIg Tech uses the same framing for A.I. The implication is that we can't question whether something that's profitable to them might be *inherently* problematic; its existence must be accepted; the only discussion we're permitted to have is about implementation...

2026-04-02 21:45:12 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/337/292/321/836/740/original/26f037bb0631d598.png

2026-04-02 11:26:11 UTC

Remember the days before AI, when you had to do your own plagiarizing?
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/334/861/144/154/022/original/ed80f1171c522560.png

2026-03-22 14:28:37 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/273/295/114/043/454/original/0a029b6e68ebf477.png

2026-03-20 17:35:59 UTC

Zuckerberg flushed the incomprehensible sum of $80 billion down the toilet on his meta fancy. (Imagine what pressing needs that money could have been put towards.) But don't worry - there's no chance that the even greater sums being shoveled into A.I. could turn out the same way: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/technology/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-vr-horizon-worlds.html

2026-03-18 22:08:17 UTC

This is very much in character for Israel, which for years has "repeatedly undermined Palestinians who sought to end Israel's occupation through negotiations or nonviolent pressure" (Peter Beinart) - arresting or killing those urging diplomacy and then claiming there's no one to negotiate with.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/252/451/032/322/369/original/7cd1dbfae12b0b7e.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/252/473/221/575/919/original/43fe5777b253bf94.png

2026-03-09 11:40:37 UTC

Lots of research (which I reviewed in my book "No Contest") shows that participating in competition - any activity where one person or group must fail in order for another to succeed - undermines moral development and generosity.
But one study really stands out. It found that merely growing up with a competitive parent is enough to reduce a child's empathy. It's sort of like the effects of breathing secondhand smoke.

2026-03-07 17:35:26 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/189/087/008/930/417/original/13f7dfb33e0891b2.png

2026-03-06 16:32:02 UTC

Remember -- it's always the kids who need to be fixed, not the structure (in this case, the tests) that should be questioned.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/183/178/907/525/496/original/b50393e26b05a5f5.jpeg

2026-03-05 14:05:18 UTC

https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3mgbydabftc26

2026-03-04 23:44:56 UTC

My go-to illustration of the concept of unfalsifiability - where a claim grounded in ideology such that no facts can ever dislodge it - is the belief that Israel, which, beyond its continuing slaughter of Palestinians, has lately attacked Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran, is always just defending itself and therefore deserving of support.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/173/560/566/638/215/original/9873c2f3cbd3908f.png

2026-03-04 12:55:08 UTC

Even people who aren't anti-AI are sickened by OpenAI's active role in supporting MAGA authoritarianism at home and its atrocities abroad. There's now an active movement to urge people to stop using its chatbot. Do you have friends or colleagues who need to see this? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/04/quit-chatgpt-subscription-boycott-silicon-valley

2026-03-03 12:51:43 UTC

"Teacher shortage" (e.g., in AK, AZ, FL MI) is shorthand for "shortage of teachers willing to work under crappy conditions and/or for insufficient pay."
More generally, as author Garret Keizer reminds us, "Our entire economic system rests on the principle of paying people less than their labor is worth."

2026-03-02 23:55:19 UTC

Hey, Democrats and mainstream U.S. media: What if Trump had sought Congress's authorization first (as Bush did before invading Iraq)? What if he had a single, focused rationale for the attack and a clear plan for what to do after conquering Iran? What if no American soldiers died? Would this unprovoked attack, this act of aggression, be any less despicable and worthy of unqualified condemnation?

2026-03-02 17:56:30 UTC

A new study finds that, "even when instructed to use established psychotherapy approaches, [AI chatbots] consistently fail to meet professional ethics standards" for providing mental health advice: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260302030642.htm

2026-02-25 13:16:11 UTC

- reply

3/3
It's reasonable for parent to trust teachers who spend time with their kids more than machine-scored standardized test results. But grades don't represent authentic assessment by those teachers, so "grades vs. tests" is a false dichotomy. *Both* are inadequate and misleading: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/roots-grades-tests/

2026-02-25 13:14:55 UTC

- reply

2/3
First, it ignores longstanding conceptual and empirical flaws in such sweeping, uncritical claims about grade inflation: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/dangerous-myth-grade-inflation/.
Second, it brushes off parents' accurate concerns that standardized tests aren't just biased but lack validity and reliability, which I and many others have confirmed.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/131/446/958/550/350/original/648b16b3536f4993.png

2026-02-25 13:13:20 UTC

1/3
This conservative take ("Parents trust grades more than standardized test scores; that's bad because grades are inflated") is based on a study by economists that reduces learning and assessment to "signal weighting in human capital investment": https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-parents-report-cards/. It's problematic for multiple reasons....

2026-02-24 13:22:17 UTC

Some instructors call on questioners with barely concealed impatience, as if the class was being interrupted. It's important to keep in mind that what's actually being interrupted is the instructor's monologue, which may or may not contribute as much to learning as a question does.

2026-02-23 13:53:16 UTC

If you need me, I'll be in the library, moving Margaret Atwood's books to the nonfiction section
https://www.throughline.news/p/the-trump-administration-is-trafficking

2026-02-20 16:14:12 UTC

A telling detail in reporting about South Korea's former president being sentenced for insurrection by declaring martial law: When his supporters gathered, they waved American flags - "a symbol commonly used by South Korea's far right." A sign on one man's jacket read "MKGA: Make Korea Great Again."

2026-02-20 13:07:36 UTC

In case you worried that far-right politicians were just banning instructors from teaching disfavored content (e.g., slavery was bad; LGBTQ folks are human beings), it turns out they're also mandating curriculum content. So it's not just "Here's what you can't teach" but also "Here's what you must teach."
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/103/100/626/406/826/original/b4b486fe61cf9c1a.png

2026-02-18 12:44:39 UTC

Fixed it for you, NY Times
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/091/690/997/322/549/original/8440fbbd6e2bab60.png

2026-02-17 12:25:49 UTC

This piece about Trump's boundless self-aggrandizement reasonably points out that it's "not just egotistical self-satisfaction, it's a way of expanding presidential power." ("Cults of personality are traditionally associated with dictators and demagogues, not democrats.") But how do you write or edit such an article without inviting a single mental health expert to explain the psychiatric dynamics of megalomania? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/us/politics/trumps-american-cult-of-personality.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MlA.MyER.HNX9_kNIDW6m&smid=url-share

2026-02-17 12:21:37 UTC

‪Compare the reaction to this comment (from Congress, major media outlets, etc.) to the reaction that would have followed a Muslim politician saying this about Jews.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/085/934/006/000/893/original/17ca9d572a85c5b2.png

2026-02-15 13:02:01 UTC

New episode of Kohn's Zone: "The Whole Point Is That There's No Point." Yes, kids should have more time for play, but please don't make that case based on skills or dispositions it supposedly helps children to acquire. True play has no goal other than itself.
Listen here: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-02-14 17:06:27 UTC

Authoritarianism defined in eight words: "make sure we have the right people voting"
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/070/070/217/103/732/original/3d14288e31cc4052.png

2026-02-14 13:54:16 UTC

- reply

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/069/313/547/747/444/original/1ce42959a4046290.png

2026-02-14 12:56:36 UTC

2025: CEO of OpenAI says, "I hate ads," adding that he finds the idea of mixing ads with AI "uniquely unsettling."
2026: OpenAI begins running ads in ChatGPT.
Some time in the future: (watch "Common People," the 1st episode of Black Mirror's 7th season; a clip is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buVDDbjFCBc)

2026-02-13 17:49:15 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/064/575/345/113/697/original/b79992c71ad4733e.png

2026-02-09 13:05:34 UTC

This is MAGA in a nutshell, isn't it? Not just contempt for, but rage at, sentiments like "The only thing more power than hate is love" or "Together we are America." Moreover, the expression of that rage is gendered: Kari Lake speaks for tens of millions of Americans when she declares, in effect, "Real men are racist."
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/040/803/116/127/410/original/f964037abe1359af.png

2026-02-08 14:13:40 UTC

1/2
Even judging by AP scores (a metric I don't put much stock in), a 2021 study with students of color shows that student-centered, project-based teaching is more successful than traditional instruction in 2 different subjects: https://cesr.usc.edu/sites/default/files/Knowledge%20in%20Action%20Efficacy%20Study_18feb2021_final.pdf
"The traditional 'transmission' model of instruction...may be suboptimal for supporting students’ ability to think and communicate in sophisticated ways, demonstrate creativity...and transfer their skills, knowledge, & attitudes to new contexts."

2026-02-02 13:36:27 UTC

All too often ed tech just adds bells & whistles to traditional teacher-centered instruction. But Gary Stager has spent his career showing how computers can revolutionize learning. Listen to my conversation with him on the latest episode of Kohn's Zone: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-01-30 12:58:40 UTC

Just stumbled on this 2005 study while preparing for a podcast about high schools. 250 H.S. principals were asked what tends to explain teachers' ineffectiveness. Turns out, contrary to conservatives' claims, that it's more likely due to lack of pedagogical skills than content knowledge - and that's true in both high- and low-performing schools: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ858727.pdf

2026-01-26 14:22:24 UTC

It's meaningful when people who use words carefully and are specialists in the subject in question decide that a provocative term does, in fact, apply. That was true when experts concluded - in some cases, reluctantly - that Israel is guilty of genocide. And it's true in describing the Trump regime as fascistic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/?gift=7deeCsgE8m50UsuOnXueiZb9ry5le3qDWOauqClVA6w&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/961/839/471/943/206/original/a477d2f15b21e8c0.png

2026-01-26 13:16:46 UTC

A must-read, particularly for college instructors - not just as a solution to the conundrum of students using AI to do their assignments but as an example of successful student-centered learning and decision-making vs. traditional classrooms with teachers laying down the law: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:qrqismv65fv5zfkw6mrkelf3/post/3md2e2v2wxs23

2026-01-25 18:22:05 UTC

"If you identify conservatism with any principle, you inevitably end up finding hypocrisy. But if you conceive of conservatism as efforts by dominant groups to maintain their dominance, with principles occasionally deployed instrumentally, the contradictions/hypocrisy fade away." -David Roberts
There's no irony when the right justifies killing a nurse b/c he had a gun. Or brutalizing Capitol cops on J6. They never meant for "gun rights" or "law & order" (or "free speech") to apply universally.

2026-01-22 17:38:30 UTC

Adam Serwer on what it means in concrete terms that Trump has essentially destroyed the independence of the Dept. of Justice: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/trump-justice/685684/
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2026-01-22 13:08:53 UTC

"If OpenAI embraces advertising and pivots to...surveillance capitalism," said Roger McNamee, a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, "it would constitute a 'five-alarm fire.'" (A chatbot that continuously monitors users’ thoughts and feelings can steer them in directions meant to benefit advertisers.)
HOW IT STARTED .... HOW IT'S GOING
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2026-01-21 13:08:53 UTC

A really thoughtful look at U.S. history as well as at other countries' experiences with regimes that relied on concentration camps and secret police in order to make sense of where we are, where we're headed, and what we can do: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/into-the-abyss
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2026-01-20 12:50:14 UTC

A writer remarks, "To the extent that anyone is 'good' at parenting, it's almost entirely due to the disposition of the child." This is an exaggeration, but I think it contains a kernel of truth. It's like people who pride themselves on their financial savvy during a long bull market.

2026-01-19 16:28:39 UTC

This account describes how ICE initiates, and is responsible for, each round of brutality. Contrast that with the NY Times's framing (on the right).
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2026-01-16 13:09:29 UTC

In an essay last year about the value of diversity, I cited data showing that there's nothing inevitable about people preferring others from their own racial, ethnic, or other group: https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/diversity/.
Now a new research review adds that children's apparent preference for their own kind actually is less about racial homogeneity than about attraction to higher-status people: https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.70098

2026-01-13 13:01:01 UTC

Our culture's competition compulsion: It seems there's no activity so engaging - from singing to coding, from math to oratory - that it can't be ruined by gratuitously pitting kids against each other and defining success as making everyone else fail.

2026-01-12 17:30:07 UTC

Today in "actual news headline, not from The Onion"....
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2026-01-12 16:40:09 UTC

For anyone you know who's still using Facebook, Insta, Whatsapp, or Threads...
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2026-01-12 14:38:02 UTC

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2026-01-10 13:30:26 UTC

Excellent analysis by David Corn of how three recent events converge on the Trump regime's frank rejection not only of the rule of law but of "rules-based civilization." Its motto instead is: "Violence is ours to use, at home and abroad, to get what we want": https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/trump-doctrine-violence-ice-minneapolis-venezuela/

2026-01-09 14:53:56 UTC

Trumpians who praise ICE (and denigrate its victims) but also support the J6 seditionists' assault on Capitol police officers are not being inconsistent or hypocritical. Here's why: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/renee-good-ashli-babbitt-fascism
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2026-01-08 14:39:15 UTC

Notice the NYT's framing here: a near "disaster" means that the aggressors almost didn't succeed in their invasion. (That they did end up succeeding was of course a disaster for the 80 people they killed.)
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2026-01-08 12:39:26 UTC

Those of us who express our concern about the various risks and disadvantages of AI are sometimes reminded how valuable it is in the fields of radiology and meteorology....
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2026-01-05 17:15:16 UTC

"The extent to which the national conversation about what just happened focuses on drugs, or on Maduro’s personal corruption, rather than on the world’s most powerful nation attacking a less powerful nation in order to protect its own economic interests—that is the extent to which the national conversation has been derailed by propaganda":
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/we-are-the-bad-guys
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2026-01-04 17:02:30 UTC

Attention social studies teachers:
Ideal teachable moment -- a unit on how empires and tyrants engage in wars of conquest and plunder, from Attila and Alexander to Napoleon and ... say, what do we have here? why, it's the front page of today's newspaper!

2025-12-29 13:01:38 UTC

1/2
I remember how unsettled I was by this par. from anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "The Western conception of the person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational & cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment, & action organized into a distinctive whole & set contrastively against both other such wholes & against its soc & natural background, is, however incorrigible it may seem to us, a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world's cultures."

2025-12-28 12:38:58 UTC

From Kalen Dion:
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2025-12-25 13:58:03 UTC

The 38% of Americans who don't identify as Christian are officially unwelcome in MAGAmerica. (Of course Christians, too, ought to be appalled by this casual contempt for secular democracy.)
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2025-12-23 12:37:45 UTC

A reminder during this holiday season, courtesy of the late Barbara Ehrenreich, about the "major philanthropists of our society."
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2025-12-22 13:23:13 UTC

We may be heading toward a world in which it seems peculiar or even foolish to read an article or book in its entirety. Incredibly, schools - K-12 & higher ed. alike - seem reconciled to becoming the accomplices of Big Tech by pointing us there.
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2025-12-18 12:54:40 UTC

An important front in the assault on democracy: Krugman offers a lucid account of how authoritarian tech oligarchs are buying up key media properties for political reasons, not because they're profitable. They've already got Twitter, WashPost, CBS, and are now trying for CNN & TikTok: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-the-broligarchs-and-the-media
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2025-12-17 12:06:26 UTC

RE: https://fediscience.org/@petergleick/115733268308907845
From "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead": "There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said--no. But somehow we missed it."
#note1d77…y69n

2025-12-10 23:04:04 UTC

A blatant act of unprovoked aggression that should be instantly and unanimously condemned by the entire world community
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2025-12-10 14:58:30 UTC

Those who lose a contest often experience resentment and self-doubt. But competition also does ugly things to those who win, this study showed: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229104746.htm. Ultimately everyone loses when we're pitted against one another.

2025-12-09 11:49:22 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Strandjunker/115686048166844150
And if you love freedom but actively oppose extending it to certain others, what you actually love is domination.
#note10mu…xdke

2025-12-04 16:43:26 UTC

So much of conservatives' angry nostalgia for "how simple life used to be" in the good old days confuses a life-cycle effect (what is true of people at a certain age) with a period effect (what is true of everyone at a certain point in history).
More here: https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/aggressive-nostalgia/
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2025-12-02 12:54:26 UTC

A line from one of Tom Stoppard's plays (quoted in his obituary) lands with a certain force today: "It's not the voting that's democracy. It's the counting."

2025-12-01 13:13:00 UTC

Excellent analysis of how the right's culture war (e.g., sneering at pronouns or claiming there's a "war on Christmas") depends on a straw-man and, ultimately, projection:
https://bsky.app/profile/bmhughes.bsky.social/post/3m6wc33skm22z