Robyn Coggins

Gessen: The only thing that would work against Trump is a united front of higher education leaders who would both push back on him and articulate some new ideas about why their institutions are essential for our society’s future. Some college presidents, like Wesleyan’s Michael Roth, have been arguing for this kind of resistance. But others — most — try to stay below the radar or, like Columbia’s Katrina Armstrong, are trying to fall in line and demonstrate loyalty even as the administration makes clear its intention to destroy them. I keep saying that we are all in a prisoner’s dilemma now — our only chance for protecting the long-term future of higher education (and everything else) lies in collective, coordinated action, which is the least likely thing to happen. Cottom: Few things annoy me more than the overpaid, cowardly university president. No institution wins if the sector is demoralized, defunded and delegitimized. Our profession has never selected leaders on courage, but the lack of even basic survival instincts is an embarrassment. Anticipatory obedience, indeed. Donald Trump is not loyal enough to reward obedience should it conflict with his own interests. Better to fight like men than die like cowards, or something like that.

Anyway, if you don't know quite what to say to the people running your alma mater about their cowering and capitulating, it's a start to just send along this clipping

You are MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.

If they threaten you with arrest for trying to access a site you are lawfully entitled to access, YOU MAKE THEM FUCKING ARREST YOU.

YOU MAKE THEM SLAP THE CUFFS ON A CONGRESSMAN LIVE ON TV, YOU MAKE THEM FUCKING DO IT.

This has been the longest "short week" of my life

Sounds like a Content Development Opportunity (TM)

100000% this is the way

This entire thread is absolutely bonkers.

🤞🤞🤞

So true! Definitely plays into my general "meh" feelings toward most movies.

Such a well-reported story of egregious medical abuse.

I also wonder if this books-as-function approach rather than books-as-fun attitude is playing a role in the abysmal literacy rates in the U.S.

Anyway, I know not every grown up is reading their kids this kind of lit, but it seems particularly prevalent in the parenting conversations I'm in. 3/x

But if the only books I were ever given or allowed to read were so moralizing or didactic, I'd hate reading! Are adults leaning too hard on books to do the difficult work of introducing kids to the complexities of the world? Are we forgetting that sometimes you just want to read a good *story*? 2/x

Maybe you all can help me work through a question I've been chewing on: Why are we putting so much pressure on kids' books nowadays? Here's a book to affirm __ identity, a book to explain __ political issue, a book to teach __ lesson. Those have a time and place for sure! 1/x

Afghanistan: Women suspended from midwife and nurse training Women at training colleges across the country were told they are not allowed to return to class.

Let’s remember how quickly the West abandoned the women of Afghanistan under Taliban 2.0
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Well. While he’s pardoning folks….get all of the folks on death row pardoned, all those drug convictions for weed pardoned, etc etc etc.

U.S. Reps Urge Biden to Use Clemency to Correct “Extreme Use of Incarceration” U.S. Congressmembers, including Ayanna Pressley, say Joe Biden should grand pardons and commutations before Donald Trump takes office.

More than 60 lawmakers are calling on Biden to use his clemency powers to help "the elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers.” theappeal.org/biden-commut...

I never found them disgusting!

The Electoral Problem for Democrats: It's the Neoliberalism, Stupid In the 2024 contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, voters rejected the status quo — as our polls and focus groups warned would happen.

Here's the post-mortem we need.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

I put away all my laundry the same day I washed it, so I believe I'm excused from tasks and expectations for the rest of the year, correct?

If he's an app kind of guy, I really like Atom (Android only) and Happier. The latter occasionally offers free yearlong subscriptions on their website.

Signed, a longtime meditation resister turned adherent.

WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS

It's simple! I like it.

I'm probably overthinking it, but posting on a new platform feels like a lot of pressure. Who do I want to be here? What do I want to use this for? Can we have a nice space on the internet, and if so, how can I aid that? Maybe we should all go back to posting pictures of our breakfasts.

I (barely) started this list of bookish sorts in the city. Gimme suggestions for more people!

go.bsky.app/VSniMux