Shannon McGregor, PhD
@shannimcg.bsky.social
16K followers 2.8K following 1.2K posts
Professor at UNC. Principal investigator at CITAP. Researching & writing on political comm: identity, social media, public opinion, data, news. BOOK: Media & January 6th (Oxford) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/media-and-january-6th-9780197758533
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shannimcg.bsky.social
For those further interested in the political emptiness of polarization, you can read the longer, more academic screed that @dkreiss.bsky.social & I published. It’s #openaccess
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
hels.bsky.social
Hey if you have a culinary or restaurant or cooking or grocery or whatever question that I can answer — etiquette, advice, culture explainer, vibe prompts, etc — for my (ostensibly) food-related sporadic advice column, please send it to [email protected] with “Helen Help Me” in the subject line!
shannimcg.bsky.social
The need to be a victim to justify your tyranny — it’s really something.
shannimcg.bsky.social
Not looking forward to what UNC does, though I have a guess
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
victorerikray.bsky.social
If red state schools accept this we are going to get a two-tiered system of higher ed. One set of states will be based in empirical reality and the other will be subject to the whims of a conspiratorial movement that is increasingly detached from facts.
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
“Win every election” is not a viable strategy for preventing authoritarianism
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
alexis-madrigal.bsky.social
This is the way.
brianstelter.bsky.social
Reps for CNN, Reuters, The AP, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR all say that journalists from their newsrooms are not signing the new paperwork about Pentagon access. Newsmax says it doesn't intend to sign, either — a potentially significant sign of MAGA dissension.
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
stephenwest.bsky.social
How W. E. B. Du Bois responded to government policing of "anti-American" sentiment during the 1910s:

"I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, 'We are seeking to have the Constitution of the United States thoroughly and completely enforced.' ”
Federal agents invaded even the offices of The Crisis and the National Association for the advancement of colored people and asked searching questions: " just what, after all, were our objects and activities?” I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, “We are seeking to have the constitution of the United states thoroughly and completely enforced.” It took some ingenuity, even for Southerners, to make treason out of that.
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
dmgreene.bsky.social
As always--the south is the nation's weathervane. Very good chance we don't get a real budget for the rest of this presidential administration.
tressiemcphd.bsky.social
North Carolina still does not have a state budget:
apnews.com
BREAKING: North Carolina Republicans announce plans to vote on a new U.S. House map as a nationwide redistricting battle unfolds.
shannimcg.bsky.social
omg we had this same framed poster in my house growing up! I never knew anything about the context. Love it!
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
darinself.com
Here is some findings from a survey experiment I did. We tested support for candidates based on support liberal democracy vs strengthening anti-corruption.

Anti-corruption was much higher than traditional liberal democracy AND its resilient to partisanship!
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
tedmccormick.bsky.social
Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans
Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
jameeljaffer.bsky.social
This is a perilous moment for democracy in the United States, but I couldn’t be prouder of the Knight Institute’s work right now, and I don’t take for granted that we have the freedom and resources to do it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This free speech group at Columbia is taking on Trump when the university won’t – and winning
The Knight Institute is defending free speech at a school now synonymous with compromising on it
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
histoftech.bsky.social
The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
dannagal.bsky.social
If you’re wondering why all of us are being compelled to “integrate AI” into our classrooms, our workflow, and our kitchen appliances…

It’s because the market is all in on tech and they put us in another “too big to fail“ predicament.
histoftech.bsky.social
“Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.”

Hang onto your butts. This “correction” is gonna hurt.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster
The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.
futurism.com
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
clancyny.bsky.social
Glad that NYT went to some of the smartest, most clued in experts, @whitneyphillips.bsky.social who is the bomb when it comes to abusive internetting, and @shannimcg.bsky.social an expert in media and social media in politics.
nytimes.com
President Trump’s long, avid embrace of social media has been eagerly adopted by his top aides, replacing longstanding governmental norms with ones native to the internet while also controlling the political narrative.
Trump’s Aides and Officials Take Political Battles Online
President Trump’s long, avid embrace of social media has been eagerly adopted by his top aides, replacing longstanding governmental norms with online ones.
nyti.ms
shannimcg.bsky.social
Huge same. Metal af recovery. Much blood. But SO much better at breathing now
shannimcg.bsky.social
Without downloading anything, where are you mentally right now?
Pissed possum in a postal box
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."
dlknowles.bsky.social
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
shannimcg.bsky.social
right? it's so clearly the inspiration
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
houstonchronicle.com
Texas once feared a phantom federal occupation. Now Gov. Abbott’s troops are helping carry it out under Trump. And Houston may be next, writes the Houston Chronicle editorial board. bit.ly/48Q3D5C
Reposted by Shannon McGregor, PhD
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Danielle Allen fails the Lando test / lives out the Arrested Development meme: "A deal on the core principles in a compact could then become a framework for negotiating on legislation." Come ON. With this administration and this Congress?
therenovator.substack.com/p/why-im-exc...