Seth Kahn (he/him)
@badpacifist.bsky.social
Writing/rhetoric prof in PA. Write about higher ed organizing. Teach about demagoguery. Spurs/Union/Phillies/UGA fan. Read sci-fi, police procedurals, and horror fiction. No DMs with strangers.
My employer says I have to tell you I don't represent them.
My employer says I have to tell you I don't represent them.
Pinned
I've been harping on the idea of *preparing* for a general strike for months, so I decided it's time to do some thinking about what that actually entails for people who are riled up enough to go tomorrow but may not be thinking about how to protect yourselves and each other if we do this.
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Reposted by Seth Kahn (he/him)
this just flooded my brain with so much dopamine
This They Might Be Giants TONIGHT SHOW performance of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" from 1990 remains firmly lodged in my noggin thanks to the Tonight Show Band's full commitment and Doc Severinsen's incredible trumpeting... It took an already great song and made it transcendent.
December 1, 2025 at 3:44 AM
this just flooded my brain with so much dopamine
He seems to think murder is hilarious.
December 1, 2025 at 1:45 AM
He seems to think murder is hilarious.
I'm furious at OU management for selling out a grad student to the vultures at Turning Point. Here are some things I hope are happening to protect them--
1. The admin leave better be paid leave, and if the grad student needs financial support, I hope somebody sets up a way to get it to them.
1/x
1. The admin leave better be paid leave, and if the grad student needs financial support, I hope somebody sets up a way to get it to them.
1/x
November 30, 2025 at 11:54 PM
I'm furious at OU management for selling out a grad student to the vultures at Turning Point. Here are some things I hope are happening to protect them--
1. The admin leave better be paid leave, and if the grad student needs financial support, I hope somebody sets up a way to get it to them.
1/x
1. The admin leave better be paid leave, and if the grad student needs financial support, I hope somebody sets up a way to get it to them.
1/x
If I had a dollar for every time I've had to explain that adjunct faculty also need academic freedom and are often denied it, I could pay a pretty good chunk of Brian Kelly's failure bonus!
Academic freedom has never been shared by all of the people teaching at your institution!
It only stops when university admins think it’s in their interest to protect the instructor. And even in the halcyon days of 10 years ago, they didn’t protect grad students.
November 30, 2025 at 10:04 PM
If I had a dollar for every time I've had to explain that adjunct faculty also need academic freedom and are often denied it, I could pay a pretty good chunk of Brian Kelly's failure bonus!
OMG Trump is being divisive!
Seriously? HE IS THE CRISIS.
Sorry for yelling.
Seriously? HE IS THE CRISIS.
Sorry for yelling.
Analysis | In a time of crisis, Trump falls back on rants rather than unity
President Trump has used the language of divisiveness at a time when tragedy demands measured leadership.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
OMG Trump is being divisive!
Seriously? HE IS THE CRISIS.
Sorry for yelling.
Seriously? HE IS THE CRISIS.
Sorry for yelling.
I'm sorry her house and family got threatened. I appreciate her taking a clear stand. This isn't about "DC political pundits." It's about McFascist and his minions telling their people that opponents of redistricting are traitors. James Carville etc had nothing to do with this, and she knows that.
A new post by a Republican state Senator in Indiana, saying she will "not cave" on redistricting as she shares that she was just the target of a pipe bomb threat to due "DC political pundits."
November 30, 2025 at 9:42 PM
I'm sorry her house and family got threatened. I appreciate her taking a clear stand. This isn't about "DC political pundits." It's about McFascist and his minions telling their people that opponents of redistricting are traitors. James Carville etc had nothing to do with this, and she knows that.
Spineless OU upper management. Good chance the faculty member won't get punished, but OU will be able to say they "took the allegations seriously" and the fascists who orchestrated it will be able to say they "got the instructor suspended." Thanks for inviting more of this horsehit, you cowards.
Click through and read the assignment feedback, which was constructive, kind, and frankly very gentle. Suspending the instructor over this is a deranged overreaction in support of a clearly bad faith student, and the university choosing this action is once again another stain on higher education.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Spineless OU upper management. Good chance the faculty member won't get punished, but OU will be able to say they "took the allegations seriously" and the fascists who orchestrated it will be able to say they "got the instructor suspended." Thanks for inviting more of this horsehit, you cowards.
Dear Titans: You're welcome.
Sincerely, Atlanta Falcons
Sincerely, Atlanta Falcons
November 30, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Dear Titans: You're welcome.
Sincerely, Atlanta Falcons
Sincerely, Atlanta Falcons
People are rightly mad at universities for doing this. I would also add that Brian Kelly shouldn't be allowed to go pick up a pizza without hearing about what a flaming shithead he is for stealing that much money from LSU. Or fill in the blank you're preferred failure!
Also a reminder: a number of graduate programs at MSU have suspended intake for the coming fall, including 21 in the College of Arts and Letters.
Yet another reminder that the very best job in this world is failed college football coach.
November 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM
People are rightly mad at universities for doing this. I would also add that Brian Kelly shouldn't be allowed to go pick up a pizza without hearing about what a flaming shithead he is for stealing that much money from LSU. Or fill in the blank you're preferred failure!
"I can ignore any judge I want, but a soldier who ignores an illegal order is a traitor! No, that doesn't make sense. Who cares?" #fixed
KARL: Did you know about the judge's order when you issued your order for the planes to continue?
KRISTI NOEM: This is an activist judge. We comply with all federal orders that are lawful and binding.
KRISTI NOEM: This is an activist judge. We comply with all federal orders that are lawful and binding.
November 30, 2025 at 7:35 PM
"I can ignore any judge I want, but a soldier who ignores an illegal order is a traitor! No, that doesn't make sense. Who cares?" #fixed
A few seconds into the vid, CBS posts a poll indicating that 68% of people think grocery prices are up. I'm increasingly annoyed by the tendency to replace discernible obvious facts with polls. Prices are higher or lower.
(cont)
(cont)
Hassett: "You mentioned quite accurately the 1.4% increase in grocery prices. The interesting thing about that is it's way below the Fed's target of 2% for everything else. So you'd have to concede that 1.4% is very very low inflation."
November 30, 2025 at 5:15 PM
A few seconds into the vid, CBS posts a poll indicating that 68% of people think grocery prices are up. I'm increasingly annoyed by the tendency to replace discernible obvious facts with polls. Prices are higher or lower.
(cont)
(cont)
Some alert Katie Miller, quick! She was screaming about this on some TV show the other day and unfortunately the host didn't know this either.
Senator Kelly is correct.
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
November 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Some alert Katie Miller, quick! She was screaming about this on some TV show the other day and unfortunately the host didn't know this either.
On another lighthearted note: after Spurs' day yesterday, it's hard to get my energy up for CHE v ARS, a game in which I can't root for either side. Hoping for a 5-5 draw, with 8 goals scored in 2nd half stoppage time because they're playing 9/side after a rash of stupid red cards. So far so good!
November 30, 2025 at 4:41 PM
On another lighthearted note: after Spurs' day yesterday, it's hard to get my energy up for CHE v ARS, a game in which I can't root for either side. Hoping for a 5-5 draw, with 8 goals scored in 2nd half stoppage time because they're playing 9/side after a rash of stupid red cards. So far so good!
On a happier note, I just made more coffee and after the first two sips, I can confidently say if this is the best choice I make all day, I'm good with that.
November 30, 2025 at 4:19 PM
On a happier note, I just made more coffee and after the first two sips, I can confidently say if this is the best choice I make all day, I'm good with that.
Not having to depend on the whims of rich jerks to survive. Legally recognized and enforceable workplace autonomy. The right to strike without getting beaten or shot.
Why do you appreciate unions?
I’ll start:
Weekends off
Paid vacations
Work breaks
Sick leave
Paid holidays
No child labor
Safer working conditions
Health care and retirement benefits
I’ll start:
Weekends off
Paid vacations
Work breaks
Sick leave
Paid holidays
No child labor
Safer working conditions
Health care and retirement benefits
November 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Not having to depend on the whims of rich jerks to survive. Legally recognized and enforceable workplace autonomy. The right to strike without getting beaten or shot.
Yes. And, along with its inhumaneness and empty sloganeering, it's another form of affirmative action for white western Europeans. So much for individual merit! <Snark>
An actual journalist might ask her to define what she thinks a Third World country is and why
WELKER: Is the administration ending all legal immigration into the United States?
KRISTI NOEM: The president is absolutely determined to stop all processes at this point in time from third world countries
KRISTI NOEM: The president is absolutely determined to stop all processes at this point in time from third world countries
November 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Yes. And, along with its inhumaneness and empty sloganeering, it's another form of affirmative action for white western Europeans. So much for individual merit! <Snark>
I'm sorry @lollardfish.bsky.social had to write this but grateful to him for doing it. Nazis are bad. If you can't muster full-throated support for that, you're bad too.
Hitler was bad.
An essay that, you know, I didn’t think I’d need to write.
An essay that, you know, I didn’t think I’d need to write.
Perry: The pro-Hitler problem with the American right
"We need to get back to the basics: Hitler was bad. The people who suggest otherwise are also bad," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:34 PM
I'm sorry @lollardfish.bsky.social had to write this but grateful to him for doing it. Nazis are bad. If you can't muster full-throated support for that, you're bad too.
#NeverForget Republicans have been happy to watch people die for a long time.
November 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
#NeverForget Republicans have been happy to watch people die for a long time.
Not even. There's no war. He's just a mass murderer. Yes, he should be fired. He should also be tried for murder. He's a monster.
Pete Hegseth is a war criminal and should be fired immediately.
November 30, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Not even. There's no war. He's just a mass murderer. Yes, he should be fired. He should also be tried for murder. He's a monster.
Reposted by Seth Kahn (he/him)
I beg you, do not start a research paper by making questionable assertions. Like: "Generative AI can be employed to write academic genres at a level similar to what humans write." Only if your baseline is that all academic writing produces non-representational strings of words can this be true.
November 29, 2025 at 7:42 PM
I beg you, do not start a research paper by making questionable assertions. Like: "Generative AI can be employed to write academic genres at a level similar to what humans write." Only if your baseline is that all academic writing produces non-representational strings of words can this be true.
I'd say that was worst half I've ever seen Spurs play, but it wasn't. It was just another of the same old thing. This is enough to make me not to want to watch them at all. What's the point? They can't shoot, they can't score, they can't pass, they can't defend.
November 29, 2025 at 8:50 PM
I'd say that was worst half I've ever seen Spurs play, but it wasn't. It was just another of the same old thing. This is enough to make me not to want to watch them at all. What's the point? They can't shoot, they can't score, they can't pass, they can't defend.
Yes. And. But.
We have to persuade students to engage in ways we didn't used to--we could assume (demand) they would or they'd fail. COVID broke that, for better and worse, and we need to get comfortable winning arguments for things we think should be obvious. They're not and maybe never were.
We have to persuade students to engage in ways we didn't used to--we could assume (demand) they would or they'd fail. COVID broke that, for better and worse, and we need to get comfortable winning arguments for things we think should be obvious. They're not and maybe never were.
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
November 29, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Yes. And. But.
We have to persuade students to engage in ways we didn't used to--we could assume (demand) they would or they'd fail. COVID broke that, for better and worse, and we need to get comfortable winning arguments for things we think should be obvious. They're not and maybe never were.
We have to persuade students to engage in ways we didn't used to--we could assume (demand) they would or they'd fail. COVID broke that, for better and worse, and we need to get comfortable winning arguments for things we think should be obvious. They're not and maybe never were.
Pardon my language, but fuck you, @politico.com. This is so profoundly irresponsible I can hardly even stand it. RFK Jr is intentionally, recklessly devastating the vaccine system based on willful, knowing lies. He's already killing people and is about to kill a lot more. That's not "overhauling."
RFK Jr. is overhauling the program that helps preserve Americans' access to vaccines
A Kennedy adviser said he wants to preserve the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The health secretary's anti-vaccine allies prefer it collapse.
www.politico.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Pardon my language, but fuck you, @politico.com. This is so profoundly irresponsible I can hardly even stand it. RFK Jr is intentionally, recklessly devastating the vaccine system based on willful, knowing lies. He's already killing people and is about to kill a lot more. That's not "overhauling."
Argh! Even with my very good insurance, a trip to urgent care is $50. If I already can't afford insurance or a regular doc visit, where TF am I supposed to get that from? And if I work 3 jobs without sick leave, when am I supposed to go there? This is just asinine.
Paraphrasing a bit, Levi said at the last ACIP meeting that “people can go to see a doctor at urgent care when they are sick if they don’t have a doctor. So they can just go there to get a prescription”.
Sure sure sure. I wonder what the repercussions of that would be?
Sure sure sure. I wonder what the repercussions of that would be?
November 29, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Argh! Even with my very good insurance, a trip to urgent care is $50. If I already can't afford insurance or a regular doc visit, where TF am I supposed to get that from? And if I work 3 jobs without sick leave, when am I supposed to go there? This is just asinine.
Dear Everton starting 11: The game started about 9 minutes ago. Y'all should go find it!
November 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Dear Everton starting 11: The game started about 9 minutes ago. Y'all should go find it!