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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 16h

Stop scrolling a d post two characters who bring you happiness

Black and white still from the movie "Harvey."
Jimmy Stewart (left) sitting on a small couch in a reading room, an open book in his hands. He is looking at Harvey (right, invisible), a +6 foot tall white rabbit.

Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 16h

Usually I would object, too, but I've decided this means Colonial America counts as "medieval." By the transitive property, as a medievalist, I now feel qualified to describe myself as an early-early-early Americanist.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 16h

Vile.
Also, makes me realize how detached RW is from even their version of history. They cast themselves as:
-Free Republican Rome
&
-Mighty Imperial Rome
&
-Beset Pre-Fall Rome
&
-Unstoppable Goths/Vikings
&
-Defenders against Goths/Vikings
&
-Defensive Crusaders
&
-Invading Crusaders
&
&
& cetera.

Dr. Bryan C. Keene (they/elle/iel) @wtfarthistory.bsky.social · 17h

Racist / white supremacist medievalisms in America…

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 1d

Tyrants aren't efficient.

Tyrants aren't all-powerful.

Tyrants are weak.

Tyrants need support.

For Johnson to say Trump isn't a tyrant because he hasn't done X is not a defense of his democratic bona fides but an admission that tyrants are only as strong as people like him allow them to be.

Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 1d

This is wrong and ahistorical.

Charles I of England shut down Parliament for +10 years because it didn't do what he wanted.

Among other things, Parliament would not giving him the tax revenues he wished, so he dissolved that body and had a "personal rule" from 1629-1640.

He was executed in 1649.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "The irony was that they called it the No Kings Rally, but if President Trump was a king, the government would be open. If President Trump was a king, he would've closed the nationals parks and the National Mall so they couldn't of had the rally out here."

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 1d

Damn typo:
*give

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 1d

This is wrong and ahistorical.

Charles I of England shut down Parliament for +10 years because it didn't do what he wanted.

Among other things, Parliament would not giving him the tax revenues he wished, so he dissolved that body and had a "personal rule" from 1629-1640.

He was executed in 1649.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "The irony was that they called it the No Kings Rally, but if President Trump was a king, the government would be open. If President Trump was a king, he would've closed the nationals parks and the National Mall so they couldn't of had the rally out here."

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 1d

Electro-disco-magnitism

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Tolarian Community College @tolariancommunitycollege.com · 2d

There are many people whose lives are so much better for having you in it.

Remember that. You are important, and you are loved.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 2d

Yes!
I always tell my daughter (still too young to drive): "Never surprise a driver. Not when you are a passenger, a pedestrian, or another driver."

I've long had the habit of pretending to look away when cars approach. If they don't think you'll notice their "good deed," they'll just keep driving.

Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 2d

A poem for the morning

Image of a poem titled "Against the Grain." Poem text reads:

Against the Grain

The grain of stone
you shake out of your shoe
would look to other people
like too small a thing
to force a falter in your step.

“A nothing.” they’d dismiss.
“The barest sliver of the world,
and hardly visible against your palm.
How could you not just
bear it and go on?”

But…
it is not their sole.

– John Wyatt Greenlee

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Dr. Lisa Corrigan @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social · 3d

In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.

Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 3d

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.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

I want this put in his library. I know they don't care, but the Presidential Records Act ought to preserve the exact prompt used to create...that...so that generations hence can study it.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

*stares at George III in "Hamilton" parading around and giggling about being a sadist*

"TOO SUBTLE, LIN-MANUEL!"

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

👏
Richard II was the first WS play I read by choice. I've always had a soft spot for it. Especially today.
👏

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

Omaha, Nebraska
Nowhere close to the full crowd.

A large crowd in a park for the Oct. 18, 2025, "No Kings" rally. On the bottom right, you can see a person in an inflatable T-Rex costume.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

The kids these days are alright.

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3d

Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states.

Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Emily "Babe" St. James @emilystjams.bsky.social · 3d

Love that we have somehow reclaimed cartoon frogs???????

Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 4d

I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.

The Obama Hope poster, but it's a frog and it says "Hop"

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Micah @rincewind.run · 3d

notice the general mood of the timeline? how everyone is in a good mood and there’s a lot less misery and dooming? how there’s a lot of “we’re going to beat these assholes”?

anyway that’s why these events are important

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 3d

There is a formerly famous troll that, for years now, whenever I see their name pop up (very rarely now), I smile to myself and think: "In 2 minutes, I will once again forget they exist." I only recall them now so I can use them as an example. I will once again forget their existence presently.

Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 4d

You can just block stuff that sucks. You don’t have to be mad out loud or even care. You can just see it and quietly put it in the garbage forever

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 4d

You can just block stuff that sucks. You don’t have to be mad out loud or even care. You can just see it and quietly put it in the garbage forever

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Reposted by Bailey Poletti

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 4d

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

The Pope tweets: "The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty. #DilexiTe"

Someone replies: "I was so hopeful I could be a Catholic again after the disaster that Francis was, guess we just get Francis 2.0 now and I am heartbroken. How do I stay a Catholic now...I don't want to lose faith but I am. You belong to someone else, not God."

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 4d

Them: "Prince Andrew gives up royal titles"

Me: "That's not where his first name goes anymore, BBC."

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 5d

Excellent 🧵 on the (still unconfirmed, but as yet uncontested) potential changes the pope will make to Opus Dei.

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 5d

Okay! This is going to take a while so I had to finish some stuff first, but: Why Da Pope Fucking Up Opus Dei Is A Huge Fucking Deal: a thread

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 5d

Gimme an hour or two and then I'll explain why this is a "holy fucking shit" moment!

Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 5d

Big thanks!