Brian Thill
@brianthill.bsky.social
Author, WASTE (Bloomsbury) | PhD from UCI | Writer @ The Atlantic, Guardian, Salon &c. | Just finished a novel; now writing a better one
Reposted by Brian Thill
as others have said, any U that's capitulating *now*, when Trump's well south of 40% approval and never coming back, is just clearly eager to Eat Shit.
Talked about this article somewhere else and someone wanted me to talk a bit more about it so here ya go! First, gift link. Second, my overwhelming takeaway is that, in a world where we rebuild in the coming decades, a good chunk of universities need new leadership.
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Arizona State’s President Is Pulling Out All the Stops to Get on Trump’s Good Side
ASU is positioning itself as the anti-Harvard in Trump’s campaign to remake higher education.
www.wsj.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:41 AM
as others have said, any U that's capitulating *now*, when Trump's well south of 40% approval and never coming back, is just clearly eager to Eat Shit.
Reposted by Brian Thill
The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:37 AM
The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.
All faculty, staff, and students at any US institution of higher ed should be organizing in advance. Campus admins, boards of trustees, and all others in positions of power need to articulate and defend their organized resistance to any future Trump admin demands *before* such demands are made.
November 29, 2025 at 1:39 AM
All faculty, staff, and students at any US institution of higher ed should be organizing in advance. Campus admins, boards of trustees, and all others in positions of power need to articulate and defend their organized resistance to any future Trump admin demands *before* such demands are made.
Reposted by Brian Thill
Universities paying into the protection racket.
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Universities paying into the protection racket.
Reposted by Brian Thill
I don't mean this in a self-congratulatory way because I had nothing to do with it, but other universities and the press are deliberately ignoring the fact that our union already won a permanent injunction against terminating funds this way. "Critics" here includes federal judicial precedent.
November 29, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I don't mean this in a self-congratulatory way because I had nothing to do with it, but other universities and the press are deliberately ignoring the fact that our union already won a permanent injunction against terminating funds this way. "Critics" here includes federal judicial precedent.
Reposted by Brian Thill
Regime stenographers
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House
www.nytimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Regime stenographers
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Reposted by Brian Thill
yet another terrible knock-on effect of UVA's catastrophic DoJ "deal" is the pressure it puts on other universities to seal their own catastrophes
every official who signs off on any one of these has to be purged with no role in university governance going forward, how can they possibly be trusted
every official who signs off on any one of these has to be purged with no role in university governance going forward, how can they possibly be trusted
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:50 AM
yet another terrible knock-on effect of UVA's catastrophic DoJ "deal" is the pressure it puts on other universities to seal their own catastrophes
every official who signs off on any one of these has to be purged with no role in university governance going forward, how can they possibly be trusted
every official who signs off on any one of these has to be purged with no role in university governance going forward, how can they possibly be trusted
Reposted by Brian Thill
You've heard of the Friday night news dump. Here's the Friday night of Thanksgiving wknd dump. For special circumstances, like when the faculty assembly votes 595-4 against paying to end a shakedown and you do it anyway. Link to agreement here: bulkmail.northwestern.edu/trk/click?re...
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:34 AM
You've heard of the Friday night news dump. Here's the Friday night of Thanksgiving wknd dump. For special circumstances, like when the faculty assembly votes 595-4 against paying to end a shakedown and you do it anyway. Link to agreement here: bulkmail.northwestern.edu/trk/click?re...
Reposted by Brian Thill
Damn it's almost like the leadership class of elite universities likes Trump's policies
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Damn it's almost like the leadership class of elite universities likes Trump's policies
Reposted by Brian Thill
McKinsey consultant here: when you're dealing with the fumbling administration of a senile, unpopular old man, you don't have many strategic options actually
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:46 AM
McKinsey consultant here: when you're dealing with the fumbling administration of a senile, unpopular old man, you don't have many strategic options actually
Reposted by Brian Thill
BTW, any story about a possible Northwestern capitulation should include this detail (screenshot is from the oped linked below)
November 27, 2025 at 2:31 AM
BTW, any story about a possible Northwestern capitulation should include this detail (screenshot is from the oped linked below)
Reposted by Brian Thill
imagine capitulating just as the disapproval rate hits 60 percent, absolutely humiliating shit
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 12:44 AM
imagine capitulating just as the disapproval rate hits 60 percent, absolutely humiliating shit
Reposted by Brian Thill
Top of mind because I read it not that long ago: Miriam Toews’s Women Talking. Short, harrowing, and totally immersive.
November 28, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Top of mind because I read it not that long ago: Miriam Toews’s Women Talking. Short, harrowing, and totally immersive.
Reposted by Brian Thill
This is a classic.
November 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
This is a classic.
Reposted by Brian Thill
And I'll never forget this about Jonestown.
November 28, 2025 at 4:24 PM
And I'll never forget this about Jonestown.
Reposted by Brian Thill
the Amok publications were encylopedias of extreme cultural phenomenon. peeled my eyes open
November 28, 2025 at 4:24 PM
the Amok publications were encylopedias of extreme cultural phenomenon. peeled my eyes open
Reposted by Brian Thill
Reposted by Brian Thill
Does an #18thc messianic cult in Eastern Europe/ the Levant count as a subculture?
If so, my choice has to be Olga Tokarczuk's _The Books of Jacob_.
If so, my choice has to be Olga Tokarczuk's _The Books of Jacob_.
November 28, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Does an #18thc messianic cult in Eastern Europe/ the Levant count as a subculture?
If so, my choice has to be Olga Tokarczuk's _The Books of Jacob_.
If so, my choice has to be Olga Tokarczuk's _The Books of Jacob_.
Reposted by Brian Thill
I bought this on publication. Still reads well, fifty years on.
November 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I bought this on publication. Still reads well, fifty years on.
Reposted by Brian Thill
Halldór Laxness, Independent People
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Daniil Kharms, The Old Lady
Shalamov, Kolyma Tales
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Daniil Kharms, The Old Lady
Shalamov, Kolyma Tales
November 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Halldór Laxness, Independent People
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Daniil Kharms, The Old Lady
Shalamov, Kolyma Tales
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Daniil Kharms, The Old Lady
Shalamov, Kolyma Tales
For good measure, let’s start a brand new #BQT #BookQuestionTime thread today:
What’s the best book you’ve read about any kind of “subculture,” however you care to define or understand that term?
As always, please feel free to include cover images!
What’s the best book you’ve read about any kind of “subculture,” however you care to define or understand that term?
As always, please feel free to include cover images!
November 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
For good measure, let’s start a brand new #BQT #BookQuestionTime thread today:
What’s the best book you’ve read about any kind of “subculture,” however you care to define or understand that term?
As always, please feel free to include cover images!
What’s the best book you’ve read about any kind of “subculture,” however you care to define or understand that term?
As always, please feel free to include cover images!
If you simply must buy things for your loved ones on Black Friday, there’s really just one thing to do: buy a bunch of books, and buy them from your local indie bookseller. Let this thread of my ten favorite #BQT threads serve as your ultimate book-buying guide, and feel free to add to them too!
1/
1/
November 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
If you simply must buy things for your loved ones on Black Friday, there’s really just one thing to do: buy a bunch of books, and buy them from your local indie bookseller. Let this thread of my ten favorite #BQT threads serve as your ultimate book-buying guide, and feel free to add to them too!
1/
1/
this has to rank right up there as one of the all-time best Borges stories
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
this has to rank right up there as one of the all-time best Borges stories
post a famous bathroom scene
November 26, 2025 at 1:31 AM
post a famous bathroom scene
the new version of THE RUNNING MAN at first appears to be an awkward, ham-fisted action B-movie remake, but is in fact timely, ornate, and strangely subversive, a kindred spirit to some of the most interesting social-critique SF films of earlier eras: STARSHIP TROOPERS, ROBOCOP, and THEY LIVE.
November 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
the new version of THE RUNNING MAN at first appears to be an awkward, ham-fisted action B-movie remake, but is in fact timely, ornate, and strangely subversive, a kindred spirit to some of the most interesting social-critique SF films of earlier eras: STARSHIP TROOPERS, ROBOCOP, and THEY LIVE.