Jess Carson
@redpenowl.bsky.social
Historian of the 20th century American landscape & cultural geography #envhist Hater of data centers. Friend of St. Teresa of Avila.
Pinned
Jess Carson
@redpenowl.bsky.social
· Nov 23
Vol. 21 (2024): History Matters - Spring 2024
| History Matters: An Undergraduate Journal of Historical Research
journals.library.appstate.edu
Pleased to have been published this summer in the undergrad history journal History Matters run by Appalachia State University #envhist "Buffering Battlefields" is a short article on preserving the Civil War site #manassasbattlefield
journals.library.appstate.edu/index.php/hi...
journals.library.appstate.edu/index.php/hi...
Reposted by Jess Carson
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
February 5, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
Reposted by Jess Carson
![I would like to march in protests too, but I can’t because I have arthritis in my knees. So I want my words to do my marching for me.
Like everybody else, I am an inhabitant of this planet; and I am a member of many other smaller communities too. I am an American citizen, for example. I was made a citizen from birth retroactively by the US government after World War II when babies born to US servicemen and German women were declared citizens from birth. My German mother came with me to the US as an immigrant without English when I was four years old and had no English either. Now I am a philosopher and a Christian -- a Catholic, actually. I identify as a woman. And so on.
I grieve the overwhelming evil that is impossible to ignore in every one of these communities. The sight of the suffering of desperate people trying to be immigrants to the US is unbearable. The inhumanity of separating their children from them, the viciousness of incarcerating small children alone, is unspeakable. And the cruelty we see on the daily news obscures but cannot hide the accelerating harm we are doing to the earth.
The people who should take the lead in governing us are vile, and so many of those who vote relish the vileness. That group includes some prominent Christians. Christians are meant to be salt and light for the world; their lives are meant to help other people taste and see the goodness of God. These people make the God they worship seem so hateful.
And so, like many other people, I mourn. But my mourning is without despondency, without the inward collapse of despair.
The baseness of injustice highlights the majesty of justice, whose power to call to people cannot be defeated by evil. The cruelty of those who rule, their indifference to the cry of the poor, illuminates by contrast the splendor of goodness and love. The growing dread at the increasing destruction of the planet testifies to its beauty. There would be less distress over [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36n7wd7gg4tapamnog4zyyc6/bafkreidvwdsfwtac2b4gftp3oxwgfvwfeaxob6gmngpvu76rilfomtt7nm@jpeg)
January 27, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Jess Carson
A video showing a crying elderly man approaching the altar during Mass — prompting the priest to interrupt the consecration and give him a hug — went viral in Brazil and moved millions of people.
In Brazil, images go viral after priest interrupts Eucharist to comfort crying elderly man
A video showing a crying elderly man approaching the altar during Mass — prompting the priest to interrupt the consecration and give him a hug — went viral in Brazil and moved millions of people.
bit.ly
January 27, 2026 at 12:08 AM
A video showing a crying elderly man approaching the altar during Mass — prompting the priest to interrupt the consecration and give him a hug — went viral in Brazil and moved millions of people.
Reposted by Jess Carson
The Washington Post published a clear video of federal agents removing Alex Pretti's handgun moments before he was fatally shot. There's nothing in the video to suggest Pretti even reached for his weapon.
wapo.st/49Zqv1L
wapo.st/49Zqv1L
January 25, 2026 at 6:11 PM
The Washington Post published a clear video of federal agents removing Alex Pretti's handgun moments before he was fatally shot. There's nothing in the video to suggest Pretti even reached for his weapon.
wapo.st/49Zqv1L
wapo.st/49Zqv1L
Reposted by Jess Carson
I’ve been thinking a lot about MLK JR’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech a lot lately, especially today.
January 24, 2026 at 10:48 PM
I’ve been thinking a lot about MLK JR’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech a lot lately, especially today.
Reposted by Jess Carson
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
January 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Reposted by Jess Carson
And, Lord, please, somehow, turn their guns into plough shares. And turn their hearts into flesh. Please.
January 24, 2026 at 4:15 PM
And, Lord, please, somehow, turn their guns into plough shares. And turn their hearts into flesh. Please.
Reposted by Jess Carson
Reposted by Jess Carson
Top US Catholic cardinals question morality of American foreign policy reut.rs/460U3KS
Top US Catholic cardinals question morality of American foreign policy
Three U.S. Catholic archbishops on Monday decried the direction of American foreign policy, saying the country's "moral role in confronting evil around the world" was in question and that military action must only be used as an extreme last resort.
reut.rs
January 19, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Top US Catholic cardinals question morality of American foreign policy reut.rs/460U3KS
Reposted by Jess Carson
Mothers, daughters, Girl Scouts traveled to Richmond to watch the first woman become governor of Virginia
Mothers, daughters, Girl Scouts traveled to Richmond to watch the first woman become governor of Virginia
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/cardinalnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_8578-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C225&quality=89&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/cardinalnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_8578-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C585&quality=89&ssl=1" />
“I am just so excited that our state is finally making this history-changing moment,” said a history teacher from Wythe County who attended the inauguration.
The post Mothers, daughters, Girl Scouts traveled to Richmond to watch the first woman become governor of Virginia appeared first on Cardinal News.
dlvr.it
January 17, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Mothers, daughters, Girl Scouts traveled to Richmond to watch the first woman become governor of Virginia
Reposted by Jess Carson
Catholic Bishops are giving their flock dispensation from Sunday Mass because of fear that the Government’s secret police may kidnap the faithful. The Regime’s favorite bishop wants you to know that this is a religious freedom like we’ve never had before.
January 17, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Catholic Bishops are giving their flock dispensation from Sunday Mass because of fear that the Government’s secret police may kidnap the faithful. The Regime’s favorite bishop wants you to know that this is a religious freedom like we’ve never had before.
This picks up and expands a great argument from Luke Munn made in his book Countering the Cloud as well.
Me on LLMs, Grok especially, as epistemic weapons:
January 14, 2026 at 3:36 PM
This picks up and expands a great argument from Luke Munn made in his book Countering the Cloud as well.
Chattahoochee and Indian River.
My favorite Twitter prompt was "RT this with your home river," so reskeet this with your home river.
Mine is the Patuxent.
Mine is the Patuxent.
January 12, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Chattahoochee and Indian River.
No Man is my Enemy, but Every Man is my Neighbor.
January 11, 2026 at 8:43 PM
No Man is my Enemy, but Every Man is my Neighbor.
Reposted by Jess Carson
Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.
If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
www.wired.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.
If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
Reposted by Jess Carson
Nice gyre, bro, real shame if it were to widen
November 4, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Nice gyre, bro, real shame if it were to widen
Reposted by Jess Carson
“How you doing as a historian with all this?”
Me:
Me:
a woman in a black dress says it - it - the f - it - flam - flames
ALT: a woman in a black dress says it - it - the f - it - flam - flames
media.tenor.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
“How you doing as a historian with all this?”
Me:
Me:
Reposted by Jess Carson
26/12/25 - nocturn
December 26, 2025 at 7:27 PM
26/12/25 - nocturn
Reposted by Jess Carson
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God reut.rs/4pbeags
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself.
reut.rs
December 24, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Pope Leo, on Christmas Eve, says denying help to poor is rejecting God reut.rs/4pbeags
Reposted by Jess Carson
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Reposted by Jess Carson
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 3:40 PM
This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.
Reposted by Jess Carson
NEW: Abp. Timothy P. Broglio, former USCCB head who oversees Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, issues statement on "Caribbean Interceptions."
"…Abandoning due process undermines human rights, erodes public trust, and risks harming innocent people." files.milarch.org/archbishop/a...
"…Abandoning due process undermines human rights, erodes public trust, and risks harming innocent people." files.milarch.org/archbishop/a...
December 3, 2025 at 8:31 PM
NEW: Abp. Timothy P. Broglio, former USCCB head who oversees Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, issues statement on "Caribbean Interceptions."
"…Abandoning due process undermines human rights, erodes public trust, and risks harming innocent people." files.milarch.org/archbishop/a...
"…Abandoning due process undermines human rights, erodes public trust, and risks harming innocent people." files.milarch.org/archbishop/a...
Reposted by Jess Carson
To propose that GenAI can compensate for "archival silences" perverts Trouillot's work. It's is a contradiction to say that a product whose logic exacerbates power imbalances--creating a most-likely guess based on the existing record--can restore absences that are the product of those imbalances.
December 6, 2025 at 8:59 PM
To propose that GenAI can compensate for "archival silences" perverts Trouillot's work. It's is a contradiction to say that a product whose logic exacerbates power imbalances--creating a most-likely guess based on the existing record--can restore absences that are the product of those imbalances.