Dave Mazella
eighteenth-century scholar in Heatstroke, TX. let's see how this goes.
Book: Making of Modern Cynicism, now in paperback from UVA press: upress.virginia.edu/title/2793/
- Reposted by Dave MazellaSame thing happening to journalism as at universities following the massive federal budget cuts. You can't break institutions, cast off multiple age cohorts of journalists/scholars, & just flip switches later & expect go back to the ex ante SQ. The downstream systemic effects are huge & lasting.
- Reposted by Dave Mazella#earlymodern #17thC I'm not on here often, but...my first ever history article is out! It's about the goings-on in 17th C Ashton-under-Lyne. I've been passionate about 17th C history for decades, but it's not my official academic field so I'm very excited :) www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MZICG...
- Reposted by Dave Mazellaone of my strongest beliefs is that we're in our situation right now bc some of the most prominent talking heads (e.g. joe rogan, andrew schulz) are learning about politics in their 40s and 50s, instead of their teens and early 20s, and we have to go along for the ride as they learn basic things
- Reposted by Dave MazellaAnd those are just the charged crimes. They’re committing uncharged crimes daily right now.
- This remarkable fact caught my eye in a piece that I don't otherwise agree with "One remarkable fact is that today.. customs officers and Border Patrol agents have committed crimes at a per capita rate that is greater than the crime rate for people who immigrated here illegally" tinyurl.com/2bkkc22b
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThey’ve been on this for a minute. More teaching + post tenure review (and contracts) plus ai supercharged productivity surveillance tools also makes professors more vulnerable to student evals, which gives admin more power to fire you. That’s the plan.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaWhen you read this, you'll recognize some notoriously violent and shocking moments captured in photos and video – like people being shot in the face at close range with less lethals. @unraveledpress.com is putting names to faces/gaiters.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaCan’t stop thinking about the gargantuan gulf between the kid glove, caveat-laden, “having your name all over the Epstein files doesn’t mean you did anything wrong”-treatment of the men in Epstein’s inbox… and the brutalize first, ask questions later policing in Minneapolis.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaAs always, the answer to "what should I do if I'm worried about Rs loudly announcing their aspirations to try & ratfuck elections?" is go volunteer to be a poll worker or an elections observer. That is, if you actually want to so something beyond just wallowing in despair & untreated anxiety online
- Reposted by Dave MazellaEdinburgh this evening. Balmoral Hotel and Scott Monument…
- Reposted by Dave MazellaOne of the most annoying aspects of much geopolitical debate is how far it obsesses over supposedly superninja style US special forces or hyperflashy precision weaponry rather than the real foundations of American power that were once in logistics, naval strength, maintenance and mass production
- Reposted by Dave MazellaSome people are asking what I want Schumer to do. He should be screaming over medical care and access to facilities. He should be going to detention facilities himself and putting his body on the line, as he did at the border in 2019. He should lean into stories about New Yorkers in detention. [1/4]
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThis is a great example of the nature of a Language Model - wonderful at dealing with patterns and the logic of a document - linguistic structure! But it simply doesn't deal with *knowledge* or *facts*, and asking it to do that is intrinsically going against the grain of how it is structured (8/9)
- Reposted by Dave MazellaBezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable. He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests
- Reposted by Dave MazellaAdministrators hinting about dire policy - but never having the courage to put it in writing - sounds pretty familiar.
- Reposted by Dave Mazellaa detailed look at the mechanics of the new American censorship regime It runs on threats of accusations, administrative ambiguity, and pervasive, amorphous fear of sudden termination.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaBig, legacy outlets can produce journalism that independent journalists can't produce as easily, and they also have the resources to defend themselves against lawsuits initiated by bad actors such as Donald Trump (and probably others in the GOP in years to come). Watching one die is catastrophic.
- beautiful
- states are happily torching their century-old systems for an unpopular president well into his dementia phase of life
- A ‘Barrage of Bills’ Would Overhaul Higher Ed in Iowa—If They Actually Pass www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
- Still not seeing any explanation for the blackout of GB, except that US regulators are trying to revisit their antitrust suit
- here's another description of the blackout of Google book's search and preview windows www.reddit.com/r/google/com...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaTwo brave Texas Tech history majors speak on the record here. One would like to ask the Chancellor, "should I drop out?" www.texastribune.org/2026/02/04/t...
- File this under DUH but yes
- Reposted by Dave Mazella4/ More importantly, exposing the curriculum to the expectation of aligning with what corporations say they want is a potential back door to the sort of hostel takeover that we’ve seen at the Washington Post and CBS News. End.
- thread
- Reposted by Dave Mazellapeople keep telling me that llm hallucinations are decreasing, but I'm slightly concerned about a few of the women philosophers represented here
- Reposted by Dave Mazella"power holds no value unless it is exercised"
- I wrote about Minnesota and ICE and how average Americans are reclaiming the power that the administration is abusing. www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
- Reposted by Dave Mazellafiona the hippo just turned nine (9). truly, time is fleeting
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThe Godfather of Soul, James Brown, performing live at The Apollo in 1968. Length: 36:38. #JamesBrown m.youtube.com/watch?v=KIJz...
- Reposted by Dave Mazellanot saying he's necessarily in the organization, but this skull face mask was popular among members of the Proud Boys a few years ago
- Reposted by Dave MazellaIf you are in or around Houston on Thursday come hear me speak at the University of Houston. uh.libcal.com/event/15433006
- Reposted by Dave MazellaI endorse this message:
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThis is a good upgrade from the recordings of this gig that are out there. At least a generation or two up from the version that's linked here. spacemen3.blogspot.com/2016/11/spac... (surprisingly the mega.nz link in the comments still works!)
- here's another description of the blackout of Google book's search and preview windows www.reddit.com/r/google/com...
- They've tried doing this shit since the 9/11 panic, but now Trump controls the whole federal LEO/Prosecutorial apparatus. Trump DOJ Files 9/11-Era Charges Against Leftists Across the Country talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-d...
- I cannot think of any reason why DHS or CBP paramilitaries would be in "war zones" or even why this language could be used, when we're not even in a border war with other states
- Reposted by Dave MazellaCrime headline of the day.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaI guess if you’re Josh Hawley and you’re the kind of person who flees in terror from a riot you started the courage of ordinary people must seem befuddling
- Reposted by Dave MazellaA KCUR investigation discovered the department used the city’s license plate readers to track the writer’s movements and it issued a “be on the lookout” for him.
- Keep the pressure up
- Reposted by Dave MazellaMost things are about elite impunity but they are also about state abandonment.
- Reposted by Dave Mazella"The whole debate is shedding light on what Melissa del Bosque said most people who don’t live near the border probably don’t realize: Border Patrol doesn’t have the same level of oversight that your local police department has, despite having one of the largest federal budgets in Washington."
- Reposted by Dave Mazella“An enlightening study of how agents have shaped the American literary landscape. . . . McGrath’s research is extremely thorough and presented in entertaining prose. Anyone curious about how their favorite books came to be will appreciate this peek behind the curtain.”—Publishers Weekly
- Reposted by Dave Mazellaonce again these things boil down to “is your group a bohemian cultural identity” or “is your group actually trying to do things?” and the key tell is whether your activity centers on policing of in-group behavior or whether it centers on, again, tangible goals
- Reposted by Dave MazellaDelightfully degenerate household: cares of the world hang overhead but everyone (esp. duck) is relentlessly having a jolly time because it’s Jan Steen. Today is his day.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaOur top story: “I think their policies were so extreme, they caused so much trouble on the school board, that in just a short time period, voters were like, ‘Okay, yeah, we’ve seen enough. We’re done,.”
- Reposted by Dave MazellaAudrey Meadows (1951)
- 👇👇👇👇
- It's critical to get this right. When Conor Lamb won his special election 8 years ago, Dems heralded him as a MAGA whisperer, and decided the key to defeating Trump was to not talk about him, his abuses, or his poor character. We live today with the consequences. www.offmessage.net/p/candidates...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaI'm a huge fan of Claudio Saunt's project on land claims and treaties and cessions that is so revelatory in its scope-- pic 1 is 1776, pic 2 is 1876. Blue is Indian homelands, gray is unceded territory, red is reservations. usg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappv...
- The Utah Historical Society just produced a new, excellent map of "The Peoples of North America in 1776." Great resource for anyone teaching, writing, presenting about Native peoples as part of their 250th work. america250.utah.gov/power-of-pla...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThe Capybara - not the hero the city expected...but exactly the hero the city needed
- Reposted by Dave MazellaNew article! John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on 'Selling Education in England, 1650-1715' academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... #earlymodern
- Reposted by Dave Mazella[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Dave MazellaA lot of centrist Democratic pundits would simply have become Republicans by now if Trump hadn't soiled the brand so bad. They advocate for Democrats to "strategically" adopt or avoid criticizing right-wing ideas even when it isn't good strategy because they agree with those ideas!
- @gelliottmorris.com continues to have been right about immigration as an electoral issue www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaI don't think fascism and AI are the same thing, but I think they are asking us the same question, and it's a question about agency.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaNot great. Q for #academicsky: do other states have searches that are this non-transparent?
- Reposted by Dave MazellaNora…
- Reposted by Dave MazellaMy brain is mush. I need to secure permissions for two famous C19 paintings to appear in my book. My recollection is there’s a database (or two, or…?) where you can get images of many C19 paintings for free or a small fee. Any tips? With thx from a person who deals mostly in words.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaEveryone holds their grudges and my grudge is remembering March 21, the day that both Columbia University and the law firms folded to Trump's weaselry, simultaneously
- Reposted by Dave MazellaA manager for the Immigrant Defense Network told MPR News that back in November, 2,500 people were trained as constitutional observers. Now, the total is nearly 30,000 trained observers in 77 of Minnesota's 87 counties.
- Reposted by Dave MazellaWe have a Boston Review Forum out today on the Democratic Party in a time of authoritarianism www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaWe know there were police involved in J6, an NYPD cop, two cops from Virginia, a sheriff (who said he didn't enter the capitol). abcnews.go.com/US/number-ca...
- Reposted by Dave MazellaThe things this guy thinks to be exculpatory are themselves profoundly damning of his entire intellectual enterprise & standing as a morally reasoning person. It’s amazing to read stuff like this: a dispatch from another academic world that is, darkly, also the one my friends & I must live in too
- Live your life so that you never have to publish an op-ed in the campus newspaper about your connection with Jeffrey Epstein dukechronicle.com/article/my-c...
