Rachel Wagner
Author, Cowboy Apocalypse (2025) & Godwired (2012). Prof of Religious Studies @ Ithaca College, mom & caregiver, disgruntled idealist, loud introvert. Religion, gaming, politics, media, film.
thoughtsandprayers.earth
tinyurl.com/CowboyApocalypse
- A Christian student was upset today bc I tossed a toy Jesus action figure to show how my toddler years ago made him “jump.” I wouldn’t toss a Bible or a crucifix or even a cross. Are (religious) plastic toys fair game? Maybe not if it offends people. I apologized. Can kids throw a toy Jesus tho?
- A gun is a one-keyed typewriter communicating the refusal to communicate.
- Thinking about pro-Trump Christians. What’s at stake: their previous belief God runs the world (fine) but also that Trump is God’s doing. To give that up is to take responsibility for their own moral grounding. They’d rather say Trump is part of a “greater good” God is doing. Even w/child victims.
- My ten year old told me that until recently he just thought the pride flag was the flag of New York. : )
- My kid to me after we hand $10 to a homeless person: “We gave more money than Elon Musk and he has a million times more money.”
- It’s disgusting to me when people (religious people especially) won’t judge Trump for the horrible things we *know* he has done, so instead they can judge imaginary women who got abortions for reasons they don’t even want to try to understand.
- <—- I wrote a book about this. Vigilante gunmen self-identifying as cowboy messiahs; defending white male supremacy w/ the sacramental symbol of the gun—which itself is the manifestation of a desired apocalyptic future in which they regain control over culture writ large. Each bullet is judgment.
- Imagine how much money we’d save if we just decided AI wasn’t a part of college education and didn’t have it on our campuses.
- If college is just about making money afterward, then we are compelled to suck up every bit of nonsense the tech industry throws at us, and everything is reactive. Maybe that’s not what college is for (imagine!).
- I wonder when AI will be used to address admin bloat on higher ed campuses. Or will they decide we need to hire more admin folks to decide what to do about admin and AI?
- We must be living in a simulation and someone up there is having a hoot watching us.
