nerdpsyche
Nerdy psychologist | “Any decent society has to be built on trust and love, and the intelligent use of information and feelings. Education involves being able to practice those things...to build a decent society that can be nonviolent.” ― Myles Horton
- What fictional character could help us get out of this mess?
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- Hopefully not 🤞 bsky.app/profile/john...
- Fascinating interviews—both for the contrast in these individuals' experiences crossing borders as they fled from recruitment into violence (vs. many emigres today, especially from the Global South), and for the reminders about the history of conscientious objector status.
- "'There is an attempt at dehumanization happening,' @bergisjules.bsky.social, an archivist & WARC cofounder says. 'The first act of taking away someone’s humanity is denying the fact that you have a history. And if you’re trying to take that away, then you don’t believe those people need to exist.'"
- "I think about the fear I was feeling in contrast to this day: so much love and support, from so many unexpected directions. And I’m grateful."
- "Pluralism is… Respecting our differences. Believing diversity makes our country stronger Listening to each other especially when we disagree Pluralism is working together for the benefit of all."
- Thinking of this poem this morning — glad to find it here. (Thanks.)
- "My dream can disappear faster than it took to create it. These days, disappearance seems to be more common, with entire generational safety nets going up in literal flames in minutes." @hammerandhope.bsky.social
- "[O]ne of the major problems with how this admin. has approached autism policy: that it's completely frozen out autistic people and many leading autism orgs. Under previous admins. led by both Democrats and Republicans...orgs. had direct lines of communication with autism policy experts inside HHS"
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- Fathali Moghaddam, The Psychology of Democracy
- "Louise Glück takes impermanence head-on in her poem 'From the Japanese,' asking 'Why love what you will lose?' The very next line becomes a koan that breaks the word love open into hot, bright coals: 'What else is there to love?'"
- "I do know that in a moment of profound crisis, we cannot wait for elite permission or institutional approval to share knowledge and create learning communities."
- Latest podcast is out: Get in everyone, we are going to Resistance Summer School! Thank you to everyone who indicated they would like to take my course on Race, Media and International Affairs 101. Please fill out this quick interest form to begin to sign up! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
- "[M]any of the Quadrangle demonstrators did remember growing up during the horrors of World War II, and some had marched for the end of Jim Crow segregation and the Vietnam War. In 2025, they are heartbroken at the direction they see America going in their twilight years."
- They saw WWII and the Holocaust, opposed Vietnam, and now that they're in their 80s and even 90s, they've seen enough of Donald Trump So the residents of a senior living complex on Philly's Main Line are out on the road, with a protest like no other. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
- The bare facts of deep childhood and family poverty in the US. These are conditions staved off for millions by essential programs DOGE and Congress are trying to shred—Medicaid, LIHEAP, housing vouchers, social security for people with disabilities. Mutual aid work to counter this is essential.
- A friend came out shortly after we graduated from college. It was a hard time in some parts of her life (she was ending a long relationship, we were all living paycheck to paycheck), but her joy in her transition was so clear. I felt tremendous happiness for her.
- "7. Though it used to be legal everywhere, abortion is now illegal in much of the country."
- This will jeopardize entire programs and potentially shutter some—clearly part of the point. "[O]ne source told Science the agency’s $1.1 bil. education directorate may have canceled as many as 200 grants just today. The $9 bil. agency currently funds more than 30K research projects."
- NSF has spent decades—and billions of dollars—trying to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups into STEM. Not anymore. scim.ag/3RUtgZg
- RFK Jr. paints autism in a apocalyptic colors. As an #ActuallyAutistic journalist who has spent the last decade writing about autism, I had to confront him about it. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
- "It's a beautiful Wednesday—the sun is shining!" 🔆
- "While Harvard got the headlines, a united front of elite universities signaled that they would resist over the last 48 hours. MIT also rejected Trump’s demands. Stanford’s President spoke out in support of Harvard. And Columbia appeared to reverse course on its capitulation."
- Harvard's revolt suggests broader elite opposition to Trump's authoritarian push. Harvard, MIT, and Stanford are unlikely to have declared their resistance without the consent of their boards of trustees, which are dominated by Wall Street alumni. charlieeatonphd.substack.com/p/behind-har...
- Reporting on Columbia's partial shift in posture, announced late Monday: "Ms. Shipman wrote...that any agreement in which federal officials dictated 'what we teach, research, or who we hire' would be unacceptable....Still, Ms. Shipman did not go as far as Harvard’s president, Alan Garber”
- "Sec. Kennedy’s words and actions are in direct conflict with the mission of HHS. For the safety and well-being of our patients and our nation, we call on Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign or be removed"
- "Hạnh (1926–2022) lived through a time of continuous conflict in Vietnam...These successive wars profoundly influenced his understanding of suffering, mindfulness, and the need for engaged spiritual practice."
- Some joy to start the day 🌷
- "13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them."
- "On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...
- "The coalition includes synagogues in places like West Newton, Mass...along with J-Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group. On Thursday, they filed a brief in federal court in Burlington, Vt., objecting to the tactics the government was using against Ms. Ozturk in the name of combating antisemitism."
- Four strategies to counteract the administration's use of dehumanization and scapegoating: 1. Lead with humanity 2. Explain why it's a tactic 3. Don't accept or repeat divisive frames 4. Don't give up hope and highlight successful efforts to resist cruelty
- An arsonist set fire to the home of Gov. Shapiro and his family last night, the first evening of Passover. Reporting from @inquirer.com notes State Police are exploring whether to investigate it as a hate crime. This is a horrific episode that needs to be condemned loudly.
- "Trump’s anticipated [EO] on accreditation would be consistent with the president’s agenda and his statements about accreditation during his 2024 campaign, when he pledged to 'fire the radical left accreditors' and create agencies that require a focus on Western civilization and nationalist values."
- Unions play an important role in reducing racial resentment and promoting solidarity. One example from @paulfr.bsky.social and @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social's research on attitudes about African Americans among white union members. Expanding union access is good for our economy and our culture.
- Prof. of Holocaust & Genocide Studies @omerbartov.bsky.social on moral abdication re. Gaza: "How do we explain why 'demonstrations and meetings demanding a just peace are banned'?...'The paradox, [Fassin] goes on, 'is that this moral abdication by states has been justified in the name of morality'"
- "[T]ariffs are a way of politicizing the American economy. In other words, getting businesses to come crawling to him and ask for exemptions and become dependent on him in a certain way, which does have a parallel in other more or less kleptocratic autocracies"
- “Andrew Crespo, a law professor at Harvard & general counsel of the AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter, said the admin’s policies are a pretext to chill universities & their faculties from engaging in speech, teaching & research that don’t align w/ Trump’s views.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/u...
- "'The executive orders have laid the blueprint for states to follow, and that’s where community colleges are really at risk,' Gavin said. 'That will impact community colleges just as much, if not more, in the long run, than four-year schools, in my opinion.'"
- "The commander of that unit, Colonel Susan Myers, sent an email to everyone under her to indicate that things at the base are going well and that the Canadians and Danes within the unit should feel part of the team.... And then she got fired."
- "The Visibility Brigade delivers a weekly dose of social proof. 'Social proof' as @anatosaurus.bsky.social describes it, can move people to action: 'We’re social animals...We think, ‘If others are doing it, I should too.’ Once people have ‘social proof,’ they have powerful cues for how to act.”
- In my latest, I talk with @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social about the abduction and potential deportation of student activists, the capitulation of universities, and the atrocities Israel is committing in Gaza. "Above all, we have to take care of one another," Eman says.
- Reversed since the OP's post—incredible they tried it. Bans like this would stymie not only individual researchers and labs but also by extension entire scientific and medical organizations the admin disapproves of. Attempts to control knowledge production in that way are part of authoritarianism.
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- Appreciate you drawing attention to the initial policy, really troubling
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- Thanks for checking! It's at the link you posted—it looks like they updated the story about 3 hours ago.
- "[T]he simplicity of the principle is what feels so powerful right now. A reminder of our power to respond to chaos with calm, deliberative action. To diffuse confusion with clarity of purpose and values, with facts and evidence. To curtail fear by feeding and nourishing our collective courage."
- "In contrast to the controllers in '81, the public knows and appreciates what its park rangers, VA nurses, medical scientists, and Soc. Security workers do.... [Yet] the PATCO story stands as a warning to anyone who believes that labor should hunker in a defensive crouch to survive the next 4 years"
- Another severe escalation in the admin's war on higher ed: "A decree could allow President Trump to continue to exert power over one of New York City’s flagship universities, and could serve as a model for other schools seeking to negotiate with the White House."
- The original WSJ report
- "For as long as there have been women, both men and our fellow women have insisted that we need protecting. And yet, somehow, that protection so often ends up giving those in power even more power over us.... What women need is equality—which is what the original language of Title IX called for."
- "Choose battles where your power shines.... Without a vision, the people will perish. Envision a world where people are safe, respected, with opportunity and justice for all."
- If you needed evidence that the Congressional GOP is still beholden to the admin, here it is. Willing to spark a *full-on global recession*, some because they're MAGA true-believers and others to avoid being primaried. Either way, it's batshit. Congress is no longer an independent branch of gov't.
- Ongoing efforts to silence testimony to human rights abuses in Gaza. This incl. violence against healthcare workers and hospitals. An account from Maynard (March 2024): "When I was in Al-Aqsa Hospital, we were forced to withdraw two days early, because there was a missile attack on the ICU."
- "Mark Harley, the chair of the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Immigration Committee, said he’s been told of student visas in Erie being revoked based on traffic violations."
- "The only certainty, in the short term, is more uncertainty. Markets are starting to grasp that Trump’s trade policy is not just unorthodox – it is incoherent.... What happens next depends on how the rest of the world responds."
