Travis S. Lowe

Mills recognized that as the power elite becomes increasingly degenerate, it is increasingly difficult for their intellectual acolytes to formulate reasonable ideological justifications for their corrupt and irresponsible actions. In these circumstances, the power elite resorts to intellectual repression against those who call attention to their declining political capacities; that is, the intelligentsia who work in universities, museums, the arts, scientific institutes, entertainment, and the mass media.

Sociologist C. Wright Mills saw this coming—and tried to warn us—60+ years ago.

jacobin.com/2026/02/wrig...

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”

That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

Some programs at TU never experienced the recent rainmaking that is described in this article. Just imagine what some of the faculty members in these departments would have to say. The harm this malevolent neglect has caused is incalculable.

A federal judge on Friday threw out President Trump’s defamation suit against The New York Times four days after it was filed, calling the complaint “improper and impermissible” in its present form. nyti.ms/4gyVUe3

The key problem with what Ezra Klein says here is that he fails – or is unwilling – to grapple with the fundamental reality of the political conflict: The movement that dominates today’s Right fully rejects the very idea of “living here with each other” as equals. That’s their defining position.

i have said this before but when “getting rid of race in admissions” for the administration means “you can’t even try to reach out to underrepresented communities and encourage them to apply and if you do it is illegal discrimination against white people” then the actual goal here is segregation

The goal of MAHA isn't better health. It's bigger health (and social) inequalities. Because equality is the greatest threat to power.

For anyone who believes that the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture and the National Museum of American History spend too much time focusing on the history of slavery and legalized segregation, how much time should they spend on these subjects? 🗃️

Yes. Let's also cut the full-time work week by at least 25%. 40 hours is not a magical threshold - it is a social construction!

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

When we treat evil as the product of individual pathology, we risk missing the cultural and structural forces that incentivize evil and allow it to thrive.

The real question is--why do so many Americans believe the MAHA message, despite it being so obviously false?

And I'd argue--it's because that message offers both a sense of control in the face of uncertainty and a sense of moral superiority as a reward for good health.

Let me explain... 1/🧵

NYT headline: “Kennedy Advises New Parents to ‘Do Your Own Research’ on Vaccines” Subheader: “In an interview with Dr. Phil, the health secretary offered false information about vaccine oversight and revealed a lack of basic understanding of new drug approvals.”

“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?”
- A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic

The point isn't to make government more "efficient." It's to push the rest of us--and particularly those of us who might be critical of their efforts--into a state of precarity and uncertainty. Because precarity and uncertainty make people easier to exploit and control.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT IS THE LAW OF THE LAND AND A SUPERSTATUTE AND THE PRESIDENT CANNOT UNDO IT.

sincerely,

a constitutional law professor who also teaches employment discrimination

FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say Food safety inspections would be left to state and local authorities under the plan being developed by the FDA.

3,000 people die of food poisoning each year in this country. This is not Making America Healthy Again. www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fda...

This is scary. The only violence that is being done is by the police, and people are cheering for it. Not sure how you fix this.

On this Tax Day, let's remember:

--the top marginal tax rate was >90% post-WWII; now it's 37%

--because of loopholes, billionaires often pay little or nothing in income tax

--cuts to the IRS lead to *more* audits of lower-income households, because high earners cost more to investigate

"those who credit manufacturing jobs for a glorious past mistake correlation for causation. They think their grandparents had the 'good life' because of jobs in manufacturing. In reality, it was unions, pensions, high marginal tax rates, and strong social policies—with racism and sexism thrown in"

once again, i urge those who think it is hysterical to call this a segregationist administration to contend with the actual evidence at hand rather than adopt the braindead belief that any talk of racism or anti-black discrimination is "woke"

(DOE is the Department of Energy, the Department of Education is ED)

(Image of a google doc; first line is title & in larger font) Speaking Out for Democracy and US Higher Education To add your name to this statement, go to https://bit.ly/DemocracyAndHigherEdSign We publicly affirm our commitment to the enterprise of higher education in a democratic and free society, and to the values and practices that facilitate the production, advancement, and sharing of knowledge. Given the continuous and escalating attacks on higher education along with many other pillars of American democracy by the Trump administration and its allies, we call on colleges and universities to protect these values. We affirm that: The democratic ideals of free thought, free speech, free association, freedom of assembly and the right to dissent are worth fighting for. Democracy both honors our dignity as individuals and enables collective action on behalf of the common good.

2. Education is a fundamental pillar of a democratic society. People come from all over the world to take part in the free exchange of ideas and the depth of knowledge and expertise found in US colleges and universities. The capacity and tools these institutions provide to think carefully and deeply about politics, society, and the built and natural worlds produce scholars and world citizens whose contributions benefit us all. The value of American education has long been a consensus position across parties and ideologies; both Democratic and Republican administrations have supported our system of higher education. 3. Diversity is essential. Democracy requires that we invest fully in the rich array of our differences. We affirm the fundamental dignity and value of each person of every race, ethnicity, national origin, class, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, legal status, religion, identity, ideology and viewpoint. Bringing together people with different experiences, talents, and perspectives is critical to a successful learning environment and ultimately benefits society as a whole. 4. Education, knowledge, and science are intrinsically worthwhile. They improve both individual lives and the collective well-being of a democratic society. Cutting funding risks inflicting lasting damage on scholarly inquiry, from work in the arts to social policy to life-saving medical research and care.

5. Academic freedom is necessary to the pursuit of knowledge. Research must be conducted free from political threat if it is to identify and develop ideas serving the human race. These ideas, turned into action, are critical elements of any functioning society, including the rule of law, medical care, and scientific advancement. 6. No amount of accommodation or compliance will protect us. The current attacks on higher education amount to an assault on the foundational principles of democracy. If we abandon our commitments to equality, pluralism, and free scholarly inquiry we turn our backs on the most essential ingredients to our democracy: reflecting on our past, pooling our present talents, and investing in our future. As scholars, educators, and people who care about our students and our democracy, we believe it is our duty to speak out against the attacks on diversity and pluralism, on scholarship and learning, on academic freedom, and on democracy itself. We are doing so through this statement, and will continue to do so on our campuses and beyond. We urge the leaders of America’s colleges and universities, and every American who believes in democracy and education, to stand up for the values we share. We call on college and university leadership to refuse to comply with the unethical, irresponsible and frequently illegal demands of the Trump administration; to join together to speak out in defense of the values of academic freedom, scholarship and research; to protect their students and faculty from government reprisals; and to fight attacks on our institutions in the public sphere and the legal arena.

A key step in fighting the Trump admin's attacks on higher education specifically and democracy more broadly is to say as clearly as we can that we share values that are meaningful and that we will not stand by while our institutions are destroyed.

You can do that here:
bit.ly/DemocracyAndHigherEd

The media can (and should) reject the Right's deceptive frame. This is not about "references to diversity, equity, and inclusion."

It is a neosegregationist attempt to erase everyone but white males from the nation's history.

John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 Once, before Kennedy was president, I asked him if he remembered the Great Depression. I knew that his father had seen the Crash of 1929 coming and had sold his stocks and had one of the world’s greatest hordes of cash during the 1930s. “I have no memory of the Depression as an event,” he told me. “We had one of the great fortunes. We traveled more, we had bigger homes and more servants. I learned about the Depression by reading at Harvard.”

Was thinking about how people at different ends of the economic spectrum are experiencing these times, then I remembered this--an example of how differently the ruling class experiences economic downturns compared to everyone else:

time.com/archive/6734...

USE THEM.

Don’t you dare scrub your syllabus!!!!

Educators Sue to Challenge Trump Administration's Efforts to Weaponize Civil Rights Laws, Attack Educational Programs and Student Opportunities - Democracy Forward

The ASA, American Federation of Teachers @AFT, and AFT-Maryland, facilitated by @DemocracyForward, have filed a complaint today in federal court in Maryland challenging the “Dear Colleague Letter” published by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

Let's say that one wanted to go from 0 to computational social science. With the end goal being to write a real research paper using this approach.

What are the texts and resources that you would suggest to achieve this goal?