"Chill Commie." Professor of History at Illinois State Uni. Intellectual historian. Write books about US history, Karl Marx, culture wars, history of education.
‼️Sick Saad World (w/ @MattPolProf)‼️
"He spends a lot of time talking about victim culture & identity politics & how bad they are. And then at the same time talking about how we need to put our nation first because it's threatened by everyone, & how we're being invaded by all these sinister forces. And it's hard not to sit there and say: Well, it sounds to me an awful lot like nationalism is an identity politics project that is actually peculiar, & how deeply victimized you happen to feel at the hands of Muslims, the 'woke,' that McDonald's employee who asked you what your pronouns were..."
https://t.co/d6CJksWDCQ
North Carolina: Leen Hijaz, Clayton High School valedictorian, hijacked her graduation speech to rant about Palestine and ICE.
Administrators quickly cut the speech short & removed her from the microphone.
Bravo Clayton High School - THIS is how you handle those who cannot follow rules.
I’m honored to share that my book, The Master’s Tools on @VersoBooks, is a winner of the 2026 Outstanding Contribution to Political Sociology Book Award from the American Sociological Association.
Leen Hijaz, valedictorian at her high school in North Carolina, said the following in her graduation speech:
"Before I leave the stage, I have one last thing to say. Every single person here has a voice; we have the privilege to use it when millions around the world are struggling and suffering to be heard. Whether it’s the millions suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and so many other countries around the world, or families being torn apart by ICE. These are not just an issue here; they are happening there, they’re happening right here as I speak. My point is, we’re not given a voice to stay silent."
Corey Robin, a political theorist at Brooklyn College, writes: "The mere mention of Palestine—maybe ICE, too—sent the high school principal, Melissa Moore, hurtling across the stage to seize the microphone from Hijaz, and stop her from saying these unapproved words.
Just look at this photograph: A young Muslim woman, speaking out, and a desperate, terrified principal trying to shut her down, lest the student say something unauthorized, disapproved, discordant with the views of an increasingly small clique of government officials and voters.
It's so pathetic. It reads like a comic play by Václav Havel. It looks like the desperate last days of the Soviet Union. I can only hope Hijaz speaks for a generation that will, one day, sweep all this garbage into the dustbin of history".
Now that Gaza lies in ruins—shattered, like a beloved face after a long brutality—Israel moves with a terrible confidence to the next act: The act of leaving every soul there not merely wounded, but permanently disabled. Injured, sick, hungry, homeless, without work, without hope. This is not war’s collateral damage. This is design.
As my friend Gideon Levy writes—and he knows, he knows—this is the prelude to expulsion. Think of it: a society without teachers, without doctors, without social workers, without engineers, without clerks. That is not a society. That is a holding pen. A slow erasure. And when nothing functions—no school, no hospital, no office, no heart—then it becomes ‘easy,’ they tell themselves, to scatter the people to the four corners of the earth. Like seeds from a broken pod, except no soil will take them.
We must name this. Not with rage alone, though rage is honest. But with the cold, clear tears of recognition: they are making life impossible so that departure becomes the only ‘choice.’ And the world watches, adjusts its spectacles, and calls for restraint. Restraint! There is no restraint in a slow drowning.
Equating the American Revolution to the current US/Israeli war on Iran is something. I'd call it lizard-brained but I have too much respect for lizards.
We will soon celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was, in essence, a declaration of war against the most power military force on earth, the British Empire. The colonists knew that Britain would not tolerate such a declaration of independence, so war was certain to follow. The truth is the war had already begun. But the Declaration committed the colonies to join forces and unite against Britain. And every patriot who supported independence literally put their lives and property on the line. They did this despite the fact that they were the clear underdogs in the war and nothing short of a miracle would result in the revolutionaries winning the war. Every delegate who signed that document had signed their own death warrant.
Let us remember this when we listen to the debates about whether or not we should defeat the Iranian regime. All the arguments and even excuses against it -- despite 47-years of it killing and maiming thousands of our fellow countrymen, 47-years of lies and deceit, decades developing nuclear and missile technology to obliterate our nation, and a far more dangerous and diabolical ideological agenda than that of the British monarchy. Yet, George Washington and the brave founders of our country personally risked everything. Ultimately, the British forces surrendered. The Iranian regime will never surrender. And they will never abide by a deal, any more than they have abided by a ceasefire.
I am mindful that only some 35% of the colonists supported war with Britain. My view may similarly be a minority view today. I hope not. But if it is, so be it.
my upcoming book about panicking parents, youth sports, schools, safetyism, and technology now has a page and a cover.
The book is a confession/convo about being a crazy sports dad, myself, and how parenting got so intensely privatized.
https://t.co/XqeTgjN1qC
the uk has revoked my visa as well. all at the behest of israel. the west is betraying "liberal values" for a genocidal fascist foreign government. soon we will all become israel.
Banning Cenk Uyghur and Hasan Piker from entering the UK is an absurd and cowardly decision from an increasingly authoritarian government.
Let us call this what it is: an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel, as well as the UK government’s own complicity in genocide.
the uk has revoked my visa as well. all at the behest of israel. the west is betraying "liberal values" for a genocidal fascist foreign government. soon we will all become israel.
Bill Simmons on the Nuggets:
“Why do they have to trade anybody to sign Peyton Watson? You have Jokic in your team, pay everyone, F*** off. Kroenke has a gazillion dollars, just keep everybody AND pay Peyton Watson. Your owner is super rich what are we doing?”
(via @BillSimmons, @ZackLowe_NBA)
People crave a party that is strong in standing for principles. It means having opposed the genocide, the war in Iraq & Iran, and not voting to give Trump permission for mass deportation without due process.
I'll be rooting for the Spurs in game 7 of the WCF. But the only good thing if the Thunder advance, two weeks of Knicks fans complaining about SGA flopping!