Alfie Kohn

author and lecturer on topics in #education, #parenting, and human #behavior....
(Personal messages more likely to be read if left on http://alfiekohn.org)
He/him

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npub176f3n330jkg68rnykqc70lxf93mk87as70p3xn9re5v5940kkfxsgkdkw8

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alfiekohn_at_sciences.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqs0dycecchetydr3ejtqv08lnyjcamrlwc08scnfj3u6x2z6hmtyngprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt7w7736

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relay.momostr.pink

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npub176f3n330jkg68rnykqc70lxf93mk87as70p3xn9re5v5940kkfxsgkdkw8

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Last Notes

2026-08-10 15:03:46 UTC

Ad in The Onion
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/117/071/817/400/994/980/original/f31099e470e6d3fc.png

2026-05-05 11:59:57 UTC

Drinking salt water when you're thirsty just makes you thirstier.
Competing to feel better about yourself ultimately makes you feel worse about yourself (even if you win).
And guess what new research finds about the effect of interacting with chatbots when you're lonely?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976261427747

2026-05-01 00:54:07 UTC

Did someone say "equal justice under the law"?
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/496/579/445/982/215/original/059cf486969f6925.png

2026-04-27 16:40:32 UTC

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute's new report finds academic freedom declining worldwide, but the "fast and steep deterioration" in the U.S. stands out, leaving us with the most restrictions of any comparable nation. USA! USA! USA!
https://academic-freedom-index.net/research/Academic_Freedom_Index_Update_2026.pdf
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2026-04-25 12:02:35 UTC

"Hezbollah does not resist Israel simply because it is a Shiite organization supported by Iran; it resists Israel primarily because Israel has repeatedly invaded, scorched and occupied Lebanese land, and because Israel uprooted and terrorized its community." Worth a read: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/opinion/israel-exploits-lebanon-sectarian-divides.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dlA.krNC.3JLNP0R2gx_I&smid=url-share
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/465/239/368/161/326/original/0acd3c0e056ed6fd.png

2026-04-24 12:08:25 UTC

Nice piece that draws an analogy between relying on a GPS (vs. developing a sense of direction) to teachers who offer direct instruction of math procedures (vs. helping kids to develop math sense): https://www.middleweb.com/53328/are-you-gpsing-your-students-in-math-class/
Why not just teach kids principles AND procedures? This 1991 study found that the destructive effects of step-by-step direct instruction aren't offset by adding richer content: https://perryresearchgroupatillinois.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/6/7/41674785/perry_1991_cognitive_development.pdf. And this study 25 yrs later confirms it: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306030326_Improving_conceptual_and_procedural_knowledge_The_impact_of_instructional_content_within_a_mathematics_lesson

2026-04-23 12:02:22 UTC

1/3
Superb new book by Nick Chater & George Loewenstein: It’s on You: How Corporations & Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We’re to Blame for Society’s Deepest Problems - https://tinyurl.com/uj4ymmey
Corporations can "deflect pressure for systemic change that might threaten their business models...by reframing problems" as being about indiv behav rather than social policies. They do so despite (or b/c of ) the fact that efforts to nudge those behaviors "are unlikely to have much impact."

2026-04-22 12:09:29 UTC

"Some conservatives have recognized the huge benefits of progressive classroom practices, but they only want them for their own children" - or for those those who can afford them. (For the masses: direct instruction and worksheets.) Short, thoughtful essay by historian Adam Laats: https://iloveyoubutyouregoingtohell.org/2018/02/06/the-tortuous-triumph-of-progressive-education/

2026-04-21 12:57:09 UTC

Let this be a warning to Democrats: If you insist on criticizing a country that kills tens of thousands of civilians, you risk losing the support of people who defend the killing of tens of thousands of civilians.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/442/800/278/623/548/original/1d313ac9b534516d.png

2026-04-14 12:01:52 UTC

More data to challenge (another kind of) controlling teaching: A new study finds that kids on rocker/wiggly chairs who were allowed to move freely were more creative than those told to sit still, with no negative effects on their performance at focused-attention or memory tasks: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397684420_Sit_still_or_move_more_The_impact_of_fidgeting_on_creativity

2026-04-13 11:38:34 UTC

Fascinating: Corporations invented the very idea of disposability - and promoted recycling as a mostly pointless palliative to escape blame. A damning couple of paragraphs from a review of this new book: https://tinyurl.com/bde78zeh
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/397/195/265/939/735/original/ed5a8b511fd2f4ba.png

2026-04-08 12:01:53 UTC

- reply

2/2
Education critics will recognize this rhetorical effort to rule the big questions out of bounds - about, say, grades, standardized tests, or homework. "The question isn't whether to keep doing this; it's how to do this better." Which just means, "I prefer that no one talk about the former."

2026-04-08 12:00:44 UTC

1/2
YouTube's CEO was recently quoted as saying that we should protect "young people IN the digital world," not "FROM the digital world." BIg Tech uses the same framing for A.I. The implication is that we can't question whether something that's profitable to them might be *inherently* problematic; its existence must be accepted; the only discussion we're permitted to have is about implementation...

2026-04-02 21:45:12 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/337/292/321/836/740/original/26f037bb0631d598.png

2026-04-02 11:26:11 UTC

Remember the days before AI, when you had to do your own plagiarizing?
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/334/861/144/154/022/original/ed80f1171c522560.png

2026-03-22 14:28:37 UTC

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2026-03-20 17:35:59 UTC

Zuckerberg flushed the incomprehensible sum of $80 billion down the toilet on his meta fancy. (Imagine what pressing needs that money could have been put towards.) But don't worry - there's no chance that the even greater sums being shoveled into A.I. could turn out the same way: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/technology/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-vr-horizon-worlds.html

2026-03-18 22:08:17 UTC

This is very much in character for Israel, which for years has "repeatedly undermined Palestinians who sought to end Israel's occupation through negotiations or nonviolent pressure" (Peter Beinart) - arresting or killing those urging diplomacy and then claiming there's no one to negotiate with.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/252/451/032/322/369/original/7cd1dbfae12b0b7e.png
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2026-03-09 11:40:37 UTC

Lots of research (which I reviewed in my book "No Contest") shows that participating in competition - any activity where one person or group must fail in order for another to succeed - undermines moral development and generosity.
But one study really stands out. It found that merely growing up with a competitive parent is enough to reduce a child's empathy. It's sort of like the effects of breathing secondhand smoke.

2026-03-07 17:35:26 UTC

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2026-03-06 16:32:02 UTC

Remember -- it's always the kids who need to be fixed, not the structure (in this case, the tests) that should be questioned.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/183/178/907/525/496/original/b50393e26b05a5f5.jpeg

2026-03-05 14:05:18 UTC

https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3mgbydabftc26

2026-03-04 23:44:56 UTC

My go-to illustration of the concept of unfalsifiability - where a claim grounded in ideology such that no facts can ever dislodge it - is the belief that Israel, which, beyond its continuing slaughter of Palestinians, has lately attacked Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran, is always just defending itself and therefore deserving of support.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/173/560/566/638/215/original/9873c2f3cbd3908f.png

2026-03-04 12:55:08 UTC

Even people who aren't anti-AI are sickened by OpenAI's active role in supporting MAGA authoritarianism at home and its atrocities abroad. There's now an active movement to urge people to stop using its chatbot. Do you have friends or colleagues who need to see this? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/04/quit-chatgpt-subscription-boycott-silicon-valley

2026-03-03 12:51:43 UTC

"Teacher shortage" (e.g., in AK, AZ, FL MI) is shorthand for "shortage of teachers willing to work under crappy conditions and/or for insufficient pay."
More generally, as author Garret Keizer reminds us, "Our entire economic system rests on the principle of paying people less than their labor is worth."

2026-03-02 23:55:19 UTC

Hey, Democrats and mainstream U.S. media: What if Trump had sought Congress's authorization first (as Bush did before invading Iraq)? What if he had a single, focused rationale for the attack and a clear plan for what to do after conquering Iran? What if no American soldiers died? Would this unprovoked attack, this act of aggression, be any less despicable and worthy of unqualified condemnation?

2026-03-02 17:56:30 UTC

A new study finds that, "even when instructed to use established psychotherapy approaches, [AI chatbots] consistently fail to meet professional ethics standards" for providing mental health advice: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260302030642.htm

2026-02-25 13:16:11 UTC

- reply

3/3
It's reasonable for parent to trust teachers who spend time with their kids more than machine-scored standardized test results. But grades don't represent authentic assessment by those teachers, so "grades vs. tests" is a false dichotomy. *Both* are inadequate and misleading: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/roots-grades-tests/

2026-02-25 13:14:55 UTC

- reply

2/3
First, it ignores longstanding conceptual and empirical flaws in such sweeping, uncritical claims about grade inflation: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/dangerous-myth-grade-inflation/.
Second, it brushes off parents' accurate concerns that standardized tests aren't just biased but lack validity and reliability, which I and many others have confirmed.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/131/446/958/550/350/original/648b16b3536f4993.png

2026-02-25 13:13:20 UTC

1/3
This conservative take ("Parents trust grades more than standardized test scores; that's bad because grades are inflated") is based on a study by economists that reduces learning and assessment to "signal weighting in human capital investment": https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-parents-report-cards/. It's problematic for multiple reasons....

2026-02-24 13:22:17 UTC

Some instructors call on questioners with barely concealed impatience, as if the class was being interrupted. It's important to keep in mind that what's actually being interrupted is the instructor's monologue, which may or may not contribute as much to learning as a question does.

2026-02-23 13:53:16 UTC

If you need me, I'll be in the library, moving Margaret Atwood's books to the nonfiction section
https://www.throughline.news/p/the-trump-administration-is-trafficking

2026-02-20 16:14:12 UTC

A telling detail in reporting about South Korea's former president being sentenced for insurrection by declaring martial law: When his supporters gathered, they waved American flags - "a symbol commonly used by South Korea's far right." A sign on one man's jacket read "MKGA: Make Korea Great Again."

2026-02-20 13:07:36 UTC

In case you worried that far-right politicians were just banning instructors from teaching disfavored content (e.g., slavery was bad; LGBTQ folks are human beings), it turns out they're also mandating curriculum content. So it's not just "Here's what you can't teach" but also "Here's what you must teach."
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/103/100/626/406/826/original/b4b486fe61cf9c1a.png

2026-02-18 12:44:39 UTC

Fixed it for you, NY Times
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/091/690/997/322/549/original/8440fbbd6e2bab60.png

2026-02-17 12:25:49 UTC

This piece about Trump's boundless self-aggrandizement reasonably points out that it's "not just egotistical self-satisfaction, it's a way of expanding presidential power." ("Cults of personality are traditionally associated with dictators and demagogues, not democrats.") But how do you write or edit such an article without inviting a single mental health expert to explain the psychiatric dynamics of megalomania? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/us/politics/trumps-american-cult-of-personality.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MlA.MyER.HNX9_kNIDW6m&smid=url-share

2026-02-17 12:21:37 UTC

‪Compare the reaction to this comment (from Congress, major media outlets, etc.) to the reaction that would have followed a Muslim politician saying this about Jews.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/085/934/006/000/893/original/17ca9d572a85c5b2.png

2026-02-15 13:02:01 UTC

New episode of Kohn's Zone: "The Whole Point Is That There's No Point." Yes, kids should have more time for play, but please don't make that case based on skills or dispositions it supposedly helps children to acquire. True play has no goal other than itself.
Listen here: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-02-14 17:06:27 UTC

Authoritarianism defined in eight words: "make sure we have the right people voting"
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/070/070/217/103/732/original/3d14288e31cc4052.png

2026-02-14 13:54:16 UTC

- reply

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2026-02-14 12:56:36 UTC

2025: CEO of OpenAI says, "I hate ads," adding that he finds the idea of mixing ads with AI "uniquely unsettling."
2026: OpenAI begins running ads in ChatGPT.
Some time in the future: (watch "Common People," the 1st episode of Black Mirror's 7th season; a clip is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buVDDbjFCBc)

2026-02-13 17:49:15 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/064/575/345/113/697/original/b79992c71ad4733e.png

2026-02-09 13:05:34 UTC

This is MAGA in a nutshell, isn't it? Not just contempt for, but rage at, sentiments like "The only thing more power than hate is love" or "Together we are America." Moreover, the expression of that rage is gendered: Kari Lake speaks for tens of millions of Americans when she declares, in effect, "Real men are racist."
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/116/040/803/116/127/410/original/f964037abe1359af.png

2026-02-08 14:13:40 UTC

1/2
Even judging by AP scores (a metric I don't put much stock in), a 2021 study with students of color shows that student-centered, project-based teaching is more successful than traditional instruction in 2 different subjects: https://cesr.usc.edu/sites/default/files/Knowledge%20in%20Action%20Efficacy%20Study_18feb2021_final.pdf
"The traditional 'transmission' model of instruction...may be suboptimal for supporting students’ ability to think and communicate in sophisticated ways, demonstrate creativity...and transfer their skills, knowledge, & attitudes to new contexts."

2026-02-02 13:36:27 UTC

All too often ed tech just adds bells & whistles to traditional teacher-centered instruction. But Gary Stager has spent his career showing how computers can revolutionize learning. Listen to my conversation with him on the latest episode of Kohn's Zone: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

2026-01-30 12:58:40 UTC

Just stumbled on this 2005 study while preparing for a podcast about high schools. 250 H.S. principals were asked what tends to explain teachers' ineffectiveness. Turns out, contrary to conservatives' claims, that it's more likely due to lack of pedagogical skills than content knowledge - and that's true in both high- and low-performing schools: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ858727.pdf

2026-01-26 14:22:24 UTC

It's meaningful when people who use words carefully and are specialists in the subject in question decide that a provocative term does, in fact, apply. That was true when experts concluded - in some cases, reluctantly - that Israel is guilty of genocide. And it's true in describing the Trump regime as fascistic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/?gift=7deeCsgE8m50UsuOnXueiZb9ry5le3qDWOauqClVA6w&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/961/839/471/943/206/original/a477d2f15b21e8c0.png

2026-01-26 13:16:46 UTC

A must-read, particularly for college instructors - not just as a solution to the conundrum of students using AI to do their assignments but as an example of successful student-centered learning and decision-making vs. traditional classrooms with teachers laying down the law: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:qrqismv65fv5zfkw6mrkelf3/post/3md2e2v2wxs23

2026-01-25 18:22:05 UTC

"If you identify conservatism with any principle, you inevitably end up finding hypocrisy. But if you conceive of conservatism as efforts by dominant groups to maintain their dominance, with principles occasionally deployed instrumentally, the contradictions/hypocrisy fade away." -David Roberts
There's no irony when the right justifies killing a nurse b/c he had a gun. Or brutalizing Capitol cops on J6. They never meant for "gun rights" or "law & order" (or "free speech") to apply universally.

2026-01-22 17:38:30 UTC

Adam Serwer on what it means in concrete terms that Trump has essentially destroyed the independence of the Dept. of Justice: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/trump-justice/685684/
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/939/962/315/137/070/original/1ae48c6c706f07a9.png
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2026-01-22 13:08:53 UTC

"If OpenAI embraces advertising and pivots to...surveillance capitalism," said Roger McNamee, a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, "it would constitute a 'five-alarm fire.'" (A chatbot that continuously monitors users’ thoughts and feelings can steer them in directions meant to benefit advertisers.)
HOW IT STARTED .... HOW IT'S GOING
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2026-01-21 13:08:53 UTC

A really thoughtful look at U.S. history as well as at other countries' experiences with regimes that relied on concentration camps and secret police in order to make sense of where we are, where we're headed, and what we can do: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/into-the-abyss
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2026-01-20 12:50:14 UTC

A writer remarks, "To the extent that anyone is 'good' at parenting, it's almost entirely due to the disposition of the child." This is an exaggeration, but I think it contains a kernel of truth. It's like people who pride themselves on their financial savvy during a long bull market.

2026-01-19 16:28:39 UTC

This account describes how ICE initiates, and is responsible for, each round of brutality. Contrast that with the NY Times's framing (on the right).
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/922/698/184/928/110/original/acef9601a6ec8fb5.png
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2026-01-16 13:09:29 UTC

In an essay last year about the value of diversity, I cited data showing that there's nothing inevitable about people preferring others from their own racial, ethnic, or other group: https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/diversity/.
Now a new research review adds that children's apparent preference for their own kind actually is less about racial homogeneity than about attraction to higher-status people: https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.70098

2026-01-13 13:01:01 UTC

Our culture's competition compulsion: It seems there's no activity so engaging - from singing to coding, from math to oratory - that it can't be ruined by gratuitously pitting kids against each other and defining success as making everyone else fail.

2026-01-12 17:30:07 UTC

Today in "actual news headline, not from The Onion"....
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/883/308/923/564/350/original/b53f5a699424b6d3.png

2026-01-12 16:40:09 UTC

For anyone you know who's still using Facebook, Insta, Whatsapp, or Threads...
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/883/105/638/876/906/original/26353cc1b55b5811.png

2026-01-12 14:38:02 UTC

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2026-01-10 13:30:26 UTC

Excellent analysis by David Corn of how three recent events converge on the Trump regime's frank rejection not only of the rule of law but of "rules-based civilization." Its motto instead is: "Violence is ours to use, at home and abroad, to get what we want": https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/trump-doctrine-violence-ice-minneapolis-venezuela/

2026-01-09 14:53:56 UTC

Trumpians who praise ICE (and denigrate its victims) but also support the J6 seditionists' assault on Capitol police officers are not being inconsistent or hypocritical. Here's why: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/renee-good-ashli-babbitt-fascism
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/865/705/528/523/832/original/237ab44961ef4c92.png

2026-01-08 14:39:15 UTC

Notice the NYT's framing here: a near "disaster" means that the aggressors almost didn't succeed in their invasion. (That they did end up succeeding was of course a disaster for the 80 people they killed.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/859/980/838/172/039/original/a86fef0f12e08f42.png

2026-01-08 12:39:26 UTC

Those of us who express our concern about the various risks and disadvantages of AI are sometimes reminded how valuable it is in the fields of radiology and meteorology....
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/859/511/894/050/567/original/ab75f0633f248417.png
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2026-01-05 17:15:16 UTC

"The extent to which the national conversation about what just happened focuses on drugs, or on Maduro’s personal corruption, rather than on the world’s most powerful nation attacking a less powerful nation in order to protect its own economic interests—that is the extent to which the national conversation has been derailed by propaganda":
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/we-are-the-bad-guys
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2026-01-04 17:02:30 UTC

Attention social studies teachers:
Ideal teachable moment -- a unit on how empires and tyrants engage in wars of conquest and plunder, from Attila and Alexander to Napoleon and ... say, what do we have here? why, it's the front page of today's newspaper!

2025-12-29 13:01:38 UTC

1/2
I remember how unsettled I was by this par. from anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "The Western conception of the person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational & cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment, & action organized into a distinctive whole & set contrastively against both other such wholes & against its soc & natural background, is, however incorrigible it may seem to us, a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world's cultures."

2025-12-28 12:38:58 UTC

From Kalen Dion:
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/797/227/520/534/232/original/56e44386a6f6d2bb.png

2025-12-25 13:58:03 UTC

The 38% of Americans who don't identify as Christian are officially unwelcome in MAGAmerica. (Of course Christians, too, ought to be appalled by this casual contempt for secular democracy.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/780/550/751/186/043/original/da0f930b28416971.png

2025-12-23 12:37:45 UTC

A reminder during this holiday season, courtesy of the late Barbara Ehrenreich, about the "major philanthropists of our society."
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/768/909/586/962/415/original/2d9055bc54d17999.png

2025-12-22 13:23:13 UTC

We may be heading toward a world in which it seems peculiar or even foolish to read an article or book in its entirety. Incredibly, schools - K-12 & higher ed. alike - seem reconciled to becoming the accomplices of Big Tech by pointing us there.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/763/394/859/467/984/original/22a62b0fdc3abef5.png

2025-12-18 12:54:40 UTC

An important front in the assault on democracy: Krugman offers a lucid account of how authoritarian tech oligarchs are buying up key media properties for political reasons, not because they're profitable. They've already got Twitter, WashPost, CBS, and are now trying for CNN & TikTok: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-the-broligarchs-and-the-media
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/740/663/503/127/418/original/92314604b8ce7c4b.png

2025-12-17 12:06:26 UTC

RE: https://fediscience.org/@petergleick/115733268308907845
From "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead": "There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said--no. But somehow we missed it."
#note1d77…y69n

2025-12-10 23:04:04 UTC

A blatant act of unprovoked aggression that should be instantly and unanimously condemned by the entire world community
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/697/763/754/772/152/original/a1048f5ed53b8539.png

2025-12-10 14:58:30 UTC

Those who lose a contest often experience resentment and self-doubt. But competition also does ugly things to those who win, this study showed: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229104746.htm. Ultimately everyone loses when we're pitted against one another.

2025-12-09 11:49:22 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Strandjunker/115686048166844150
And if you love freedom but actively oppose extending it to certain others, what you actually love is domination.
#note10mu…xdke

2025-12-04 16:43:26 UTC

So much of conservatives' angry nostalgia for "how simple life used to be" in the good old days confuses a life-cycle effect (what is true of people at a certain age) with a period effect (what is true of everyone at a certain point in history).
More here: https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/aggressive-nostalgia/
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2025-12-02 12:54:26 UTC

A line from one of Tom Stoppard's plays (quoted in his obituary) lands with a certain force today: "It's not the voting that's democracy. It's the counting."

2025-12-01 13:13:00 UTC

Excellent analysis of how the right's culture war (e.g., sneering at pronouns or claiming there's a "war on Christmas") depends on a straw-man and, ultimately, projection:
https://bsky.app/profile/bmhughes.bsky.social/post/3m6wc33skm22z

2025-11-12 15:05:52 UTC

In case you needed another reason not to: https://www.pcmag.com/news/ask-chatgpt-about-affairs-abortion-be-careful-marketers-peek-prompts
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/537/340/320/077/186/original/22a8c0eb3dea52cf.png

2025-11-12 11:59:00 UTC

“Being an idle bystander is doing something, too. I’m either maintaining the system or dismantling it.”
Terrific piece by M. Gessen on the culpability of those who are appalled by the unspeakable evil being committed by their country (e.g., Israel) but who continue to live there and indirectly benefit. What does it mean to be "a good citizen of a bad state"? - a question Increasingly relevant to Americans: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/opinion/israel-dissidents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U8.tVrX.dONUozjPtrKR&smid=url-share

2025-11-10 20:50:34 UTC

What's striking isn't the growing number of studies finding negative effects from using AI - in this case, to have it summarize online research for you (vs. searching individual sources yourself) - but the kneejerk tendency of those reporting that research it (in this case, by a NYT reporter) to then ask how we can best make use of AI (vs. whether we need it at all).
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/527/366/555/613/318/original/422945c76620d311.png

2025-11-09 15:09:43 UTC

Much has been said about Musk's appalling social media posts. Joyce Carol Oates takes a moment to notice what he *doesn't* post.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/520/365/068/918/139/original/e1ede7d256481799.png

2025-11-09 12:40:19 UTC

Terrific read:
"No matter how unhinged the position you’ve taken, or paid someone marginally credentialed to sketch out on your behalf—“Can Woman Think?: We Investigate,” “Is the Negro a Man: A Reconsideration”—that opinion will...possess all needed evidentiary gravity for the [NY] Times":
https://lithub.com/maybe-dont-talk-to-the-new-york-times-about-zohran-mamdani/

2025-11-08 12:10:21 UTC

Killing usually requires dehumanizing one's victims. Thus, one of the most important services the press can perform is to rehumanize them. Profiles of some of the Venezuelan villagers recently murdered by the U.S. military at Trump & Hegseth's direction (and the loved ones left behind): https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-drugs-cocaine-trafficking-95b54a3a5efec74f12f82396a79617ea

2025-11-07 14:56:19 UTC

Short answer: Lord, let's hope not!
Long answer: This is precisely the kind of framing that capitulates to Big Tech (rather than exercising our critical faculties to ask whether we should be buying what they're selling) and that I challenged in this essay (https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/) and this podcast episode (https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/ai-podcast/).
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/508/987/372/973/095/original/a2982fd8015c6c03.png

2025-11-06 14:15:49 UTC

Jaw-dropping: Of 102 "U.S. government investigations into universities over antisemitism allegations...including 92 that led to the opening of investigations," would you like to guess how many actually concerned criticism of Israel?
The answer is 101.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/university-anitisemitism-investigations

2025-11-03 16:32:54 UTC

Murdoch stands for only the highest-quality journalism
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/486/721/446/001/045/original/065f5e102a22d07e.png

2025-11-03 13:09:33 UTC

Debates over whether "fascism" is an apt descriptor of MAGA policies and "genocide" of Israel's mass killing in Gaza seem to have been resolved in the affirmative less by the quality of someone's argument than by the increasing extremism of the actors, which eventually eliminated any doubt that the term applies.

2025-10-28 12:10:11 UTC

I've long advised teachers faced with moronic mandates to work on two tracks at once: Do what you can to minimize the damage of these policies right now while simultaneously organizing colleagues to work on changing the policies (rather than treating them as facts of life).
Same applies to our donations as hunger spreads: Give $ to food banks scrambling to help, but also to groups working to replace the (mostly GOP) politicians who end SNAP benefits & other aid programs.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/27/snap-benefits-cut-off-nov-1-government-shutdown/

2025-10-26 17:38:01 UTC

Ken Burns was on Joe Rogan's podcast to promote his new series "The American Revolution"; the two reportedly "talked about the need for heroes."
Which put me in mind of Brecht’s comment: “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
Also Anaïs Nin: "Those who see giants are still looking at the world through the eyes of a child."

2025-10-24 13:56:55 UTC

What if all you knew about Mamdani was that Trump, Cuomo, Adams, real estate tycoons, and billionaires were working together desperately to prevent his election?

2025-10-23 11:47:38 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/423/315/170/650/291/original/c3821118628d02cf.png

2025-10-22 12:14:14 UTC

A nuanced assessment of the limited but important impact of No Kings protests and of what it means that "a staunchly authoritarian movement is in power, but [hasn't] been able to install a consolidated autocracy yet." Worth reading: https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/a40ac673-b42b-4108-9756-feeae62ca5e8

2025-10-21 12:02:26 UTC

It's almost a diagnostic tool: Tell me how receptive someone is toward the use of AI in schools, and I'll tell you how they view schooling itself. The more ambitious your understanding of education, the more skeptical you're likely to be about AI.
More about this in the latest episode of my podcast (https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/) and in this essay (https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/), depending on whether you'd rather listen or read.

2025-10-19 12:10:57 UTC

https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/400/752/931/288/324/original/21b28a6e04c1b209.png

2025-10-17 12:27:01 UTC

Now *here* is some useful advice for you to act on and pass along:
https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/artificial-intelligence/turn-off-ai-tools-gemini-apple-intelligence-copilot-and-more-a1156421356/

2025-10-16 17:39:44 UTC

The lies are so over the top that you're tempted to laugh, except that this is exactly how authoritarian regimes have prepared the ground for violent repression of their critics, no matter how moderate, democratic, and peaceful they are.
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/385/061/650/968/682/original/fb7c5b56ab1eab42.png

2025-10-12 01:19:57 UTC

"When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt."
- Ari Cohn, 1st Amendment lawyer

2025-10-11 21:34:31 UTC

- reply

... or have kids with disabilities
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencessocial/media_attachments/files/115/357/674/665/598/987/original/dd579bc75095d19a.png

2025-10-11 21:18:06 UTC

Good thing for Trumpians that only liberals get sick
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/10/11/cdc-layoffs-public-health-shutdown/