Professor Amanda Sturgill

3 Sturg points to you! Do you know the other songs?

Dee Snider Rips Into Trump Supporters For Using Twisted Sisters’ “We’re Not Gonna Take It” - The legendary Twisted Sister frontman and songwriter Dee Snider is not happy with Donald Trump supporters using the rock band's hit 1984 anthem "We're Not Gonna Take it." The musician took to Twitter ...

2/ I thought this one was especially interesting as a MAGA grievance song given the war on drag some conservative politicians are foregrounding. Dee Snider did not want to take it.

music.mxdwn.com/2022/08/26/n...

Musician Dee Snider, in his glam rock makeup and long, blonde hair sings We're not gonna take it.

Ok, FINE. Here's a hint for the music quiz in this week's UnSpun. There are THREE song clips that show reactance - the theme of the episode for you to guess. (here or where you pod...https://bit.ly/UnSpunPod)

Literal conversation with a campus journalist yesterday: "Don't like bad press? Don't do bad things."

People in trouble will try to blame the messenger as a deflection.

That doesn't mean the message isn't vital to society.

PSA: Right to Be (not on Bsky) offers free, on-line bystander training. I've done it, and it's pretty empowering.

righttobe.org/upcoming-fre...

3/

And some good stuff:

1. It's almost Winter break and we decorate campus for holidays early since everyone goes home mid-month. 🎄

2. I'm gettting a free teaser subscription to the new @merriam-webster.com dictionary through December <-- things that only excite a proffie, I think.

2/

Students: "I am not doing well because [pick one]"

1. My parents are on SNAP and I don't know how they are eating today

2. ICE was at my Mom's work today

3. I don't know if journalism will be around in 5 years. Everyone seems to hate it.

4. COVID broke me [but we don't talk about that]

#ProfLife - a very short thread.

Mega boss: "We know extra task will make you work 12 hour days this semester. We're short-staffed because [pick one], but will compensate you in appreciation"

Choose:

1. The demographic cliff hit enrollment
2. Federal funding cuts
3. College is no longer cool

Circle with caution sign in it and the word misinformation

When someone says “Get the facts,” our brains often hear, “You’re wrong.” That gap between intent and perception is how truth gets lost, and this matters for your 🦃 talks with Aunt Gladys.

Tips for how to change a mind in this week's UnSpun. Here, or wherever you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Circle with caution sign in it and the word misinformation

When someone says “Get the facts,” our brains often hear, “You’re wrong.” That gap between intent and perception is how truth gets lost, and this matters for your 🦃 talks with Aunt Gladys.

Tips for how to change a mind in this week's UnSpun. Here, or wherever you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

2/ Then it offered to write a reply which including thanking the person for asking for a favor.

Both bizarre and unhelpful.

We are living in the future, and it is stupid. Someone asked me if I could find a paper to send them. We have a trial of a highly advertised grammar checker at my school, and it offered to help me reply. It took a 1-line "hey, do you have this" email and then wrote a paragraph interpreting.

2/ If you don't read Spanish, you can paste the URL for a website into translate.google.com and it will translate the whole site for you. Spiffy!

La Noticia in Charlotte's covering ICE enforcement actions today. It's hard to do journalism when you are not safe. Nationally, there's evidence of citizens and green card holders being caught up. I appreciate journalists doing this risky work.

Check out their work here.

lanoticia.com

Over-parsing the definition sometimes means your argument is very weak.

If you take your car out, put a big dent in it, and return it, I don't want to listen to you saying you just borrowed it as if that clears everything.

Why isn't Barney in Get Out?

I might have just seen the worst Christmas idea ad I have ever seen.

Go to some website, answer some questions about a loved one, upload a picture and pick a topic, and then they get a book that look like they wrote it with their photo on the cover, but it's AI.

Who would want that? Why?

a man with long hair and a beard is looking at another man ALT: a man with long hair and a beard is looking at another man

In my experience, the preening peacocks and grunting baboons who serve them can cause a lot of damage.

But it's the quiet folks in the back with great minsd and terrible ideas that whisper to the peacocks that you really have to watch out for.

Tolkien wrote Wormtongue for a reason.

And hopefully a good model for something you can do if you think something is wonky - aka ask before you click 😊

DM received asking me to click a link to verify my account

So, I feel a little dumb for asking, but this is phishing, yes?

2/ Maybe today had extra good coffee, but here's another: person held up a cell phone at a ball game and that lady next to them yelling expletives + general crowd noise may not equal "everyone" booing a politician. It may just be rage bait.

Extremely niche hot take: the nation's pre-eminent newspaper needs to rethink publishing pieces on sartorial choices of politicians. What a waste of ... newsprint? screen real estate?

But seriously, I couldn't care less about party-aligned neckties or whatever. I do care about what they do.

2/ Usually corollary to this is a belief that economic success indicates virtue. People will believe that if you are wealthy, you must deserve it (and the opposite for the poor).

Especially difficult to hear other Christians argue this way when, to my mind, scripture clearly says otherwise.

I am not saying I agree with this, but I've seen people argue that the system is ok because businesses benefit society by providing jobs and innovative goods/services that they could not without public subsidy on labor cost.

Similar to the argument for public education. But people also get rich.

9. Food insecurity in the U.S. is the result of decisions — and until we face that, we’ll keep patching holes in a system designed to leak. The way it's set up now, private aid won't be able to meet the need.

8. We could decide to index wages to inflation. Or we could decide it’s acceptable to publicly subsidize private profit. But right now, we’re stuck in an incomplete, ill-informed argument that hurts people and creates inefficiencies.

7. So why does this happen in a rich country? Because of policy choices. We’ve built a system that subsidizes corporate profit. When wages are low, public assistance fills the gap — and that’s a choice we’ve made.

6. Charity food — food banks, pantries — also plays a role. But when there’s economic instability, like a recession or a government shutdown, they get overwhelmed. They can’t close the gap alone.

5. But these programs are stigmatized. People assume recipients are lazy or unwilling to work. In reality, many do work. Others are elderly, disabled, or caring for someone. The exceptions get weaponized to demonize the poor.

4. Programs like SNAP help fill the gap. They’re essential. Without them, millions of people — including working families — would go hungry.