Max Coleman

I love this man so much!!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Rob 🥰

YouTube video by Rick Steves' Europe The Traveler & American Democracy with Rick Steves

A direct, prescient, and essential speech by @ricksteves.bsky.social.

It is vital to remind ourselves that we are indeed seeing what we are seeing and Rick Steves helps us illuminate the stakes of the world today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20u...

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

"President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment..."

You cannot erase science. You can blatantly ignore it and allow as much mass suffering as you want, but the truth stands.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...

Huge thanks to my collaborators Lucas Hamilton (first author), Anne Sprecher, and Lauren Rutter for their work on this project!

These distinct measures of stigma led to different results: for example, greater knowledge about dementia was linked to less desire for distance and less "social unacceptability," but it did not protect against blatant dehumanization. Future work should try to figure out the underlying mechanisms.

Our study differs from others because we tested three measures of stigma: desire for social distance (e.g, not wanting a neighbor with dementia), social unacceptability (e.g, should be afraid to tell others about one's condition), and blatant dehumanization (how ape-like the individual seems).

Interestingly, personal contact with people experiencing dementia did not reduce stigma—perhaps because severe cases can increase people's apprehensions. (As we know from the social psych literature, the "contact hypothesis" can backfire if it confirms people's existing prejudices).

• Rates of stigma are higher among men than women. Other predictors of stigma included being younger, non-White, and Republican.

• About 2/3 of respondents label normal cognitive aging as dementia (or at least mild cognitive impairment). This suggests that aging itself is being pathologized.

• People who live in counties where dementia is more prevalent are actually *more* likely to stigmatize. (Could be a selection effect?)

Dementia stigma in the United States: variation by target gender, degree of impairment, and respondent characteristics INTRODUCTION The rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) poses major public health concerns. Public knowledge about ADRD diverges from scientific consensus, and consequ...

My colleagues and I have a new paper on dementia stigma in the United States.

We used a vignette experiment to study how the (a) gender and (b) impairment level of a fictional older adult shape stigma. Some interesting findings below:

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Trump Criticizes Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

A rare @nytimes.com article that places the news in its proper context, noting (for example) that Trump believes immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...

Every American needs to watch this:

As with everything, this latest midnight tantrum will amount to nothing.

BUT just to stress how abnormal this presidency is: seven years ago, it was pretty major news that a *private* 1971 tape caught Reagan referring to Black people as monkeys. www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

Florida Introduces “Sanitized” Sociology Textbook The volume was created after a state review found that existing course materials violated a law prohibiting general education courses from teaching about systemic inequality. So far, at least two univ...

“The state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.”

Just horrifying. All faculty should refuse to use this.

(h/t @professorkd.bsky.social)

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

NO ONE EVER SUPPORTED ICE IN APRIL OF 1945, THE AMERICAN WAR CORRESPONDENT MARTHA Gellhorn surveyed the post-war terrain from a series of small German villages along the Rhine.

Wrote today about how Republican lawmakers, seemingly, had issues with ICE this whole time? (with more than a slight tip of the hat to Martha Gellhorn’s reporting in rural Germany after WWII)

robrankin.substack.com/p/no-one-eve...

How a Family of 5 Lives on $140,000 a Year in Morningside Heights New York City is among the most expensive cities in the world. Here is one family’s strategy for making it work.

I get so tired of these @nytimes.com stories. The median income for a family of 5 in New York City is $87,500. The family profiled here makes 60% more than that.

So this family's "strategy for making it work" is... more money.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Horrifying. This is not a free America. ICE is arresting and hunting witnesses to the murder this morning of Alex Peretti.

John Mitnick @JohnMitnick I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the homeland security portfolio as a White House Counsel and served as General Counsel of the Department. I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now. George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d The deadly shooting in Minneapolis today was a straight-up execution of a protester by Trump's federal brownshirts. The thugs wrestled him to the ground. They pistol-whipped him, then shot him multiple times. They murdered him.

Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a senate-confirmed Trump choice for General Counsel for DHS in his first term. I've talked with him a few times, and he's not a man for hyperbole. So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's "lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty."

The night is long that never finds the day.

Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.

Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.

YES, YES, YES, 1,000x YES!

MPR News Minnesota's Online Source for News That Matters

Excellent call-in discussion on Minnesota Public Radio right now.

Addressing serious questions about how we live in this country now and after this regime is over.

www.mprnews.org/listen

I hope Democratic senators and congressmen understand, out of pure lizard-brain self-interest if moral decency happens to be unavailable, what is at stake for them if they don't handle this the right way. This is a true "If not now, when?" moment.

If you’re a Democrat looking to run for president in 2028, now would be a good time to find the nearest microphone and state clearly that you will prosecute every Trump Administration official enabling this state sponsored terrorism to the fullest extent of the law.

RFK Jr.’s Tuskegee Experiment RFK Jr. recently directed the CDC to fund a study in West Africa that lays bare his cruelty and dishonesty

How can anyone think that it might be appropriate to perform a trial, which would be considered unethical and not approved in their home country, in another country? #MedSky #PoliSky #AcademicSky

This pre-shooting video clearly shows victim holding a phone as if to film. Agent lays hands on first. Victim does not resist, walks backwards as agent pushes. Fellow observer does not interfere. Zero indication of aggression from victim, who appears only to be filming.

DHS is already lying and saying they fired “defensive shots” at the guy. He was already on the ground and being pistol-whipped when he was shot!

You can also send faxes using @resist.bot

America 2026

Picture of the a plaque at the German Resistance Memorial in Berlin.

You did not bear the shame.
You resisted.
You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour.

— The German Resistance Memorial in Berlin