Charlie McCrary

The AHA can't comment on a genocide in progress because that's political and not history yet but it can encourage uptake of a plagiarism and learning preemption machine because that's apolitical and the future

My bereaved family: Can't believe he's gone. But now, with the power of technology, we can ask him what he thinks about current events

My distorted face glitching on a screen: ToyYotathon Is hERE

Here's the final footnote of my book's final chapter, in which I suggest that a case like Davis's would be brought to overturn Obergefell, and at least Thomas and Alito would be into it. I thought it'd be a case *like* hers, not just hers again, but...

The making of a Drift cover Behind the scenes with our print designer

Here's a pretty cool look at how the designer of one small print magazine — @thedrift-mag.bsky.social — puts together its covers. I especially like the gif showing the evolution from inspiration to final design.

newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/the-making...

Report on Religious Liberty & Immigration — The Law, Rights & Religion Project This report is intended as a practical tool for immigration attorneys, criminal defense lawyers, civil rights advocates, faith-based organizations, and houses of worship. Thumbnail image courtesy ...

@lawrightsreligion.bsky.social just released a new report on how faith communities are challenging brutal immigration policies as a violation of their religious freedom.

Read it & share.

lawrightsreligion.org/our-work/rel...

Critical secularism studies - are we still doing this? Any juice left in that lime? I say yes!

I might be stretching it a bit to call this “polemical,” though, and I think your general point is fair and right.

Yeah, I’ve been writing about this so it’s on my mind. Mostly sociologists and/or Christians who are, to me at least, clearly doing polemical work about who is a good/real Christian but then presenting it (and genuinely mistaking it, I think) for analysis of on-the-ground reality.

Idk. Many people who produce polemical rhetoric about white Christian nationalism do not seem to get this.

Person holding a sandwich-board sign with a faux dictionary definition that reads "Dad. noun. a human male who protects his kids from gender ideology."

With all due respect to Billboard Chris, this is a very funny sign. Also a useful case study for teaching a kind of scientism, weaponized "objectivity," ideology pretending to be non-ideological. Especially silly and stark here, but there are many such cases.

Just attended AFT’s AI Symposium. Trying to get handle on how it’s being addressed in bargaining.

Unsurprisingly, none of the speakers evidenced awareness of the critical scholarship on AI. Or any scholarship. Weingarten multiple times said “AI can now generate knowledge.”

Consent: manufactured.

Critical secularism studies - are we still doing this? Any juice left in that lime? I say yes!

Review Essay: Critical Secularism Studies in These Times: The Coloniality of the Secular: Race, Religion, and the Poetics of World-MakingSecularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global So... In our era of polycrisis, so many targets of struggle and critique are linked, overlapping, symbiotic. It is imperative but difficult to find terminology t

New from me in JAAR -
“Review Essay: Critical Secularism Studies in These Times” academic.oup.com/jaar/article...

One conspiracy theory I have sort of believed for a long time is that the Democrats and mainstream media could've done this in 2016 but they didn't because they knew it'd take down Bill Clinton too (and maybe the Dem nominee, by association). They should've!

Tim Heidecker making a funny face, with text "No More Bullsh*t"

writing inspo

I'm normally quite nice (in print), and I have accomplished this, in part, by simply ignoring bad work. Not in this essay! I'm digging in, letting nothing slide, and I've got cutting little remarks for everyone (including myself).

Every school that explicitly markets itself as the opposite of this will be 1) right and 2) probably successful. Most parents and students aren’t total rubes, or at least not as commonly as administrators and politicians are.

Glad my graduate alma mater cut 60 degree programs in subjects that require people to think so that they could offer this. Looking forward to living in a world full of Prompt Engineers.

imo, if someone believes some races or ethnicities are genetically inferior to others, that person has revealed a weakness of mind and character that casts extreme if not irrefutable doubt on their other ideas. why would i expect them to use more rigor on, eg, housing than they do on human nature?

I explore why liberals fell for the heterodox movement’s “free speech” ploy in my latest for @bostonreview.bsky.social: www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-ri...

In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.

The new issue of American Religion is out (open access!). The reviews are especially great, in my biased opinion. Check out this great review essay by Matt Berkman on the history of Jewish critics of Zionism. muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...

The Democratic Party’s capitulation to the Crypto lobby is one of the most nakedly corrupt things I’ve seen in my life.

Crypto is a blatant scam with zero value that is designed to end popular control of our currency. Dems just co-signed the next global financial crisis. It’s unforgivable.

During the interview I wondered "evil or stupid?" and then quickly realized it's both.

I actually read that Toxic Empathy book and it is more vapid and cruel than you can even imagine www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

The new issue of American Religion is out (open access!). The reviews are especially great, in my biased opinion. Check out this great review essay by Matt Berkman on the history of Jewish critics of Zionism. muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...

It must be coming. I’m sure some are moving that direction, but I’d love to see a big ad campaign. My pitch to first-years is now “you know how no one can think anymore?? Well I can teach you how, and this will be beneficial for you.”

I am likely misreading it (and I just listened, didn't see the video), but I do get the sense that Douthat regrets this, as he realizes the depths to which he's sinking. I probably have toxic empathy for him, but I believe he is somewhat capable of shame.

Good to know! I haven't read it yet, but I have my copy. I have a very old half-written draft of an essay on Thomas Kinkade that I've been thinking about dusting off. Sounds like Provoking Religion will help me get that going. Thanks.