Rachel Brickner

When you strip away humanity

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The takeaway is not that electoral politics will fix everything.

We know it won’t.

Obviously.

The takeaway is that people will show up if you give them hope & a way forward.

And that, my friends, can & must look like a lot of things right now.

happy zohran day to all who celebrate

the thing with Mamdani is that he’s obviously an incredible political talent - the campaign he’s run has been extremely impressive even if you don’t like his policies

the party should be delighted, and that they’re instead pulling out all the stops to beat him speaks volumes

This Fucking Guy I lived in New York City for twenty-five years and I don’t live there anymore.

open.substack.com/pub/rebeccat...

Peaceful 10K march in Los Angeles against ICE and National Guard. Trump is the one spewing vitriol and inciting violence.

The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It

I've started explicitly addressing some of what's described in this article as I go on my merry way, institution to institution insisting that we can and must continue to teach writing. There's two main risks. Both are real. 🧵
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

People using AI to cheat is one thing but what’s even more alarming is people talking about how they talk to ChatGPT all day, how they use it to write text messages to their friends, how it has usurped their own humanity at a time when we need people to resist tech fascism. That’s the real horror

Teaching the test across 4 decades? Student as customer about the same amount of time? AI purveyors should be grateful to have such a market groomed for them with so much help from the govering bodies of the institutions of higher learning

Tremendous. By Joseph Fasano. poets.org/poem/student...

"Abolitionist" is not too strong a word here.

"We must not just seek just goals– an end to oppression, say, or accountability for harmdoers – we have to get there by striving to be the people we're supposed to be, every single step of the way."

We need new leaders in Washington. I’m running for Senate to be one. Let’s go.

Are you keeping track?

Liberals or Democrats:
—won Wisconsin supreme court
—won Wisconsin school superintendent
—flipped mayorship of Aurora, IL's 2nd city
—flipped county executive position in WI's Winnebago
—strong results in school board races in WI
—very strong municipal results in IL

Congrats on this well deserved honor. It’s a great book. I learned so much reading it.

When scholars of authoritarianism and fascism leave U.S. universities because of the deteriorating political situation here, we should really worry.

If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.

Truly glorious, hopeful thread! ❤️📚

People asking who the leader of the Democratic Party is? She’s right here.

The Department of Education is (was?) responsible for:

✅Distributing & monitoring spending for special-ed & low-income students;
✅Facilitating postsecondary financial aid; &
✅Civil rights enforcement

Impossible to see how dismantling it will do anything but hurt kids & students.

New Iraqi Uranium Tubes just dropped

JD Vance is a Bad Father The empty masculinity of Trump’s men

“There’s no Father’s Day card for men who turn their daughters into second-class citizens.”

Just for once, just for once in my life, I would like to see a panel or symposium or essay cluster on "the future of the university" (or its infinite variations) feature mostly scholars who have done a lot of teaching and admin and advising, and who have done it at schools that aren't super rich.

If Bill Kristol can figure this out there is zero reason for any democrat not to enthusiastically support trans rights.

Acadia University is hiring. Mi’kmaw / Indigenous Scholar Position Tenure Stream. www2.acadiau.ca/files/files/...

It’s Women’s History Month—Men, We Must Do Better The best way to celebrate women's history is to elevate women and to shut down the men working to deny women equal justice

March is Women's History Month. From our founding 1776 statement that "All men are created equal," wholly ignoring women, to the ERA still not law in 2025—one fact remains—men continue to deny women equal justice.

Receipts on how bad it is & how MEN can do better www.qasimrashid.com/p/its-womens...

"Leaders in civil society shouldn’t be “demure” in the face of authoritarian attempts to align all power with a president’s agenda.... Business and civic officials, religious authorities and college presidents should weigh in when they see the missions of their institutions...compromised. "

The root that tears apart your foundation begins as a seed of distrust, hate, and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe didn’t arrive overnight.

It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.