Jon M. Wargo (he/him/his)

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sitting here watching a video of 3-year olds tranducing sound with a mic and amp in their Pre-K classroom and loving that I get to think and write about this for a living

On Feb 23, @aaup.org hosts a conversation about activism and academic freedom, inspired by legacy of Chandler Davis (fired after upholding his 1A rights). Featuring Isaac Kamola, Henry Reichman, Marjorie Heins + Melanie Tanielian

#academicfreedom @isaackamola.bsky.social @hankreichman.bsky.social

🎯🎯

Tell Your Senators: Vote NO on Voter Suppression | Indivisible

Let’s be clear: The GOP’s new voter suppression legislation (modeled on the SAVE Act) is unlikely to pass the Senate.

But with this attack on our voting rights ahead of the midterms, we can’t take anything for granted.

This article examines how transgender youth used virtual reality (VR) painting to critique harm and imagine more livable futures. Drawing on a 2018 linear and 360° documentary with three trans youth, I analyze their 3D VR paintings and narratives to show how they moved from recounting exclusion and constraint to envisioning futures grounded in joy, kinship, and belonging. I frame these creative acts as virtual world-becoming – a process of pivoting between lived histories and imagined futures while creating virtual worlds. The analysis brings together trans-queer phenomenologies, studies of trans joy, speculative approaches, and restorying to explore how youth storytelling resists erasure and constructs counter-narratives. While the project is presented through Big Tech infrastructures, the youths’ stories emphasized cozy, accessible, and communal technologies rather than sleek corporate futurism. Their visions highlight the importance of collective spaces where trans and queer people can thrive. This work contributes to educational research on fiction and digital media by showing how digital storytelling can function as both critique and possibility: revealing how technologies are entangled with inequities while opening space for collective imagination and trans-queer joy.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

@mxdylanp.bsky.social looked at how #transyouth used #VR painting to envision livable and joyful futures for themselves, showing how #BigTech technologies can be used "towards liberatory ends".

Read more: tinyurl.com/nkwwj38t

Following up on Project 2025. How much has the 2024 plan shaped the second Trump administration?

Again, I appreciate how @tanglenews.bsky.social does these periodic reviews of past analysis and predictions. Accountability is a key aspect of trustworthiness in our modern infodemic.

Once more: Columbia could have fought; it chose not.

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*shakes head* what 👏 a 👏 fucking 👏 joke #ItsTimeToTroll

Pam Bondi brought a document to the Judiciary Committee today that had my search history of the Epstein files on it.

The DOJ is spying on members of Congress. It’s a disgrace and I won’t stand for it.

Dinosaur Convention Bans All Paleontologists Named in Epstein Files Out of 'Safety of Our Attendees' DinoCon issued a statement regarding the scientists and more named in the Epstein Files, noting they were officially banned from the event.

Dinosaur Convention Bans All Paleontologists Named in Epstein Files

www.thewrap.com/culture-life...

130 million people watched Bad Bunny’s performance and reportedly 6 million watched KKKoachella.

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all caught up on grading as I enter birthday week

It was transforming the biggest NFL stage in the world into a sugar cane plantation that did it for me.

Like, the multiple layers of turning an American icon into a plantation and highlighting the history of exploitation of Black and Brown bodies by the NFL and American colonialism simultaneously?

Bad Bunny’s closing messages during his Super Bowl performance:

“The only thing more powerful than hate is love”
“Together, we are America”

When he gave the Grammy to that young boy who made everyone think of Liam…even if that wasn’t actually Liam, it was just the perfect way of cutting through all the bullshit.

Every kid impacted by this administration’s cruelty is another Liam.

Remember that under the first Trump administration, Puerto Rico had to suffer through the longest power blackout in U.S. history bsky.app/profile/cost...

If a brown singer at a halftime show offends you enough to protest but white men raping young girls doesn’t, then it isn’t family values you defend it’s white supremacy and sexual abuse.

The political critique about the power crisis on the island! Benito!

When we're annoying and say America is a continent not a country this is what we mean.

That critique of the government extracting resources from PR. The power poles.

*gay gasp* OK Ricky Martin…

We all saw the fellas grindin right? That may be a first for the super bowl.

🚨 Epstein survivors release this powerful PSA in advance of the Super Bowl demanding answers from the Justice Department. This is the Super Bowl ad every American should see. Spread it everywhere.

Head shot of Dr. Ernest Morrell. He is smiling and wearing a gray suit jacket, white shirt with light blue checker board pattern, and tie with diagonal yellow, blue, and white stripes.

AERA is saddened by the passing of Dr. Ernest Morrell, AERA Fellow and former at-large member of Council. A distinguished scholar of English and Africana studies, he made enduring contributions to education research. We extend our heartfelt condolences.

Read more: news.nd.edu/news/in-memo...

Of course the MAGA cult who worship a president mentioned thousands of times in files about a child sex trafficking ring would also select an entertainer who brags about preying on underage girls in his songs as the headliner of their anti-half time show.

Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century.

He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times.

Pregaming the Bad Bunny concert by painting the walls white #SuperBowl #SuperBowlSunday #GoSeahawks

I appreciate this and I've begun talking to people about what it means to take Gates grants given that Melinda has taken steps to separate from the foundation (and yes I know they're one of the only funders for ed research)

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.