Sam Cohen

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Every day of life under Trump is waking up to a headline like, “Wyoming is missing”

Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.

I don't think most people grasp the insane amount of resources that the US allocates to weapons and war machines. The list of better things we could do with the military budget is nearly endless.

So grateful for this thoughtful, generous review: "Those of us who care about what books can do should consider what these contributors have to tell us."

I know our expectations for this administration are in the basement but it is INSANE they started a war without a plan for the Strait of Hormuz.

Does it? Really?

Just watched this film at @truefalsefilmfest.bsky.social and was once again inspired by the students and once again enraged by Christopher Rufo and his special brand of contempt for everything valuable about higher ed and democracy

the cover of Banning Books in America

“Cohen describes books as ‘the oldest and best place where opinions and impressions and whole worlds are captured and recorded.’ He’s right.”

John Downes-Angus on “Banning Books in America.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/banning-books-america-samuel-cohen-censorship-libraries-education/

Utah Bill Allowing Students to Refuse Coursework Threatens Academic Freedom Utah poised to become first state to allow students to opt out of coursework based on their religious or conscience beliefs

NEW: The Utah legislature is “cheapening” higher education in their state, says PEN America’s Laura Benitez. PEN America has urged Governor Cox to veto HB 204, which would allow students to opt-out of course work based on their “religious” or “conscience” beliefs. pen.org/press-releas...

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Ask me how I feel about Mark Bauerlein

Stop 👏 having 👏 unrealistic 👏 body 👏 standards 👏 for 👏 camels 👏

The words of an authoritarian.

Directly violates what Levitsky and Ziblatt call one of "[t]wo basic norms have preserved America's checks and balances in ways we have come to take for granted: mutual toleration, or the understanding that competing parties accept one another as legitimate rivals"

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"This is what kids like that need to hear about reading, over and over: We think what you’re doing is important. Keep going."

Highly readable review of what promises to be one of the most "urgent" books of the year.

I would really like this review even if it weren't about my book!

Stickers!

@RepOgles on X: Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. 09 Mar 26

Nazis to the core

Another cover

Cover of David Halberstam's book on Robert McNamara and others responsible for Vietnam War policy

It's time!

Love that last line: Jack Conroy, The Disinherited (1933)

Time-Wasting, Truth-Wasting Exercises | Los Angeles Review of Books Samuel Cohen’s anthology on book banning diagnoses a recent swell in censorship that’s problematic for more reasons than you’d think.

Wrote about @samcohen.bsky.social’s book banning volume for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. The volume invites us to consider why books matter—and it shows the many ways they’re under attack, even here in progressive NYC.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/bann...

So grateful for this thoughtful, generous review: "Those of us who care about what books can do should consider what these contributors have to tell us."

More evidence that what we have been witnessing is the hostile takeover of the government to advance the agenda of the few. There is nothing legal or just behind what happened in DOGE takeovers. Only the unscrupulous exercise of power to mislead and control the public for personal gain.

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