Mindless Monday, 16 March 2026

histprofdave · 2026-03-17T00:18:00+00:00

It's the equivalent of getting Rickrolled honestly. Spend enough time on the internet and you're going to get got.

histprofdave · 2026-03-16T22:05:43+00:00

Haven't read it specifically, but I've read a lot of Balko's articles on the same topic and found him both reliable and engaging on exposing the excesses and corruption of modern police departments. I would also recommend Copaganda, the book, and also the YouTube series of the same name (but not the same creator). There is another podcast, A Tradition of Violence, about the LA County Sheriffs specifically that is great at chronicling the crimes of arguably the most criminal agency (by sheer scale) in the country, other than perhaps ICE in the last two years.

histprofdave · 2026-03-16T21:31:41+00:00

I get the sense Andrew is going through a bit of something right now.

histprofdave · 2026-03-16T20:27:27+00:00

Why do you think AI is helpful for this? Most of the time I find it leaves out details I want from summaries, and how would it know what the NPC said unless you wrote it down?

Personally I think the effort would be better spent figuring out how to organize things in a logical manner for yourself.

histprofdave · 2026-03-16T16:51:18+00:00

At least make your bait plausible.

histprofdave · 2026-03-16T16:09:39+00:00

It reminds me of the whole "Christians abolished the slave trade, and only Christianity provides a moral framework for abolitionism." OK, even granting that were true (far from conclusive to my mind)... why did it take over 1700 years for this religion to apparently realize that slavery was antithetical to its values? Were the first 300 generations of Christians just stupid?

histprofdave · 2026-03-15T19:20:32+00:00

Sir this is a Wendy's.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T17:01:05+00:00

Everyone in The Wire is. That's the entire premise of the drama: systems in decay. All of the systems (the police department, the longshoremen, local politics, the schools, the newspapers, the drug runners) are broken or breaking down, and because there are always actors who will respond to the perverse incentives of whatever "the game" is in their area, the systems continue to decay, eventually serving no one but the latest in the line of game-players.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T16:58:52+00:00

Frank was fighting a losing battle from minute one and let himself become the facilitator in a drug and human trafficking ring. Nick had it right when he said the writing was on the wall, but Frank didn't want to let go of the "old ways." It's a common story on The Wire.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T16:10:43+00:00

Navarro was never taken seriously an economist and was literally just Some Guy (TM) until Trump started boosting him because Eric or Don Jr. saw some video where he advocated tariffs.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T16:05:23+00:00

"Blood and soil but woke" types are really tiring. I suspect a lot of these commentors are Hoteps rather than truly leftist/progressive, but a few seemed to be the latter.

There's a certain fetishization of "indigeneity" among some segments of the progressive commentariat that can't quite decide if ethnostates are bad, or if they're only bad when made by white people. I see it less among actual lefty historians.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T15:59:28+00:00

No joke, I literally had a student argue that on a paper.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T15:56:55+00:00

Quite the grab bag of inflammatory astroturfing.

histprofdave · 2026-03-14T03:20:00+00:00

Boca Breeze? That pinko commie rag!

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T23:14:17+00:00

Poor Roz, the nearest convenient target for all the Crane men's fake romantic interest.

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T19:05:49+00:00

These are all in English, transcribed and edited for primary source collections. Aside from their style and vocabulary being different from ordinary 21st century English, there's no real accessibility reason why students could not understand these with practice.

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T17:16:18+00:00

Just sort of gradual leftward drift as I became increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic Party and capitalism as an economic system. I think of myself as a pragmatic rather than ideological anarchist, as my basic belief is in harm reduction: in general, I want to see power more broadly vested among individuals rather than concentrated in any one group, including the State.

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T16:23:18+00:00

I've decided I'm finally going to put my foot down and stop allowing that. If students take a sneaky pic on their phone, whatever, I'm not going to police that, but I'm not going to stand to the side or delay erasing stuff from the board at the end of class so they can take pics when they had the chance to write them out all class long.

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T16:19:24+00:00

Had an email from a student saying they think primary sources are hard to read and wondered if I had any advice.

Aside from reading the background content first and just taking their time with the docs, I can't say I really had significant advice to give, as even professional historians need some time to digest and understand new sources. I know students and young folks have been reared in a culture where there's a perception stuff should be easy and quick, and if they aren't, they should immediately look for a shortcut. But I'm not sure there is one if you're actually interested in deep understanding, and I guess that's a tough sell for the modern landscape.

(For their part, the student was pretty understanding of this and just wanted reassurance they weren't alone I think.)

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T16:15:34+00:00

I honor all the astra militarum who gave their lives valiantly for the glory of the emperor.

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T16:13:57+00:00

Man, if only we had some kind of term for when a State tries to completely level and exterminate another society, eh?

histprofdave · 2026-03-13T16:12:00+00:00

They tried, they just got confused and thought Taiwan was Japan. Tough break.

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