Alfie Kohn
alfiekohn.bsky.social
Alfie Kohn
@alfiekohn.bsky.social

author and lecturer on topics in education, parenting, and human behavior....
(Personal messages more likely to be read if left on http://alfiekohn.org)
He/him

Alfie Kohn is an American author and lecturer in the areas of education, parenting, and human behavior. He is a proponent of progressive education and has offered critiques of many traditional aspects of parenting, managing, and American society more generally, drawing in each case from social science research. .. more

Education 68%
Psychology 10%
Pinned
"Podcast" comes from the Latin "paudus" (meaning "to half-listen to") and "casteratum" (meaning "while preparing food"). Mine is called "KOHN'S ZONE: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Education & Kids." New episodes are posted on the 1st & 15th of each month: www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

So here are some agents using a gendered insult, and you liberals *still* aren't satisfied

The (NYT) article also describes Musk's efforts to pump up Grok's white supremacist content as "less politically correct."

The (NYT) article also describes Musk's efforts to pump up Grok's white supremacist content as "less politically correct."

That they can brutalize whomever they want with impunity
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."

The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"

"Learned what?" she asks

Then he knocks her phone out of her hand
“Racy”
A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."

The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"

"Learned what?" she asks

Then he knocks her phone out of her hand

For Trump, unlike Miller, the use of force is "not so much a means of achieving American national-security goals as an end in itself," adds Susan Glasser - a "narcissistic form of unilateralism that says, loudly, 'I can do whatever I want'....Unrestrained power wielded for its own sake is the theme"

Excellent analysis by @davidcorn.bsky.social of how three recent events converge on the Trump regime's frank rejection of the rule of law (and, indeed, of "rules-based civilization"); its motto instead is "Violence is ours to use, at home and abroad, to get what we want": tinyurl.com/388kpexf
The Trump doctrine: Violence is us
The message is clear—be afraid.
tinyurl.com

The underappreciated educator Selma Wassermann once remarked that taking away students' right to make decisions because they've failed to make "responsible" choices is like taking away their right to read because they can't yet read well.

It was Jonathan Swift who reminded us that "you can't reason someone out of something he didn't reason himself into."

I suspect many of us keep ignoring this caution mostly because we just don't know what else to do in the face of intractable and unreasonable beliefs or horrifying actions.

Or a Black person. Remember in 2009 when Harvard professor Skip Gates was arrested in front of his own house - basically for being insufficiently deferential to a white cop?

Or a Black person. Remember in 2009 when Harvard professor Skip Gates was arrested in front of his own house - basically for being insufficiently deferential to a white cop?

Reposted by Alfie Kohn

"We want it, so we're going to take it" is the motto of rapists and Republicans.

Reposted by Alfie Kohn

So why do you think Trump stopped his meeting with oil company executives, who are seeking both US security guarantees and taxpayer-funded infrastructure subsidies for Venezuelan oil production, to talk to them about his ballroom where the price tag continues to go up for it monthly?

Good to see a background piece like this one that helps to humanize the late Ms. Good: www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/....
It would be even better to see similar feature articles with details about the lives of the nonwhite immigrants being victimized by the MAGAstapo.
Renee Good’s wife says she was supporting neighbors when killed by ICE
Renee Nicole Good was a devoted mother and artist before she was fatally shot and became a flash point of anger against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
www.washingtonpost.com

Trumpians who praise ICE (and denigrate its victims) but also support the J6 seditionists' assault on Capitol police officers are not being inconsistent or hypocritical. Here's why: www.thebulwark.com/p/renee-good...

The killer leads trainings
NEW: Jonathan Ross is former National Guard and Border Patrol and has been part of ICE's SWAT equivalent, a team leader overseeing FBI, ATF, and IRS agents, and a firearms instructor, according to testimony obtained by WIRED. This is from @hudsongiles.bsky.social and me:
ICE Agent Who Reportedly Shot Renee Good Was a Firearms Trainer, Per Testimony
Jonathan Ross told a federal court in December about his professional background, including “hundreds” of encounters with drivers during enforcement actions, according to testimony obtained by WIRED.
www.wired.com
Something I always wondered is how it would be covered if America became a dictatorship

This is it
NEW: Jonathan Ross is former National Guard and Border Patrol and has been part of ICE's SWAT equivalent, a team leader overseeing FBI, ATF, and IRS agents, and a firearms instructor, according to testimony obtained by WIRED. This is from @hudsongiles.bsky.social and me:
ICE Agent Who Reportedly Shot Renee Good Was a Firearms Trainer, Per Testimony
Jonathan Ross told a federal court in December about his professional background, including “hundreds” of encounters with drivers during enforcement actions, according to testimony obtained by WIRED.
www.wired.com

Why would Trump and his sycophants tell such obviously disprovable lies about the murder of Ms. Good? Adam Serwer has thoughts:

"Please summarize the state of America in 2026 with one short post"

Practical suggestions for how peaceful protesters can protect themselves from surveillance in a country run by an authoritarian regime
We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.
Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.

If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.
Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.

If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
www.wired.com
The Trump Regime Smear Machine is now a taxpayer funded venture that smears victims of state violence by justifying their killing. This should be familiar, it is a common practice in the aftermath of police shootings of black people (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Reposted by Alfie Kohn

No one who treated "wear a mask when you enter this store" as horrific tyranny actually believe in deference to state authority.

It's Schmittian friend-enemy politics all the way down. "We" should be able to do whatever we feel like without consequence. "They" should be harassed, repressed, killed.

Those of us who express our concern about the various risks and disadvantages of AI are sometimes reminded how valuable it is in the fields of radiology and meteorology....

Notice the NYT's framing here: A near "disaster" means that the aggressors almost didn't succeed with their invasion. (That they did end up succeeding was of course a disaster for the 80 people they killed.)

Reposted by Alfie Kohn

1984 is over-cited, but nothing fits the government and its supporters blatantly lying about ICE’s murder of Renee Good when video from multiple angles show she posed no threat than “the Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

No matter how horrifying and indefensible, every act of violence can be rationalized in the mind of the perpetrator by appealing to some version of "realism."
Stephen Miller on CNN yesterday defending taking Greenland by force: “We live in a world, in the real world that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” This is the fascist manifesto.
hate it when the trump administration’s killing civilians abroad agenda is temporarily overshadowed by its shooting civilians domestically programs