Catherine Lutz
@cathylutz.bsky.social
180 followers 72 following 30 posts

Writer, anthropologist, live wire. Co-Founder of CostsofWar.org. Author of Homefront, Reading National Geographic, Carjacked, Schooled.

Catherine A. Lutz is an American anthropologist who is the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Brown University. She is also a research professor at the Watson Institute where she serves as a director of the Costs of War Project, which attempts to calculate the financial costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. .. more

Political science 38%
Psychology 17%
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

costsofwar.bsky.social
BREAKING: The post-10/7 wars have killed or injured at least 236,505 people in Gaza alone. The U.S. has spent over $31 billion and counting in the wider region since Oct. 7, 2023, where millions have been displaced, according to new Costs of War research. [THREAD]

Photo Credit: Heidi Levine, 2025
Photo by Heidi Levine (July 30, 2025) showing an aerial view of Gaza destruction, taken during a Royal Jordanian military flight for a humanitarian aid mission.
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Everyone is trying to have a normal Saturday night and the president's top advisor is on X announcing that civil war is necessary
@StephenM on X: Legal insurrection. The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge. Portland and Oregon law enforcement, at the direction of local leaders, have refused to aid ICE officers facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life. (There are more local law enforcement officers in Oregon than there are guns and badges in the FBI nationwide). This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order and the Republic itself.

cathylutz.bsky.social
Isn't it Congress' job to declare war on the American people?

cathylutz.bsky.social
Isn't it Congress' job to declare war on the American people?
atrupar.com
Trump to generals: "Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within & we have to handle it before it gets out of control"
atrupar.com
Trump to generals: "Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within & we have to handle it before it gets out of control"

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

bluesos.bsky.social
The only question every reporter, journalist, podcaster, everyone should be asking is “has the cabinet started proceedings to invoke the 25th amendment”

cathylutz.bsky.social
Oh yeah, the word "scold" has more sting in it for women than most people recognize

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
US schools and the children in them are subject to rising threats of school shootings and hoaxes, cyberattacks and cyberbullying, hate crimes, ICE raids and masked police, climate change disasters, censorship, and now the encouragement of unvaxxing.

Then we wonder why absenteeism is a problem.

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

costsofwar.bsky.social
BREAKING: Our new analysis reveals that the federal budget is increasingly devoted to militarized sectors. But tax dollars invested in the military are less effective for jobs than investments in education or healthcare. [THREAD] watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/p...

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
I put together a short document for those wary of the AI mania in schools. Four of the main arguments for teachers using AI tools and introducing kids to AI as early as kindergarten are addressed--with thoughts and rebuttals and links to sources. Hope it's helpful.

drive.google.com/file/d/1urCM...
Help Sheet: Resisting AI Mania in Schools 

K-12 educators are under increasing pressure to use—and have students use—a wide range of AI tools. (The term “AI” is used loosely here, just as it is by many purveyors and boosters.) Even those who envision benefits to schools of this fast-evolving category of tech should approach the well-funded AI-in-education campaign with skepticism and caution. Some of the primary arguments for teachers actively using AI tools and introducing students to AI as early as kindergarten, however, are questionable or fallacious. What follows are four of the most common arguments and rebuttals with links to sources. I have not attempted balance, in part because so much pro-AI messaging is out there and discussion of risks and costs is often minimized in favor of hope or resignation. -ALF  


Argument: “Schools need to prepare students for the jobs of the future.”

The skills employers seek haven’t changed much over the decades—and include a lot of “soft skills” like initiative, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking. 
Early research is showing that using generative AI can degrade these key skills:
An MIT study showed adults using chatGPT to help write an essay “had the lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.’” Critically, “ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.” 
A business school found those who used AI tools often had worse critical thinking skills “mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores.”
Another study revealed those using “ChatGPT engaged less in metacognitive activities…For instance, learners in the AI group frequently looped back to ChatGPT for feedback rather than reflecting independently. This dependency not only undermines critical thinking but also risks long-term skill stagnation.” … Argument: “AI is a tool, just like a calculator.”

Calculators don’t provide factually wrong answers, but AI tools have. Last year, Google’s AI search returned, among other falsehoods, that cats have gone to the moon, that Barack Obama is Muslim, and that glue goes on pizza. Even though AI tools have and are expected to improve, children in schools shouldn’t be used as tech firms’ guinea pigs for undertested, unregulated products while AI firms engage elected officials in actively resisting regulation.
Calculators don’t provide dangerous, even deadly feedback. In one study, a ”chatbot recommended that a user, who said they were recovering from addiction, take a ‘small hit’ of methamphetamine” because, it said, it’s “‘what makes you able to do your job to the best of your ability.’" Users have received threatening messages from chatbots. 
Calculators don’t pose mental health risks because they aren’t potentially addictive or designed to encourage repeated use. They don’t flatter, direct, or manipulate. Chatbots have been designed this way—and this has led to dreadful mental health outcomes for some, including users in a New York Times report. Alleging a chatbot encouraged their teen to die by suicide, parents in Florida filed a lawsuit against its maker.  
Calculators don’t lie. Chatbots, however, have misled users. Writer Amanda Guinzberg shared screenshots of interactions with one that she asked to describe several of her essays. It spewed out invented material, showing the chatbot hadn’t actually accessed and processed the essays. After much prodding, it “admitted” it had only acted as though it had done that requested work, spit out mea culpas—and went on to invent or “lie” again.  
Calculators can’t be used to spread propaganda. AI tools, though, including those meant for schools, should worry us. Law professor Eric Muller’s back-and-forth with SchoolAI’s “Anne Frank” character showed his “helluva time trying to get her to say a bad word about Nazis.” In this er… Argument: “AI won’t replace teachers, but it will save them time and improve their effectiveness.”

Adding edtech does not necessarily save teachers time. A recent study found that learning management systems sold to schools over the past decade-plus as time-savers aren’t delivering on making teaching easier. Instead, they found this tech (e.g. Google Classroom, Canvas) is often burdensome and contributes to burnout. As one teacher put it, it “just adds layers to tasks.” 
“Extra time” is rarely returned to teachers. AI proponents argue that if teachers use AI tools to grade, prepare lessons, or differentiate materials, they’ll have more time to work with students. But there are always new initiatives, duties, or committee assignments—the unpaid work districts rely on—to suck up that time. In a culture of austerity and with a USDOE that is cutting spending, teachers are likely to be assigned more students. When class sizes grow, students get less attention, and positions can be cut. 
AI can’t replace what teachers do, but that doesn’t mean teachers won’t be replaced. Schools are already doing it: Arizona approved a charter school in which students spend mornings working with AI and the role of teacher is reduced to “guide.” Ed tech expert Neil Selwyn argues those in “industry and policy circles…hostile to the idea of expensively trained expert professional educators who have [tenure], pension rights and union protection… [welcome] AI replacement as a way of undermining the status of the professional teacher.”  
Tech firms have been selling schools on untested products for years. Technophilia has led to students being on screens for hours in school each week even when their phones are banned. Writer Jess Grose explains, “Companies never had to prove that devices or software, broadly speaking, helped students learn before those devices had wormed their way into America’s public schools.”  AI products appear to be no different. 
Efficiency is not effectiveness. “Speed a… Argument: “Students are already using AI, so we have to teach them ethical use.
If schools want ethical students, teach ethics. More students are using AI tools to cheat, an age-old problem they make much easier. This won’t be addressed by showing students how to use this minute’s AI, an argument implying students don’t know what plagiarism is (solved by teaching about plagiarism) or understand academic integrity (solved by teaching and enforcing its bounds)—or that teachers create weak assignments or don’t convey purpose. The latter aren’t solved by attempting to redirect students motivated and able to cheat.
Students can be educated on the ethics of AI without encouraging use of AI tools. They can be taught, as part of media literacy and social media safety programs, about AI’s potential and applications as well as how it can enable predation, perpetuate bias, and spread disinformation. They should be taught about the risks of AI and its various social, economic, and environmental costs. Giving a nod to these issues while integrating AI throughout schools sends a strong message: the schools don’t really care and neither should students. 
Children can’t be expected to use AI responsibly when adults aren’t. Many pushing schools to embrace AI don’t know much about it. One example: Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who said kindergartners should be taught A1 (a steak sauce). The LA Times introduced a biased and likely politically-motivated AI feature. The Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list including nonexistent books—yet teachers are told  to use the same tools to do similar work. Educators using AI to cut corners can strike students as hypocritical. 
The many costs of AI call into question the possibility of ethical AI use. These include:
Energy - AI data centers need huge amounts of water as coolant as well as electricity, pulling these resources from their communities—which tend to be lower-income—straining the grid, and raising household costs. Thi…

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Can we stop calling what Trump says or does policy?

Policy: “a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed to officially by a group of people, a business organization, a government, or a political party.”
Headline from WaPo: Trump’s foreign policy takes center stage

cathylutz.bsky.social
Excellent point. The call for individual solutions is always reactionary.

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
If you can, please support Gilberto and his family. A hotel worker and union member, he was kidnapped by ICE.
Emergency Financial support for Unite Here 30 Member Gilberto!
By Partnership for A Better San Diego
givebutter.com

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

costsofwar.bsky.social
Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms.

watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/p...
Chart: Pentagon contracts to top arms firms, 2020-2024

cathylutz.bsky.social
other. Same absurd claims about how easy and fast it will be to let force do the "talking." If you want to see the future if we and the cowards in Congress don't try to stop him at least, see costsofwar.org
costsofwar.org

cathylutz.bsky.social
million dead civilians and the trillions of dollars borrowed to bomb and occupy Iraq. Same witless and empty claims about WMDs and same cruel indifference to the children and adults who they will kill -- people no different than you and I in their love of life and each
costsofwar.org

cathylutz.bsky.social
If you want to see what will happen if Donald Trump is allowed to drop bombs directly on Iran and continue to arm Israel to drop bombs on Iran and Gaza, look no further than the million dead civilians and the trillions of dollars borrowed to bomb and occupy Iraq. Same witless and empty claims about
costsofwar.org

cathylutz.bsky.social
Absolutely. Thank you for pointing this out.

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

michaelhobbes.bsky.social
This has been a quietly simmering right-wing panic for a few years now, the alleged "epidemic" of children cutting off their parents.

There's no evidence for this phenomenon whatsoever, much less the bizarre "SJW therapy-speak" explanation they always reach for.
eschatonblog.com
what the fucking fuck
I suspect there’s some truth in all of these explanations. But I think there’s another reason, too, one that’s often been overlooked. Over the past few decades, Americans have redefined “harm,” “abuse,” “neglect” and “trauma,” expanding those categories to include emotional and relational struggles that were previously considered unavoidable parts of life. Adult children seem increasingly likely to publicly, even righteously, cut off contact with a parent, sometimes citing emotional, physical or sexual abuse they experienced in childhood and sometimes things like clashing values, parental toxicity or feeling misunderstood or unsupported.

This cultural shift has contributed to a new, nearly impossible standard for parenting. Not only must parents provide shelter, food, safety and love, but we, their children, also expect them to get us started on successful careers and even to hold themselves accountable for our mental health and happiness well into our adult years.

So I want to suggest that there’s another reason my generation dreads parenthood: We’ve held our own parents to unreachable standards, standards that deep down, maybe, we know we ourselves would struggle to meet.

cathylutz.bsky.social
The Trump and Kennedy assault on our children's health in their new report comes clothed in sheep's clothing. Read this brilliant analysis to see the wolf hidden inside.
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/the-maha-rep...

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

crampell.bsky.social
Georgia high school production of "The Crucible" is canceled after parent complaints that it "was demonic and disgusting."
@hesherman.bsky.social: "the play about witch hunts, about the persecution of people out of hysteria...had provoked the same moral persecution it portrayed as unjust."
» Silencing the Witches in Georgia High School “Crucible” Howard Sherman
hesherman.com

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
How kids are learning about how our justice system works:

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

nytimes.com
Avelo Airlines has agreed to run deportation flights for the Trump administration. Commercial carriers typically avoid such work to keep away from politics, but the company's CEO said the money from ICE flights is too good to pass up.
Avelo Airlines Faces Backlash for Aiding Trump’s Deportation Campaign
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Catherine Lutz

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Reasons to crow about this policy repeatedly: people freer to move around cities, faster commutes, better transit, safer streets, lower air and noise pollution, lower use of fossil fuels.

#GiftArticle
Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York (Gift Article)
Fewer cars. Faster travel. Less honking. And some questions we still can’t answer.
www.nytimes.com