Robert Wallace
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philosobobby.bsky.social
Robert Wallace
@philosobobby.bsky.social

Philosophy Prof. @ Cal Poly, Free Will + Moral Responsibility but interested in everything.

https://www.roberthwallace.com/

Views my own etc.

History 30%
Philosophy 18%

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

[Americans peering over the fence at Brazil]:

“That rule of law looks nice, you’ve really been putting some work into it. Ours was getting pretty rickety.”

[Brazil]: “So then you took care of it?”

[America]: long pause

“in a manner of speaking”
If there's one thing the mainstream news media love to overlook, it's the impact of the mainstream news media. The petite Tea Party in all its elite-backed astroturfiness was hailed like a sacred comet; the historically huge No Kings was played down by the NY Times, among other publications.

Amen

Thank for you writing this. I needed to hear it today.

If you read anything today, or this week, or whenever at all, please read this.
For over 300 years now, it is a bedrock principle in Anglo-American constitutionalism that obedience is owed according only to law. Refusal to follow an illegal command is not only a moral choice but an absolute duty.

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

Rightwing MAGA Christianity has about as much relation to the gospels as MAGA politics does to the Constitution.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity | Bill McKibben
Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

I spent October traveling to schools throughout the South talking to students about American history. What I found were young people who understand we can tell a story that includes both the positive and the negative. As one 8th grader in Memphis said, “Doesn’t seem that hard, just say both things.”
Tell Students the Truth About American History
We owe it to Americans of all ages to be honest about the country’s past, including its contradictions.
www.theatlantic.com
A lot of education discourse is at root an inability to decide whether the purpose of our education system is to 1) teach material and measure learning 2) reward students who work hard 3) separate the smart kids (destined for smart guy jobs) from the dumb kids (destined to serve the smart guys)
Good statement from the US conference of Catholic Bishops
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

The unspoken assumption behind “raping 15 year olds is different than raping 8 year olds” is that teenage girls are legitimate targets of desire on account of (sometimes) being adult shaped. But if the adult shape was the source of attraction, and not the vulnerability, these men would date women.
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.

Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.

blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

Today I learned that ever since I left high school they’ve been trying to train kids to read the same way LLMs are trained to write, by just guessing at what words might fill the blanks.This explains…so much
«If you object that we’re not in a zombie movie because there are no brain-eating cannibals, let me reassure you, there are.»
@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
Turns out the zombie apocalypse isn’t as fun as they said it would be – Rebecca Solnit on our dangerously disconnected world
A population numbed, dazed, present-but-not-present – had it happened overnight it would be a sci-fi horror movie. And if you looked up from your phone for long enough, you might notice it’s started a...
www.theguardian.com

I did not know about all this history until I started teaching Language, Truth, and Logic to undergrads and it completely changed my view of the whole movement.

And *poetry* my God we can’t even have tender, beautiful, artistic horrible gender nonsense

At least Mishima made his own art all we get is tweets and AI bullshit

Can I steal this for teaching please

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

It would be impossible to overstate how deranged and fascistic the US government’s social media accounts have become. Protect “the west” against Spanish speaking Catholics?

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

As a philosopher I come from a rich tradition of being annoying af
Abolish Border Patrol.
Trump deportation agent: "I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

You should ask them if they had the machine "look" at your slides instead of actually looking at them again themselves! I have had students just upload my study guide and the slides. (Of course, the CSU system gave all the students access to ChatGPT so many of them do not realize this is a problem.)

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace

Every time Nazis try to use Tolkien to justify white supremacy, I like to float this 1941 letter in which Tolkien called Hitler a "ruddy little ignoramus" and accused him of "ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed" the spirit of the cultures upon which he based his works.

This has happened to me with in person exams - the students def use ChatGPT to study all the time. I had good luck having in-class discussions about studying with it and doing demos where we’d ask it study guide questions and work through its answers together.
This account also feels in line with some of what other people that have been in Broadview have shared.
Lawsuit Alleges Inhumane Conditions at Broadview ICE Facility
Federal authorities moved two plaintiffs in the suit out of state; a judge has ordered they be returned Monday.
southsideweekly.com
There are no words for how evil this is
RT @jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social :
“Please, please, please take 20 minute to watch this incredibly powerful film about the fatal recklessness of Elon Musk and Marco Rubio’s aid cuts.

Children are dying from these cuts. This is one of the many, many stories - a South Sudanese refugee child in Uganda.”
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
www.newyorker.com