Cedar Riener
@criener.bsky.social
College professor, cognitive psychologist, textbook author. Also interested in science writing, social justice, politics and anti-racism. Proud member of AAUP & AFT Local 6741. Personal account. Views are my own and do not represent RMC, AAAS or SCHEV
Reposted by Cedar Riener
“the Comet Ping Pong attack was nine years ago today—weeks after Trump’s 2016 win—and inspired by a conspiracy theory promoted by Jack Posobiec, who was recently invited to the White House, demands antifa be designated a terrorist group, and asked questions as “press” at the Pentagon this week”
something I wrote on in 2017 on how everything was becoming Pizzagate, after its promoters first appeared at the White House, leading up to Unite the Right and the murder of Heather Heyer thebaffler.com/latest/the-p...
December 4, 2025 at 1:39 PM
“the Comet Ping Pong attack was nine years ago today—weeks after Trump’s 2016 win—and inspired by a conspiracy theory promoted by Jack Posobiec, who was recently invited to the White House, demands antifa be designated a terrorist group, and asked questions as “press” at the Pentagon this week”
Reposted by Cedar Riener
With rising attacks on university teachers, have you checked out the toolkit the Joint Academic Freedom Committee created for members facing challenges to academic freedom on campus, in the classroom, and beyond?
Read and share with your colleagues: https://rutgersaaup.org/academic-freedom-toolkit/
Read and share with your colleagues: https://rutgersaaup.org/academic-freedom-toolkit/
December 4, 2025 at 2:35 PM
With rising attacks on university teachers, have you checked out the toolkit the Joint Academic Freedom Committee created for members facing challenges to academic freedom on campus, in the classroom, and beyond?
Read and share with your colleagues: https://rutgersaaup.org/academic-freedom-toolkit/
Read and share with your colleagues: https://rutgersaaup.org/academic-freedom-toolkit/
Reposted by Cedar Riener
More commonly, American eugenicists believed in what some scholars call "positive eugenics." Not "positive" as in "good," but rather encouraging the "right" people to have more babies and trying to encourage the "right" genetic traits to be passed down.
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
More commonly, American eugenicists believed in what some scholars call "positive eugenics." Not "positive" as in "good," but rather encouraging the "right" people to have more babies and trying to encourage the "right" genetic traits to be passed down.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Social scientists spent the last 50 years arguing that racism is still prevalent in US even if it's covert (racism w/ a veneer), unconscious (racism w/out intent), or systemic (racism w/out racists).
Along comes MAGA, which embraces gutter racism while claiming that teaching about racism is racist.
Along comes MAGA, which embraces gutter racism while claiming that teaching about racism is racist.
Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."
December 4, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Social scientists spent the last 50 years arguing that racism is still prevalent in US even if it's covert (racism w/ a veneer), unconscious (racism w/out intent), or systemic (racism w/out racists).
Along comes MAGA, which embraces gutter racism while claiming that teaching about racism is racist.
Along comes MAGA, which embraces gutter racism while claiming that teaching about racism is racist.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
December 3, 2025 at 10:18 PM
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!
Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The AEA has imposed a lifetime ban on Lawrence H. Summers’ membership and participation in AEA activities. See the full statement here. www.aeaweb.org/news/aea-sta...
Statement from the American Economic Association
www.aeaweb.org
December 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM
The AEA has imposed a lifetime ban on Lawrence H. Summers’ membership and participation in AEA activities. See the full statement here. www.aeaweb.org/news/aea-sta...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
it finally happened -- a good student of mine vanished from class about six weeks ago. this student reappeared today and explained that they had been in ICE detention in another state during that time. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end.
December 3, 2025 at 11:38 PM
it finally happened -- a good student of mine vanished from class about six weeks ago. this student reappeared today and explained that they had been in ICE detention in another state during that time. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input on Federal policy updates to accelerate the American scientific enterprise.
This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
I plan to highlight:
This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
I plan to highlight:
Notice of Request for Information; Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from all interested parties on Federal policy updates that aim to accelerate the American scientific enterprise, enable groundbreaking...
www.federalregister.gov
December 4, 2025 at 1:00 AM
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input on Federal policy updates to accelerate the American scientific enterprise.
This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
I plan to highlight:
This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
I plan to highlight:
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Academia has this way of making you feel utterly unsuccessful even when by any reasonable standard you are doing just fine.
December 4, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Academia has this way of making you feel utterly unsuccessful even when by any reasonable standard you are doing just fine.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The Oklahoma House of Representatives gave that girl an award for writing a terrible essay? For getting a trans person fired? This whole thing is an op.
December 4, 2025 at 2:39 AM
The Oklahoma House of Representatives gave that girl an award for writing a terrible essay? For getting a trans person fired? This whole thing is an op.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
"are you enjoying duo mobile" does a hamburger enjoy being made of quarks. does a fish enjoy linear time. does the mountain enjoy the first taste of a cup of hot chocolate when you get back to the ski lodge. your question means nothing to me. i couldn't enjoy duo mobile even if i tried
December 3, 2025 at 7:36 PM
"are you enjoying duo mobile" does a hamburger enjoy being made of quarks. does a fish enjoy linear time. does the mountain enjoy the first taste of a cup of hot chocolate when you get back to the ski lodge. your question means nothing to me. i couldn't enjoy duo mobile even if i tried
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The full 105th NCSS Annual Conference Schedule is now online! Filter sessions by date, grade level, discipline, and presentation type: hubs.li/Q03VrZR30 #edusky #TLsky
November 21, 2025 at 6:03 PM
The full 105th NCSS Annual Conference Schedule is now online! Filter sessions by date, grade level, discipline, and presentation type: hubs.li/Q03VrZR30 #edusky #TLsky
Reposted by Cedar Riener
I once drafted something I called, “the edgelords come to campus” but I had other things to finish. What I wrestled with is how this is different from or similar to staged class disruptions from liberal students. The difference is mostly about infrastructure.
December 3, 2025 at 3:34 PM
I once drafted something I called, “the edgelords come to campus” but I had other things to finish. What I wrestled with is how this is different from or similar to staged class disruptions from liberal students. The difference is mostly about infrastructure.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The student gotchas might be the second most disruptive thing happening in higherEd. It’s the Heritage “debate me” model with the Turning Point edgelord leveling-up.
You know that OU student who was failed by her professor for getting all biblical in her paper? When you read the actual article she was assigned to respond to, it becomes pretty fucking clear that she didn't do the assignment. She didn't respond to it. She wrote her own bullshit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The student gotchas might be the second most disruptive thing happening in higherEd. It’s the Heritage “debate me” model with the Turning Point edgelord leveling-up.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
„CSU—US’s largest public uni system—went all-in with a $17mill partnership with OpenAI. . .CSU unveiled its grand technological gesture just as it proposed slashing $375mill from its budget. While admin cut ribbons on AI, they were cutting faculty positions, academic programs, student services.“
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 3, 2025 at 5:43 AM
„CSU—US’s largest public uni system—went all-in with a $17mill partnership with OpenAI. . .CSU unveiled its grand technological gesture just as it proposed slashing $375mill from its budget. While admin cut ribbons on AI, they were cutting faculty positions, academic programs, student services.“
Reposted by Cedar Riener
*stares in Adelita Grijalva*
December 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
*stares in Adelita Grijalva*
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Hard disagree. The official BLS jobs numbers are still the most reliable data we have, and it's not close. And there's no way the Administration has (yet) fiddled with its data. I promise to let you know at the first whiff of interference.
The only reliable data we are going to get on this stuff now comes from the private sector. bsky.app/profile/atru...
🚨 CNBC on latest jobs numbers: "A big miss on ADP payrolls. The private payroll company saying private payrolls shed 32,000 workers in Nov. That's the 4th negative number in past 6 months. The estimate was for +40,000, so the street was off ... this may be coming from being hammered by the tariffs"
December 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Hard disagree. The official BLS jobs numbers are still the most reliable data we have, and it's not close. And there's no way the Administration has (yet) fiddled with its data. I promise to let you know at the first whiff of interference.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The point being: it should be clearer to able bodied people that the price of your suspicions of whether someone who says they are disabled is disabled or not are paid overwhelmingly by actually disabled people themselves. And what you are doing is making sure that disabled students are not helped
Balancing "no person with a disability should be denied accommodations" with "it's important to discourage non-disabled people from pretending to be disabled to take advantage of these accommodations" is really difficult and I don't have a great answer for what anyone should do about it.
December 3, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The point being: it should be clearer to able bodied people that the price of your suspicions of whether someone who says they are disabled is disabled or not are paid overwhelmingly by actually disabled people themselves. And what you are doing is making sure that disabled students are not helped
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Reposted by Cedar Riener
I wrote about the dirty, demeaning, absolutely booming business of turning something like a shitty bigoted college essay into a shitty public career as a bigot, and also estimated how old Marine Todd would be today. defector.com/the-conserva...
The Conservative Grievance Business Is Always Hiring | Defector
Given his age when he first came to the world’s attention and assuming continued good health in the intervening decade and change, Marine Todd would be in his late 30s today. That would be if he was a...
defector.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
I wrote about the dirty, demeaning, absolutely booming business of turning something like a shitty bigoted college essay into a shitty public career as a bigot, and also estimated how old Marine Todd would be today. defector.com/the-conserva...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
I can't stress enough that you should take every opportunity that comes your way to support your local public libraries. Many of them are currently struggling and are being DEFUNDED. Local action matters on this front. Don't sit back until those libraries are gone before taking ACTION.
December 2, 2025 at 10:48 PM
I can't stress enough that you should take every opportunity that comes your way to support your local public libraries. Many of them are currently struggling and are being DEFUNDED. Local action matters on this front. Don't sit back until those libraries are gone before taking ACTION.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:
December 2, 2025 at 8:49 PM
If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:
Reposted by Cedar Riener
An article that wasn't focused on elite colleges might be capable of considering that disability accommodations are about a student getting a good education for themselves rather than framing things in terms of a hunger games competition for who gets to be elite in society
December 3, 2025 at 12:41 AM
An article that wasn't focused on elite colleges might be capable of considering that disability accommodations are about a student getting a good education for themselves rather than framing things in terms of a hunger games competition for who gets to be elite in society