Erin Grievances
@erinbartram.bsky.social
Historian of religion & gender in the 19th c US, drinker of tea in the 21st c US. Museum educator at MTH&M. Wrote some quit lit you may have read. Founder & editor at contingentmagazine.org. Former academic. Sings with Voices of Concinnity. She/her.
I was trying to think about what has shifted since I went to college 25 years ago. There was definitely cultural pressure to get "a degree would lead to a job" and intense mockery of liberal arts/"useless degrees".
What's changed is that now that mockery comes from the president, provost, & dean.
What's changed is that now that mockery comes from the president, provost, & dean.
I also think the drumbeat of anti-intellectualism/anti-academia a lot of these kids grew up with (along with changes in higher ed itself) has probably understandably made them more likely to go to college but see it as strictly transactional and not be particularly inclined to struggle.
January 31, 2026 at 3:50 PM
I was trying to think about what has shifted since I went to college 25 years ago. There was definitely cultural pressure to get "a degree would lead to a job" and intense mockery of liberal arts/"useless degrees".
What's changed is that now that mockery comes from the president, provost, & dean.
What's changed is that now that mockery comes from the president, provost, & dean.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
You know, yes, this is media diet and Netflix and whatever. But part of college — part of study in general — is understanding that not everything is *entertaining* all the time. And part of that is deciding you care about learning things! (1/2)
On a trend us film professors have seen. Free link to “The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films” from THE ATLANTIC yesterday.
archive.ph/GFWzW
archive.ph/GFWzW
January 31, 2026 at 12:54 PM
You know, yes, this is media diet and Netflix and whatever. But part of college — part of study in general — is understanding that not everything is *entertaining* all the time. And part of that is deciding you care about learning things! (1/2)
I just went to subscribe to the new Frakes/Spiner podcast only to find out it’s only available on YouTube. If I cannot experience it fully while washing dishes, it’s not a podcast.
Video podcasts are talk shows. Just admit it!
January 31, 2026 at 2:53 PM
I just went to subscribe to the new Frakes/Spiner podcast only to find out it’s only available on YouTube. If I cannot experience it fully while washing dishes, it’s not a podcast.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
There seems to be a fundamental misconception about journalists and the First Amendment. You don't get 1A rights in exchange for being accurate and impartial. The ideal of journalistic neutrality was inconceivable to the founders. Journalism in the 1780s was partisan! And they still protected it!
January 31, 2026 at 12:46 PM
There seems to be a fundamental misconception about journalists and the First Amendment. You don't get 1A rights in exchange for being accurate and impartial. The ideal of journalistic neutrality was inconceivable to the founders. Journalism in the 1780s was partisan! And they still protected it!
Reposted by Erin Grievances
This trend is giving me life. College is cool, knowledge is great. The liberal arts is rad. Being well rounded is the GOAT.
Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.
Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Marine Biology (we got to go out on a boat!)
2. The History of the Holocaust
3. Logic and Critical Thinking
4. Eastern Religions
5. The French Revolution
1. Marine Biology (we got to go out on a boat!)
2. The History of the Holocaust
3. Logic and Critical Thinking
4. Eastern Religions
5. The French Revolution
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Origins of Nazism
2. Dante’s Divine Comedy
3. Behavioral Ecology & Conservation Biology
4. Principles of Evolution
5. Thinking and Speaking About Thinking and Speaking
1. Origins of Nazism
2. Dante’s Divine Comedy
3. Behavioral Ecology & Conservation Biology
4. Principles of Evolution
5. Thinking and Speaking About Thinking and Speaking
January 31, 2026 at 12:35 PM
This trend is giving me life. College is cool, knowledge is great. The liberal arts is rad. Being well rounded is the GOAT.
Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.
Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
They said "free speech" and "academic freedom" but never believed in either and now in texas you need a permission slip to mention race in class and they're fine with it. Might not have worked if people with large platforms weren't furious about marginal increases of black people in their offices
January 31, 2026 at 12:35 PM
They said "free speech" and "academic freedom" but never believed in either and now in texas you need a permission slip to mention race in class and they're fine with it. Might not have worked if people with large platforms weren't furious about marginal increases of black people in their offices
Reposted by Erin Grievances
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
January 31, 2026 at 6:57 AM
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
For a lot of people, that shit is "you have to teach every single semester to maintain funding" and "that funding is so low you have to work another job."
I have no opinions whatsoever on taking 10 years to finish a PhD other than shit happens. The only person I knew at UCLA who had been a PhD student for over a decade didn't seem like their heart was in the research but that affected me in no way whatsoever and was generally none of my business.
January 31, 2026 at 3:30 AM
For a lot of people, that shit is "you have to teach every single semester to maintain funding" and "that funding is so low you have to work another job."
I was running a craft workshop at the museum tonight and a woman looked at my name tag and laughed, saying: "I bet when you were getting your PhD your mom didn't think you'd end up helping people cut out pieces of paper."
Too many layers to unpack.
Too many layers to unpack.
January 31, 2026 at 3:01 AM
I was running a craft workshop at the museum tonight and a woman looked at my name tag and laughed, saying: "I bet when you were getting your PhD your mom didn't think you'd end up helping people cut out pieces of paper."
Too many layers to unpack.
Too many layers to unpack.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
Seems like this latest Senate deal is the biggest Rorschach test this site has encountered thus far. It's a great place for news but feels useless for analysis tonight.
January 30, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Seems like this latest Senate deal is the biggest Rorschach test this site has encountered thus far. It's a great place for news but feels useless for analysis tonight.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
LLMs aren't models of the kind of tools they want but the kind of workers.
January 29, 2026 at 12:16 PM
LLMs aren't models of the kind of tools they want but the kind of workers.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
Of the biggest scandals in US history just this week, I think I’d rank them:
1) Federal paramilitaries invade US city based on racist lies, murder US citizens
2) Slush fund for the president from stolen foreign resources held in Qatar
3) Whatever FBI and DNI are doing re: 2020 election in Georgia
1) Federal paramilitaries invade US city based on racist lies, murder US citizens
2) Slush fund for the president from stolen foreign resources held in Qatar
3) Whatever FBI and DNI are doing re: 2020 election in Georgia
January 29, 2026 at 2:52 AM
Of the biggest scandals in US history just this week, I think I’d rank them:
1) Federal paramilitaries invade US city based on racist lies, murder US citizens
2) Slush fund for the president from stolen foreign resources held in Qatar
3) Whatever FBI and DNI are doing re: 2020 election in Georgia
1) Federal paramilitaries invade US city based on racist lies, murder US citizens
2) Slush fund for the president from stolen foreign resources held in Qatar
3) Whatever FBI and DNI are doing re: 2020 election in Georgia
Reposted by Erin Grievances
“.. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks on the phone while standing inside a vehicle loaded with boxes outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center after the FBI executed a search warrant there.”
@reuters.com
@reuters.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:47 AM
“.. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks on the phone while standing inside a vehicle loaded with boxes outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center after the FBI executed a search warrant there.”
@reuters.com
@reuters.com
Reposted by Erin Grievances
If we thought we *knew* things then we stop questioning things. And then we stop learning.
I love that we're doing "which discipline is the best at knowing things" as tonight's discourse and every actual practitioner is saying "my discipline doesn't know SHIT and that's the way we like it."
January 29, 2026 at 1:55 AM
If we thought we *knew* things then we stop questioning things. And then we stop learning.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
reminds me of a friend who explained why recent years have felt so weird to so many millennials here and it’s because “we went into the pandemic young people and came out of it old”
I spoke to a woman at the protest in minneapolis and she explained she wanted to be there in part because "i was a kid when george floyd got killed" and i nearly dropped my recorder
January 28, 2026 at 10:41 PM
reminds me of a friend who explained why recent years have felt so weird to so many millennials here and it’s because “we went into the pandemic young people and came out of it old”
In a conversation with some first graders today about where food came from in the 19th century, I told them that cranberries were from Massachusetts. One kid responded, very skeptically: "What's a Massachusetts?"
It was a real #NutmegSky moment.
It was a real #NutmegSky moment.
January 29, 2026 at 1:28 AM
In a conversation with some first graders today about where food came from in the 19th century, I told them that cranberries were from Massachusetts. One kid responded, very skeptically: "What's a Massachusetts?"
It was a real #NutmegSky moment.
It was a real #NutmegSky moment.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
The immanent contradiction of dominance masculinity is that it both claims absolute authority and strength and also cannot countenance even the slightest challenge.
We need to talk about the rise of "smol bean fascism" where you have all the guns and the immunity but the really scary people are the ones with whistles and phone cameras and they're giving you generational trauma and ptsd by filming you killing people for no reason
January 28, 2026 at 10:04 PM
The immanent contradiction of dominance masculinity is that it both claims absolute authority and strength and also cannot countenance even the slightest challenge.
I love that we're doing "which discipline is the best at knowing things" as tonight's discourse and every actual practitioner is saying "my discipline doesn't know SHIT and that's the way we like it."
January 29, 2026 at 1:24 AM
I love that we're doing "which discipline is the best at knowing things" as tonight's discourse and every actual practitioner is saying "my discipline doesn't know SHIT and that's the way we like it."
I can't believe we're doing "the money was just resting in my account" but as national policy.
Marco Rubio: "The oil proceeds are being deposited into an account that ultimately will become a US Treasury blocked account here in the US. We will say 'this is what this money can be spent on.' They will submit to us a budget request -- 'we want to use the money on these things.'"
January 29, 2026 at 1:15 AM
I can't believe we're doing "the money was just resting in my account" but as national policy.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I work in audiobooks and have had to tell so so...so many people that the romance genre is a huge tentpole in print, ebook, and audiobook sales. And yet is still treated like a shameful secret.
The assumption that all romance is trash for dumb people who like formulas -- that's still a thing in TV & film. A big thing. Also, like, I'm sorry, but a middle or upper class man is an asshole and is doing crimes or solving crimes? That's not a genre? MORE formulaic than a romance? HILARIOUS
January 29, 2026 at 12:49 AM
I work in audiobooks and have had to tell so so...so many people that the romance genre is a huge tentpole in print, ebook, and audiobook sales. And yet is still treated like a shameful secret.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I will simply never recover from reading this sentence:
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
Today, Luke Farrell (@lukef.bsky.social) explains how complex eligibility requirements have turned America’s safety net into a lucrative revenue stream for monopolistic private contractors.
The Means-Testing Industrial Complex
As Republicans tightened work requirements and eligibility rules for Medicaid and SNAP last year, Equifax’s CEO openly celebrated the profits to be made from administering this deprivation.
lpeproject.org
January 28, 2026 at 4:33 PM
I will simply never recover from reading this sentence:
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
"Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people."
Reposted by Erin Grievances
"The danger is not in practicing revisionist history—it’s in constructing individual and collective lives around historical frameworks too shaky to be looked at again."
What Is Revisionist History?
What is revisionist history--and is it dangerous?
contingentmagazine.org
January 29, 2026 at 12:09 AM
"The danger is not in practicing revisionist history—it’s in constructing individual and collective lives around historical frameworks too shaky to be looked at again."
Reposted by Erin Grievances
this is certainly what some people WANT you to believe, yes
Maths and physics are objective and humanities is subjective.
That's the difference.
That's the difference.
January 28, 2026 at 11:34 PM
this is certainly what some people WANT you to believe, yes
It's going to be a smaller subset of us, but the anger over the loss of Microsoft Publisher is going to build to a crescendo over the course of this year.
I feel like this site's demographics can be described as "still mad about the loss of Google Reader"
January 28, 2026 at 7:22 PM
It's going to be a smaller subset of us, but the anger over the loss of Microsoft Publisher is going to build to a crescendo over the course of this year.