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.
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.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I agree that it’s high fucking time that we stopped acting like we need to grovel and constantly justify the existence of some of our most incredibly elemental and ancient human pursuits.
Are the humanities the only disciplines whose classes begin with modules speaking to the importance of studying the humanities? "Why study the humanities?" and "Why the humanities are important" must be cliches.
January 28, 2026 at 1:34 AM
I agree that it’s high fucking time that we stopped acting like we need to grovel and constantly justify the existence of some of our most incredibly elemental and ancient human pursuits.
When a medicine says to take it in the "evening" or "just before bed" I always wonder what they want night owls to do.
January 28, 2026 at 1:17 AM
When a medicine says to take it in the "evening" or "just before bed" I always wonder what they want night owls to do.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
This is from the vice chair of the Iowa House's higher ed committee. State legislators have been pushing changes to higher ed for years, and actions in Washington make that a bit easier to do.
www.chronicle.com/article/anot...
www.chronicle.com/article/anot...
![Another bill would limit membership on presidential search committees to board members, eliminating the opportunity for students and instructors to serve. Martin said this would undermine the concepts of faculty governance, and Democratic legislators on the committee have expressed similar concerns.
Shipley said his experience in student government at Iowa State acquainted him with the “types” of people who tended to insert themselves in high-level decisions about university governance.
“No matter how smart these Ph.D.s think they are, it’s not a good idea to have them in the kitchen. It’s just been pretty outrageous to where these people, these academics, have disgraced themselves to the point where nobody can take them seriously and [they’re] actually causing serious damage to the culture of the state.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t246266smqkjxhwir7xpbl3o/bafkreie2guygha2gterkmdskbjnewm3ntnkli4hlt7sjebwxqgaxngdxuq@jpeg)
January 27, 2026 at 10:43 PM
This is from the vice chair of the Iowa House's higher ed committee. State legislators have been pushing changes to higher ed for years, and actions in Washington make that a bit easier to do.
www.chronicle.com/article/anot...
www.chronicle.com/article/anot...
How did I miss this!? @mattseybold.bsky.social there are so many options.
I feel certain that bluesky could immediately compile a syllabus. Feel free to reply with it now in fact
It's at least partially the hard cider talking but now I really want to explore a degree in hater studies.
January 27, 2026 at 6:27 PM
How did I miss this!? @mattseybold.bsky.social there are so many options.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I keep hearing "oh they weren't ready for Minnesota in the winter" / "if they couldn't handle Minnesotans, they sure can't handle Philly" / etc. And frankly, I think each of our 50 states has its own home turf advantage that's going to stymie ICE in its own unique way, and I think that's beautiful.
January 27, 2026 at 3:16 AM
I keep hearing "oh they weren't ready for Minnesota in the winter" / "if they couldn't handle Minnesotans, they sure can't handle Philly" / etc. And frankly, I think each of our 50 states has its own home turf advantage that's going to stymie ICE in its own unique way, and I think that's beautiful.