Jack Hittinger
@jackhitts.bsky.social
340 followers 300 following 1.3K posts
Upper Midwestern pseudo-intellectual former(ish) sportswriter in Shakopee, by way of Bemidji (by way of Michigan). This will probably end up being a bunch of posts about politics, Wilco and college hockey. He/him.
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Reposted by Jack Hittinger
A college classmate once told me he wouldn’t major in history because he could just read books on his own.

Leave aside that a history major is about thinking analytically and systematically, not just reading facts. Let’s just ask: did he read those books in the next 4 years?

No, he did not.
Of the many problems with this phenomenally stupid argument is that "good information" has been available to anyone who wants to access it for a solid 25 years now, and we are getting collectively dumber at finding, understanding, critiquing, and communicating info and arguments.

AI can't fix that/
Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
There's a 50% chance this guy currently works in the Trump Administration
Poly sci majors who famously read no books (although it was Hillsdale so I assume they just decided not to assign anything that wasn't to the right of Reagan)
Reposted by Jack Hittinger
No problem, the VP says you can say anything you want when you are a child of under 40 years old.
CNN @cnn.com · 12h
A Marine veteran turned oyster farmer who is now a rising Democratic Senate candidate once called himself a “communist,” dismissed “all” police as bastards, and said rural White Americans “actually are” racist and stupid, according to deleted social media posts seen by CNN. https://cnn.it/47sXon6
‘I got older and became a communist': Deleted posts show Maine Senate hopeful's raw views on politics, war, and police | CNN Politics
Graham Platner, a Marine veteran turned oyster farmer, now disavows posts he made years ago, saying they came from a time when he felt disillusioned and angry and expressed those emotions online.
www.cnn.com
(Great piece BTW, haven't listened to this in years, and it still holds up.)
I've already been to two shows this past month where the median age was 45 and not a single person was under 30 (Rilo Kiley, Destroyer) so I've basically accepted it with my eyes but ideally I'd like to be living in bliss for another year until I actually hit 40.
Catching Feels, aka every time Stereogum writes one of these "hey remember this album?" 20th anniversary pieces for a record that came out when I was a sophomore in college simply to remind me that I'm officially an old person now.
Wrote about applying childlike wonder to grownup love, the thin line between embarrassment and exhilaration, and Animal Collective turning into something (a rock band, sort of).

Don't be afraid to catch Feels:
Animal Collective's 'Feels' Turns 20
“There’s something starting, don’t know why,” Avey Tare sings early on. What was starting? Animal Collective, the rock band, sort of. As for why? The moment practically demanded it of them.
www.stereogum.com
So, uh, I'm sure you would be just fine with someone making an edgy Charlie Kirk joke?
Vance on public outrage over the "I love Hitler" group chat: "Grow up! Focus on the real issues. Don't focus on what kids say in group chats... The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys — they tell edgy, offensive jokes. That's what kids do."
I also don't know this for sure but I'm guessing the MAGA-adjacent stuff was already bubbling under in 2015.
Yeah, I'm sure it was out there but I guess back in my day (ugh) we didn't even have group chats so anyone who was doing this was literally doing it in among friends and there was no record of it. I also genuinely think people with these views would have been shunned in the pre-2010 era of Hillsdale
Meanwhile, a ton of my super-conservative classmates from Hillsdale have become so disgusted with the state of "conservatism" that it's caused them to actually reexamine their belief systems and think "Oh shit, I don't believe this!" and have moved left, rejecting all of the Hillsdale bullshit.
I think what we're finding now is that those people who were actually gutter racists have taken control of the Republican party and the American conservative movement in general, and they've made it so that the people who were maybe afraid to express their racist beliefs before can do so freely.
Of course, there were probably a lot of people I thought were decent people were actually secretly super racist neo-fascists. But I guess the point is that nobody felt comfortable speaking that way and if you did most people rightly thought you were a freak.
I wasn't a College Republican (I found out pretty quickly when I got to Hillsdale that I wasn't a conservative at all) but Hillsdale is filthy with them. Most of them back then were Reason-mag libertarian or super religious types. There just weren't that many openly disgusting gutter racists then.
As someone with a degree from Hillsdale College (2004-2008) I have a unique perspective here: Were all College Republican types racist and sexist back then? No. Were there some who were? Sure. HOWEVER, this gutter racism, the open Nazi, "I love Hitler!" shit was DEFINITLEY not mainstream.
For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this.

That’s why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed — because Young Republicans weren’t radical enough.
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇
"Did somebody say paychecks?"
Wayne Gretzky
Just don't wear your LA Kings jersey unless you wanna get your ass kicked.
Hope the M’s can give the Jays a real Shellac-ing tonight.
Hmm, I’m sure this is going to be fine, Bill Burr seems very respectful and for sure knows why people are mad that he went there, I’m positive he’s not going to mischaracterize the controversy at all.
Screenshot of Conan podcast where the description is highlighted: “ Bill Burr joins Conan live at the Fonda Theater in Los Angles to discuss the Riyadh Comedy Festival”
One Battle After Another goes so fucking hard, it absolutely deserves all the accolades it is getting, any movie which is forcing America to mass order Thomas Pynchon novels and make them impossible to find is a success in my book.
When you’re doing great and everything is fine and you are happy to answer any and all questions about the topic, you of course answer questions for comment with what is essentially an out of office reply.
Screenshot from Star Tribune story:

When asked about the airport’s refusal to play the video, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Star Tribune in an email “it is TSA’s top priority to ensure that travelers have the most safe, pleasant and efficient airport experience possible. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, most of our TSA employees are working without pay. While this creates challenges for our people, our security operations remain largely unimpacted at this time. It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship. Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”
Perfect of encapsulation of our shitty current day politics: "At higher level, Rs are resolutely pro-[very awful thing] and Ds are conflicted."
Went to the DC exurbs to write about a growing political trend — citizens who don’t want more data centers, and are looking for politicians who’ll help.

Locally they’re getting help from both parties. At higher level, Rs are resolutely pro-data center and Ds are conflicted. t.co/Ir0QW8FUey
https://www.semafor.com/article/10/13/2025/as-electricity-bills-rise-candidates-in-both-parties-blame-data-centers
t.co
Reposted by Jack Hittinger
Showing up to No Kings with a sign reading “monarchy is an affront to human dignity but, when incorporated into a liberal democratic system, may nevertheless be a useful safety valve for nationalist and/or authoritarian impulses” and then getting clobbered by a Buttigieg-supporting grandmother
Incidentally, I’ve been chafing a bit at the “No Kings” thing, because there are loads of monarchies that have more limits on executive power than the US does, but it has the great advantage that it makes Americans who want to oppose it sound, well, unamerican….
one of the reasons they're so mad at "no kings" is that they thought they were going to get a different kind of protest. they *want* the black bloc to be out there fighting with the cops. those are the images they've been trying to generate from "go." instead--

newrepublic.com/article/2016...