Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
@phdrachel.bsky.social
Public Historian/Prof; Voting rights, suffrage, & citizenship; 🗃️
On The Great Courses & Audible
Views=my own. On #TikTok
http://buymeacoffee.com/PhDRachel
On The Great Courses & Audible
Views=my own. On #TikTok
http://buymeacoffee.com/PhDRachel
Pinned
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 4:43 AM
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
i think tech and ai positive people are going to be in for a big shock when anti tech and anti ai sentiment becomes a major part of leftwing politics going forward especially as datacenters continue to destroy communities and raise electricity bills
Is this platform still massively against AI or has it moved more towards acceptance?
November 26, 2025 at 5:34 AM
i think tech and ai positive people are going to be in for a big shock when anti tech and anti ai sentiment becomes a major part of leftwing politics going forward especially as datacenters continue to destroy communities and raise electricity bills
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
November 26, 2025 at 5:47 AM
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Such classic gaslighting it's an instructive moment. The question is not whether generic is better or worse, it's that a list with more expensive brand names is not the same as a list with cheaper generics. Perverting that truth into an attack on those calling it out is Manipulation 101.
Hassett: "On one of the Sunday shows, the anchor criticized the fact Walmart said the Thanksgiving dinner is cheaper by about $10. Then he said, 'Oh yeah, but they substituted generic stuff,' as if having a generic something is a crime for ordinary folks! It shows how out of touch these people are."
November 26, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Such classic gaslighting it's an instructive moment. The question is not whether generic is better or worse, it's that a list with more expensive brand names is not the same as a list with cheaper generics. Perverting that truth into an attack on those calling it out is Manipulation 101.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is about how uniquely American cultural media changed as a result of federal influences on Hollywood in the 40s/50s.
I fought for Open Access because media & propaganda literacy are essential right now.
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
I fought for Open Access because media & propaganda literacy are essential right now.
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
My new & first book, Selling Out Santa, is Open Access!
If you like what you read and can, please consider buying a copy for you and maybe one for a history/film lover at Christmas (it's 40% off)!
It'll likely be my only income in over 2 years once royalties pay next July, so please consider it!
If you like what you read and can, please consider buying a copy for you and maybe one for a history/film lover at Christmas (it's 40% off)!
It'll likely be my only income in over 2 years once royalties pay next July, so please consider it!
Selling Out Santa
Christmas is not just a day or a frame of mind as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) imparts in Miracle on 34 th Street (1947); Christmas is also a vehicle for national mythmaking as an idealising mirror for...
www.degruyterbrill.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is about how uniquely American cultural media changed as a result of federal influences on Hollywood in the 40s/50s.
I fought for Open Access because media & propaganda literacy are essential right now.
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
I fought for Open Access because media & propaganda literacy are essential right now.
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
For tonight’s evening crowd 🗃️
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:58 PM
For tonight’s evening crowd 🗃️
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
We had the technology to google “what temp is done for turkey” before we had AI.
The idea that we need AI to tell us how to cook a turkey because we don’t want to ask other humans ignores the many millenia of people finding ways to give each other answers without asking someone they know.
The idea that we need AI to tell us how to cook a turkey because we don’t want to ask other humans ignores the many millenia of people finding ways to give each other answers without asking someone they know.
November 25, 2025 at 5:57 PM
We had the technology to google “what temp is done for turkey” before we had AI.
The idea that we need AI to tell us how to cook a turkey because we don’t want to ask other humans ignores the many millenia of people finding ways to give each other answers without asking someone they know.
The idea that we need AI to tell us how to cook a turkey because we don’t want to ask other humans ignores the many millenia of people finding ways to give each other answers without asking someone they know.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
My phone is doing all the same things from 2015 with only minimal benefits. The only reason we have to upgrade is increased software bloat.
We should actually just have phones that last 15 years now.
We should actually just have phones that last 15 years now.
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/h... "please, buy new phone. the economy is dying" is an incredible gaslight
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing economy
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever before, and while it may be consumer smart, it comes at a cost to work productivity and the U.S. economy.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:58 PM
My phone is doing all the same things from 2015 with only minimal benefits. The only reason we have to upgrade is increased software bloat.
We should actually just have phones that last 15 years now.
We should actually just have phones that last 15 years now.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
I would wipe Rise of Skywalker from continuity and make tony gilroy write the new end to the sequel trilogy. It can be as bleak as he wants it to be bsky.app/profile/benj...
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I would wipe Rise of Skywalker from continuity and make tony gilroy write the new end to the sequel trilogy. It can be as bleak as he wants it to be bsky.app/profile/benj...
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Very cool summary of the origins of American Thanksgiving by @phdrachel.bsky.social. (yes it's a TikTok link, iit's longer than 3 mins what do you want from me)
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UhyKDr/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UhyKDr/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Very cool summary of the origins of American Thanksgiving by @phdrachel.bsky.social. (yes it's a TikTok link, iit's longer than 3 mins what do you want from me)
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UhyKDr/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UhyKDr/
Yall, @herberthistory.bsky.social told me I have to go buy champagne and drink it Sunday night.
I don’t make the rules around here. I just follow them… happily. 😂 #HATM
I don’t make the rules around here. I just follow them… happily. 😂 #HATM
Holiday movie season is here and Historians At The Movies is all about it. This week we are talking about wine and love. Join us on Netflix this Sunday, November 30 at 8pm eastern for CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS. #HATM
Be the toast of the town by sharing and we’ll see you soon!
Be the toast of the town by sharing and we’ll see you soon!
November 25, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Yall, @herberthistory.bsky.social told me I have to go buy champagne and drink it Sunday night.
I don’t make the rules around here. I just follow them… happily. 😂 #HATM
I don’t make the rules around here. I just follow them… happily. 😂 #HATM
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
And yes, I also cover some football history & when Republicans and Democrats celebrated Thanksgiving on different dates, so Texas celebrated both dates because, well… it’s Texas. It also made the turkey farmers real happy. 🗃️
adbl.co/3HEk4q6
adbl.co/3HEk4q6
Forgotten America
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. From kindergarten onward, school children across the United States learn about the major figures and conflicts that defined America, from George Washington’...
adbl.co
November 25, 2025 at 2:16 AM
And yes, I also cover some football history & when Republicans and Democrats celebrated Thanksgiving on different dates, so Texas celebrated both dates because, well… it’s Texas. It also made the turkey farmers real happy. 🗃️
adbl.co/3HEk4q6
adbl.co/3HEk4q6
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
For a 30 minute lecture on the real history of Thanksgiving check out “Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events that Changed the Nation” on The Great Courses Plus or Audible. Would make for a fun soundtrack while making your holiday meal this week! 🗃️ bit.ly/4omm0oi
Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events That Changed the Nation
Dive into the underappreciated and underexplored stories throughout US history and meet the lesser-known figures who played an outsized role in making America what it is today.
bit.ly
November 25, 2025 at 2:06 AM
For a 30 minute lecture on the real history of Thanksgiving check out “Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events that Changed the Nation” on The Great Courses Plus or Audible. Would make for a fun soundtrack while making your holiday meal this week! 🗃️ bit.ly/4omm0oi
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
True true—all the way down to the menu (note: Yankee ingredients through and through, hence the supremacy of pumpkins over yams). Thank Sarah Josepha Hale for that.
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:47 AM
True true—all the way down to the menu (note: Yankee ingredients through and through, hence the supremacy of pumpkins over yams). Thank Sarah Josepha Hale for that.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Yep.
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Yep.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
V interesting stuff!
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 AM
V interesting stuff!
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Important history.
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Important history.
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
This!
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:09 AM
This!
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
Fascinating!
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Fascinating!
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Reposted by Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️
The Trump administration inherited an economy that the Economist called "the envy of the world" in a cover story a week before the election and easily could've coasted on that success (again) but instead they set it on fire.
November 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
The Trump administration inherited an economy that the Economist called "the envy of the world" in a cover story a week before the election and easily could've coasted on that success (again) but instead they set it on fire.