Dr. Will X. Uly
@wellactually.bsky.social
rhetoric sun. media rising. gender moon. assistant professor of communication studies, recovering marketer, and award-winning drag king. thinking about neoliberalism & gender performance in consumer culture. they/them.
the views expressed here are my own.
the views expressed here are my own.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
I wonder if I’ll ever stop being angry all of the time.
January 24, 2026 at 10:48 PM
I wonder if I’ll ever stop being angry all of the time.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
If you can't write a grad school application on your own, you absolutely should not go to grad school. That's actually a good sign that it's not for you. There are other things you can do with your life.
January 17, 2026 at 11:33 PM
If you can't write a grad school application on your own, you absolutely should not go to grad school. That's actually a good sign that it's not for you. There are other things you can do with your life.
Man, I love teaching rhetoric. And I love this discipline. There are some days when I feel really down about academia, but when I’m back in the classroom teaching rhetoric, it reminds me what I’m doing here, and it feels really wonderful.
January 16, 2026 at 5:09 AM
Man, I love teaching rhetoric. And I love this discipline. There are some days when I feel really down about academia, but when I’m back in the classroom teaching rhetoric, it reminds me what I’m doing here, and it feels really wonderful.
(Also interested in traditional theory, pedagogy/writing, etc. -- I just want to make sure that we have a representative mix of scholarship to share with RSQ!)
Hey #teamrhetoric:
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
January 9, 2026 at 6:13 PM
(Also interested in traditional theory, pedagogy/writing, etc. -- I just want to make sure that we have a representative mix of scholarship to share with RSQ!)
Hey #teamrhetoric:
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
January 9, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Hey #teamrhetoric:
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
I'm part of a team submitting a proposal to RSQ for a special issue on conspiracy theories. If you're doing work on conspiracy rhetoric outside of the US or using a feminist/queer/trans or BIPOC lens, I want to know about it!
Please reach out or share with a friend!
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
October 19, 2025 at 1:44 AM
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.
October 18, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.
Yes and… I still can’t believe that major and local newspapers haven’t taken to a pay per article model. I am drowning in subscriptions and I cannot afford a subscription to every single media outlet, especially if I’m only reading one or two articles per year if that.
People commenting that there’s a paywall on articles is one of the most enraging things because not only is it like going to the movie theater and being like hey :( this ticket costs money :( but it’s also so easy to bypass most major paywalls if you can’t afford the subscription
October 14, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Yes and… I still can’t believe that major and local newspapers haven’t taken to a pay per article model. I am drowning in subscriptions and I cannot afford a subscription to every single media outlet, especially if I’m only reading one or two articles per year if that.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
I think businesses asking people to rate every single experience has furthered this damage. We shouldn't have this many opinions about this many things, and we certainly shouldn't expect other busy people to care if we do.
few ideas have damaged the average psyche more than ‘the customer is always right.’ it should be a little bit humiliating, being a customer. you should walk into any service transaction knowing that the other person, and not you, is in control over whether you get your treats
October 13, 2025 at 7:35 PM
I think businesses asking people to rate every single experience has furthered this damage. We shouldn't have this many opinions about this many things, and we certainly shouldn't expect other busy people to care if we do.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
If I see you posting AI slop, it's an instant block. Even if you think it's cute or says a lot about society. If you are purporting that some AI slop is real news, I will report you for misinformation, and then block you. Sloppers should be marginalised.
October 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
If I see you posting AI slop, it's an instant block. Even if you think it's cute or says a lot about society. If you are purporting that some AI slop is real news, I will report you for misinformation, and then block you. Sloppers should be marginalised.
Yes, and…
It is so BEYOND frustrating that I have to waste my own time scouring literally every image and piece of text I see. We should be able to start with a baseline of trust for credible sources, and the AI companies have taken that away from us.
It is so BEYOND frustrating that I have to waste my own time scouring literally every image and piece of text I see. We should be able to start with a baseline of trust for credible sources, and the AI companies have taken that away from us.
I genuinely cannot express how vital it is that you train yourself to recognize AI-generated images and videos for your own good because none of this is going away and many, many people are counting on you to fall for their shit
October 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Yes, and…
It is so BEYOND frustrating that I have to waste my own time scouring literally every image and piece of text I see. We should be able to start with a baseline of trust for credible sources, and the AI companies have taken that away from us.
It is so BEYOND frustrating that I have to waste my own time scouring literally every image and piece of text I see. We should be able to start with a baseline of trust for credible sources, and the AI companies have taken that away from us.
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
it’s said all the time but I think we should continue to hammer home how insane it is that we got dead-eyed bros trying to sell us robots that will free us from the supposedly cruel burden of “creative careers” instead of the actual cruel burden of “doing menial household chores”
AI HUCKSTER: "i built you a machine that reads books for you."
ME: "can you build me a machine that unloads the dishwasher for me so *i* can read a book?"
ME: "can you build me a machine that unloads the dishwasher for me so *i* can read a book?"
October 10, 2025 at 8:25 PM
it’s said all the time but I think we should continue to hammer home how insane it is that we got dead-eyed bros trying to sell us robots that will free us from the supposedly cruel burden of “creative careers” instead of the actual cruel burden of “doing menial household chores”
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
nothing like watching a presentation about ed tech tools to radicalize you against them
October 9, 2025 at 3:54 PM
nothing like watching a presentation about ed tech tools to radicalize you against them
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
“I’ll kill you in front of your students.”
This is just one of the death threats that has driven @mark-bray.bsky.social to try and flee the US.
But at the airport last night, after checking in and clearing security, his booking mysteriously disappeared
www.wired.com/story/mark-b...
This is just one of the death threats that has driven @mark-bray.bsky.social to try and flee the US.
But at the airport last night, after checking in and clearing security, his booking mysteriously disappeared
www.wired.com/story/mark-b...
He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US
Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.
www.wired.com
October 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“I’ll kill you in front of your students.”
This is just one of the death threats that has driven @mark-bray.bsky.social to try and flee the US.
But at the airport last night, after checking in and clearing security, his booking mysteriously disappeared
www.wired.com/story/mark-b...
This is just one of the death threats that has driven @mark-bray.bsky.social to try and flee the US.
But at the airport last night, after checking in and clearing security, his booking mysteriously disappeared
www.wired.com/story/mark-b...
My entire career summed up in one post:
Having a really broad set of skills and interests means I have no clue what my lane should be anymore or what I should even be focusing on
October 5, 2025 at 5:47 AM
My entire career summed up in one post:
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
Giant, giant shout out to @rhetrickery.bsky.social for the rice vs. pasta vs. potatoes op-ed lesson idea…my students had a great time (we ended up in a duel between rice and pasta), and they were surprisingly better behaved than a room full of rhetoric professors and grad students 😆
October 3, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Giant, giant shout out to @rhetrickery.bsky.social for the rice vs. pasta vs. potatoes op-ed lesson idea…my students had a great time (we ended up in a duel between rice and pasta), and they were surprisingly better behaved than a room full of rhetoric professors and grad students 😆
I would agree with this on principle, but after spending a LOT of time reading maga posts & squatting in right wing comments sections, I think there’s a lot of folks who will cheer for this. Also, there’s no democratic messaging that will change anyone’s mind b/c they’re not listening.
idk guys, "we're going to train our military on our cities" seems like the kind of thing that's 1) very bad and 2) very easy to message against but what the fuck do i know
Trump to top military officials: "I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military. National Guard, but our military. Because we're going into Chicago very soon. That's a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor."
September 30, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I would agree with this on principle, but after spending a LOT of time reading maga posts & squatting in right wing comments sections, I think there’s a lot of folks who will cheer for this. Also, there’s no democratic messaging that will change anyone’s mind b/c they’re not listening.
After spending weeks reading the comments sections of right wing accounts on Facebook (as well as the many now-MAHA acquaintances I have from my Paleo diet days), I am really sad to see liberals and progressives still arguing about newspaper headlines and messaging, like that even matters anymore.
September 27, 2025 at 10:10 PM
After spending weeks reading the comments sections of right wing accounts on Facebook (as well as the many now-MAHA acquaintances I have from my Paleo diet days), I am really sad to see liberals and progressives still arguing about newspaper headlines and messaging, like that even matters anymore.
Would anyone with a zeteo subscription be willing to help an educator out? I need access to an article for a lesson on terministic screens, but I can't afford to pay for more subscriptions just for one piece of content...
September 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Would anyone with a zeteo subscription be willing to help an educator out? I need access to an article for a lesson on terministic screens, but I can't afford to pay for more subscriptions just for one piece of content...
I know that this isn’t a new thought, but: reading other people’s textbooks and structuring the “story” of my syllabus against their ideas has made me SO aware of the rhetoric of pedagogy. It’s fascinating to think through how I want to tell the story of rhetoric in my own class
September 25, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I know that this isn’t a new thought, but: reading other people’s textbooks and structuring the “story” of my syllabus against their ideas has made me SO aware of the rhetoric of pedagogy. It’s fascinating to think through how I want to tell the story of rhetoric in my own class
I use my email inbox as my to-do list and I got it below 25 emails tonight.
I was at 80 at the start of the week . Please clap.
I was at 80 at the start of the week . Please clap.
September 17, 2025 at 6:21 AM
I use my email inbox as my to-do list and I got it below 25 emails tonight.
I was at 80 at the start of the week . Please clap.
I was at 80 at the start of the week . Please clap.
I tell my rhetoric students that invention and arrangement are just as important and just as much part of rhetoric as delivery—you aren’t doing the work if you’re skipping the part where you cast around for ideas and figure out the right order to put them in!
When ChatGPT first took off this was the use case that confused me the most. People said they “only” used it to write “first drafts.” That’s the most important draft! That’s the thinking part!
Scoop: Business Insider informed its staff this week that they are allowed to use ChatGPT to generate first drafts of their stories, while also indicating the newsroom will not disclose such A.I. use to readers.
Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/business-i...
Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/business-i...
September 17, 2025 at 4:10 AM
I tell my rhetoric students that invention and arrangement are just as important and just as much part of rhetoric as delivery—you aren’t doing the work if you’re skipping the part where you cast around for ideas and figure out the right order to put them in!
Hey #teamrhetoric and #academicsky, is there anyone doing work on the specific moment(s) social media shifted from being about sharing/connecting to teaching/selling? I have some disconnected thoughts about our current rhetorical moment but I wanted to see if there was already work out there…
September 16, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Hey #teamrhetoric and #academicsky, is there anyone doing work on the specific moment(s) social media shifted from being about sharing/connecting to teaching/selling? I have some disconnected thoughts about our current rhetorical moment but I wanted to see if there was already work out there…
Reposted by Dr. Will X. Uly
I don't know that we were meant to live our lives steeping in this many people's anxiety
September 15, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I don't know that we were meant to live our lives steeping in this many people's anxiety