Philip Nel
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philnel.bsky.social
Philip Nel
@philnel.bsky.social

👨🏼‍🏫 Prof. he/him.
📚 Books on children's books & comics: https://philnel.com/writing/books/
📷 IG: thephilnel
🐘 Mastodon: @[email protected]
🎵 Spotify: thephilnel
🐦 Twitter (deleted acct in 2022): @philnel

Philip W. Nel is an American scholar of children's literature and University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is best known for his work on Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter, which has led to him being a guest on such media programs as CBS Sunday Morning, NPR's Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, and CNN's Don Lemon Tonight. .. more

Art 33%
Communication & Media Studies 22%
Pinned
1/2 ⬇️ This is an excellent idea & I am co-signing & invite my fellow academics to join me. Academia depends on a lot of unpaid labor. Withhold your labor from Columbia. ⬇️
In light of Columbia's capitulation to the Trump regime's illegal and extortionate demands, I have resolved not to write for Columbia publications, speak at Columbia events, or perform other free labor for a university that has repudated its values.

3d.laboratorium.net/2025-07-25-c...
Columbia’s Capitulation
Universities exist to promote the discovery, preservation, and transmission of knowledge. While they can help make to make a society virtuous, prosperous, and free, they do so by pursing their mission...
3d.laboratorium.net

Mayor Mamdani's full remarks are worth reading: www.nyc.gov/mayors-offic...
At Annual Interfaith Breakfast, Mayor Mamdani Reaffirms City’s Sanctuary Status, Launches Expansive “Know Your Rights” Push to Protect Immigrant New Yorkers From Federal Overreach
www.nyc.gov

"If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources. ... We will stand with the stranger today, tomorrow, and all the days that are still to come."
— NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani
Welcome The Stranger
YouTube video by NYC Mayor's Office
www.youtube.com

A report from a 9-year old held in Dilley Concentration Camp, Texas. (After several months of imprisonment, she was released. Months! At age 9.)

Reposted by Philip Nel

Reposted by Philip Nel

There should be nationwide marches against all the gigantic concentration camps.
Read this: How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention, by @micarosenberg.bsky.social
How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention
A 9-year-old shares her story of being held at the nation’s only operating detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas.
www.propublica.org
Once more: Columbia could have fought; it chose not.

Reposted by Philip Nel

⬆️

It is important to look at the history of concentration camps operated by the United States, to remind ourselves that “yes, it can happen here.”

www.zinnedproject.org/news/concent...
Concentration Camps in U.S. History
Examples of the U.S. government holding people in concentration camps.
www.zinnedproject.org

Reposted by Philip Nel

I met Maria Antonia inside Dilley in mid-Jan where she had been detained for four months. She told me she was on her way to Disney World when immigration agents intercepted and interrogated her in the airport and sent her and her mom to detention www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention
A 9-year-old shares her story of being held at the nation’s only operating detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas.
www.propublica.org
Breaking news: ICE expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the U.S. and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of people, according to agency documents.
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion converting warehouses into detention centers, according to planning documents, more than the annual budgets of 22 states.
www.washingtonpost.com

🇬🇱 🇩🇰 24% of adults approve of how T**mp is handling Greenland, while 72% disapprove.
🧐 So, over 1/3 of the 38% who approve of T**mp overall recognize his recklessness in at least this one area.
🤔 I’m baffled that his approval is this high, but encouraged by this—even cult members can disapprove.

Reposted by Philip Nel

Reposted by Philip Nel

By repealing the EPA regulation that underpins all US regulation of greenhouse gases, the Trump administration is sacrificing our global climate so that fossil fuel companies can make even greater profits.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
Trump repeals U.S. government’s power to regulate climate
The Environmental Protection Agency finishes the repeal of the “endangerment finding,” a landmark legal opinion underpinning policies regulating climate change.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Philip Nel

The SAVE Act has passed the House, making it harder for 69 million American women to vote.

This isn’t about voter fraud or undocumented immigrants.

This is about suppressing the female vote.

They want to repeal the 19th and this is a step in that direction.

Reposted by Philip Nel

unsolicited advice in hindsight |
lesson from my body

do one less thing even if something isn't going to get done |
even something in the Signal

we haven't done 2026 before |
we're just humans

i know

i see you, hear you

(together) we keep us safe/r
I’m Analilia Mejia and I approve this message.
In light of Trump’s post yesterday, some history:

“On Memorial Day 1927, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested. One of those arrested was Fred Trump.” www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix...
In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens
On Sunday, Trump declined to disavow the support of white supremacists.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Philip Nel

"This crusade is much more important than the anti-lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom." — Carter G. Woodson

#tdih 1926, Woodson initiated Negro History Week which led to Black History Month. 🧵
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ca...
Feb. 7, 1926: Carter G. Woodson Launched Negro History Week
Carter G. Woodson initiated the first celebration of Negro History Week which led to Black History Month.
www.zinnedproject.org

“How to Resist Like Minneapolis.” There are many versions of this advice floating around out there. But I’ll share this, since it’s good & since I’m a Dessa fan. (She wrote this.) www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
How to resist like Minneapolis
Meet the block, shop the indies, and check on your people.
www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Philip Nel

I do not think the most significant cultural shifts will come from a World War, Class War, Race War, or whatever other battle people weirdly fantasize about. I think it’ll be an integration of the idea that children are people and not the property of their parents.

Reposted by Philip Nel

Exciting announcement from Jeff Bezos's reimagined Washington Post!

2/2
How things happen has always been
unclear. Hurricanes begin
in a place where no one lives.
Agents of the government start
to wear masks. Fascism is
a word my neighbors won’t use
yet. They are following
the law, they say, and the sirens
are coming for someone else.

—CHARLES RAFFERTY

1/2
“The Problem with Early Warnings”
CHARLES RAFFERTY

People don’t like to leave a party
unless the house is actually
on fire. Even then, if the flames
are far enough away
to be pretty, they’ll finish
their drink, take one more pass
at the hors d’oeuvres.
This made me weepy
Philadelphians are bringing the history back to the President’s House. 🦅

Reposted by Philip Nel

Some wildly generous person just spent a bunch of their credit card points and bought us a huge gift card to Polymaker so we can buy filament!

I did not know that was a thing you can do (I'm afraid of cards b/c ADHD trauma) but HOLY SHIT?? BRILLIANT???

More gift card links are now added here!
WhistleWishLists | Linktree
We're the Whistle Avengers. We turn each spool of filament into 400-700 whistles which we send out into the world. Sponsor whistles in your favorite colors!
linktr.ee

Reposted by Philip Nel

New in PN: The regime moves to make journalism a crime

"The way he’s targeting the press isn’t just about quieting criticism so he doesn’t have to hear people being mean to him. It’s the same impulse we see on the streets of Mpls: He wants to dominate those who oppose him and force them to submit."
The regime moves to make journalism a crime
But try as they might, they won't silence the voices of dissent.
www.publicnotice.co
Greetings from inside the economic blockade zones of Minneapolis and St Paul! Don’t look away, please. We need you. It’s been a month and they’re trying to destroy us.
If a university student group had celebrated Charlie Kirk being killed, complete with a graphic made from an actual picture of the killing, the whole lot of them would have been expelled before the ink on the digital story was dry.
“Let us be clear: we want the power of the state. We wish to hold the criminals of the regime accountable. We wish to seize back the public funds looted by Trump and his cronies. We wish to undo the damage he has done to the government. More than any of that we wish to rebuild.”
From Powerlessness to Power
We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals without exercising state power, and the most effective way to take state power is through nonviolent but confrontational resistance.
www.liberalcurrents.com