Rowan MacBean
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macbean221b.bsky.social
Rowan MacBean
@macbean221b.bsky.social
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
Good thread highlighting some of the ways the popular narrative around Rosa Parks is wrong and elides her more radical politics and actions.
Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.
December 1, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
December 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
It’s really fun to be a historian. We are fun at parties. We will absolutely not ruin your traditions by explaining the history of them.
Them: You know the Olympic torch relay just began.

Me: Yeah, the flame is ancient but the relay itself was invented by Hitler to connect Ancient Greece to Germany for the Berlin Olympics

Them: Always a ray of sunshine

Me:

www.forbes.com/sites/drsara...
A Short History Of Torches And Intimidation
The carrying of torches to suggest power and project intimidation has a long and sordid history.
www.forbes.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
This applies heavily to trans issues, too.
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
December 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
Please don't let the fear of not doing something well stop you from trying it for the first time. Write a messy story. Paint a crappy flower. Whittle the worst wooden bear of all time.

The best gift you can give yourself is to have fun and grow.
December 1, 2025 at 8:12 AM
I started an audiobook, Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain. I was curious to see if maybe very old true crime hit different for me, and…it does…but instead of making me angry, it just makes me sad. I think it’s time to admit that true crime just isn’t for me anymore.
December 1, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
This is incredible thank you @sesmith.lol here are some shrimp.
November 29, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
every trans person i see post about the OU suspension knows that the suspended target is trans & a grad student, & has an innate awareness that this is about purging trans employees. every cis person i see thinks the target is a rando professor & that this is about giving conservatives good grades
December 1, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
*cries in Sherlock season 3*
I'm always confused when writers change the plot because a reader figured out what was coming. Surely that's good? Surely that means the breadcrumbs have been laid out appropriately?
December 1, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Connections
Puzzle #904
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
December 1, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Wordle 1,626 5/6

⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛
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December 1, 2025 at 5:01 AM
There are 2.5 hours left in November and idk what to do with them
December 1, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I need to eat dinner and I also need to finish this book tonight but these two things do not go together 😅
November 30, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
How am I still laughing about this exchange 5 years after it happened 😂
Reminds me of one of my favorite Twitter exchanges
November 30, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
The highest calling of journalism isn’t to tell two sides of a story.

The highest calling of journalism is to tell the truth.

And acting like a stenographer is a betrayal of your audience.
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
November 30, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
In other words, if T. Rex were a paleontologist, he could have dug up (with his little arms!) fossils of Allosaurus…
@ryannorth.ca
This also means that other dinosaurs like Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Ceratosaurus also never saw flowers.

But Tr.rex, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus did see flowers. 🌸🪻🌻🦖🦕

This also mean that the fossils we found of Stegosaurus, Allosaurus were already long buried when T.rex was walking around 🤯
November 30, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Yeah idk what my problem was 15 years ago but this shit is pretty great actually 🤷🏻
Revisiting Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, which I last read before I knew the difference between “I don’t like this” and “This is bad.”
November 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Connections
Puzzle #903
🟪🟨🟦🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
November 30, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Wordle 1,625 4/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
November 30, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
Good night, Tom Stoppard, who is not longer being, on a boat or anywhere. 💔
November 30, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
AU free to a good home
November 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Rowan MacBean
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM