Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Max Coleman

Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 6h

This has been the time eternal argument about new technologies. It’s not the technology. It’s a policy choice. It’s why places like Belgium are reducing their workweek, while American tech gods want us to sleep on pullouts in our offices.

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 6h

Ari Emanuel bets AI will boost leisure time with three-day working week on.ft.com/48RbY99

Ari Emanuel bets AI will boost leisure time with three-day working week

Hollywood agent raises almost $3bn from investors including Apollo and QIA for venture spanning tennis to car auctions

on.ft.com

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 7h

“For decades, meritocratic elites intoned the mantra that those who work hard and play by the rules can rise as far as their talents will take them. They did not notice that for those stuck at the bottom or struggling to stay afloat, [this rhetoric] was less a promise than a taunt.”
—Michael Sandel

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 10h

—From "The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology" by Aldon Morris.

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 10h

"There is an intriguing, well-kept secret regarding the founding of scientific sociology in America. The first school of scientific sociology in the US was founded by a black professor located in a historically black university in the South. This reality flatly contradicts the accepted wisdom."

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 2d

Do you know someone who is LGBTQ+ and between the ages of 13 and 24? If so, you can encourage them to participate in The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People:

trevorredcap.trvr.org/surveys/?s=A...

The survey is only open for two more weeks!

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 3d

“Since the mainstream discourse stipulates that extremism must be ‘fringe’ in these United States, anything that has broad support is reflexively sanitized as not extremism. “

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 3d

This piece is just an essential, important and excellent intervention as Coates' Vanity Fair essay was. One NYT column isn't that important, but an accommodationist mindset has spread in center-left elite circles. And it should be rejected forcefully. democracyamericana.com/posts/c5d024...

Where Is the Line?

On Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the struggle to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in America

democracyamericana.com

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 3d

“Russell Vought wanted to go after the sociology departments, but they don’t make much money for the university. So he went after the scientists.” —David Brooks

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 5d

How very Utahn.

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 7d

"Ideas come when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks. Yet ideas would certainly not come to mind had we not brooded at our desks and searched for answers with passionate devotion."

—Max Weber, "Science as a Vocation"

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 8d

Supporting public media with our coffee mugs this morning :)

@kuer.org @pbs.org

(with @robrankin.bsky.social)

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 9d

Weber: "The idea of a calling and the devotion to labor in the calling ... [is] so irrational from the standpoint of purely eudaimonistic self-interest, but [it] has been and still is one of the most characteristic elements of our capitalistic culture."

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 12d

First they came for the trans kids…

www.texastribune.org/2025/09/26/t...

Texas Tech chancellor limits academic mentions of transgender and nonbinary identities at five universities

Advocacy groups say the new state law, presidential executive order and gubernatorial letter Tedd Mitchell cited do not prohibit classroom discussions of particular LGBTQ+ identities.

www.texastribune.org

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 13d

Those “on the left who stress calls for unity … are reminiscent of the kid-gloved white northerners who sought to rebrand a war fought expressly over human trafficking & bondage into a national moment for celebration of duty, honor and … service on both sides.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Charlie Kirk was a divisive far-right podcaster. Why is he being rebranded as a national hero? | Saida Grundy

Celebrating a bigoted rage-baiter sends a clear message to people of color, LGBTQ+ folks and women

www.theguardian.com

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 14d

Weber: “Charismatic authority is indeed one of the great revolutionary powers of history, but in its pure form it has a thoroughly authoritarian and dominating character.”

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 14d

Just finished uploading my syllabi to our university's new searchable platform, in compliance with Utah House Bill 261.

We've been assured that our academic freedom prohibits any restrictions on our teaching, including our choice of readings.

Watch this space...

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 14d

Weber: "The extent of the individual servant's 'legitimate' power to command depends on the particular whim of the lord. ... In place of official duty or office discipline, the personal loyalty of the servant prevails within the relational organization of the administrative staff."

Sound familiar?

Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 16d

Max Weber: "The modern judge is a vending machine into which the pleadings are inserted together with the fee and which then disgorges the judgment together with the reasons mechanically derived from the Code."

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 17d

I find this fascinating, because it’s such a contrast with what politicians focus on. If you looked at political campaigns, you’d think everyone was a farmer, coal miner, or factory worker.

There’s probably a large dose of sexism here, too — none of the jobs politicians talk about are female-coded.

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Reposted by Max Coleman

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 20d

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

The Democrats’ priority “now must be to show that the threat of authoritarian rule is real and unfolding every day,” E. J. Dionne Jr. says in his first piece as a contributing writer for Times Opinion. “The economy will always be with us. Our free institutions might not.”

Opinion | Democrats, Your Job Is to Defend Democracy

Voters care about the economy. But that’s not all Democrats should talk about.

nyti.ms

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 21d

Everyone should watch this interview with a Latina woman who was detained by ICE.

She is a U.S. citizen. Even if she weren’t, this would be just as horrible. But the willingness to kidnap citizens gives the lie to any claim that this is about legal status. It’s about race.

youtu.be/AmfpngmLIzQ

Woman wrongfully detained in immigration raid describes what she endured

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

youtu.be

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 21d

So heartbreaking.

KUER @kuer.org · 21d

Classes resumed, but not all UVU students were back. Some say they’re too scared to return, and plan to take online classes, transfer or drop out.

Utah Valley University students return, bonded by the Charlie Kirk shooting

Classes at Utah Valley University were canceled in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Students arrived on Sept. 17 at a solemn campus, one with more security.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Max Coleman

Ellen Datlow @datlow.bsky.social · 21d

Let ABC know how you feel about their bowing to the thugs in power and cancelling Jimmy Kimmel's show: support.abc.com/hc/en-us/req...

Submit a request – ABC

support.abc.com

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Reposted by Max Coleman

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 21d

Nice pull, Carl.

Seriously, read this statement they launched on day one of the administration and see how long you can make it before you feel like you're going insane.

RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP
The White House
January 20, 2025
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 21d

“The decision by Nexstar comes as the broadcast station is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion mega deal to acquire TEGNA, a deal that would make Nexstar by far the largest owner of local TV stations in the country.”

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/a...

ABC Suspends ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ “Indefinitely” Over Charlie Kirk Comments

The network’s decision comes after affiliate group Nexstar said it would pull the late-night show, and the chairman of the FCC suggested he might take action against ABC.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

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Max Coleman @maxecoleman.bsky.social · 21d

Marx: "Let us suppose, however, that those directly driven out of their jobs by machinery ... find a new occupation. Does any one imagine that it will be as highly paid as that which has been lost? That would contradict all the laws of economics.”