Rachel Smith
@r7smith.bsky.social
High school special education teacher. Honestly, that might be my whole personality.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
November 29, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
Reposted by Rachel Smith
This Is Just To Say
I have read
the poems
that were in
the screenshots
and which
you were probably
hoping
would entice
Forgive me
I cannot read more
so gross
and so wrong
I have read
the poems
that were in
the screenshots
and which
you were probably
hoping
would entice
Forgive me
I cannot read more
so gross
and so wrong
November 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
This Is Just To Say
I have read
the poems
that were in
the screenshots
and which
you were probably
hoping
would entice
Forgive me
I cannot read more
so gross
and so wrong
I have read
the poems
that were in
the screenshots
and which
you were probably
hoping
would entice
Forgive me
I cannot read more
so gross
and so wrong
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Please stop using language that suggests that people with criminal records are appropriate targets for this administration's violence. One in three adults has a criminal record. Stop playing sacrifice games with fascists. Stop surrendering entire categories of people in your own mind.
November 15, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Please stop using language that suggests that people with criminal records are appropriate targets for this administration's violence. One in three adults has a criminal record. Stop playing sacrifice games with fascists. Stop surrendering entire categories of people in your own mind.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
October 20, 2025 at 10:09 PM
EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Jamelle Bouie is one of the best writers in the country. Period. At anything. The things people say to him, usually with a huff of self-satisfied indignation, are *unbelievable*.
Believing your cause to be just is not a ticket to treat other people however you want.
Believing your cause to be just is not a ticket to treat other people however you want.
July 4, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Jamelle Bouie is one of the best writers in the country. Period. At anything. The things people say to him, usually with a huff of self-satisfied indignation, are *unbelievable*.
Believing your cause to be just is not a ticket to treat other people however you want.
Believing your cause to be just is not a ticket to treat other people however you want.
Most of the people I love most in this world I met between 1988 and 1990 at the University of Chicago. We all agree none of us would have gotten in today — and that the university is almost certainly delighted by that particular development.
Well, shit, I wouldn't have made it into the University of Chicago under this policy, and considering that I became the editor of the school newspaper and then the student ombudsperson for the university, maybe that would have been their loss.
Some of the most elite colleges in the US are making “civility transcripts” part of the admissions process.
Tone-policing as university policy.
www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
Tone-policing as university policy.
www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
May 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Most of the people I love most in this world I met between 1988 and 1990 at the University of Chicago. We all agree none of us would have gotten in today — and that the university is almost certainly delighted by that particular development.
This, this, a thousand times this.
Students at any level are trying to make sense of the world that we’ve handed them with the tools that we’ve given them. If they are struggling with that task maybe the problem isn’t with them? Grant them some grace and examine your own practice.
Students at any level are trying to make sense of the world that we’ve handed them with the tools that we’ve given them. If they are struggling with that task maybe the problem isn’t with them? Grant them some grace and examine your own practice.
Getting something off my chest: I don’t think making negative public statements (online or wherever) about your students such that they can easily see and identify themselves is good pedagogy
May 3, 2025 at 12:47 PM
This, this, a thousand times this.
Students at any level are trying to make sense of the world that we’ve handed them with the tools that we’ve given them. If they are struggling with that task maybe the problem isn’t with them? Grant them some grace and examine your own practice.
Students at any level are trying to make sense of the world that we’ve handed them with the tools that we’ve given them. If they are struggling with that task maybe the problem isn’t with them? Grant them some grace and examine your own practice.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
There is no credible progressive argument against building a ton of new homes at all income levels. Opposing making it easier to build new homes isn’t progressive. It’s super conservative & an argument for a permanent shortage & permanent high rents.
If your whole thing is being a "renter's advocate" and you aren't running full speed towards this you are probably doing something else
April 24, 2025 at 4:29 AM
There is no credible progressive argument against building a ton of new homes at all income levels. Opposing making it easier to build new homes isn’t progressive. It’s super conservative & an argument for a permanent shortage & permanent high rents.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
I mean, he’s “smart,” but FedSoc smart, not normal person smart. He’s “here’s a complex heavily footnoted article about why Chevron deference is the greatest injustice in the history of the United States” smart. He’s Ben Shapiro shouting at sophomores smart.
July 28, 2023 at 7:50 PM
I mean, he’s “smart,” but FedSoc smart, not normal person smart. He’s “here’s a complex heavily footnoted article about why Chevron deference is the greatest injustice in the history of the United States” smart. He’s Ben Shapiro shouting at sophomores smart.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
I don't really care what the "political consequences" are of fighting for the proposition that *everyone* is entitled to due process before they are removed from the United States and sent to a Salvadoran prison.
It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.
It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.
April 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I don't really care what the "political consequences" are of fighting for the proposition that *everyone* is entitled to due process before they are removed from the United States and sent to a Salvadoran prison.
It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.
It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Damn, this conclusion:
“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital... This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”
“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital... This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”
April 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Damn, this conclusion:
“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital... This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”
“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital... This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”
Reposted by Rachel Smith
“One of the top MS-13 members”?
This woman is an officer of the court and the Attorney General of the United States.
She knows that she wields immense power and responsibility.
Yet here she is on national TV, making baseless claims about a guy her boss wrongly sent to a gulag in El Salvador.
This woman is an officer of the court and the Attorney General of the United States.
She knows that she wields immense power and responsibility.
Yet here she is on national TV, making baseless claims about a guy her boss wrongly sent to a gulag in El Salvador.
Bondi is escalating the rhetoric against Abrego Garcia, who she calls "one of the top MS-13 members" and "a terrorist"
April 17, 2025 at 2:39 AM
“One of the top MS-13 members”?
This woman is an officer of the court and the Attorney General of the United States.
She knows that she wields immense power and responsibility.
Yet here she is on national TV, making baseless claims about a guy her boss wrongly sent to a gulag in El Salvador.
This woman is an officer of the court and the Attorney General of the United States.
She knows that she wields immense power and responsibility.
Yet here she is on national TV, making baseless claims about a guy her boss wrongly sent to a gulag in El Salvador.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Yes. This is an important component of my thinking. I’m a native-born USC. If I don’t recognize that _right now today_ I have protections that other people don’t, that I can use to speak out when they may not be able to, what is even the point?
the way I’ve been thinking about it is: if noncitizens face real danger for saying what they think, then it is the responsibility of citizens, who don’t yet face that same danger, to be even louder
April 16, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Yes. This is an important component of my thinking. I’m a native-born USC. If I don’t recognize that _right now today_ I have protections that other people don’t, that I can use to speak out when they may not be able to, what is even the point?
Reposted by Rachel Smith
the way I’ve been thinking about it is: if noncitizens face real danger for saying what they think, then it is the responsibility of citizens, who don’t yet face that same danger, to be even louder
April 16, 2025 at 1:55 AM
the way I’ve been thinking about it is: if noncitizens face real danger for saying what they think, then it is the responsibility of citizens, who don’t yet face that same danger, to be even louder
It’s been a week since I had a very large mouse in my slipper for a full half hour before I noticed.
January 26, 2025 at 2:48 PM
It’s been a week since I had a very large mouse in my slipper for a full half hour before I noticed.