Ted McCormick
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tedmccormick.bsky.social
Ted McCormick
@tedmccormick.bsky.social
Historian of scientific, economic and colonial projects in early modern Britain, Ireland, and the Atlantic; books http://bit.ly/3HYwNiA & http://bit.ly/3rKdAvt; http://memoriousblog.com; views mine; he/him. Montrealer in Philly, except when I’m in Montreal
Does it or doesn’t it? Are we seeing democracy taken apart by force, or are we not? Please choose only one
January 21, 2026 at 10:02 PM
If you insist that the fate of democracy hangs on you, which is what is implied when you say that it hangs on people voting for you, you could at least play along yourself
January 21, 2026 at 10:00 PM
If I’m sitting almost anywhere else right now, after that asinine nationalist harangue, it reads as self-soothing from citizens of a belligerent power
January 21, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Perhaps it rallies short-term resistance to him specifically, but it sounds like a longer-term dodge of what brought this shit-show about
January 21, 2026 at 3:59 PM
if anyone had a sense of shame we would never here the phrase “American leadership” again in our lifetimes
January 21, 2026 at 2:28 PM
The guy I’m talking about self-identified that way though

I agree there’s no substantive difference
January 21, 2026 at 2:16 PM
The ramblings of a demented racist uncle get prime airtime because nobody is willing to treat unhinged power as unhinged. The contortions it takes to act as if this is normal, massive as they are, are less alarming than the fact that every major media organization has undertaken them without pause
January 21, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Ted McCormick
January 20, 2026 at 10:24 PM
"but surely it at least means that management is effective and efficient?"

sit down, this is going to be hard for you to hear
January 20, 2026 at 11:45 PM
the humanities make some relationships easier to see (and others harder) but running academia like a business is ultimately bad for academic disciplines as such
January 20, 2026 at 11:41 PM
now I think about it, a Quillette editor went on a tweet-rant about a decade ago about how there can't be any "nazis" now because it's not the 1930s, so radical centrists have been here for a while
January 20, 2026 at 11:21 PM
matter of time before it boils down to “well actually the Gestapo was in Germany, whereas…”
January 20, 2026 at 5:58 PM
It’s the smallest piece of this but all the fluff about Canada being a haven for the US intelligentsia-in-exile boils down to poaching a thimbleful of stars, a handful of AI researchers, and as much tuition as possible
January 20, 2026 at 5:47 PM