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Dr. Gabriel Baker

@gabrielbaker.bsky.social
1.2K followers 751 following 77 posts

Ancient History PhD. Teacher. H-War Network Editor. Author of Spare No One: Mass Violence in Roman Warfare. Chicagoland. Views/opinions are my own.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Dr. Gabriel Baker
👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 27/09/2026
I think this is a key part of why historians are mad, yeah. Because it’s a dunk, and it’s one that like. We all know that scientists and engineers think themselves better and smarter than humanities students. There’s always an assumption that they could do our job but we couldn’t do theirs.
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AP Stylebook @apstylebook.com · 23/09/2026
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.
apnews.com
https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Forgive the all caps, it’s just hard to process so much hegemonic self-destruction all at once
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Can't get numb to this: The United States is stuck in a war it started, cannot end, and may further escalate to no avail, having dismantled its diplomatic apparatus, depleted its military stockpile, and destroyed its credibility. A historic strategic mistake harming millions in many different ways.
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Every single publisher getting an AI payout from the LLM lawsuits should be paying it to their authors & making that author’s book open access—regardless of who own the rights. Most academic authors (ca. 80%) do not own their own publishing rights (especially first authors) & wont get checks at all.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
getting rid of grades entirely would be much more effective at curbing surreptitious use of genAI than any amount of surveillance, would do vastly less harm to the pedagogical relationship at the heart of education, and wouldn't be another massive economic windfall for the creepiest people you know
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Uninterested in leading a pile-on but no, AI does not “have access” to everything ever published. Not archival material, obviously, but not secondary material either. Nor across times nor languages. AI is not human knowledge personified. It’s exactly not that, in fact. It’s not even a search engine.
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Hegseth's repeal of universal flu vaccines is nonsense on so many levels, but his claim vaccine mandates were an "era of betrayal" irked me as a historian. Here's my response, in @thebulwark.com this morning; www.thebulwark.com/p/george-was...
thebulwark.com
George Washington’s Woke Vaccines
What the Founders would have thought about Pete Hegseth lifting the requirement that service members get the flu vaccine.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I apologize, but I've some harsh words here: Until the tenured are taking pay cuts to get more tenure lines, until they are pooling their salaries to provide basic living for the folks who *didn't* get hired in this shit job market, y'all have no right, zero, NONE to tell us how to do history.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 12/04/2026
Orban concedes defeat. The support of Trump, Vance, Putin, Lavrov, Weidel, Milei, Le Pen, Fico, Babis and many others could not overcome Hungarian anger at a stagnant, corrupt regime www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
theguardian.com
Hungary election live: Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian election after 16 years in power
Long-serving prime minister beaten by opposition after early results showed clear lead
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
“The Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Budget proposes to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and provides $38 million to conduct an orderly shutdown of the Agency.” — NEH.gov The NEH has $207 million for FY2026. War in Iran? 1 billion per day. We go through 4.83 NEHs a day for what?
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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The danger to my job from AI isn't that AI can do my job, it's that my job is made even more precarious by the way AI is shaping ideas of the value of work. It can't do my job, but it can be part of convincing people (incorrectly) that my job isn't necessary.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Subscribe! Listen!
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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I know that the people who need to read this aren’t here, but here goes: Rules of engagement aren’t for the enemy. They’re for you. They’re for your soldiers when they’re captured or wounded. They’re for your civilians when they’re in range of the enemy. They’re for your allies, to reassure.
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Quick reactions after learning that no, nobody could stop him. 1/ goodauthority.org/news/trump-m... 1/
goodauthority.org
Trump might start a war with Iran. Can anyone stop him?
Trump might start a war with Iran. Can anyone stop him? Congress, public opinion, and administration insiders aren’t reliable constraints on Trump’s foreign policy decisions.
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Grace Panetta @gracepanetta.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Alysa Liu telling 60 Minutes “I love struggling, it makes me feel alive” is a legit revolutionary statement from a Bay Area native in a time when copious amounts of time and resources are being put toward convincing us to opt out of experiencing struggle, friction and self-actualization
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Christian Cooijmans @ccooijmans.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
'Reclaiming academic publishing as a public good will require a return to not-for-profit models and sustainable open-access systems. Quality, accessibility and integrity need to be put ahead of profit.'
theconversation.com
The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.
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Kim A. Wagner @kimatiwagner.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Operation Just Because
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
I want to treat "Roman Helmet Guy" as a serious interlocuter, and I want to do it as someone who does what might be called "New Military History," applying cultural studies to military history (religious violence and apocalypticism during wars): you can't study war without studying people.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
I don't understand the point of this comment. Because from where I'm sitting, it is actually not a Good Thing for a world class university--situated in a democracy that is frequently at war, where a disproportionate number of future policy makers are educated--to NOT teach military history.
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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
May the Ents march forth and tear your data centres to the ground
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
This really is a must read for anyone in academia.
When my business school colleagues insist that ChatGPT is “just another tool in the toolbox,” I’m tempted to remind them that Facebook was once “just a way to connect with friends.” But there’s a difference between tools and technologies. Tools help us accomplish tasks; technologies reshape the very environments in which we think, work, and relate. As philosopher Peter Hershock observes, we don’t merely use technologies; we participate in them. With tools, we retain agency—we can choose when and how to use them. With technologies, the choice is subtler: they remake the conditions of choice itself. A pen extends communication without redefining it; social media transformed what we mean by privacy, friendship, even truth.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Precisely this.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Introduce yourself with four spaceships.
The USS Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space NineThe Battlestar Galactica The Red Dwarf A-Wing starfighter from Return of the Jedi
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Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Just a reminder that I'm happy to speak to any journalist, or to recommend other scholars to do so, about why prejudice and "potentially divisive symbols" like swastikas (!) are so harmful to morale and cohesion in militaries
washingtonpost.com
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n... "'I swore an oath to the Constitution, not a person,' she says. 'I just really, really implore my peers and everybody outside looking in, to just think about that. Really think about that, and think about what that means.'"
npr.org
In an encrypted group chat, National Guard members question Trump deployments
As President Trump's call for National Guard deployments rings out across the U.S., a small contingent of Ohio guard members is quietly expressing concern in an encrypted group chat.
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Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
"Wouldn't it be fascinating to live in the late Roman Republic?" (Monkey paw curls).
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 07/10/2025
BEST BIG CITY IN THE US 9 YEARS IN A ROW. While critics try to paint Chicago as something to fear, the rest of the world knows the truth — this is the best big city in America.
choosechicago.com
Best Big City: Chicago Wins Award 9th Year in a Row
Learn why Chicago was voted the Best Big City for the 9th consecutive year by exploring our vibrant culture, welcoming inclusion, and so much more.
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Brian Farrell 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @hisbpf.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
If Putin concludes that NATO’s incredibly weak physical and verbal response to his aerial assault on Poland is as robust as it is willing to get, then the disparity in wealth etc won’t deter him at all. How is this not blindingly obvious? VERY serious danger is now heading towards us at speed.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
So if you remember that frustrating article a couple of weeks ago at the Dispatch suggesting that we ought to save the sciences by shoving the humanities overboard, I wrote a response to the financial illiteracy and moral cowardice of that position: thedispatch.com/article/univ...
thedispatch.com
How (Not) to Save the American University
Why splitting the sciences and humanities—and appeasing Trump—won’t work.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 27/08/2025
The University of Chicago recently announced pauses on admissions to some of its humanities doctoral programs. Tyler Austin Harper argues that it's “a particular gut-punch to the humanities, not just at the university itself, but nationally and even globally.”
bit.ly
What’s Really at Stake if Fewer People Study the Humanities
Why the University of Chicago’s decision to pause admissions to some doctoral programs hurts so much
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Jonathan Edward Durham @thisone0verhere.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I think we should be using “real feel” for more things than just the weather, like you have a half hour meeting today but it’s at 4:00 so the real feel is gonna be up around 53 minutes, or you have 2 cats but they’re in a mood today so the real feel is gonna be somewhere between 7 and 9
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
As we mark the 80th anniversary of WWII's end, I’ve come to believe that in losing that Greatest Generation, we are losing more than just the memories of combat. We are losing the memory and experience of what it means to fight fascism and authoritarianism. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/what-we-lo...
doomsdayscenario.co
What We Lost When We Lost the Greatest Generation
It's no coincidence that democracy is backsliding in the US exactly eighty years after the end of World War II.
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Richard C. Keller, PhD @richardckeller.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
AI will never locate a new archive. It will never uncover a new source. It will never find a small, privately held collection of papers that can upend what we think we know about the past. It can never work with undigitized sources. It can never do real oral history or ethnography.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Regurgitating/remixing the work of historians ≠ doing history. But clearly the "researchers" who made this list had no idea what any of these professions actually do. "You guys just memorize facts and dates right? And maybe speculate about ancient aliens? Prepare to be obsoleted!"
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
But because there's no giant 'history formula,' no tables of strange symbols (well, amusingly, there *are* but you don't work with them until you are much deeper in the field), folks assume that history is easy, does not require special skills and so contemptible. 12/
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
a good arbiter of how close we are to bad hybrid regime shit is if the political comedy shows start getting pulled for whatever reason
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
The tree at Sycamore Gap, on Hadrian's Wall in England.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 14/07/2025
"We don’t make enough money to put up with this." Last year, US K-12 schools opened short 55,000 teachers. Between book bans and political attacks on schools and educators, it's looking like this year's shortages will be even more dire, especially in red states. newrepublic.com/article/1967...
newrepublic.com
American Teachers in Red States Are Walking Away for Good
The predictable consequences of the right wing’s war on public schools are being felt as educators leave their communities—and their profession.
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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
To form a more perfect Union, implies as we all know, that we have something imperfect. But to strive for the betterment of all, and to keep striving no matter what - that is the American legacy. “For that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” We strive still.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
New article out @ruhm.bsky.social! I examined negative reactions to mass violence (massacres, mass enslavements, etc) in Greek+Roman texts. Such reactions suggest that, for some ancient observers, acts of extreme violence were "atrocities"—i.e., transgressive, shocking, & worthy of condemnation. (1)
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
There are some things I miss about living in the Bay Area and some things I very much do not miss, but *that summer weather* is the thing I miss the most.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 15/06/2025
Another good reminder from today is that to win this we all need to get used to cooperating with people we sometimes find highly annoying
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I endorse this view.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I have a joke about Phylarchus but Polybius says it's too dramatic.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
The game was on easy mode, too.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Shout out to @bretdevereaux.bsky.social for consistently being super generous.
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Dr. Gabriel Baker @gabrielbaker.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Is anyone else randomly getting a bunch of new followers? Not complaining, but, um, I'm super boring, barely post, and when i do it's basically me talking to myself. Like right now, 95% chance no one sees this. So. I don't get it! New followers, are you real? You won't see this, so we'll never know.
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