iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

If a system cannot operate in a way that respects human dignity, that system should not exist.

Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Students in my pop culture class exasperatedly asked why everything connects back to Nazis and whether my representations in media class next semester will have a many references to the Nazis. I told them it has 62% less references to Nazis. I lied, but that's a problem for next semester.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

One of my students told me today that they signed up for my pop culture class because they saw me on tiktok. It's been a good ride, y'all, but I'm done being perceived.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Seeing a cyber truck on the highway in Appalachia is something I can only describe as unholy.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Does anyone know of an umbrella term for sci-fi aliens that resemble humans? I'm thinking of Marvel characters like Thor, Nebula, or Phastos. It's for a project related to race and Superheroes, and I was thinking of "para-human" (intentionally centering humanity) but I'm not sure.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Increasingly, I am convinced that the reason we're in this mess is because we undervalued public school media specialists and librarians.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Since the new Pope has Peruvian citizenship, my guess is that within 6 months the President will try to deport him.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

If anyone needs to conjure me after I have died, the surest way to do that is to say loudly and confidently that Professor X and Magneto are allegories for Dr. King and Malcolm X. But, I *will* be in a bad mood.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Take heart, Zack de la Rocha and Serj Tankian prepared you for this moment.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Take heart, Zack de la Rocha and Serj Tankian prepared you for this moment.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

"We didn't vote for Trump to round up and deport innocent people." Yes, you did. It has always been this way. This has happened every time the US has tried mass deportations. Hell, this happens under normal circumstances. Yes. You. Did.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

My favorite quote from a panel at the Central States Communication Association: "All my projects come from rage".

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Reposted by Gabriel Cruz, PhD

Ruwa Romman @ruwaromman.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Listen to me. Money in politics is a huge problem that we need to fix but in the meantime it’s not insurmountable. Wisconsin beat Musk. We can, together, beat billionaires.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Hello Secretary Clinton. Fire your communications director or whoever thought this was a good idea.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

For anyone interested in seeing what kind of language can get you deported, here is the article co-authored by Rumeysa Ozturk: www.tuftsdaily.com/staff/rumeys...

tuftsdaily.com

Rumeysa Ozturk - The Tufts Daily

The Tufts Daily

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Reposted by Gabriel Cruz, PhD

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16/03/2025

"dei medal" you might as well just put "n*gger medal" because that's what they mean to say

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Just finished Daredevil: Born Again, episodes 1 and 2, and I'm so on board.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

For no particular reason, here is a scene of Wilson Fisk leveraging the villain Nuke’s warped sense of patriotism to get him to hunt Daredevil. Daredevil #232 (1986) by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

I don't know if the revolution will be televised, but given half a chance Disney will copyright it.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I'm going to Ohio later this year for a conference, and God help me if I die in a plane crash going in or out of Cincinnati I'm going to haunt everyone responsible. I refuse to have my death be in any way related to the Midwest or Elon Musk.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

"Dr. Cruz, where do you learn all these horrible things, and why do you keep telling us?" -- A student after telling my class about the 1898 Wilmington, NC Coup

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

I need more members of Congress to read or watch science-fiction/fantasy so they can recognize that this is God-Emporer behavior and that it always ends in catastrophe. Warhammer 40K, Mistborn, Star Wars, something, so they can get a clue.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Yesterday I found out that I'm the friend that folks text when they need to know if they have encountered a hate symbol. I mean, I guess everyone in the friend group needs to have a niche?

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

No one ever let me make another TikTok about anything related to Marx or Leftism again because God help me the comment sections on my most recent videos are working my nerves.

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Reposted by Gabriel Cruz, PhD

Witty N. Shitty @katesamuels.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

I think I’m going to make drunk dialing senators, my new favorite pastime

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Me: So, consider how your parent's musical taste shaped your own. What did they listen to? What was playing in the house when you were a kid? Various Students: Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, Prince Me: Ok, sure, sure. Student: Outkast Me: *Visibly ages*

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

In case anyone is wondering, bringing up Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball Z (which ended 29 years ago) in the context of mass media and race is still a great way to get students engaged in class discussion, if a bit defensive. For those that don't know, here's Mr. Popo:

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

De-Nazi'fy everything, Re-Nazi'fy nothing.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

The rate at which the Mystery Mousketools, devices that are initially unknown to the characters and audience, are useful at resolving the issues at the Mikey Mouse Clubhouse suggests that either Mikey Mouse is a cult leader manipulating his friends or omniscient. Someone help me turn off my brain.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

I'm working on lecture notes which include discussing the German-Am. Bund rally in Madison Square Garden; so friendly reminder that Isadore Greenbaum, a 26yo Jewish plumber from Brooklyn, charged the stage and screamed "Down with Hitler" in a room of 20k American Nazis. A real life Captain America

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Dystopia is having a serious conversation about the US government not allowing citizens to leave the country while in the background your children play.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

I'm so tired of reality stealing my ideas for short stories.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Streaming series pitch: A Disney+ MCU series about old man Steve Rogers and Isaiah Bradley traveling the country and bonding as they punch neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and other white supremacist groups, 2 v 100 at a time. It needs a name, I'll leave that to y'all.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

The owner of Twitter made a Nazi salute. The owner of Meta is well on his way through the Chad to CHUD pipeline. The owner of TikTok is striking a deal with the Insurrectionist-in-Chief. What a time to be a public- facing educator.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

In case someone hasn't already coined this term: Muskulinity: A performance of masculinity defined by: -Pseudo-intellectualism -Theatrical public suffering -Weaponized identity politics -A supplicating relationship to an authoritarian Ex: Zuckerberg flexed his muskulinity on Joe Rogan's podcast.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Every time I hear "masculine" or "feminine" energy, I'm reminded of Umberto Eco's assertion that fascism relies on a mystic, primeval conceptualization of heteronormative gender that is seen as eternal, static, and clearly defined, and thus true. And so to deviate from that is to reject "Truth".

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Well, not with that attitude, Hank.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Hopefully, the end of TikTok means I'll stop getting emails from companies asking me to endorse their beauty products.

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Reposted by Gabriel Cruz, PhD

eve6 @eve6.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Can't imagine the youth will be too bummed about their high energy video app being banned when they can just log onto blue sky and read sentences written by elder millennials

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

I realize the world is metaphorically and literally on fire right now, but when we get a minute, we really need to consider the amount of food that is wasted by the Very Hungry Caterpillar in those books.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I just read this article, and it is harrowing, heartbreaking, and infuriating. It's understandable if you'd rather not read it due to the graphic depictions of violence, but you should at least be aware. www.vulture.com/article/neil...

vulture.com

There Is No Safe Word

How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

I've been thinking about this and how so much of my social media use in general is structured around Tiktok, as in I think to check Tiktok and thus remember to check my other apps.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

I had to reschedule a tattoo appointment today because of the forecasted snow storm, so this better be worth it.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

I recently watched Mufasa: The Lion King, and it was fine. But the use of leucism as a signifier of racial marginality and villainous difference in a story about class ascension and rejecting heredity-based rule is...curious.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Is 36 too young to dress like a curmudgeonly professor that wears jackets with elbow patches? I'm trying to figure out my aesthetic for 2025.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

I'll take it a step further, you should be able to retire from a career of being a cashier.

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Gabriel Cruz, PhD @gacruzphd.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

So, I did a thing! Announcing: Latinidad, Identity Formation, and the Mass Media Landscape: Constructing Pocho Villa It's an introduction to Latinx representation within the news, film, TV, video games, and superhero media using mass media theories. livedplacespublishing.com/book/isbn/97...

livedplacespublishing.com

Latinidad, Identity Formation, and the Mass Media Landscape

How can mass media be used to help construct a personal sense of Latinidad whilst navigating predominately white spaces? As the son of a Mexican immigrant man and a white American woman, living in pre...

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