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The "free speech" government fired me

Five months ago I was fired by the US government. Now, one of the biggest categories on the academic job market is "being right wing." I wrote about what's at stake. buttondown.com/anotherway/a...

buttondown.com

"Free speech" advocates are killing free speech

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 15h

have a doorstopper of an article on automation history, AI agents, and the concept of agency that I can't wait to share once it's published

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Brian Schaffner @bfschaffner.bsky.social · 21h

we’re hiring an assistant professor in American politics 🐘 apply.interfolio.com/194599

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 18h

chuckling to myself as I post this on LinkedIn and see what happens

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Dan Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 21h

Oh the faculty lounge? Where the aloof, lazy profs are planning how to spend their millions on indoctrinating your kid? Is that the same lounge where we've been collecting water in a trash can for months because they haven't fixed the pipe

The drop ceiling has a black
Garbage bag hanging down from it, with a hose leading to a yellow trash can

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 20h

my best advice for grad students and early career researchers is have hobbies and friends that will force you into a healthier work-life balance. sorry no more time to doom about the job market today, your international coterie of pals need you to fight in the Skeleton War online tonight

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The "free speech" government fired me

Five months ago I was fired by the US government. Now, one of the biggest categories on the academic job market is "being right wing." I wrote about what's at stake. buttondown.com/anotherway/a...

buttondown.com

"Free speech" advocates are killing free speech

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Reposted by Henry Snow

ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Unboxing day! Over a decade in the making, NECESSARY INVENTIONS: ROGER BACON, THE MIDDLE AGES, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN SCIENCE (PENN Press) is a material object. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way. For sale on October 20. @pennpress.bsky.social

Photo of a box filled with multiple copies of the book. The cover is ochre, and has different images of Bacon, from manuscripts and printed books.

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it is wild how bad the online shopping experience is with general retailers at this point (Walmart, Amazon). no respect for the customer, dodging ads and fake products and misleading copy, interruptions begging you to pay for a subscription

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is an important critique and I'm going to continue to beat the AP is bad drum but I want to also add that if your "school" cuts hours a day out you're cutting out nonacademic learning too. I cannot even fathom what these "schools" might do to kids in social terms

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Oh no Gen Z is going to learn how fucked up tv was. They’re going to learn that we had psychics on the news like they were legitimate sources of information

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sanjukta paul @sanjukta.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Wrote a paper.

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Emily Moin @emilymoin.com · 25/09/2026

Social friction is good. When you know you are demanding someone's time and incurring their judgment, you're more likely to work through a problem independently to the best of your abilities. This preparatory work makes the ultimate consultation more valuable to the patient and the practitioner.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 27/09/2026

fire emblem fortune's weave is game of the year easily imo, I'm impressed and entranced

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 25/09/2026

i don't have comments on hiring and job interviews because here in academia we don't actually do hiring anymore

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 25/09/2026

real grim truths in this thread

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Tim @timzhu.io · 25/09/2026

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Speaking of vehicle model availability its cool to see that the kia EV cargo van model is in Canada but boy would it be awesome to have the passenger version (its like a buzz but with more reasonable range) driving.ca/reviews/2026...

driving.ca

Kia's all-new all-electric PV5 lands in Canada as work van | Reviews

The compact EV debuted at the Toronto auto show in panel-van form, but could show up on our shores as a minivan or accessibility van, too

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?

Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?

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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 24/09/2026

Frontier labs need to stop thinking about "alignment" as a unitary process happening within the model or instance and start thinking of it like an ecosystem. We don't reduce cybercrime or car accidents by producing Ideal Humans but by imposing consequences and checks.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 24/09/2026

This is silly. We shouldn't quantify the value of life at all, and we cannot quantify "chance of catastrophe" except by vibes. At that point any further numerical analysis is simply fake. "1% chance of catastrophe" is as real a number as "a zillion." Make your case in words.

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Seth Rockman @sethrockman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Criteria I've not previously seen in an academic job ad: * "a robust commitment to the principles of free enterprise" * "Develop and sustain relationships with relevant scholarly, professional, and civic organizations (e.g., American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, or Cato Institute)."

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When you write a book you actually write several books. There's the one you know you wrote. Then there's the one your readers bring their experiences to. This is a big part of the magic. As soon as it goes out into the world, your book multiplies & becomes many versions of itself, all equally valid.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 24/09/2026

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is why I do not think that elite schools are particularly safe from automation. More and more, our elites do not value literacy for their children any more than they support it in other people’s. Internal governance, not formal independence and not institutional rank, determines your fate.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 23/09/2026

have developed a very special facial expression for the several students each semester who ask whether and how i can get tenure track employment and stay at whatever institution i am currently at

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 23/09/2026

I recently wrote a well-received book on "free enterprise" and would love a 1:1 but of course this is another Leftists Need Not Apply job

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Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

By destroying Voting Rights Act and gutting 14th & 15th amendments the Roberts Court is recycling legal arguments once used by Confederates and white supremacists to destroy Reconstruction Please read my deep dive w/ @pemalevy.bsky.social in @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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Dan Mandell @dhistoryman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This coming Saturday, conference "Revisiting King Philip's War," perhaps the most devastating war in colonial America, 350 years ago. Yes, it's not just a year to remember the American Revolution. www.historic-deerfield.org/events/confe... #WeWantMoreHistory

historic-deerfield.org

Revisiting King Philip’s War - The War for New England after 350 years - Historic Deerfield

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION IS SOLD OUT. ZOOM REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN. Historic Deerfield, with support from the Massachusetts Historical Society, is hosting a one-day conference: “Revisiting King Phili...

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hikikomorphism @hikikomorphism.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

new domain achieved, new personal website incoming

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LLMs aren't made of neurology except in the most handwavey sense. They're made of narrative. That's why I started calling them text elementals: they're not human, they're most-likely-text generators we bent into living stories in a prose format centering the characters User and Assistant

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in the future austerity is I hope going to be looked at macroeconomically the way we look at bloodletting medically now-- you did what? why?

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A lot of ink spent on rationalists and EA last week, but the White House is clearly listening to a very different cohort with very different problems

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it's below 60 so you know what time it is-- the season in the air-- that's right, it's time to dust off the pizza stone again

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look idle poses like this are all we can expect with the current state of hiring in the games industry unfortunately

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some four months on from launch and I continue to be really pleased by the reception of my book-- if you haven't picked it up yet after my incessant calls to do so, you should!

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Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism

the current state of who, exactly, mediates access to potential customers is very bad. most socials are both censorious and repress links www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

Theatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

> george mason university yeah ok man

spider thing shooting lasers out of its eyes with "silence" text above it

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Set out my feelings about why I just don’t like this trend towards creating a better past by censoring your own archive:

ft.com

We must resist the temptation to censor media and film archives

The best solution is to have a policy of addition rather than subtraction

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in THESE dark times there is not only singing about the dark times but also the sick slap bass of the kirby air riders menu theme

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