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Josh Rea

@reajm.bsky.social
94 followers 157 following 31 posts

Assistant Professor of Writing Studies @ Millersville University

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Reposted by Josh Rea
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/09/2026
This is one of the objections I have when people talk about how useful LLMs can be for literature searches or for any kind of search, really. Even beyond the biases that inevitably (and, in some cases, intentionally) show up, part of a good literature search is seeing information *in context.*
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library gifted more than 332,000,000 books since it was first created 31 years ago.
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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 21/08/2026
Opinion | The Crisis in College Composition and Communication The dissolution of the field’s premier organization couldn’t have come at a worse time. By Jason Godfrey and Anne Ruggles Gere: bit.ly/4gtUvWI #EDUSky #HigherEd #AcademicSky
A woman's hands typing on a laptop.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 08/08/2026
A good reminder that cities aren't loud. Cars are loud.
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 26/07/2026
A letter from the mother of Alex Pretti, six months after he was murdered by ICE.
suzpretti
18 hours ago

Today marks the six-month anniversary of Alex's murder. No one has been held accountable, no apologies, not a single phone call from any governmental official, hospital personnel, or the mpls police dept. Six-months of pain, a roller-coaster of trauma over and over. Every time another a death, another mention, a picture, a tribute, a sorrow so deep. I wonder how to move forward. Will I ever get over this loss and this pain?
Will I ever be able to enjoy life again? How does one live knowing that I have no power to change what has happened?

And yet the outreach not only from Minnesota, but from around the world has been nothing less than spectacular. Every card, every gift, every heartfelt letter has been read, touched, held, and cherished by us all. The kindness you've all shown us is beyond words. Please never forget Alex and what he believed in ~ equality and peace for all. I will remember the things that made you, you. It will never take your memory. As long as I'm here, you will never be forgotten.

For all you asking what you can do. Continue this fight. Never give up your right to speak out, protect your neighbor, your community and don't forget to spend time with those you love...
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Dan Libertz @dlib24.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
c.org/vyVbttS2QK #teamrhetoric
c.org
Sign the Petition
Halt Dissolution of CCCC and Call for Transparency from NCTE #SaveCCCC
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Amber Buck @ambuck.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hey @insidehighered.com @chronicle.com Want to report on how the professional organization for college writing (including the top required college course) was just dissolved by its parent org? ncte.org/press-update...
ncte.org
NCTE Update, Decision by NCTE Executive Committee
The following is a message from the NCTE Executive Committee.
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Dr. Jennifer (she/her) @drjags.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
That "special topics conference" language is really getting under my grill. It reeks of the long history of seeing composition as an extension of and lesser than literature.
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Dustin Edwards @dustinedwards.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
the audacity for the NCTE EC to say they're excited about the future. i just --
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The silence from NCTE over the last two days is rather loud.
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Megan McIntyre @rcmeg.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The CCCC Exec Committee released a brief statement on the NCTE’s intention to dissolve CCCC. "CCCC is the professional home for thousands of scholars, teachers, and researchers...with a decades-long record of shaping how writing is taught, studied, and understood."
docs.google.com
CCCC EC Quick Response July 23
Public Facing Statement To be Shared With the General CCCC Membership We, members of the CCCC Executive Committee, were alarmed to learn of the NCTE Presidential Team’s plans to dissolve CCCC, which ...
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Ajuna Soerjadi 🌸 @ethicsofai.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
There is no way to use ChatGPT responsibly.
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Ilhan Omar @ilhanmn.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
ICE has fatally shot 11 people since Donald Trump's second term began. These are not isolated incidents. They are the predictable result of a cruel, violent system. Abolish ICE.
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 10/07/2026
SHOCK NYT REPORT: DHS now admits the man ICE killed in Houston wasn't even their target. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 35-year U.S. resident, was just driving to work when agents — with no body cameras — shot him dead searching for two other men who weren't even in the van. Gift link in reply.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 10/07/2026
“Cornell researchers found that at the current rate of AI growth, the burgeoning industry could represent 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, the equivalent of adding five to ten million cars to US roadways.”
futurism.com
The Pollution Being Churned Out by AI Data Centers Is So Severe That It's Almost Incomprehensible
The extent of the pollution being put out by thousands of data centers is shocking. Some developers are exploiting regulatory loopholes.
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Imagine writing this and sending it out to people like you thought you actually did something.
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Ali Trotta @alwayscoffee.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
JFC, STOP SHARING GEN AI IMAGERY. It's shitty. And it's bad. BONUS frustration if it has no alt text, because then you suck twice.
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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The integration of AI into writing classrooms should take heed on what's happening to programmers who use AI to "vibe code." These are people who already knew how to do the thing that's atrophying. Students don't have their writing practices set yet. www.404media.co/software-dev...
404media.co
Software Developers Say AI Is Rotting Their Brains
“It's making me dumber for sure.”
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Le Cagle @lecagle.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I am extremely alarmed by this.
chronicle.com
A Professor Defended a Postdoc Who Was Deported. Now His Lab Has Been Suddenly Locked Down.
Work at an Indiana University biology lab was halted amid federal scrutiny, affecting dozens of researchers. “The damage is significant and mounting,” the department chair told The Chronicle.
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 11/05/2026
A school board in Wisconsin is probably going to censor an instrumental performance by children because the composer dedicated the piece to a queer icon. It’s why the calls by Democratic consultants to compromise on “the trans issue” is so unacceptable. You cannot compromise with this vile hatred.
wpr.org
Wisconsin school board considers pulling piece from spring band concert due to LGBTQ+ history ties
Watertown High School band students have spent months preparing for their May 18 spring concert. But a piece of music will likely be struck from their set list over its history.
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Rachael Nevins ❌👑 @rachaelnevins.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
“Use AI to brainstorm but not to write.” “Use AI to help you outline but not to write.” These are commonly proposed as “ethical” ways for undergrad students to use AI, but I’m sorry, brainstorming & outlining are just as integral to writing as the actual construction of sentences.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 16/11/2025
There's a kind of displacement in the idea that ai is both A) so easy to use that we won't need people to know how to do things B) itself something that requires significant skill and training to use
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
A man in a hot dog costume pointing at the camera. Text says "We're all trying to find the guy who did this."
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 25/04/2026
I try hard to never to use "generative AI" because the phrase is itself industry gobbledegook that aims to erode scientific vocabulary through normalising such terms that superficially seem technical but are nonsense in their referent; more below:
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Red state: we have cut gender studies because it doesn’t support our theology Blue state: we have cut gender studies because it doesn’t support our AI institute
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
We have had several (I think four?) professors in my department retire in the three years I've been at my current institution and not one of those lines has been filled.
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 18/04/2026
The desperate campaign to push AI down our throats is just what Nestlé did with baby formula, or Monsanto with patended seeds. Manufactured Intermediation—inserting a corporate tollbooth into a process that used to be self-sustaining, using a low initial barrier to entry to destroy the alternative.
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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
If I were a senator or congressperson, I would not be on social media right now. Actually, I would be on social media. I would be live in an airport or on a train while on my way back to the Capitol to hold a sit-in with as many colleagues and camera crews as possible over this ****.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 07/04/2026
I feel sick to my stomach waiting around to see what atrocity Trump has in mind for the people of Iran this evening. It's hard to fathom our other elected leaders aren't able to check him in any meaningful way. It's an indictment not just of voters but of our whole system. We're ruled by a mad king.
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Toronto Will @torontowill.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I appreciate that "it doesn't really work this way", I just don't care. An imminent threat to end a civilization is a 5 alarm fire, even by Trump standards. If he can break the constitution to start a war, you can bend some procedure to stop a genocide. At least look like you're trying.
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
my youngest grandson returns from The Waste. No food again, just metal scraps. But he's so proud, and wants a reward. "Tell me again about The Great Before. Tell me why The Green went away," he begs. "in the Before," I begin, "people had questions about who should participate in women's sports..."
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Dr Holly Nielsen @hollynielsen.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Isn’t it weird how “AI literacy” being pushed on students isn’t about learning how it works, the cost of how it works, learning to spot disinformation, media and tech literacy. But instead is just “employers will like it if you get it to write your emails :)”
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
A man pointing at a white board with a graph drawn on it. The Y axis is labeled "find out" and the X axis is labeled "fuck around." There is a sharp increasing correlation between the two.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 11/03/2026
there was also a Stanford study that found that a surge in AI slop by lazy people actually created significantly more work for others who had to decipher and correct it this "I'm being efficient" (but not really) vibes well with the American obsession with artifice and appearing productive
techdirt.com
Stanford Study: ‘AI’ Generated ‘Workslop’ Actually Making Productivity Worse
Automation undeniably has some useful applications. But the folks hyping modern “AI” have not only dramatically overstated its capabilities, many of them generally view these tools as a…
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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 11/03/2026
You do not need the robots to creatively prompt you! Just try to take the most violent bite of yourself possible. Try to swallow yourself whole
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
I’m actually not sure we can come back from “prediction markets for war crimes”, as a society. I think this might be it for us.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/02/2026
i’m tired of every paper (even critical ones) on societal impact of AI starting by both-siding the “benefits” and risks/harms of AI in academia, i would like us to arrive at a collective reckoning that we don’t need to play both sides. it's totally legit to clearly state just the harms. period
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Fuck this and everyone who helped get things to this point. Trans rights are human rights—full stop.
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
This is the kind of thing a rich CEO says at the beginning of a science fiction movie to establish for the audience that he is a sociopath and the villain.
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Josh Rea @reajm.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Waking up to read the news like
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I’ve watched a very smart child try to encode what chaptgpt thinks is “human” so that her class assignments don’t get flagged for plagiarism. I’ve heard expert professionals admit to self-editing so they don’t “sound” like an llm. This is the kind of cultural flattening that accelerates fascism.
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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
1. It was not an accident. 2. It was not a staffer. 3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia. 4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares. 5. His base agrees with him. 6. He will do it again. 7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting.
2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value.
3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE.
4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on.
5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle."
6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground.7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack.
8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video.
9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk.
10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun.
11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.
12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes.13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.
14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.
15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1.
16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.
17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.
18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bearwitness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.
I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct.

Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.
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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS @dimitridrekonja.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him. White. Hot. Rage.
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
It’s time. I want the see Steve Kerr’s Warriors and Minneapolis’ Timberwolves agree that they simply cannot play this game tonight. A strike in solidarity with the besieged city and its murdered and abducted residents.
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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Pretty much every article I read about "integrating" AI into the writing classroom brings me back to the conclusion I work through here: We should teach writing, not document production. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Writing Classes Are About Writing, Not AI-Aided Production
If we want students to learn to write, AI tools shouldn’t have much of a role. If we don’t think students need to learn to write anymore, I’m not sure what we’re doing here.
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Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Please stop and read this statement from Renee Good's wife.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Renee Good.
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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.
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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
If universities would prioritize smaller classes and fewer bells and whistles like third-party technology contracts, a significantly bigger number of PhDs would find a position in higher education.
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