Sign in

Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)

@roderickgraham.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.4K following 2.8K posts

Gadfly | I post about social science, culture, and progressive politics | Views are my own rodgraham.substack.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 4h
Sonny Gray....especially the way he wears his hat...looks exactly like a guy whose name would be Sonny Gray.
010
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 7h
Hard to say Derek Jeter is underrated but he has 200 postseason hits - the most ever, and the next person has about 130? And he did this before the current playoff format.
000
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 9h
I can translate this into: If you don't see the world the way I see it, then you are partisan and committing treason.
040
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
sanneru.bsky.social @sanneru.bsky.social · 22h
#Cornell #WestandwithJaneDoe
531249595
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 11h
If a professor creates an assignment with AI, students complete the assignment with AI, and then the professor grades it with AI... What is actually happening?
000
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Sandy @sanwil.bsky.social · 16h
I think this was the first time I was present when an internet meme was born! I'm handing out bubblegum cigars!
1292
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Nashoba Indivisible @nashobaindivisible.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Join the Hands Off Our Vote livestreamed event featuring Mark Ruffalo, Robert De Niro, and Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin on SUNDAY, October 4 at 7pm. Speakers will discuss the steps each of us can take to defend our democracy, protect the vote, and defend the midterms from Trump’s sabotage and…
033
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Not winning the central division might work out better for the ChiSox. No reflection...just get out and play a team that is objectively equal or lesser to you in talent.
000
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Unusual Whales @unusualwhales.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
BREAKING: OpenAI is scrapping the release of its next-generation AI model because it failed to meet safety standards, per WSJ
39723
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's really hard for me to teach my classes the exact same way each semester. I don't know how others can do it so easily.
010
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 28/09/2026
"The results of our survey are indeed disturbing. But they just serve to highlight the stakes of getting the next few years, indeed the next few election cycles, right." www.liberalcurrents.com/americans-ar...
liberalcurrents.com
Americans Are Angry. The Democratic Base Is Furious.
We must channel our anger at current injustices into productive direct action.
0187
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Wasn't he supposed to be a bad president? Finally, if that guy - with all his immorality and incompetence - would have been good at his job of being president, then whatever we thought about ability, merit, and doing things the right way would be thrown into question.
000
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I did not see this product coming.
110
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"I am more capable of imagining someone pulling out a weapon called a 'phaser' and shooting an alien called a 'Klingon' than I can a world where everyone has their basic needs met..." rodgraham.substack.com/p/boldly-goi...
rodgraham.substack.com
Boldly Going Nowhere?
Why Star Trek Is Easier to Imagine Than a Four-Day Workweek
000
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The wheels are coming off yet Senate GOP can't quit Trump. A week of panic as well as paralysis. A THREAD.
726252
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Saw a headline saying AI will *increase* the value of the humanities. That makes sense. We may not need humans to learn established processes anymore (formulas, procedures, etc). Instead we can focus on what it means to be human. In this century we will need more poets than computer scientists.
000
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
WIRED @wired.com · 26/09/2026
Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.
buff.ly
A College Girl Was Exploited on Camera. A Network of Anonymous Men Got to Work
Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.
712927
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Holly R. Valakresch @hollyvalakresch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Be as faithful to it as a scientist.” - From a letter Ernest Hemmingway wrote to Scott Fitzgerald when Fitzgerald doubted his own writing abilities.
0252
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
MAGA supporter to Nazi party member on their death bed: I need to understand how you lived in the world after it was all over.
010
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is how a human being looks when they are going to the playoffs.
010
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If I may recruit some well-worn sociological concepts to explain something... Conservatives treat bigotry like the violation of a folkway - not unlike wearing a black belt with brown shoes. Liberals treat it like the violation of a more - akin to theft or adultery.
010
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A day in the life.... #academicsky #sociology
060
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I went into Aldi's today to get spaghetti. There was nothing labeled simply "spaghetti". But my sense is that *all* of this is..."spaghetti".
330
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
May I offer an alternative? This just gets old. It's not that Republicans are better at messaging, It's that their audience is more..."messagable"? It's less diverse - in terms of media consumption and background - and so easier to target, and they're more at ease with authority and being led.
3113
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is correct to me: the OP and the quote post. We are just recruiting our older evolved machinery to interact with a newer environment built by technology. I mean this is the fundamental challenge of humans in the digital age. My laptop's name is Rousseau. I adopted him from an ebay seller.
010
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"It's the ASK ME ANYTHING edition of the Editorial Board"!!! I've always liked the quality of John's content, and generally agree with his takes.
262
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
To be honest the pretense lasted longer than I thought. They are businesses after all and it's probably better that we see them as the naked, amoral profit maximizers they are.
130
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Everything is inspired by #opensource predecessors.
020
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
conifergirl.bsky.social @conifergirl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The “affordability crisis” that Democrats are running on and Trump calls a “scam” is almost always framed as being about prices being too high. But that’s only half of the equation, and the other half — income being too low — is almost never
9345104
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
When this era ends we won't describe the supporters of Trump with a banality of evil framing. It's kind of like the usefulness of evil. Those people were willing to support an obviously immoral, corrupt human being because he was useful to them.
041
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
1. In American politics, the simplest explanation is probably the best. Why are some Republicans suddenly and conspicuously breaking from Donald Trump? Not just any Republicans, but ruby-red Republicans, in ruby-red states, in the span of days? The answer is probably diesel.
24652169
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There has to be a name for when one experiences a meme's origin out in the wild. In season six episode 9 of TNG, La Forge agrees with Riker that beards are a sign of strength...and 30 odd years later, it's a meme.
121
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Not a new observation but Star Trek TNG anticipated so much of our current tech life 30 years ago: - The use of handheld tablets to read. - How we talk to computers. - Using non-text GUIs to communicate with computers... and more things I'm sure that escape me. Truly outstanding.
020
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Tommy Pham is yet again on an organization's major league roster during a playoff run.
000
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I've led an unconventional life for so long until it has become conventional to me. And now the lives of the many others that used to appear conventional now seem unconventional. This might be the beginnings of senility.
020
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I've always found posting private messages to be a major breach of sociality. Almost like snitches get stitches or something...I'm not sure. It's like an act of betrayal or violating the confidence of people who trusted you.
001
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is Chuck's reaction to Dr. Hinton explaining aspects of AI on an episode of Star Talk.
030
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I get the practicality behind the claim that "trans issues" are not going to help Democrats gain more political power in this country. This is one of the reasons why I could never be a politician, because the issues I am concerned about are not contingent upon their popularity.
021
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
One of the many things surprising to me about the human-dog relationship is how much it is contingent upon the bowels of the canine. What if dogs defecated randomly, making "walking the dog" a superficial, superfluous activity?
320
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
He is right about this. But income inequality is (1) far too abstract for most folks to grasp the significance of it, or (2) most folks see it as an expected outcome based on differences in talent and work ethic. Someone has to come along and find a better way of framing this existential problem.
230
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A Hispanic Republican in Florida is facing her FAFO moment. A THREAD.
716251
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Sam @sfsutcliffe.eurosky.social · 19/09/2026
✨Great tips and #opensource options for leaving #BigTech in the dust. #BoycottBigTech
032
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more
A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives
14016
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If President Trump “means to expel these news organizations from The White House press pool, his action is doubly unconstitutional because the press pool is a ‘public forum’ under the First Amendment, which means the president can’t exclude journalists from it on the basis of their viewpoints.”
nytimes.com
Trump Says He Has Banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico From White House (Gift Article)
The president cited reporting from the outlets that he deemed “fake news.” It was unclear how such a ban would be enforced or defended in court.
39331
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Doctor Wind Turkey @dog-envier.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
getting madder about this. "you have 10 days to do a spec rewrite of your paper that we may or may not have even read, prob so we can just reject it." you took a fucking month, use that time to actually read the article and reject or R&R or something so i know if i'm wasting my time with your bs.
2131
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Electing public officials is serious business with real world consequences. One of the glaring downsides of our "both sides are equivalent, serious alternatives" media framing is that completely ignores the direct consequences of both sides *not* being the same. www.cnbc.com/2026/09/16/o...
cnbc.com
Consumers hit by one-two punch of oil and rates from Iran war. The estimated bill is $1,700 per household
Rising oil prices and Treasury yields are lifting energy and borrowing costs for U.S. households, pushing consumers to draw more heavily on savings.
12610
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I'd rather be living in a Democratic socialist state than a Christian theocratic state. This seems to be the choice we are barreling towards this century. We are currently cosplaying as 20th century Democrats and Republicans.
020
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I love thinking in doodled diagrams, and I've been considering this for years. But AI is such a disruptive technology. Now I can doodle, and when something is worth saving I can take a picture, have AI reproduce it and upload it to my cloud - no need for the extra screen and subscription lock-in.
100
Reposted by Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist)
John Holland @johnholland.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“Stevie Wonder Has Lost His Eyesight“
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Has Lost Contact With Reality
The president’s distortions have an impact on much more than belief in his claims about what he was doing on Sept. 11.
031
Rod Graham (The Neighborhood Sociologist) @roderickgraham.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I thought I could identify AI writing from its overall verbosity - stacked examples, compound sentences, and so forth. But now I'm browsing a social science monograph from the early 1900s...and uh...maybe Claude was the editor?
120