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Shelby Balik

@shelbymbalik.bsky.social
363 followers 367 following 320 posts

Professor at MSU Denver. Historian of early America and American religion: politics, households, reading and writing, gender, and race. Empty(ish) nester. I should be writing. she/her/Dr.

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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yeah, that’s not parenting.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hoax? I vote, therefore I am.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#Skyhistorians, I could use help fact-checking. I think the only women in 17th-century English America who published *during their lifetimes* were Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson. Am I right about this? Or was there anyone else?
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We are the Borg. Resistance is futile.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you debase yourself for Nazis, don't be surprised when they ... act like Nazis. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
She helped lead a far-right internet movement. Then it turned on her.
Amy Dangerfield worked to become one of Nick Fuentes’s model “groypettes,” but a vicious fight left her grappling with the dark side of far-right fame.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
L'État, c'est moi.
washingtonpost.com
‘I am the code’: Trump clashed with ballroom architect over safety issues
James McCrery II resigned in October after warning that the president was insisting on designs that violated fire and safety codes.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Is Susan Collins concerned now?
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
But Hunter's laptop... www.propublica.org/article/dona...
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We can be relieved at the SCOTUS decision, or we can be horrified that we are constantly one or two votes away from losing our democracy.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Is this before or after it uses all of our water and destroys all of our books? www.newsweek.com/anthropic-re...
newsweek.com
Anthropic researcher quits, warns AI could kill everyone
The Anthropic researcher quit, warning future AI could wipe out humanity, with senior colleagues publicly backing concerns.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Kind of a wordy way to say he lied.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My job is to teach students to read, write, and think. AI teaches none of those things. There is no role for AI in history.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just dropped my youngest off for his freshman year of college, and now I can only hope that my last fleeting words will stick with him: “I love you.” “I’m proud of you.” “Go to your professors’ office hours.”
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Nostalgic for the good old days, when Republicans were against teen pregnancy (and, sure, also against all methods of preventing it, but at least they were partway there).
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
For those who, like me, grew up seething at Kristol's cheerfully smug and utterly confident dismissal of any idea to the left of far-right, this is ... remarkable.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Apparently Google doesn't know that you can't change the centuries-old name of an international body of water with an executive order. Is their motto still "Don't be evil"?
google.com
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
No. Send this news back.
people.com
Dolly Parton, Country Music Legend, Dies at 80, Just 4 Days After Saying, ‘I Still Have so Many Things I Want to Achieve’
Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. The country music legend was known for songs including “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.” She also starred in movies like ‘Steel Magnolias’ and ‘T...
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Just FYI, this is (one reason) why diversity hiring initiatives are not just worthwhile but essential. With diverse voices in the room, this sort of nonsense doesn't happen. Come to think of it, it also doesn't happen if business majors are required to take humanities courses.
washingtonpost.com
Target ‘deeply sorry’ for children’s Halloween costume compared to blackface
The retailer has stopped selling the “circus clown” costume after it was criticized by social media users for resembling racist caricatures.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I really hope no one ate any of the food that was in that catering truck.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I’m not sure why anyone is surprised that Wilson has criticized a film that lies squarely within her field of expertise. Have these people never gone to a historical movie with a historian? (Well, actually…)
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This is me, staring at my unfinished book chapter and my not-yet-started syllabi, observing "How is it August already?" Day.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Google Earth let people do what? And why? Did they think this would go well? www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
See how Google Earth let people make fake scenes of bombings, riots and destruction
Google put on hold an AI feature in Google Earth just hours after it was introduced. People used it to create AI-manipulated aerial views of horrific scenes.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Trump wasn't thinking he'd have to present the trophy to Spain, was he?
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
It’s what we do.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Wow. I guess everything Trump touches really does turn to shit.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
For those who are discussing how scholarship can dovetail with graphic storytelling, might I recommend this book? No, it's not the same as Charity/Sylvia/Cleves bc the scholar *is* the storyteller, but it's a perfect example of how graphic history can be transparent about the work that informs it.
amazon.com
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts: Hall, Rebecca, Martínez, Hugo: 9781982115197: Amazon.com: Books
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts [Hall, Rebecca, Martínez, Hugo] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
If we are one justice away from blowing up the constitutional basis for citizenship, then we are too close to blowing up the Constitution itself. Reform SCOTUS.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
This one wins algae-gate.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
If the nation survives long enough for us to grapple with the history of the Trump era, the reflecting pool will be some historian's perfect opening anecdote.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Upside to my conference this weekend: My panel chair gave me an idea for how to spin my paper into an article. Downside to my conference this weekend: My panel chair gave me an idea for how to spin my paper into an article.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Fact.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Of course this is just the latest, and it won't be the last. I guess FIFA thought the made-up peace prize was supposed to prevent nonsense like this. Serves them right for thinking bribes would work. We don't deserve the World Cup.
nytimes.com
Somali referee denied entry to U.S. ahead of World Cup
Omar Artan arrived in Miami from Istanbul on Saturday but was barred from entering the country following a "routine" inspection, CBP said.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Yes, it *is* shocking that a city that's 80% Democratic/progressive would reject a Republican reality star for whom politics is a vanity project and who has no serious and informed policy proposals on any issue. Utterly unprecedented.
washingtonpost.com
U.S. attorney’s office in California announces probe into elections
The Los Angeles U.S. attorney's office said it has launched an investigation into election fraud in California's elections.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I wish I had taken one of his classes as an undergrad when I had the chance (there were scheduling conflicts that seemed important at the time) -- not having done so remains one of my few regrets from my college years. Nonetheless, this book was one of the reasons I became a historian.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Teaching "revisionist" history = actually just teaching history.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The event "is about the history and the foundations of our nation, which was built on Christian values, on the Bible ... This is really truly rededicating the country to God." So weird, then, that the (yes, mostly Christian) founders designed an aggressively secular government.
washingtonpost.com
White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S.
Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson will speak at the event, which centers on the idea that the founders wanted the U.S. to be explicitly Christian.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I'm always partial to scenarios in which the historian is the only sane person in the room.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
If there's any upside to Canvas getting hacked, let it be that the IT tech bros in universities across the nation finally learn that human beings are more important than online platforms in the actual work of teaching. They won't learn that lesson. But a professor can dream.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Texas Tech is no longer in the business of educating people.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Seven. Not counting today. I'm so tired.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Well, at least he didn’t depict himself wearing a tan suit.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I guess no one likes Vance in Hungary, either.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The (First) Lady doth protest too much, methinks.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Just got through three hours of teaching, and I'm wondering: did I miss anything while I was in class? And should I bother prepping for Thursday?
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I would think that at the absolute minimum, we should have the World Cup taken away. Of course, the whole FIFA participation peace prize thing would make it awkward.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
This is several layers of unconstitutional, I think.
yahoo.com
Pentagon To Host Good Friday Service Just For Protestants, Not Catholics
“I guess so the Catholics know their kind ain’t welcome,” one Defense Department employee said.
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
2026 has taken much, but every so often it gives a little back.
people.com
Kristi Noem 'Devastated' by Report of Husband Bryon's 'Double Life' Dressing as a Woman
Kristi Noem has been 'blindsided' by a new report that her husband, Bryon Noem, is active on online fetish forums, allegedly posting photos of himself wearing massive fake breasts and paying thousands...
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
You don't have to study early American family life to know what happens to babies who don't have the advantage of modern medical intervention. But I do study early American family life, and I can definitely tell you what happens. Babies die. An astonishing and heartbreaking number of babies die.
cnn.com
It’s not just vaccines: Parents are refusing other routine preventive care for newborns | CNN
Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care fo...
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Shelby Balik @shelbymbalik.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Don't you have to be dead to have your image on a coin? www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
Column | The message on Trump’s coin is clear. And it’s chilling.
Julius Caesar also broke with tradition by putting himself on a coin. It didn’t go over so well.
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