iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think that's good for managing expectations. Be prepared for Dems to issue subpoenas and for Trump to just say no or have his own *personal* lawyer sue Congress and appeal to SCOTUS, which is of course unprecedented and unbecoming of any president in a democratic system.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I just had a fascinating conversation with a person whose ancestors were enslaved persons working on a plantation owned by the subject of my research. We will stay in contact and exchange our research findings, which is fantastic.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I saw Corey Lewandowski make a mockery of congressional proceedings with Jerry Nadler not quite knowing how to play politics. He's an autocrat who doesn't respect checks and balances awash in oil money and organized crime.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Roberts et al gave Dipsh*t power that no previous president ever had. I saw Richard Neal struggle for over 2 years to get his tax returns only to see the revelations become a 1-day story while Hunter Biden's laptop and Hillary's emails dominated the news cycle for years.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Been wanting to say for quite some time I'm not that excited about the midterms and am trying not to get too emotionally involved. I feel too scarred by Trump v. U.S. and letting an autocrat back into power after Jan 6. Even if Dems take both houses of Congress, and that's no guarantee, so what?

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Mormon Democrats have always fascinated me. So Harry Reid and I guess there's another one running now. In fact, any highly religious Democrat is kind of interesting to me. White southern progressives are interesting. Like LBJ. I always wish we had more.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

one of these bumps had mostly to do with covid. the other, a deranged lunatic. Inflation was headed in the right direction in January 2025.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Socrates means a lot to you and I and perhaps we can make him meaningful to others. A large % of my own students are first-generation, working 20-40 hrs / week in their job, have other responsibilities, and taking 5 classes on top of mine. It's challenging to say the least to make him relevant.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Reject the consumerist view of higher ed and we just might encourage others to adopt the more moral approach.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

encourages a more consumerist attitude that completely overpowers the classical view. If you take the consumerist attitude that you're just jumping through hoops to get a piece of paper on the wall, you probably won't be persuaded by the moral case. It's tragic but it's reality.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

and moral person. If we view college as an opportunity to improve one's morality, then using AI as a shortcut merely to inflate one's GPA is a non-starter, completely anathema to the type of citizenry we should all be cultivating. Unfortunately, the modern university...

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

and exclusionary. But it need not be so in the 21st century. Making college more inclusive need not undermine the notion that taking college courses is not just an opportunity to earn credits, but to think deeply about one's place in the world and what it means to be a kind...

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

And yes, this analogy will be compelling for some. What about the moral case? Do people look at going to college anymore as an opportunity to improve oneself in a moral sense? To become a better person? This is an older, classical view of college that was often quite elitist...

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If penalizing AI use in student writing comes with a whole raft of thorny issues, and it does, what, then, will *persuasively* discourage its use? I've been thinking about this a ton the last few years. There's the analogy of atrophy with your brain functioning as a muscle.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

it's definitely not immigration. Financialization is a problem but it is not the big one for housing. It's mostly lack of building in places where people want to live, like California. And that comes down to zoning and making it too easy to sue to block building new housing.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't know, I shouldn't overstate this. I've had this debate in my head for many years and I'm envisioning a version of academia that was never perfect. So I suppose the best word to describe my sense is "ambivalent."

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

a community that includes many authors I admire. Toiling away as an adjunct workhorse, often teaching during winter and summer sessions, I never truly get the opportunity to function as a *scholar* and historian. This status, unfortunately, describes the overwhelming majority of history PhDs.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I just finished re-reading Amy Greenberg's A Wicked War. I really like this book. I don't think enough people put any sustained thought into the importance of the Mexican-American War. Reading the acknowledgments, I am envious of the tight-knit scholarly community in which she immersed herself...

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's been cool to see Wolfers become more of an economics star these past few years. I'll never forget him talking about the most recent Trump tax cuts being the largest redistribution upward of wealth in U.S. history. Wolfers is up there with Krugman, Scanlon, Sahm, Baker, Rampell, etc.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Grateful to have experienced so many towering giants in my lifetime.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

are these your kitty katz? They are so cute! I was thinking of you with Greenland in the news. I remember you said how scared the Danes were a few months ago and of course, your average American was utterly clueless.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Europeans have responded proactively and rationally to higher gas prices. Americans? I guess we just love to complain. And it frustrates me *deeply* I really hope California phases out ICEs by 2035. I fear we'll lack the courage and cave to fossil fuel extortion once again.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Are you freaking kidding me??!! Only 10%??!! Amid all the hand-wringing over gas prices? It is often said that America is irredeemably broken. I agree. But few people point to this specifically. What if we talked much more about this than identity?

Screenshot from USA Today story showing only 10% of car shoppers said they would consider buying a fully-electric model (EV), which Dr. Campbell believes is despicable, consumerist, unimaginative, and depressing. And idiotic.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Learn to work the saxophone / And I play just what I feel

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

We need to have serious conversations about the morality of passing off AI-generated or AI-assisted writing as your own. "But everyone else is doing it," some will say. I mean, c'mon. Really? Are you actually an adult with that kind of comeback?

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

So much of what AI offers us is *convenience.* And speed. But life isn't a competition for productivity. Or at least, it shouldn't be. I'm a strong critic of organized religion, but I've always considered myself a strongly moral person.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I know the amount of water usage from data centers is sometimes exaggerated, but the gas-powered plants that power many data centers are inexcusable given climate change.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The United States has contributed more to climate change than any other country. Something like 23% of all CO2 that is in the air came from the U.S.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I always insisted that oil was a major factor for why we went into Venezuela. It is the burning of fossil fuels that plays a major role in warming the planet and causing the collapsing glacier in Nepal. The consumptive habits of Americans are literally leading to deaths overseas.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I shouldn't have to explicitly connect the dots to show how these two are related, but basically, as the rest of the world transitions to EVs and solar panels, U.S. domestic and foreign policy remains inextricably linked to and dependent on fossil fuels.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

There are two stories going on right now that are linked: 1. U.S. announces agreement to take greater control of Venezuelan oil 2. Hundreds are dead in Nepal after a collapsing glacier. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Trump announces new US oil agreement with Venezuela

US president says US will have ‘majority’ control of 65bn barrels of proven oil reserves

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

okay, good point on social media and algorithms not existing then. But would you agree that basic scientific literacy often gets wrapped up into culture, identity, and politics to harmful effects?

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

maybe, but it also requires billionaire-funded social media, algorithms, a consumer-driven education system, and politicians who think they can profit off of discrediting science. Perhaps if they discredit science in one realm, they can help their donors avoid climate regulations in another realm.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Polls taken today have nothing to do with why "he's a business guy who will be great for the economy" was constantly in the heads of millions of ill-informed voters in the 2024 campaign, when it mattered the most.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

You can point to recent poll numbers all you want for evidence of accountability, but that reality pales in comparison to the even greater failure on the part of media, conservative judges, and average voters, who let Trump be a viable candidate in the first place.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

One of the worst instances of media malpractice was to convince people that Biden's economy was terrible and that inflation was all his fault. The reality is Trump made all these grandiose promises that have failed to materialize. And he's never held to account for these failures.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Whether it was deporting immigrants, fickle tariff policy, exploding deficits, inflation, elevated interest rates, or all of the above, the Trump economy has been lackluster. The only variable keeping it afloat and preventing a recession is all the massive AI spending, including on data centers.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Nonetheless, the impact of Trump should be clear in the jobs numbers. I put a purple arrow and text in there to indicate when Trump comes into office. Notice how there were no jobs losses when Biden was in office.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Most people put too much emphasis on who is president when evaluating an economy. We refer to a "Bush economy" or "Obama economy." In reality, economies are complex, globalized, large, and shaped by thousands of decisions made by private actors over which presidents have no discretion.

Screenshot of recent jobs and unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released August 7, 2026. Annotations in purple provided by Dr. Stephen W. Campbell

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

If I could ever get paid to do so, I would travel the country, develop my own podcast, write books, deliver speeches, etc, explaining with reams of evidence how catastrophically misguided, patronizing, and erroneous these myths are.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Two of the most destructive myths ever: * They voted for Trump because of the economy * Working class voters don't care about climate change. They care about gas prices, the price of eggs, and putting food on the table

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

it's interesting you say that. I was born and raised in the SF Bay Area. Spent 10 years in the UC System for BA and PhD. Lived in something like 13 cities, all in California, and all chasing the elusive and contracting academic job market. After 18.5 years in Socal I finally moved back to NorCal.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

But what do they tell us about the history of the U.S. military, particularly when we consider similar instances of torture and burning down villages in the Philippines (1898) and the various massacres, including My Lai, in Vietnam? What do these examples tell us about patriotism?

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The people who launched and fought in the Mexican-American War wanted to extend the same system that oppressed Nat Turner. Now, I'm not the least bit surprised by these details because they're familiar to me.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

So much commentary about how Gawd wanted the U.S. to invade Mexico, Manifest Destiny and all that, etc. And the results of the Mexican-American War went a long way toward explaining the tensions over slavery that gave us the Civil War.

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Steve Campbell @stevecampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

It was a war to extend slavery. There was so much commentary about how Mexicans were an inferior race who had somehow (and I've yet to figure out how precisely) dishonored the U.S. and therefore deserved the punishment they got.

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