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Colin Toffelmire

@toffelmire.bsky.social
1.4K followers 486 following 1.4K posts

Professor of Christian Studies (Ambrose Uni), amateur cook, even more amateur film lover. Theology, culture, language and hermeneutics, probably more politics than is healthy or wise.

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Reposted by Colin Toffelmire
Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
90% of how Rubio described “the West” while in Athens (e.g., "fierce individuality,” “relentless ambition”) is just a rehashing of ideas plucked from Ayn Rand. Encouraging people to “ethical egoism” is how we got this level of inequality—which now sits at a higher level than Ancient Athens ever had.
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
my honest feeling is that if you have a problem with executions being publicly televised then you should have a problem with them happening at all.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
But like, isn't this literally just feudalism now? The means of production and all capital in the hands of a small number of elites, with us serfs hoping that somehow our overlords will shine upon us their merciful faces?
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
With ease. There might be an interesting data point there.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I assume he means it *could* allow for that, be he promises that it *won't*, right?
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ya, students need some philosophical priming so that they encounter the ideas with a better sense of terms and stakes. Hard to get it all done in a single class, or even a sequence of classes.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Friendly reminder that this man has a BA in Philosophy and Politics from Ohio State and a JD from Yale, so he does, in fact, know what the word "socialism" means. I simply mention this because it is sometimes important to distinguish stupidity from evil.
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PEIPolitical 🇨🇦 @peipolitical.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
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Rebecca Harris @rlharris.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
We are hiring a full-time, tenure track faculty member in biblical studies! careers.messiah.edu/postings/30818
careers.messiah.edu
Full-time Faculty in Biblical Studies
The Department of Biblical, Religious, & Philosophical Studies in the School of Arts, Culture, & Society at Messiah University invites applications for a faculty position in Biblical Studies beginning...
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
lol, honestly I think it's just a by-product of contemporary intuitive ontology. Social Trinity just feels more natural to the 21st c. North American mind.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ah yes, MIT, famous bastion of woke liberalism.
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Dr. Rachel Schine @rachelschine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Think I’m gonna start muting people whose response to institutions crumbling is only ever “but institutions are inherently problematic anyway.” Because, like, no. Having schools, colleges, and universities is just a net positive, actually.
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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Citizens for Public Justice (of which I was Board Chair recently) gave me the opportunity to write something about the implicit narrative behind the Alberta referendum questions. Content warning: it does get a little bit "Bible-y" so watch out. cpj.ca/the-stories-...
cpj.ca
The stories we’re telling in the Alberta referendum
In this special blog post for CPJ, Michael DeMoor unpacks what's at stake in the Alberta referendum for justice, belonging, and moral obligation.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
And, of course, all you have to do to end politics is to murder your neighbours.
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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In other words: fascism is appealing to many during times of heightened political tension because it is (in some respects) a kind of anti-politics. It promises an easy end to social conflict; and managing social conflict without ending it is kind of what politics is.
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Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:
Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Becky Chambers' book A Closed and Common Orbit has an artificial character with this exact conundrum. She does an excellent job exploring the thought experiment.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This, plus lobbyists prey on the most pervasive of all human cognitive biases: confirmation bias. The thing with the money is that it pays for an army of people to keep tell the voter noted below that they are correct about their existing opinions.
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RT @ryankturnbull.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Using just one sentence or phrase of scripture, answer the question, "What is the gospel?"
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Captain Awkward @captainawkward.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Excellent thread! There *are* rewards for being A Good Guy Who Speaks Up even if they are not immediately obvious or publicly bestowed. First, integrity is its own reward. Maybe you didn’t save the world or change hearts & minds. But if you held the line on not making it worse, that’s something.
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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I think the projections for high turnout for this one might be right 😳
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
we really need to start calling out these conservative christians for just straight up not believing in christianity. if you don’t believe christian teaching, nobody is forcing you to call yourself a christian! free yourself!
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
fargo is a panorama of different types of evil contrasted against ordinary good; the petty loserdom of Lundegaard and Carl Showalter on different sides of the legit/criminal divide, the dull-eyed sociopath of Grimsrud, the mania/delusional stalkerdom of Mike Yanagita.
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Nandita Sharma @nsharma101.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Fascism doesn't have a colour line. Fascism is a political belief that has historically - and today - been adopted by people who want to ruthlessly rule by dividing us from one another on one or another artificial basis around the world. White, Black, Brown, et cetera.
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i broadly agree with the thesis, but not the way that WBF argued it
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i think the answer, after several decades, is fairly obvious. its a person who suffers from all of the defects neil postman ascribed to television without any of the benefits of mass media creating a shared psychological space
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Alexiana Fry @alexianafry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Calling all scholars of religion who are attending the upcoming #aarsbl26 meeting in Denver! I need your help, as I am using the current fun trend exemplified by "Subway Takes" to introduce the public to the world of (and the necessity of) religious studies - broadly speaking.
a gradient background with orange, teal, and magenta is the background. In a cream text, there are the words one line at a time "HOLY HOT TAKES." The first H has wings on it, the first O has a halo on it. The second o in the second line has flames on top of it, and the t has a "devils tail."
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Possibly the greatest use of source material in history?
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Leigh Walton @leighwalton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sarge, radio Headquarters… Tell ‘em we’re gonna need a bigger Gender Studies department
Digital flyer for an event called “MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY: Equipping the church for spiritual warfare” scheduled for Sept. 26 in Cookeville, TN. It features the names and headshot photos of thirteen white guys who look like the cast of reality show where the prize is a trip to Epstein Island
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Is this the greatest use of source material in history?
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En Buen Ora @enbuenora.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
my god the direct use of the hot dog guy sketch from I Think You Should Leave in a political ad
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The thing I find most baffling about the Trump GOP is how cowed and cowardly they are. Yes, Trump has huge sway in the base, but I'd have thought this is a reason to sink him internally, not line up behind him. Especially since he's such a vindictive person. Just seems like self-preservation.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
They do not. I've actually added this to the list of things in my initial explanation of the first year paper I assign.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Just a friendly reminder that there is an ongoing masterclass in both politics and civic leadership happening in NYC, if anyone is interested in learning how it's done.
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Anne M. Carpenter @catholickungfu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
If white liberals were less insufferable about their mild success and less clueless about their catastrophic failure, I'd be less annoyed at pronouns in email signatures. Probably. But I like being annoyed, so. Maybe not.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Very important to remember that the workers in question are generally low-income, so this would be a regressive tax on people who don't make much money.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I always swap one of the "a"s for an "e" on the first try.
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The provost of Dartmouth, at which I teach, has been using AI to write both academic papers & national op-eds, according to brave reporting by @thedartmouth.bsky.social. Many students are already bitter about AI. This leaves us as faculty no ground to stand on. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
thedartmouth.com
Op-eds, academic articles by Provost Santiago Schnell flagged as ‘AI-written’ by ‘near-zero error’ AI detector Pangram
Schnell said he used artificial intelligence for “making writing processes more efficient,” but that AI was not a “substitute” for his own “intellectual judgment or authorship.”
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here's the thing, using the ethics implied by a robust doctrine of the Trinity would be a much better way to talk about Christian education than the cute riffing on numbers, y'know? Instead of cosplaying as Christians we should try being Christians.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I think that could plausibly explain the attempt to achieve a governing mandate by means of the referendum questions instead of by means of an election.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
imo this isn't evidence that Smith is a separatist, it's evidence that she's willing to equivocate on a vital issue in order to keep some form of standing with her fractured, angry base. What should anger us as Albertans is that our premier is self-serving, not that she's a separatist.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Yes. And also, there remains a high likelihood that about a month after Alberta's referendum, Trump will have lost both houses of government and will be embroiled in a political calamity at home. I don't think he'll have the time to bother us much.
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
latest polls have me fairly confident that Stay in Canada will win: what *does* worry me is the wombo combo of an oil crisis in the US and various separatists musing about a UDI one can easily imagine a world in which Stay wins and various hard right separatists issue a UDI regardless
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Just a Dad 📎 @dadmakingcans.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Hitler and other top Nazis inspect a scale model of a planned triumphal arch in Berlin, circa 1939.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I try to convey "cares about your feelings" but it seems to be received as "scary and also kind of intense."
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
ooooof
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
As somebody who remembers very clearly the never-ending comment wars in the earliest days of the Internet 2.0 era, it is not at all encouraging to see that childish nonsense put on camera and placed at the center of the cultural and political conversation.
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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It would have been good to have a political scientist or two on the panel to estimate the likelihoods of each of the 4 scenarios; but that's beyond the mandate, I guess. Shouldn't stop us from saying what should be obvious: betting on smooth-long-term is a very bad bet.
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Colin Toffelmire @toffelmire.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Absolutely. UCP has the same problem in Alberta (though here the centrist base has some kind of weird fixation that makes them unable to consider alternatives to the conservatives).
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