William Pannapacker

I should be working in a shipyard instead of gathering academic malcontents.

@Arrekisu Gen X does not think that.

Boomers and GenX think its possible to just try harder and get more money because human labor was worth something, back then. Before you had a trillion illegal landscapers literally spending all day canvassing for new business, you either paid a kid or the yard went fallow Someone offering to do work for you was VALUABLE before you had people running around offering to do the job for cheaper in less time. Boomers will say thats just competition. But their lawnmower businesses and lemonade stands weren't competing with a market that allows grown ass illegal immigrants to build entire businesses making generational wealth by consolidating what used to be the summer business start-ups of hundreds of kids.

@pensandpoison Yes

The death of literary culture began when professors stopped treating novels as works of art and started treating them as ideological evidence.

@rightscholar @MartinCothran When I had deeper, current knowledge of academic employment, the government data was too aggregated (all PhDs) AND undifferentiated (all races, genders) to be useful. So they said all PhDs increase income for all recipients, which is obviously false.

@pannapacker @MartinCothran Philosophy is in that Fed report. 5.1% unemployment, but 47.1% underemployment (which is the more important metric, I think). And that's with 56.9% of those getting a graduate degree as well. I assume it would include the Law folks. Essentially, there are very few jobs...

Having been a philosophy major in college, this prompted me to search the labor market outcomes of philosophy graduates on my browser: "Philosophy majors demonstrate strong employment resilience and competitive earning potential, often outperforming popular STEM and business fields in job placement rates." search.brave.com/search?q=labor…

To be an American is to be perpetually manipulated, deceived, hustled and swindled and for good reason to have to suspect everyone and everything is trying to scam you. You are told not to believe your own eyes. This produces an insane human being, or psychopaths, or idiots.

yes first you ask this question as a joke, then as irony, then you realize it's deep and wonder if the no-return point is already past

What percentage of academics have autism spectrum disorder? Hard to determine, but what’s your best guess?

I am not nor have I ever been a Boomer. I renounce Boomerism. They should all be shipped back to Boomerania. I will name names.

Really, most of my grievance was “elite overproduction.” And how it exploited urban ethnic strivers. And my resulting disillusionment with higher education. And trying to create new paths for people like that, nonetheless. … And failing.

I know, when an obscure academic calls you a journalist, it’s an insult.

Dear Medical Industrial Oligarchy: Please transfer my horrific end-of-life expenses to pre-natal care and bring me a euthanasia machine.

@nw_wolfrunner Precious Moments

If you've ever helped empty out a boomers garage you know "we were just smart with our money and didn't buy tons of bullshit" is a bald faced lie.

@mapleblooded @MattWalshBlog Or characters from fantasy novels.

@MattWalshBlog Bloodlines and legacies. Only dorks think like this.

You might outlive me by a few years, or maybe not. Who cares. I have six kids. Four sons. My bloodline and name lives on. I could die tomorrow and I still win. The “health optimizers” only care about extending their own lives by every minute possible. They don’t think about bloodline and legacy. That’s the kind of longevity that matters.

[eats scenery]

10 years ago being criticized by a famous senior academic on Twitter would have a tenured professor quaking in their boots …

@7why__ydm Reading

People who grew up without internet, how did you deal with boredom at home?

Pizza Hut: still old, but the food is worse. Make nostalgia sadder.

@flowidealism True as long as I remember, at 58.

Most teens are learning more skills on their own, both offline and online, than in school. There are kids and teenagers who figure out algorithms on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok and become great at being influencers, sometimes in digital marketing, to whom getting these as "classes" within a one-size-fits-all school would be detrimental.

@rammy_c8 And then twice as unemployable.

Job market so bad ppl r getting a second PhD

@Apolitical3678 Ham?!

In 1975 boomers could afford a 3 bedroom house, provide for a family of 4 and eat out every night with a job at the factory they got with a high school diploma. Today there are no jobs, there are no factories, housing is completely unaffordable and eating out is a luxury item for the rich. Pay your rent and enjoy your moldy ham sandwich kids

@FedPoasting Boomer is the new n-word.

Boomers are now stealing the valor of their Great Depression era parents to justify their decadence, knowing it’s at the expense of their children’s future.