Notices by Alfie Kohn (alfiekohn@sciences.social), page 2

The headline below (on Wirecutter today) reminds me of the time I gave a passionate speech about the dead-end pursuit of grades and money in a prep school auditorium, whereupon a student stood up and said, "You're telling us not to just get in a race for the traditional rewards. But what else is there?"

For anyone you know who's still using Facebook, Insta, Whatsapp, or Threads...

Trumpians who praise ICE (and denigrate its victims) but also support the J6 seditionists' assault on Capitol police officers are not being inconsistent or hypocritical. Here's why: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/renee-good-ashli-babbitt-fascism

"Trump’s belief in his own global omnipotence, and his desire to grab the territory and natural resources of other countries has been held in check until now by his fear of entanglement in foreign wars....[so] the worst thing about the Maduro rendition is that it worked....
He looks at the world through the eyes of a 19th-century imperialist, but with 21st-century weapons":
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/putin-russia-us-foreign-policy-venezuela

New Year's Eve rumination: Maybe Santayana had it wrong. Maybe it's those who don't realize that the past *could have been otherwise* who are condemned to repeat it.

A reminder during this holiday season, courtesy of the late Barbara Ehrenreich, about the "major philanthropists of our society."

Lots of research shows that people of all ages - including students - are happier, healthier, and more productive when they have some meaningful say about what it is they're doing. But what does that look like in a classroom? A new episode of Kohn's Zone: "Who Gets to Decide?" - https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

Almost 3 in 10 of U.S. teens (and an even higher proportion of Black & Hispanic teens) are now interacting with simulated humans -- that is, using chatbots -- on a daily basis: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/12/09/teens-social-media-and-ai-chatbots-2025/

Trump: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

Any member of his cabinet: By th’ Mass, and ’tis like a camel indeed.

Trump: Methinks it is like a weasel.

Cabinet member: It is backed like a weasel.

Trump: Or like a whale.

Cabinet member: Very like a whale.

Those who lose a contest often experience resentment and self-doubt. But competition also does ugly things to those who win, this study showed: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229104746.htm. Ultimately everyone loses when we're pitted against one another.

Democrats range from reasonably progressive to remarkably conservative. But if you want to see a real ideological divide, just look at the Republicans in Congress, where the MAGA Christofascists have completely lost patience with the MAGA-adjacent theocratic authoritarians.

Everyone thinks it’s good to be curious, yet schools often fail to promote this quality. How can teachers encourage kids' curiosity and help them figure out how best to act on what they wonder? Listen to my conversation with Susan Engel in the latest episode of Kohn's Zone: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

This is what Zuckerberg's Meta stands for. If you're still on Facebook (or WhatsApp or Insta), you're standing for it, too: https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-videos-of-ice-raids-are-wildly-viral-on-facebook/

And then there's Google...
https://www.404media.co/google-has-chosen-a-side-in-trumps-mass-deportation-effort/

In case you needed another reason not to: https://www.pcmag.com/news/ask-chatgpt-about-affairs-abortion-be-careful-marketers-peek-prompts

Much has been said about Musk's appalling social media posts. Joyce Carol Oates takes a moment to notice what he *doesn't* post.

Killing usually requires dehumanizing one's victims. Thus, one of the most important services the press can perform is to rehumanize them. Profiles of some of the Venezuelan villagers recently murdered by the U.S. military at Trump & Hegseth's direction (and the loved ones left behind): https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-drugs-cocaine-trafficking-95b54a3a5efec74f12f82396a79617ea

Close your eyes and imagine a leftist's heavy-handed caricature of American capitalism.

Now open your eyes.

Murdoch stands for only the highest-quality journalism

Debates over whether "fascism" is an apt descriptor of MAGA policies, and "genocide" of Israel's mass killing in Gaza, seem to have been resolved in the affirmative less by the quality of someone's argument than by the increasing extremism of the actors, which eventually eliminated any doubt that the terms apply.