Notices by Alfie Kohn (alfiekohn@sciences.social), page 3

"Friendly Excursions into Disequilibrium," my new podcast episode, argues that the ideal arrangement in a classroom (or workplace) consists of cooperative conflict, where spirited disagreement is non-adversarial and nested in a caring environment: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

Just imagining the names of other, larger companies in place of "BuzzFeed"...

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/buzzfeed-disastrous-earnings-ai

Am I the only one who feels a little guilty for reacting with relief that the stock market is recovering its early losses today? A dented portfolio seems like a small price to pay if it leads the Sociopath-in-Chief to stop killing Iranians.

You know those idiots who use the current weather to deny the reality of long-term global warming? I once looked forward to hearing a scientist set them straight, but now I just find the whole encounter anti-climatic.

My go-to illustration of the concept of unfalsifiability - where a claim grounded in ideology such that no facts can ever dislodge it - is the belief that Israel, which, beyond its continuing slaughter of Palestinians, has lately attacked Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran, is always just defending itself and therefore deserving of support.

Authoritarianism defined in eight words: "make sure we have the right people voting"

And here's another excellent working definition of authoritarianism, also from the execrable Noem:

A new study finds that, "even when instructed to use established psychotherapy approaches, [AI chatbots] consistently fail to meet professional ethics standards" for providing mental health advice: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260302030642.htm

In case you worried that far-right politicians were just banning instructors from teaching disfavored content (e.g., slavery was bad; LGBTQ folks are human beings), it turns out they're also mandating curriculum content. So it's not just "Here's what you can't teach" but also "Here's what you must teach."

One of the best pieces I've seen about Epstein - how he, like Trump was a depraved con man whom the elite (in academia, business, and politics) not only lacked the courage to denounce but actively cozied up to and whose evil they thereby encouraged: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-anand-giridharadas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NVA.M7Ba.LRi6Yx-xpe0k&smid=url-share

Fixed it for you, NY Times

The phrase "existential threat" appears only once in this account of how states are passing laws to make polluters contribute to climate crisis mitigation. Specifically, the phrase is used by the American Petroleum Institute to describe how these companies regard the impact of such legislation on them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/climate/climate-superfund-laws-bills.html

Mainstream media outlets have been pushing this conservative "Kids have it too easy & need to fail more!" line for years, congratulating themselves on their bold, contrarian stance even though it's long been the conventional wisdom: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/02/parenting-children-failure-immunity/685875/.
My take: https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/failure/ (to read) or
https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/failure-kz/ (to listen).

This seems telling: Even his ideological soulmates are now embarrassed by Trump:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/world/europe/trump-liability-europe-far-right-populists.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IFA.rhYr.FQUWQ7Gkbguj&smid=url-share

RE: https://turtleisland.social/@Yehuda/115968615629563283

Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller Miller

Please tell me this isn't going to result in an inquiry that looks at the shooting in isolation - an unfortunate anomaly whose responsibility rests solely with the agent(s) who pulled the trigger.

Adam Serwer on what it means in concrete terms that Trump has essentially destroyed the independence of the Dept. of Justice: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/trump-justice/685684/

As it bloody well should. But, I mean, where's the "fierce blowback" from these folks in response to setting armed thugs loose to terrorize cities, or to kidnapping a head of state and stealing his country's oil, or to threatening to take over Greenland, or to obliterating large swaths of the federal government, or....

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...