I was on the job market 6 and 5 years ago (twice) and since then I haven’t seen the job list. This year I decided to take a look in search of blogging material.

As I scrolled through the list of tenure- track positions, I realized that not only had I seen a huge percentage of these positions but I had actually applied to them.

There are two possibilities here and both are disturbing. Either these schools haven’t been able (or have chosen not to) hire anybody (which means these are, for all effects and purposes, fake searches) or people were hired 5 and 6 years ago and have not been given tenure. So now that tenure cycle is over and the new one begins.

I’m not talking about 2 or 3 jobs here. I’m talking about a really large percentage.

I’m following the blogs of many Russian bloggers. And obviously they are all for Ukraine and against Putin, they want their country to abandon its feudal route towards barbarity and embrace Western values, they are all well-read and brilliant, etc.

And then we all hear the news that the Russian parliament is trying to pass a bill against sexual harassment. I read one of the blogs by these brilliant, ultra-progressive Russians and discover that the bill is a disaster because if sexual harassment in the workplace is penalized, this would cause a demographic catastrophe in Russia because how will people ever procreate?

Obviously, I immediately unfollow the blog and go to the next one. It tells me that the bill is bad because the blogger heard on good authority that there is no such thing as rape. Rape accusations are all made by spiteful women who want to attract attention. Of course, I immediately unfollow the blog and go to the next one. And then the next one. And they all say something like this or worse.

These are the best among Russians, mind you. Now imagine the worst.

I had a very similar experience recently when I read what the super-progressive, pro-Western Ukrainians had to say about the LGBT movement.

God, people are stupid:

As a colleague recently put it, academia is ruthless in that good intention and effort count for next to nothing; output is where it’s at.

Yes, and life in general is very cruel to brown-eyed red-heads with freckles and a love for ice-cream and opera music: they always end up dying. Everybody else, on the other hand, goes on living forever.