@jlamel @brianlfrye As a plagiarist, my plagiarized pieces are more true to myself and the world than my inceptive pieces. I saw exactly what I wanted to say in the raw matter of the published universe. I took that seed, watered it with my context, and gave the flowers to the world I love.

RT @lethargilistic: The Bar Exam is hazing. Obviously. But then the people running it use actual hazing tropes. They locked us in a room f….

I mean, if you wanted to foster a legal culture that would embrace the Conservative Legal Movement, be vulnerable to Donald Trump, and have no spine to uphold even milquetoast liberal values. Then you could not design a better form of gatekeeping than the Bar Exam.

The legal profession has designed an induction ritual for the profession where you are forced to learn inapplicable law, the exam officiants lie to you about the state of the real law, and you are constantly under threat of punishment for error regarding this fake test.

They also literally threatened people with the prospect of not becoming a lawyer over every little bit of misbehavior. If we talk about the test, it might come up in our character and fitness. If we break the rules after becoming lawyers, we might face Bar complaints.

Also, they wasted time before every single session lying to people about copyright to scare people into not sharing info about the test. If the contract that we were forced to sign by breaking the seal is binding, fine. There is no way many of those questions were copyrightable.

Abolish the Bar Exam, you fucking cowards. For once in your God-forsaken life, be a lawyer who knows how to solve a problem caused by and faced by lawyers.

The Bar Exam is hazing. Obviously. But then the people running it use actual hazing tropes. They locked us in a room for more than 3 hours, talked down to us, asked hurtful questions, and then forced us to sit in dead silence for 20 minutes without being allowed to do anything.

Also, I will remember this forever: They started the test with a long colloquy about the RPCs and said the Bar Exam was a test of character. I.e., if we did poorly, we were not only not skilled enough to be lawyers (bullshit), but that we were bad people. Absurdly inappropriate.

The NCBE doesn't want candidates talking about the contents of the Bar Exam because they don't want to be canceled for asking whether evidence rules allow lawyers to argue a woman was asking to be sexually assaulted if she was really a prostitute who was asking for it.

The NCBE doesn't want candidates talking about the contents of the Bar Exam because they don't want to be canceled for asking questions about abortion where "it's a fundamental right" is the wrong answer.

Ack, I forgot an email. Just post a link to it here or send it to me directly: mmactaggert@seattleu.edu.

"My work isn't good enough for an academic journal.". As long as it is on theme with "social justice," consider sending it to me anyway. I have good taste and am anti-elitist.

If you or someone you know has an article that you want published in an academic journal, please let me know. The Seattle Journal for Social Justice is looking for pieces. I have discretion to extend offers. (Can I get a boost, @brianlfrye? ^w^;).

This is to say that I am an Executive Editor of "The Seattle Journal for Social Justice" next year and in the position to make changes. What are your suggestions for how to make law reviews better for writers, readers, and reviewers? @brianlfrye.

IMO, it's OK to attribute malice to accounts spreading FUD to pressure people to stay on platforms where they have large followings. Whether it's conscious or not is a different question, and I would argue it's irrelevant. If you don't like it here, try Mastodon. I will help.

RT @butchanarchy: I think it’s worthwhile for folks to keep in mind that many of the skills/knowledge you see as obvious or basic are, in f….

"But there are a few people who absolutely won't leave Twitter and I still want to see them in real time.". Set up a bot to follow with one click. (This service is at 1000% capacity for new accounts, so you can't do this TODAY, but it'll be back.).

This advice obviously goes for anyone who is not an academic—all the more so, even. But, humbly, if I can stop one well-followed person from using this footgun, that's worth it. There is Zero fucking reason for any expert in any field to use Twitter or mastodon dot social.