Murder is wrong. Pogroms are wrong. Using a murder to incite a pogrom against a small and vulnerable group in society is wrong. (If I’m not mistaken, an assassination was the excuse for the wave of mob but state-sanctioned violence in Russia in 1881 that gave us the term “pogrom.”)

I think this point is far more important than we realize. The fact that we consume completely different media showing us completely different things is a huge driver of division.

Hi! I was homeless. That's me he wants to kill. If you don't know me, hi, I am pretty nice, I think. I'm a privacy lawyer. I drive a cute yellow Bronco. I do art. I have two really fluffy Maine coon cats. I volunteer at food banks when I can. This guy would have killed me for being homeless.

Jay, you all owe an explanation of how it came to be that the exact list of users blamed by The Federalist were banned even if they did not break the ToS, and were not unsuspended until more than a day later.

Possibly ignorant question here, but… why is saying “that shooting is awful, and also the victim said toxic things” a lot worse for our politics than telling people at a political rally to “choose violence”? Because at least according to levels of attention and criticism, the former is much worse.

Yes. What Kirk did is a simulacrum of discussion & debate, constructed without any of the good faith that might give it meaning or impact. It was a show -- humiliating liberals &, by invoking liberal values like "civil discourse" -- fooling them into playing along with it.

The Nazi extermination programs didn’t begin with Jews. It began in September 1939 with the involuntary euthanasia of people with disabilities and the mentally ill under the Aktion T4 program. That’s how they developed their techniques of mass extermination.

Hi folks. We've seen this before during the Cold War. Check out Ch. 5 in "Threat of Dissent" to learn more. 🗃️ And, remember, in Kent v. Dulles (1958), the U.S. Supreme Court held that American citizens have a fundamental right to travel. supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...

But don’t call them Nazis.

Ah Matt Forney. The answer to ”what would it look like if Hitler’s thumb took a suspicious number of brief trips to Thailand.”

From an Atlantic editor. I cannot get over how the entire centrist hivemind is attempting to wish into existence a person, and a movement, that does not exist. You are journalists, you are supposed to describe things as they are, not how you want them to be!

It absolutely matters here that Pritzker was effective at sounding the alarm and plainly stating this would be unconstitutional in a profoundly radical and fundamental way, and showing he could rally practical popular opposition, which then gets spun as backing out over "legal headaches."

Everyone should be held to the same standards.

Another thing: the people lining up to say “but he was nice to *me*” are to a person white guys in powerful positions. I got news for you: he did not respect your ideas, he respected your power and enjoyed proximity to it. Of course he was nice to you.

Media discovering groypers for the first time reminds me of when they first encountered incels. Those of us who study misogyny or followed Gamergate had been screaming about incel culture and violence for years. Coverage of hate groups is far too reactive.

Verify information please. Memes are not information. People's lives may very well depend on this narrative. Let's get facts right.

Why is the media afraid to say it out loud?

An antisemite shot two kids in Colorado, at least one of whom is Jewish. The White House “fighting antisemitism” doesn’t care, because the shooter was a student radicalized online into far right beliefs, which the regime is cool with, rather than a student verbally criticizing Israeli govt policy.

I'm never more autistic than when the BUT HE WAS A HUSBAND AND FATHER line comes out because the mental rolodex of absolutely horrible fucking people who were husbands and fathers just starts rolling.

As @gregpak.net has noted, unless there was a specific clause in all the contracts that allows for this, they can't go back and retroactively amend contracts without the author's consent. This is a class action suit waiting to happen.

I have a couple of comments about the "free speech hero" narrative about Charlie Kirk. First, was Charlie Kirk really notable for supporting the free speech of people he disagreed with? I haven't noticed that, though I could have missed it. /1

As stated earlier by others, it does not matter what you post or do not post here. The right wing has their narrative they’re going to push, because they understand they are at war with democracy and that propaganda *works.*

Democrats need to knock it off with this self-serving bullshit. We have a deep bench, enough with the gerontocracy.

As a writer of primarily short stories, this is hopeful news!

Yep. Look, I wanna see diversity in the White House as much as any of us. I do. But this administration has set us back so far I'll take the two dudes who'll fix your car AND boost marginalized people and women for success to come after them.

A lawless and illegitimate regime and its minions are not entitled to the protection of the rule of law.

You should be mad about the FBI raiding John Bolton’s house not because you love John Bolton but because you’re opposed to Trump using the FBI to intimidate his critics

The CDC fired 600 people this week. During a covid surge. Restricted covid boosters this fall. School just started and measles herd immunity is lacking in many states. Vector borne diseases are attempting to gain stream. Bird flu isn’t being monitored properly.

What happened at Sinners & Stardust was without consent, it was SA, and that's all that matters. "but they write-" doesn't matter. "but were wearing-" doesn't matter. Keep your fucking hands off people and don't bring sex toys to to an event where people haven't consented to that.

I wish this were true but it’s not. A substantial number of Americans will believe any goddamned ridiculous facially fraudulent thing the Trumpists tell them, including this. And another large segment will PRETEND they believe it for the sake of power, which is indistinguishable.

Rules creepypasta where the protagonist is describing all these weird and spooky rules but the rules are obviously his boss selling drugs, and the protagonist just doesn't understand. "Never look at the security footage from midnight to 12:14" etc "Never open the box under the desk"

Maryland can't have flood relief because Stephen Miller demands concentration camps.

visa and mastercard deciding what games are allowed to be sold is an apocalyptic level threat to the games industry. phone calls are the highest impact way to help. this is an all hands on deck situation. the enemy got results with 1000 phone calls. we can beat them phone numbers and a script:

I think it was @chadstanton.bsky.social who just said that not every decision the administration is making is about pocketing cash, some of it is much darker. and here you go. They're willing to forego taxpayer money in the till in exchange for fucking with immigrants just because they can

As with most fascist regimes, disabled and homeless people get hospitalized first, then when they run out of beds they get jailed, then when the fascists get tired of constantly failing at it they start getting sterilized, killed, or both.

In America, the people most enthusiastic about institutionalizing more people are usually the people most opposed to funding or regulating institutions or providing due process to the involuntarily institutionalized. So, business as usual.

I cannot fucking believe that they are rehashing the Vagrancy Act in 2025.

In an effort to make today slightly less terrible, here is a photo of BJ and Judy next to a canister of oats for scale

When people have called to report ICE kidnappings, the police have arrested AND ARRESTED THE CALLERS.

Happy 4th of July, Batman.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

A month or so ago it really hit me that as a Gen Xer, the best case scenario is we spend the rest of my life cleaning up the mess that this group of fucking criminals has created. That's literally as good as it's going to get.

“We won’t let them forget this” doesn’t work if they’re fully ok with the thing you are reminding them of. “You’re killing millions!” Doesn’t work on people without consciences. People will die and they’re fine with it. We need a new angle other than morality because they have no real morals.

More and more I'm thinking I need to see what I can pull off with putting short stories on Patreon.

because it has to pass again in the house everyone PLZ call and writer your congresspeople AGAIN and tell them they MUST votes against it. The current Medicaid bill lasts til Jan 2026, then it will kick 20 Million people off Medicaid. 40% of all children are on Medicaid. 70mill Americans total.

If you ever wonder why disabled people are deeply mistrustful of health care professionals and assume every one we encounter is a fucking sociopathic dildobucket, it's because we see these TikToks y'all make too.

It is 1990. I am 5 years old. The US is bombing the Middle East. A Republican is president. It is 2003. I am 17 years old. The US is bombing the Middle East. A Republican is president. It is 2025. I am 40 years old. The US is bombing the Middle East. A Republican is president.