But Bannon and Stephen Miller do. We've created fictional influencers—from Bane to Tyler Durden to Rick Sanchez to Cartman to Heath Ledger's Joker—who made villainy seem so hip, and dehumanized victims' pain so hilarious, that a wave of propagandists with teenage mentalities saw their chance.

we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...

Trump didn't warp the party, that was done before him by the very "Never Trump" elites who thought they could control the racist, misogynistic part of society starting in the 60s. They took over no later than 2010. Trump is a symptom, a catalyst, not the cause. He just gave them permission.

"Sell their houses to who, Ben? Fucking Aquaman?!!" will live in my head forever.

But honestly, few of us can say the best thing we ever did is also the last thing we ever did.

I am imposing tariffs on everyone ahead of me in my fantasy football league standings.

Well that’s convenient now that there are only two.

Tweet less; research more.

“Our age has witnessed a dramatic collapse of faith in institutions of all kinds. The benign examination of institutional life that is vital for societal health has turned into a corrosive instinct to attack every major institution…“ - Cardinal McElroy

I tend to think every nerdy trans woman should read Margaret Atwood's The Loneliness of the Military Historian and sit with it for a moment no matter what it is exactly she's nerdy about, but that goes double for you www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47788/...

Blacks and minorities thought that Obama's election signaled that America was finally ready to listen. The Right thought that now that they'd "allowed" one of "Those People" to be elected, that Blacks and minorities would have to shut up.

Unfortunately, I have learnt too much today and my brain has popped

as Stephen says you have to think about batteries, the grid etc, it's not quite that simple. but beyond obvious that China is going to be absolutely swimming in dirt cheap electricity within 5-10 years

The follow-up post is the best part.

staring at the kid, trying your best to love them but always at the back of your mind you're thinking "you ruined my ley lines"

"Smart People Don't Like Me": An Analysis of Right-Wing Grievance Politics (2026)

What centrist libs can't seem to internalize is that the US contains a large, longstanding, well-funded political movement that *wants political violence and authoritarianism*. It does not need to be provoked in any way in order to pursue those goals.

The markings that supposedly expressed “transgender ideology” were………..a series of arrows.

Everyone is an expert until you need to do the hard stuff

They are telling themselves that they are modeling proper behavior but in reality they are rewarding improper behavior.

a 30 caliber cartridge is between 2 and 3 inches long, half inch diameter at most. not sure how much ideology you can fit on one of those Doesn't matter I guess. This is about to be fucking horrific

Horst Wessel, 1907–1930. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Wessel

Lawyers for detained former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte say he suffers from significant cognitive deficiencies that affect his memory and daily functioning, documents made public by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday (September 11) showed. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

No better evidence that "The Cathedral" is fake than allegedly liberal journalists tripping over their dicks to praise, as a champion of free discourse and expression, a guy who made one of his central accomplishments a blacklist of professors

The deeper we go into the hellmouth, the more impressed I am that Anne Frank kept a diary I can barely find the energy to write at all

Nothing good will come from today.

It's also subtle racism, as if people in the Global South like Indonesia aren't capable of forming their own thoughts to fight back. Not to mention delegitimize the movement even though we all work together to mobilize and help each other.

It's funny that Americans (mostly) on here would go, "The protests in Indonesia are the result of US' destabilization because they join BRICS" and the hot take is to stop supporting us. Ignorant and uneducated take, I think.

Because 15 billionaires most likely to profit from that recession own every newspaper and news program in the United States.

For those of you too young to remember Donald Rumsfeld defending the Iraq invasion, this is what it was like.

Hit dogs holler, and Newt Gingrich and Mike Pompeo pipe up when Moonies get raided.

Who was it said, "Anyone who's been within 20 feet of a cow on a farm knows EXACTLY the problem pasteurization was trying to solve"?

supreme irony that the party of lincoln is now the party of taney

Lavrov: "For lasting peace, new territorial realities must be recognized under international law." They want international recognition of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. If that happens, that will mean completely destruction of existing international law and order.

With all due respect to my colleague professor Sunstein, there's an absolute sickness in parts of academia that views social oppobrium as actual censorship without any sort of analysis of power dynamics. It's absurd. You do not have to have reverence for all views!

Yes, it's true. Someone did take your job. And your healthcare, pension, wage hikes and life off a single income. It just wasn't immigrants, welfare recipients, queer people or women having abortions. If you want to know who took your money, it's the people with all the money.

It’s worrisome that even local advocates are responding with debates about effective crime prevention strategies - important to discuss of course. But not responsive to Trump’s capricious power grab.

we are living in a time of profound suffering and profound opportunity. restoring the post-war status quo is not a solution, and the real roadblock to fixing our country is that nearly all of the will to be innovative is on the side of the fascists.

People posting about how they’ve never seen em dashes used before the rise of ChatGPT are really great at telling folks they’ve never read a book before.

I honestly can’t believe there are still any AI skeptics out there. This tech is obviously revolutionary

Art grappling with the aftermath of World War I is an all-time obsession of mine. Hell has come to Earth on a scale and in a manner never seen by humans, and you may well have been in the middle of it. Now you have to go back to being, what, 20? 30? As if you haven't lived through Armageddon?

On this Chairteenth, we celebrate the good folks of Montgomery, especially our guy AquaMayne. Special shout out to the folks who, within 72 hours, recreated this in their apartment complex. A COMMUNITY!! 💀

The rich must be incentivised; the poor must be disciplined. The political economy of the super-elite in one headline.

The author of this piece is stealing a living

i am once again calling for the abolishment of opinion pieces

In line with other recent work (like arguments I make in my book and empirical evidence from @valentindaur.bsky.social), this suggests that, after the radical right has been normalized, it is much harder to re-stigmatize it. 2/3

"A king, again, is the most inconsistent of men; show him reasonable respect, and he is angry because you do not abase yourself before his majesty; abase yourself, and he hates you for being a toady."

Part of my answer to "how'd we get here?" is an elite, institutional culture deeply opposed to calling bullshit. To do so is uncouth, uncivil, biased. Stated rationales must be taken at face value. There's no such thing as bad faith. Questioning motives is wrong. It's just debate, have some respect.

Voicing a concern similar to what I and others have written, Kagan concludes: “By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another.“