The alleged D.C. attacker represents the phenomenon of “normie extremism”—people with conventional and widely held beliefs that they are willing to kill for—and the incident is reminiscent of another recent case, @alibreland.bsky.social argues. theatln.tc/1qq9ZDbD

Listening and learning to Erik Prince’s thoughts on coffee

Normie Extremism! Exactly @alibreland.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

I wrote about the White House Correspondent's Dinner assassination attempt and our new era of normie extremism, in which political violence no longer just comes the fringes, but from otherwise normal people www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

"The Court’s decision is consonant with the philosophy, articulated by Kilpatrick in his earlier days, that the state is oppressive when it interferes with the right to discriminate, and respects liberty when it allows discrimination." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Had a great time talking to Lizzie on Slate’s TBD pod talking about how Trump got out Chadded online

Using facial recognition tech, the Knicks surveilled a trans woman, tracking her every move out of fear she'd show up on MSG's tv broadcast And they can do it to any "enemy" of Jim Dolan, who's built his own deep state. From @noahshachtman.bsky.social & me @wired.com www.wired.com/story/madiso...

MAJOR UPDATE: I found the best free restaurant bread in the United States www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

A Chad Virgin theory of Trump vs. Iran www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

I've finished "The Infernal Triangle: How America Got this Way." Farewell to the 5-book project that consumed some 30 years, over half my life! For the nonce, writing deadline-free on this Substack. First 50 subs get signed books or personal Zoom greetings. PAY ME!!! rickperlstein.substack.com

Wrote about the latest developing fracture on the right: how the conservative intellectual class is getting fed up with the growing antisemitic and conspiratorial tendencies of the right's masses, or what one source called "the retard right." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Getting some some cool, normal ads on twitter

Some powerful people have now decided that McCarthyism is good, actually, and that we should do it again on an even more profound scale: www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

"It’s probably going to become even more of a thing as younger people who have been more deeply steeped in the internet get older. So it is here, and it will be here for a long time," @alibreland.bsky.social says of what CJR calls "the far-right media bubble." www.cjr.org/the-intervie...

Peered into how Epstein’s interest in pseudoscientific racism prefaced the ideology’s ongoing renaissance amongst the powerful www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

A great piece from @alibreland.bsky.social on Epstein's race science obsession—one he shares with much of the contemporary right wing elite www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Trump is clearly distancing himself from the bad pr of noem and miller, he’s not calling Alex Pretti a terrorist he’s calling him an insurrectionist who had it coming. Big difference in style and substance here

Important story from @alibreland.bsky.social about how the us government now speaks in the voice of an incel groyper www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Wrote about how the teens are sharing Nazi occult memes w/ @willgottsegen.com This isn’t an exaggeration. Lots of them are doing this www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Some official U.S.-government social-media accounts have become a reliable stream of xenophobic messaging that aims to redefine what it means to be American, @alibreland.bsky.social reports:

This is the precise rationale that internet white supremacists use when they talk about immigration—especially when they talk about immigrants from African countries. Fully indistinguishable from something someone would say at an ethno-nationalist event

An entire economy of weird, atomized buy-my-course, infinite side hustle, grindset guys who are excised from the traditional job market is probably not good for society and is going to have a bunch of bad externalities.

At my first turning point USA America fest. This is amazing. They brought Ben Shapiro out to club level pulsing bass, red white and blue laser lights and plumes of smoke (I don’t think they can do tpusa standard pyrotechnics in here)

For the @thebaffler.com I wrote about how Nick Fuentes and "The Groyper Wars" changed Charlie Kirk thebaffler.com/latest/ready...

“texas shouldn’t go to the playoffs because they have three losses,” is simply a broke hater mentality. be positive and virtuous. appreciate beauty and perseverance. believe in something.

ruining a&m’s best shot at an undefeated season since like 1939 feels so good

geese is a new kind of band that helps aging millennials deceive themselves into thinking their tastes haven’t calcified and that they’re into new stuff even though it’s just a slightly modified redux of the wilco, real estate, etc era

There is no right wing civil war. The groypers are just winning. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

HARK DAILY - Today's best podcast moments in one playlist, featuring: - Trump echoes Biden's biggest mistake on the economy @vox.com - How neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes went mainstream @alibreland.bsky.social - Creating a new company using only A.I. @evrat.bsky.social

It was great to be on Canada’s @cbcnews.ca Front Burner podcast alongside @alibreland.bsky.social to discuss the mainstreaming of Nick Fuentes on the MAGA Right www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

“The gap between Fuentes and the rest of the right is narrower than it has ever been,” @alibreland.bsky.social writes www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

The gap between the white-supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes and the rest of the right is narrower than it has ever been, @alibreland.bsky.social argues.

We are nearing the end stage of the groyperfication project www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Dug into how Jack Posobiec of Pizzagate fame went from being a hoax posting troll to one of the most influential media figures within MAGA—he now has “almost immediate access to anybody he wants in the White House" and close relationships across the admin www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

mildly interesting that "crash out" went from meaning recklessly doing life sentence level crimes (murder, grand theft auto with a screwdriver, etc.) to being a little too upset in public

Must-read @andykroll.bsky.social on Russ Vought www.propublica.org/article/russ...

when america first, nick fuentes-acolyte, groypers took over local campus conservative clubs around 2020, it was notable and unprecedented enough, that it garnered a bunch of separate local media stories across the country each time it happened

For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this. That’s why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed — because Young Republicans weren’t radical enough.

"the only true insight seems to be that interest rates and cheap rent determine everything." nemesisglobal.substack.com/p/emily-in-b...

The nativist right keeps talking about “heritage Americans.” It's a buzzword engineered to move the goalposts on immigration even further, argues @alibreland.bsky.social. https://theatln.tc/bLRZoopN

Wrote about the new attempt to reimagine America as a sort of ethnonationalist blood and soil state that's starting to catch traction www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Taking a brief break from sporadically posting photos of my pitbull to shout this into the void: I’ve spent the last seven months thinking about the Antichrist, and now those thoughts are published over at @wired.com. www.wired.com/story/the-re...

Wrote about the right-wing reversal on "cancel culture," extremists attempting to capitalize on Kirk's death, and talked to the Proud Boys and Hasan Piker about the former's attempts to get the latter banned from Twitch. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

“Tarrio told me that he and other Proud Boys have teamed up in a group chat with other right-wingers who all want to get Piker kicked off Twitch by running a bigger and more sustained version of their other active mass-firing campaign” We’re just at the beginning. by @alibreland.bsky.social

The Atlantic's @alibreland.bsky.social talked to Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys. Tarrio told him that cancel culture “sucked for us. I always said I wouldn’t do it back to anybody... I’m in a different mindset right now. An eye for an eye right now.” www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

ben is right. it’s still premature with the info we have to confidently assert that he was a groyper at this point. it’s possible, but the gopnik/squatting slav meme and all of the other memes robinson reffed are general deeply online memes that are not signature groyper tells

it’s early but it seems like maybe this is relevant again (wrote it last week fml)

Grateful to have spoken w brilliant colleagues on the immediate weaponization of Kirk's killing. 1. My excellent colleague @akelalacy.bsky.social hosted @alibreland.bsky.social and me on @theintercept.com podcast. including dangers of hagiographies like Ezra Klein's theintercept.com/2025/09/12/b...

NEW 🎧 POD: After the shooting of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, many influential voices were falling over themselves to valorize his legacy. But who was the real Charlie Kirk? @natashalennard.bsky.social & @alibreland.bsky.social help me break it all down podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...