the idea that freedom is in our DNA is just a misinterpretation of the fact that we’re a nation of finicky whiners who don’t like to be personally inconvenienced

The widespread media decision to frame international affairs as "will Donnie get the prize he wants?" is pathetic. He's not the protagonist of human events. And to the extent he's a significant character in world affairs, whether or not he gets a prize is one of the least important things about it.

It’s so fucking funny that we’re still getting five NYT op-eds a week calling for the left to tone down their rhetoric

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

whenever the media describes something as “partisan” it basically means the thing is broadly popular & probably super helpful but we can’t do it because some conservatives think it’s woke

you don’t have to hand it to the dems like at all but idk—maybe they would come across as better at messaging if every media outlet in the country blasted conservatives all day instead, raking them over the coals on every little thing & only emphasized the good points that dems made?

love it when media outlets say that dems aren’t good at conveying complicated messages on policy as if these outlets are not themselves being dog-walked by conservatives on messaging all day everyday

Ohio’s new age verification law targeting porn goes into effect today, which means people will either have to use a VPN or submit their IDs to use Bluesky. This is Project 2025 in action. The goal is to limit freedom and make it harder to access anything remotely progressive

"Dems will get blamed for a shutdown" as opposed to what, all the friendly coverage and positive credit they'd get for caving yet again? This whole premise is built on a delusion about what the alternative is. There's no cowering in the corner and being so inoffensive they won't still attack you.

I keep seeing comments like, “talk to your opponents” & I’m like, no. I’m not interested in dialogue w/ that. “Di” means “two” but there’s no “other side” to you telling me I’m stupid bc I’m Black & a woman— or that a child should be forced to stay pregnant. You’re gross. Case closed.

as an author of a book on reparations I am intimately familiar with the move people make from "the thing you want isn't politically viable right now" to "you shouldn't want it, talk about wanting it, or even think about it" but it never stops being weird to me

Left: Wow. We need gun reform. Right: Wow. We need to put the left in concentration camps. Media: Ok. It's time for the the left to bring down the political temperature here. Enough is enough.

if you dont stop calling us nazis we will have the secret police disappear you to a slave labor camp

I find I can’t muster a proper response to either the Tylenol madness or the U.N. appearance. At some point it is just too ridiculous. It would feel insane to offer sane commentary.

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

This is what fascist scholars mean when they say "don't give them an inch."

The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years. Pinochet was ousted with a referendum. And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists. Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

I know it's frustrating when lawyers point out when something the administration is doing is not legal. But responding with "the law doesn't matter anymore" is really unhelpful and defeatist. Clarifying the law is important because it reminds us not to comply in advance and to resist and take action

they want it to be illegal to dislike them, make fun of them, criticize them, challenge them, ignore them, punish them, or ever hold them accountable for anything

The challenge to endure “difficult” ideas and speakers only extends in one direction. The pleas to tone down political violence only benefit one side. And it’s the side that is most violent toward marginalized people, which is granted bipartisan approval and protection

So what's the plan after we "play down" the impacts of climate change to allegedly help win elections. What's the plan when the water rises to your doorstep

You want to be alive, but they want you dead. We’re a new, well, funded democratic group that thinks you can meet them halfway.

This is precisely the problem, the refusal by centrist elites to differentiate between challenging ideas and debunked lies. It's not "challenging" to hear that black people are stupid or gay people are degenerates, it's just wrong.

its kind of insane that we’ve been forced to watch rightwingers openly celebrate and taunt everyone over the death of people like trayvon martin for over a decade now and now they’re trying to grandstand over the one time it’s personally affected them and political project

this from my piece on charlie kirk is probably the most important takeaway if you want to know why bad faith, right-wing voices in media are treated as just another set of peers

The shape of politics in the US right now is increasingly that the media, political and economic elites are allied with the Trump regime against the actual people of the country who hate it

There should be wall to wall Dem messaging that this continued insistence by the President and other powerful politicians that the left/Dems want to harm those on the right is an intentional and direct incitement to violence for their base. They know what they are doing as well as the likely result.

These people have smarted themselves into the dumbest fucking arguments. Determining whether someone is "doing politics the right way" depends almost entirely on the content of their speech! If someone lies constantly and endorses authoritarians that's not practicing good politics.

Just thinking about how the right made up an entirely fictional left wing character that resulted in so many bomb threats and the like and nobody will face consequences. But people on the left who accurately clocked the victim’s life work lost jobs.

Right winger gets murdered: he was the kindest, gentlest boy who ever lived Right winger ends up being the murderer: he was also the kindest, gentlest boy who ever lived

It’s not “encouraging free speech and debate” when your “debate” career consists of you posting selectively edited footage of your “debates” that always frames you as the winner and harasses your opponents in the process and also matches whatever ideological framing gets you the most AdSense dollars

It's worth asking why every elite institution is issuing statements like this rather than pointing out the obvious fact that the institutional right commits and glorifies violence far more than the left. Is there a reason you feel you can't say that out loud? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/o...

it really is astonishing how quickly it goes from “civil war” and “blood in the streets” to “wow guys it’s just a sad tragedy” when it becomes inconvenient

Notice how not a SINGLE CLIP of Charlie Kirk is being shown on TV as the news organizations try to eulogize him kindly. Even Fox News. You cannot show a SINGLE THING he ever said that wasnt spewing HATE and violence. What a legacy.

the media legitimized these conservative freaks in the name of “both sides-ism” & now they’re talking about them as if they had some organic, meteoric rise? not mentioning all the dark money funding these provocateurs & the far right losers who own the social media platforms boosting their agendas??

This is such a funny element to the Kirk eulogizing: they can’t describe him the way they’re describing him *and* show clips of anything he actually said or did

“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind

there’s just no getting around that he was a horrible person & it’s equal parts funny and painful watching every news outlet try

It is weird that the assassination of essentially a celebrity influencer is a bigger deal than the shooting of two top state legislators + their spouses

condemnations of political violence are well taken but it does feel as if some prominent political commentators are of the view that violence isn’t a part of the history of American politics and that is very much not true.

they’re trying to commit the highest amount of human rights violations per second that they can

whenever I see an ostensibly liberal outlet interviewing another one of these conservative freaks I always wonder if an active serial killer just wasn’t available?

The stuff Jeffrey Epstein’s friends felt comfortable saying and drawing in grotesque detail with their names attached knowing they would not face consequences is the kind of thing I think of when I think about rape culture and how sexual violence against girls and young women is actually glorified

Really chilling to watch Libs of Tiktok become the governing strategy of the Republican Party

The idea that you're a poor, set-upon victim, while you're in fact ruthlessly brutalizing people who you deem your inferiors, was central to Nazi propaganda during the first months of their rule. It's time to recognize that cavils about "political correctness" were always selling exactly that idea.

if you’re zooming in on the signature and doing some kind of multi-point comparison analysis you have lost the plot and you’re playing a game you don’t need to

this should be the attitude of almost anyone in a public role - including faculty at universities

it’s fascinating. majorities of americans oppose the military occupation of cities. a substantial number of those are fucking furious about it, but rather than lean into this anger and attack trump’s perception of strength, these “strategists” want democrats to avoid the confrontation entirely.