When I first read Letter from Birmingham Jail years ago I was struck by how much MLK used Tradition (Scripture, Socrates, Augustine, Aquinas, Buber, etc) to carry his argument. It’s a good reminder that there’s a better story to be found within Tradition than the one being sold by reactionaries:

i guess when the pope said go bears he wasn’t speaking ex cathedra

What does he know

This game is going to come down to who wants to lose it the least. For the politics people on this app, it’s like watching a race between a popularist and someone hand-picked by Peter Thiel.

The distinction between identifying as liberal, leftist, or anti-MAGA conservative functionally means literally nothing. It has basically no bearing on someone's commitment to sets of ethical values and their willingness to act on them as it relates to the current domestic situation of America.

There are wine mom sleeper cells all over the country waiting to be activated

It’s amazing what colorization can achieve. See example below of a photograph taken somewhere on the outskirts of Stalingrad in December of 1942:

Just peeked in and WallStreetBets is on verge of doing a January 6th for the glory of Chairman Powell:

It’s been a bad 24 hours for Bears

Hannah Arendt on Montesquieu’s principle of despotism [fear] being subject to continual corruption: “Tyranny generates impotence as naturally as other bodies politic generate power… It develops the germs of its own destruction the moment it comes into existence.” In other words, we’re going to win

“Better another four years of fascism” Yeah man, I’m having serious doubts about your anti-fascist credibility tbh

I’m psychologically prepared for the ‘28 election season when the usual suspects bring out the “but y’all said Trump was the worst and now y’all are saying Vance is worst than him” to paint the libs as hysterical and to provide cover for not voting against the GOP

The sexual psychology of MAGA is inseparable from that of Andrew Tate, which is explicitly rooted in a certain aggressively misogynistic, pornographic ideal, contrary to the epithet of “porn-addicted” being projected here

*minor OBAA spoilers* Thinking about how that guy in the white supremacist Christmas Adventurer’s club said Avanti, the Native American, was “not a native son… not homegrown…actually part Comanche or Eskimo” PTA really had his finger on the pulse, didn’t he?

"if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you"—Terry Eagleton paraphrasing Herbert McCabe

He’s always doing this bit where he plays the “calm and objective” historian, while watering-down or evading the moral corruption of the American Right.

“Whether it’s Noem calling Good a domestic terrorist or the Democrats directly quoting the ICE agent calling Good a “fucking bitch” after killing her, both sides have an inflammatory rhetoric problem” Noah Rothman, Senior Writer for National Review

‘How Every Empire Falls”, written by RB Morris, sung by John Prine: youtu.be/l8GgdL2xBYY?...

It’s projection all the way down

National Review conservatives are having their own “can we go back to brunch” moment.

Thinking about all the “Frey said the F word” posting I saw on the other app from the “both sides have a rhetoric problem” crowd…

"it will incur the suspicion of class treason for betraying the allegedly necessary interests of the propertied. Did not Jesus himself incur the reproach of treason? Was he not crucified as a traitor?"

"Christian love in periods of nationalistic thinking may well have to incur the suspicion of harming the national honor. In situations of racism it will incur the suspicion of race treason. And in periods when the social contradictions in the world cry out to heaven..."

Who is more like Christ? Matt Walsh who talks into a mic about how sacrificing oneself for the sake of their neighbor is loser behavior or this pastor who puts his body/life on the line for the sake of his neighbor This moral questions are just getting harder and harder… /s

My legs don’t cross like Faulkner’s *Well they cross… I just don’t look as cool and I’m also not writing a classic work of literature while doing it so…

And the good news is only 21 percent of American adults are using X now, according to a recent Pew Research survey. I can’t wait to see how the recent AI-CSAM and sexualized AI-manipulation of images of non-consenting adults brings those numbers further down

Pastor: I said to this ICE agent, 'Take me, stop harassing her.' The agent got in my face, pointed a gun at me, and said, 'Are you afraid now?' To which I said, 'I am not afraid.'

Once again recommending “The Seed of a Sacred Fig”, if only to put yourself in the shoes of an Iranian civilian who desires freedom as much as you and I

They sit in ambush in the villages; in hiding places they murder the innocent…. They think in their heart, “God has forgotten; he has hidden his face; he will never see it.”… But you do see!

Meanwhile, the enlightened centrists are “not jumping to conclusions”, also known as moral cowardice.

Despite the overwhelming amount of propaganda directly from the White House and right-wing social media influencers, I do believe that normies are remembering “oh that’s right… Trump is the chaos President and I hate chaos”

Average X user: “Seems like a clear case of FAFO” Geraldo *checks notes* Rivera: “you dumbass, mouthbreathing Neanderthal, maybe it’s time to pluck out your lying eyes”

There’s a phenomenon I’ve observed from some on the other app who are Never Trump but have a strange love for Rubio and think he should be President in 28. They expect us just to move on. And it’s like “no dawg, the whole political operation is too far gone and must face the full wrath of the law”

Currently scrolling through Bluesky and seeing AO3-style erotic fan-fiction involving JD Vance and Brianna Wu…

Idk which is worse saluting Rubio or the AI-memes review…

Another Sharon post, another damaging hit on my will to live…

To quibble a bit: this would be news to Walter Benjamin who understood just how important art was to fascists, so much so that they introduced aesthetics into political life, which is way more destructive than them not caring about art

Robert Bolaño, in By Night in Chile, speaking to the dream-world of those who sat passively by as Pinochet threw the country into an anti-democratic, authoritarian death spiral (these words are spoken by the poet-priest):

What I would do to live in a world where the media took this (and every other insanely anti-democratic/fascistic statement/act from the Trump administration) as seriously and covered it as breathlessly as they do when the mayor of NYC says the word “collectivism” one time

“Books are so cool because there are NO ADS IN THEM.” About that…

today in Bluesky: the gang learn about the importance of reading comprehension for posters

Yes, these two tend to come as a package deal 🐐🐐

What in the Pynchonian hell is going on? The guy who calls himself Oilfield is happy with the Venezuela op? Come on man…

It’s always amazing to see the anti-anti Trump types online so eager to give Trump a W. This time it all fell apart in like 2 hours

HE CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS

It’s fun to see those who talk about “respecting and listening to the will of the voters, even if you disagree with them” and “the law will constrain his excesses” about Trump being alarmist about the NYC mayor. It’s almost like they just didn’t want Trump to be criticized the whole time…

But something something blueskyism

Pizzaboy with one of the dumbest takes on scripture I’ve ever seen. It’s actually impressive: