At @theunpopulist.net @andycraig.bsky.social says, "We must understand that what is happening is a campaign to disarm and discredit the opposition and make it harder for it to mount an effective challenge to Trump’s growing authoritarianism." www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-cen...

If the standard that has been used to cancel Kimmel had been used for Charlie Kirk, how many times would KIrk have been cancelled? Right-wing wokeness > left-wing wokeness.

A fragile democracy like Brazil’s has managed to hold its insurrectionist former president accountable. Our old and proud one has reelected its who then tried to undermine Brazil's efforts at accountability. Still, Brazil prevailed. Bravo! At @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/brazil-rej...

Trump's FCC: "We could do this the easy way or the hard way" ABC: "Ok, we surrender" MAGA libertarians: "Biden still disturbs me more"

Gallows humor might save us!

For no particular reason, I’ve been thinking about the guy who obsessed about killing racial justice protesters, searched online about killing racial justice protesters, & told friends he may kill a racial justice protester. Then he killed a racial justice protester. And Gregg Abbott pardoned him.

Proof that the backlash thesis (rise of the reactionary right is a response to the woke left) is bogus: The left keeps getting better and the right keeps getting worse. Every Dem and prominent liberal condemned Kirk's killing and the right is still baying for censorship, cancellations and worse.

Brilliant piece by @stevechapman.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net: "Trump’s brazen savagery erodes the barriers represented by international law. It’s likely to make Americans in international spaces more vulnerable to being blown up by hostile powers." www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-sta...

Thanks you!

SFL has and will remain a culture warrior. It is in its DNABefore libertarians hopped onto the anti-woke bandwagon, they had invented Cultural Marxism as the bogeyman. They have an immutable, permanent preoccupation with the leftist enemy.

This is indefensible. You can commend Kirk for engaging with dissenters in discussion and debate without preposterously elevating that to a full-blown positive appraisal of the way he practiced politics, which, in the main, involved being an indefatigable reactionary provocateur.

I have to say that much as I like @ezraklein.bsky.social, Kirk did not practice politics the right way. He used his podium to dehumanize vulnerable groups and demonize his opponents, one reason we are where we are. We can condemn his assassination w/out valorizing him www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

Charlie Kirk's assassination is deeply troubling. Liberals and liberalism will lose in two ways if political violence turns people like Charlie Kirk into martyrs and folk heroes: 1) Liberalism will lose the moral high ground (2) Trump will use such events for authoritarian consolidation.

The murder of Charlie Kirk is completely senseless and a symptom of a deeply broken society. May God show us the way out this morass of escalating political violence that we’ve found ourselves in.

This man is the face of the once respectable Manhattan Institute and the prized writer at @thefreepress.bsky.social

This is not good!

Trump has jettisoned the constraints imposed by laws and statutes. In this, he has claimed more powers not only than aspiring US dictators like Truman and Nixon but pre-17th C English monarchs, writes American University’s Chris Edelson at @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/trump-is-u...

If we’d seen this kind of evidence from an LGBT person, they’d already be in hiding, or dead.

With armed troops crawling all over our cities, the Supreme Court just turned us into "Your, Papers Please" country. What does this remind you of?

At LibCon25 Polish liberal activist Alex Sirkoski tells Yascha Mounk that an "anti-pedohilia message" is a good message for liberals to push on social media rather than playing on the MAGA ideologue turf. @ismapolicy.bsky.social @theunpopulist.net youtube.com/shorts/Y4pdk...

Jesus!Christ!

Check out my conversation from LibCon2025 with @radleybalko.bsky.social and @sykescharlie.bsky.social, in which I argue that Trump 2.0 is a focused attempt to roll back the civil rights movement, both legally and culturally. youtu.be/AGG2vYBE2BE?...

If Trump goes ahead w/ his leaked plan, Texas will invade Illinois and throw the country into not just chaos but a deep constitutional crisis. Chicago residents will face draconian, unlawful crackdowns. @andycraig.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-lea...

I am a strong advocate of liberal immigration policies. But there is a debate to had and we had a first rate one at LibCon25 moderated by @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social. Check it out at @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/can-libera...

SHIKHA DALMIA (@shikhadalmia.bsky.social): "Authoritarian consolidation is Trump’s true Operation Warp Speed."

To understand Trump's modus operandi for authoritarian consolidation, listen to this podcast of @radleybalko.bsky.social, the nation's premier expert on the militarization of law enforcement, by @ezraklein.bsky.social youtu.be/UcTZ_en5FTM?... .

America’s genius is not that it draws the best people but that it draws the best out of people. Even the world’s “wretched” manage to make something of themselves here. But we are getting a first-hand taste of what happens when liberal democracy starts to collapse. @shikhadalmia.bsky.social

There was a lot of disagreement at LibCon2025, but there was one thing on which all the panelists from the right to the left agreed: Trump has gutted the DOJ, the key law-upholding agency, and weaponized what's remaining against opponents. www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-doj-is...

I'm one of the 37 targeted below by DNI Tulsi Gabbard. I haven't had a clearance nor worked in government since 2013. This is political theater & a dangerous example of government abusing its powers to punish private citizens for openly exercising their 1st Amendment rights. My full statement:

Liberals Need Moral Clarity, Not Moral Purity, in Their Struggle Against Authoritarianism www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-n...

Yup! Or as we noted at @theunpopulist.net, it's not a slippery slope, it's a free fall into tyranny: www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-ame...

this is so farcical what a Coen Bros-ass occupation we have going on

Dan Drezner on how ironic it is that MAGA is non-interventionist when it comes to authoritarian nations (Russia, China) yet *deeply* interested in the domestic politics of democracies like Brazil, Germany, etc. #LibCon2025

‼️🛑 Everyone should read this. 🫥 No comments...

Putin tried twice to poison @vkaramurza.bsky.social. Threw him in prison, releasing him last year only in a prisoner swap. Yet this man, a genuine hero, stood unbowed at LibCon2025 and warned of the dangers of appeasing tyrants.Please listen @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/appeasing-...

“The only way a populist can be fought is by telling a true story better.” I’m at the Liberalism in the 21st Century conference listening to Suketu Mehta extol the critical virtues of storytelling. “God speaks to us in stories, not in studies.”

Pleasure to intro this. @tomgpalmer.bsky.social: "We, not the nativists and neo-Confederates, are... for the turning points in history at which Americanism carried the day against the forces of unfreedom. Liberals own the flag. We own the Constitution. We own the greatest chapters of American life."

📽️ WATCH: Student Kenneth Santizo captured ICE and FBI officers stopping a family on their way to church in the Boston suburbs. Agents broke the window, forced Daniel Flores-Martinez to his knees and slammed him to the ground while his children and his wife, a U.S. citizen, sobbed in the car.

the good: i thought @shikhadalmia.bsky.social did an incredible job making this an *international* conference. she brought together: russian dissidents, bozniak politicians, polish campaign strategists, mexican journalists, singaporean philosophers. some of the most powerful voices there.

It was great to have you!

Really glad I decided to come to the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference in DC. Met a lot of people I consider intellectual luminaries. Got to talk linguistics with Steven Pinker, met Renee DiResta, Bill Kristol, Vladimir Kara-Murza, people from FIRE, etc. Watergate Hotel is really cool too!

That’s a wrap for LibCon2025. It was lovely to meet some of you there for the first time. Good time with good people. We will be putting out content from the event in the coming months—so look for that soon. For now, don’t forget to read (and share) @shikhadalmia.bsky.social’s brilliant opener.

"In a deeply conservative, deeply divided country, people were more than willing to vote for young people to vote for women, to vote for progressive policies, because they felt that on the local level, where we captured the audience through delivering things." - Sabina Ćudić

Great thread:

Hey! That’s @tomgpalmer.bsky.social responding to my question the friend-foe dichotomy in Schmitt within American political right. Neat!

"If you want to be a patriot, it means you stand up for the Constitution in our first amendment and those people (MAGA) do not." — Tom Palmer at @theunpopulist.net 100% this. Liberals own the flag. We own the Constitution. We own the greatest chapters of American life. 🇺🇸

"America's genius is not that it draws the best people but that it draws the best out of people." Am absolutely delighted with the clarity of purpose articulated by @shikhadalmia.bsky.social. a fellow #IndianAmerican and @theunpopulist.net 👏🏽 www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-n...

LibCon2025 continuing strong with @andycraig.bsky.social, @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social, @lkatfield.bsky.social, @tomgpalmer.bsky.social, and Damon Linker all discussing the philosophical roots of illiberal movements.

Spotted from an attendee (used with permission) during our current panel: The Philosophical Roots of Illiberal Movements. #LibCon2025 panels are worthy of note-taking!

Lovely speech yesterday by @shikhadalmia.bsky.social to open #LibCon2025. Reflecting on the personal and political relationship of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln—the potentially productive clash of pragmatism and radicalism—does seem especially apposite.