'The Books That Made Us' comes out in a week. If you are recovering from having been "educated" in a conservative academic subculture, you may find it relatable. Link to order below.

This regime is such a grotesque inversion of actual gospel values and multiple people I know who are pious churchgoers are cheering it on.

This is what he's doing to everything. But it wouldn't have been possible without the millions of you who put him in power. Really great job folks.

I was grateful to have the chance to read this book as part of my ongoing informal project of understanding why people get sucked into fascism. Aside from the book offering several essential puzzle-pieces, it also illuminated aspects of arts cultures and subcultures of the 20th century.

“Even for those without a stake in yoga, @stewarthome.bsky.social’s book is enlightening. Recognizing elements of fascism in yoga culture can help clarify how fascism finds a toehold in other communities, including Christian ones.” – review by @rbratten.bsky.social @plutopress.bsky.social

Insomnia is back for the first time in years.

'The Books That Made Us' is available for pre-order. Part memoir, part literary criticism, part theological analysis, it's a journey of religious deconstruction through the modern Christian classics: the writings of Chesterton, Eliot, Lewis, Tolkien, O'Connor, etc. Links to order below.

I have issues with some things Mamdani has said but I have bigger issues with Cuomo's actual behavior. Either way this point stands. Among conservative catholics I encountered many people who fetishized the Ideal Jew while spreading hate about real live Jews in the world today.

Well, I had an interesting Sunday night, how 'bout you?

Pay attention, headline writers: THIS is a proper headline. State what happened just as you would if it were any other gang of thugs, without parroting government euphemisms or excuses.

I'm grateful for Pope Francis' 12 years of leadership. He had a good life and a good death. I know many catholics are worried that his successor will be more conservative, but the fact is, Francis himself was pretty conservative on some issues. Especially to do with women and LGBTQ issues.

I know he's dumb but I also can see him doing it on purpose just to taunt us for having standards.

Consequences can happen.

As far as I can tell, the ivermectin-slurping, essential-oil-hawking MAGAs think this is great. Because they don't understand how much they rely on science for things they take for granted in daily life. Including every time the essential oils didn't work and they ended up in hospital for weeks.

Amidst everything else going on, a minor quibble: I'm weary of writers who have been successful for years chide us that "we write for love, not to get rich." I'm not trying to get rich, Ms. Italy Vacation. I just want to be able to afford my eventual cremation without piling more debt on my kids.

I'm sure a lot of crunchy fash types will say, "No worries, I grow my own!" Because they do not care about anyone but themselves. Also, that demographic is notorious for having no hygiene / safety standards. The "fresh poo on the lettuce beds" approach to gardening.

A nation where we just let far right goons haul folks off and torture them because it's "popular" is a nation where we let the immoral, demented MAGA movement win. We should not be letting them direct any aspect of this narrative.

I have a rule about not trash-talking other writers by name unless they did something genuinely nasty (Neil Gaiman, JKR, etc) but this guy was throwing a tantrum in a bookstore and harassing the staff, all women of color, because he thought they had hidden his book.

I would like to have a conversation about the motifs in contemporary lit by well-off white women that connects with that demographic's failure to take a stand against fascism. (Besides obvious stuff like JKR being morally loathsome I mean)

NEW: Senator Marshall (R-KS) RUNS AWAY, fleeing his own town hall after being asked about DOGE firing Veterans. MAKE HIM GO VIRAL.

Quite hard to describe massive cuts at Social Security Admin plus cancelling (without explanation) the flu vaccine committee meeting as anything other than an intentional financial, physical, and psychological attack on everyone over 65 years old. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

Vox Populi

Oh, look what normal countries do when a former president leads a far right coup attempt.

Because you are sucking up to the owner of your newspaper?

The MAGAs follow the typical abuser playbook, as we all know. This includes: after an act of aggression, behaving like everything's normal, and if you don't go along and act happy and friendly, YOU'RE the baddie and THEY'RE the injured party.

My book "The Books That Made Us: Deconstructing the Modern Christian Classics" is forthcoming from Orbis this year. A project born out of my attempt to draw the line from my conservative humanities education to the rise of the intellectual arm of the MAGA movement.

The conspiracy rot has spread so far. I just saw a catholic school principal sharing a junk science link claiming vaccines cause autism, and a bunch of college educated dingleberries acting all "this is serious!" Like it's not a made up piece of ableist nonsense that's circled for years.

Antisemitism was essentially created in and by the early church, and Christians need to reckon with this.

One way to help someone who's stressed and overworked is to lecture them on how they need to rest more, stress less. This is especially helpful if you do it while a) resting yourself, b) doing nothing to alleviate the person's workload. Best of all if you do it after adding to their workload.

👇👇

Whatever excuses people offer for "why someone gave a Nazi salute" just reinforce the fundamental reality that they are the kind of people who give Nazi salutes. Unless you're an actor playing a Nazi in a film or play that depicts Nazis accurately (i.e. as evil) there is no legitimate excuse. None.

NEVER AGAIN IS RIGHT NOW RIGHT THIS MOMENT

Gonna be a funny time when (if) we survive this and all our MAGA acquaintances expect us to just forgive and forget.

Sentimentality and cruelty go hand in hand. The folks who studiously look the other way while immigrant families live in fear and a billionaire steals funding from crucial aid programs are posting the drippiest stuff imaginable about "family life." It's honestly sick.

Something to know when you try to persuade religious MAGAs that the Musk thing is bad because it is leading to a loss of funding for crucial humanitarian efforts: this won't shake them. They like it. They are fine with those aid recipients suffering and dying.

I feel like I'm watching Twitter burn to the ground again but it's worse because it's our government.

The USA has had two major plane crashes in the last 4 days. The USA had previously not suffered a major plane crash for 16 years. ‘DEI’ programs have existed for decades. So what was it that changed in the last 14 days or so to suddenly cause so many crashes?

The "I'm not political" folks happily ignore real atrocities and crises but then feel left out because they want to be the epicenter of outrage attention, so they post about minor inconveniences as though they have apocalyptic significance. "The cobblestones on the road are loose! This is satanic!"

if we staff ICE with Uvalde police officers, they'll never enter schools

Altarpiece of Sant Pere, by Pere Mates 1500-50

Reject the sin of empathy. The sin of empathizing with oppressors, abusers, white supremacists, misogynists, homophobes, and xenophobes. Resist the temptation to "try to understand where they're coming from." You already know.

If that sounds hyperbolic, well, look at Kennedy's history in Samoa. He openly said he wanted to use Samoan children to "experiment" with his view that vaccination is not necessary. His "experiment" killed 83 people, mostly small children. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

The hyper-spiritualization of Christianity has been terrible for civilization. Catholic Christianity at least is supposedly sacramental, emphasizing the presence of God in creation. Something we practice in our rituals but which hardly trickles over at all into daily praxis. Thread:

The price of eggs in the US is spiking, mostly due to #H5N1 bird flu. Solving the problem requires urgent, important communications from the CDC & FDA* and rapid development of research by the NIH** * Currently paused by Executive Order ** Grant reviews now all canceled www.kcur.org/news/2025-01...

Bunch of religious conservatives on X were talking about how they wanted to deny women voting rights because they "gave women the vote and all women did was vote for abortion." Everything we've been afraid the MAGAs might try, they are absolutely gonna try.

News outlets, stop dilly dallying.

Coming up on nine years since I started a writing career that has been largely focused on critiquing the Catholic alliance with the Right. A year and a half later this got me fired by my ultra conservative university where everyone had rapidly switched from anti Trump to MAGA. I regret none of it.