James Talarico is setting an example of a liberal Christianity that is unapologetically both things--while also being inclusive of non-religious and non-Christian people. @aselrod.bsky.social and @matthew.flux.community discuss why this is the way:

Pam Bondi’s DOJ abandoned 23,000 criminal investigations in shift to immigration Even investigations into fraud and abuse were dropped

Eddie Dalton isn’t real, but what does that mean? Computer-generated soul music is taking over the internet, raising questions about where humans think art lives

Christian nationalists promote praying to ‘kill’ political opponents and stop them ‘by any means necessary’ ‘We want him crucified—with Christ,’ former Pete Hegseth pastor says of Texas Democrat James Talarico

Thinking about space aliens can be fun and exciting, but it can also teach us about human science and communication. Particle physicist @danielwhiteson.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss his new book, ‘Do Aliens Speak Physics?’ Perfect for your weekend queue:

Many people are aware of Republican efforts to restrict reproductive healthcare, but it's crucially important to realize that these proposals are part of a much larger right-wing project of removing women from American public life. @susanrinkunas.com and I put the pieces together here:

Dobbs v. Jackson was just the beginning of the reactionary assault on women @susanrinkunas.com joins "Theory of Change" to discuss the right's sprawling effort to eliminate birth control, abortion pills, and women’s rights as a whole:

As Trump's illegal attack on Iran goes sideways, Democrats must fight further war funding The case for Democrats opposing budgetary support for more mayhem in the Middle East (and very possibly beyond) is overwhelming

Culture, dating, and politics still haven’t adjusted to women’s economic independence Siri Dahl on how women remade the economy and adult media, and why that’s also good for men

This was a great conversation between myself and Matt Sheffield on why the Democratic Party has low approval ratings despite trouncing the GOP in special elections all year.

Caving to the radical right's cultural power never works, but the libertarians who call themselves centrists keep suggesting it anyway. @parkermolloy.com and @matthew.flux.community discuss how the right polices language rather than make arguments, and why the issue is never the issue.

People often think of right-wing conspiracy nuts as Nick Fuentes or Alex Jones look-alikes, but the reality is that many conspiracists are women. @noellecook.com joined me to discuss her new book profiling why millions of women have descended into extremism

Democrats are on an election win streak despite having a badly damaged brand, what’s going on? @davidoatkins.bsky.social joins Theory of Change to discuss why Americans are voting Democratic despite not approving of the party.

Right-wing extremists are often perceived as mostly men, but QAnon and related conspiracy traditions have numerous women who believe In the latest Theory of Change episode, author @noellecook.com discusses her book, "The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging"

Judging has always been a political profession. But after the Warren Court, the liberal legal establishment deluded itself into thinking that judges were objective gods in black dresses. All of the things you hate about SCOTUS go back to this horrible error. @elienyc.bsky.social and I discuss:

Legal formalism distorted liberal politics and handed the Supreme Court to the radical right The Nation’s @elienyc.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss how the left misunderstood that jurisprudence is inherently political--and usually conservative

It's important to recall that it wasn't that long ago when Congress actually was willing to assert its constitutionally defined war powers, even though today's Republican leaders are refusing to do so

After condemning Trump's unauthorized attacks on Iran, some congressional Democrats are talking about funding it. This would severely undermine their moral credibility with voters, @jtccarroll.flux.community writes plus.flux.community/p/assenting-...

How the sex, drugs, and rock and roll counterculture fell in love with Donald Trump and Jesus Aaron Rabinowitz of @etvpod.bsky.social discusses ‘high weirdness’ and why so many of the hippies were actually just conservative anarchists plus.flux.community/p/how-the-se...

How you think about minds influences how you view the world Philosopher and geneticist Johannes Yaeger on how digital computing metaphors cannot capture what biological minds are

Plunging U.S. into illegal war with Iran, Donald Trump reminds us he's the true menace to our country In his half-hearted attempts to sell war with Iran, Trump sticks to a stale authoritarian script: we are beset by evil enemies that he alone can vanquish via violent retribution

Did OpenAI reject its stated core concerns about AI running fully autonomous robots and conducting mass surveillance of Americans? It sure seems that way. I parse the language and provide the background here:

Epstein files show a financier obsessed with excluding women from science and tech "No really smart women – none"

Instead of watching Trump lie and ramble for an hour tonight, you should watch, listen, or read the latest Theory of Change episode in which @jeetheer.bsky.social and I discuss how tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are literally basing their politics on sci-fi novels.

Why big tech billionaires are trying to make dystopian science fiction into reality The Nation’s Jeet Heer on how today’s tech oligarchs are trying to enact the authoritarian fantasies of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand

People sometimes say that quantum physics is "stuck," with no major discoveries since the Higgs boson. This is inaccurate; but it's worth considering that the dominance of the "Copenhagen interpretation" is holding things back. I talked about it with Oxford University physicist Vlatko Vedral:

My latest at @flux.community: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship. 1/ plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Financially struggling Americans have no interest in participating in a political system that’s failed them Sociologist @daniellaurison.bsky.social discusses new research on why many low-income don't vote

AI content is here to stay, laws and norms need to change accordingly Large Language Models are enabling the non-rich to get cognitive assistance, but they’re also enabling junk and manipulation. Political leaders have to step forward. plus.flux.community/p/ai-content...

All the king’s masked and anonymous henchmen: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide plus.flux.community/p/christian-...

The START nuclear weapons treaty is expiring this week, but Trump doesn’t seem to care. Even Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed extending it for an additional year.

From Maduro to Minneapolis: What happens when Americans are treated the way the U.S. treats other countries plus.flux.community/p/from-madur...

On the latest Theory of Change, @chrislehmann.bsky.social and I discussed Trump's historic unpopularity and Democratic leaders' reluctance to fight hard against him. We also discuss how "reactionary centrism," and centrism generally, are not real things, and why believing they are harms Democrats.

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide plus.flux.community/p/christian-...

Don’t trust Trump's fake interest in ‘de-escalating’ ICE tactics Caught red-handed overseeing authoritarian horrors on Minnesota streets, the president is desperate to evade accountability — and preserve maneuvering room to keep escalating his war on blue states

Trump’s threats against Europe are uniting the continent against the U.S. The American president has stopped menacing Europe over Greenland, but leaders on the continent are having to retool under the realization that the U.S. is now a rogue state

Censorship proponents have nationalized their earlier library obsessions PEN America free expression activist @jonfreadom.bsky.social on the unprecedented scope of censorship, and how to argue against it plus.flux.community/p/censorship...

Don't believe the president's talk of deescalation in Minnesota — violence against citizens is the inevitable by-product of a war on blue America conducted under cover of immigration enforcement plus.flux.community/p/president-...

From @matthew.flux.community @flux.community, a great overview of the bigger picture behind MAGA violence on the streets of Minneapolis: the U.S. is in an unsettled transitional period, with the reactionary Trump regime at war with modern America. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/the-limina...

🧵 The people of Minnesota, especially Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have shown that American democracy still has a lot of strength left within it. But the battle is far from over. The US is in a liminal moment, a time of transition. We can do this, but there's much to know and to do.

The Liminal States of America: The people are fighting back—and winning—but this is far from over

The dark philosophy animating Trump’s chaotic second term Philosopher @mattpolprof.bsky.social on the feudalistic agenda of Trump and his puppet-masters

It’s like this: Why perceptions are our realities Minds do not create experience, experience creates minds plus.flux.community/p/its-like-t...

Across most racial and ethnic groups, being less religious is correlated strongly with being more Democratic. But the opposite is true of Black Americans. But is this changing?

MAGA authoritarianism takes square aim at Minnesota As the Trump administration unleashes repressive mayhem in Minneapolis-St. Paul, crippling biases and blind spots keep the Democrats and major media from conveying the full story to the public plus.flux.community/p/maga-autho...

there will always be people willing to sell out to their oppressors for money, and they're always shocked when the worm turns