… including a long discussion of post-liberalism over lunch in Beijing on Friday which included a discussion of @lkatfield.bsky.social excellent book which is being read and discussed by many in China

Fourth edition of Li Qiang’s (Peking University / Beira) Chinese study with a new extended preface (60 pages) covering the debates from 1998 to the present. He and I have been debating liberalism together for four decades - we don’t agree but have a genuinely interesting conversation.

Despicable.

Join Pomona College tomorrow (Apr 7) at 4:30pm PDT for a talk with @lkatfield.bsky.social, author of Furious Minds. She'll explore her research into the ecosystem of far-right intellectuals and right-wing think tanks and their powerful assault on American freedoms and ideals. RSVP: buff.ly/hAKAjPg

Spring Term! (cc: @lkatfield.bsky.social, @lefebvrealex.bsky.social)

Highly recommend this @isaacstanleybecker.bsky.social article on Gladden Pappin (and the MAGA-Hungary alliance). It is so great. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Facing the reality that brutality and cruelty also have tradeoffs and are not a secret weapon that facilitates an easy victory, they are furious at being embarrassed by their lessers and seeing their theory of the world publicly discredited (not that they would ever acknowledge that)

A different perspective. Always helpful.

I understand the impulse not to let this guy's statements dictate the news cycle but the fact that he can say shit like this and it barely causes a ripple in the media is a key to his ability to maintain power. Constantly pushing the bar of normality downwards, no pressure to take responsibility.

Happy Easter, everyone.

I wrote up some updates including a list of upcoming events in CA, Chicago, and Europe. open.substack.com/pub/lkfieldn...

Join Pomona College next week, Apr 7 at 4:30pm PDT for a talk with @lkatfield.bsky.social, author of Furious Minds. She'll explore her research into the ecosystem of far-right intellectuals and right-wing think tanks and their powerful assault on American freedoms and ideals. RSVP: buff.ly/hAKAjPg

You can’t enjoy the show if you don’t know the players. Thanks @lkatfield.bsky.social

First of all, she might be shocked to know that not everyone who lives in Iowa, or Michigan, or Ohio, is a racist MAGA misogynist xenophobe. A lot of Midwesterners (especially in cities!) hate Trump and want Dems to move farther to the left.

If the estimates were right, there were about 9 million people at No Kings rallies today. That would mean this protest was THIRTY TIMES AS LARGE AS THE TEA PARTY PROTEST which we were told, over and over again, was a massively important sign that US politics had shifted dramatically to the right

they're really forcing the issue--other people are actually going to stand up for some alternative scheme for teaching the humanities across k16 or they'll be complicit in the dominance of this thing

Eight million patriots > one wannabe king.

Gutter racism. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/u...

🌱

First pages of a beautiful art nouveau edition of an essay on gardens by the Renaissance philosopher Francis Bacon, who was born #onthisday in 1561. Read the whole thing here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/francis-bacon-on-gardens-1902 #otd

The number of North Atlantic right whale calves born this season is the highest in 17 years. www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/end...

If, like me, you are interested in ideas, in particular the ideas that are driving your political opponents, then you should be watching this lecture series by @lkatfield.bsky.social over at @lawfaremedia.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW7T...

OPINION TODAY featured podcast — The intellectual support for Trumpism: @lkatfield.bsky.social tracks the intellectual parts of the movement and their relationship to mainstream political figures and activists. (@mattgrossmann.bsky.social) opiniontoday.substack.com/i/191455529/...

May 8-9 @jamellebouie.net @hollybfletcher.bsky.social @sarahposner.bsky.social @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com @shortle.bsky.social @roberttalisse.bsky.social @bernybelvedere.bsky.social @lkatfield.bsky.social @schaller67.bsky.social www.pulaskiinstitution.org/events/for-g...

Lovely to see Elites and Democracy so prominently displayed in Heffers, in very good company too! @princetonupress.bsky.social @lkatfield.bsky.social

You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to an antisemitic tract www.vox.com/politics/482...

We don’t need help from Kent, Fuentes, Carlson, or Owens to condemn genocide, wars of aggression, and those lobby on behalf of others. They are *not* saying the “same thing.” Their project is to protect white supremacist fascism, not Palestinians or Jews or any living thing.

In his letter, he also blames Israel for the war in Iraq and the war in Syria (which is where his wife died.) Those well-intentioned Americans keep getting dragged into wars by the conniving Israelis. Anti-Semitism is, among other things, a way to uphold the myth of American innocence.

Check out this thoughtful analysis of the MAHA movement by Rutgers sociologist Norah Mackendrick!

Check out this thoughtful analysis of the MAHA movement by Rutgers sociologist Norah Mackendrick!

This is my first time writing for the Illiberalism Studies Program. Not sure why RFK Jr. looks so pained in this image. Maybe he's unhappy with my representation of the movement? Read up to understand how MAHA is not anti-science but defines a new, illiberal science to implement a MAGA agenda. #MAHA

New piece! Norah MacKendrick on Make America Healthy Again, its attitude toward science, its defining characteristics, and how it fits within Trump's illiberal second administration. Check it out! @nmackend.bsky.social @ieres-gwu.bsky.social

Join us on March 26 for an event tracing the rise of the New Right and their assault on American freedoms, values, and ideals. Author @lkatfield.bsky.social presents her new book, Furious Minds, with @joshuatait.bsky.social moderating! Register: tinyurl.com/yubpmv7z @ieres-gwu.bsky.social

How did fringe "hard right" ideas go and what does it mean for our politics today? In her 5th lecture, @lkatfield.bsky.social breaks down the ideologies, key figures, and cultural impact of the hard right movement. youtu.be/nvoF8q8acPk

Episode 6 of Ideology Unbound is out now! @lkatfield.bsky.social interviews Russell Muirhead to discuss his book, Ungoverning: The Politics of Chaos and the Attack on the Administrative State, co-authored with Nancy L. Rosenblum. @ieres-gwu.bsky.social

@lkatfield.bsky.social quillette.com/2026/03/13/h...

ICYMI, @gregsargent.bsky.social had a great article just out about the unpopularity of the war in Iran. The war is also, unfortunately, entirely consistent with MAGA’s "vocabulary of civilizational Armageddon" and its fragile hypermasculinity (here he cites FURIOUS MINDS). Check it out!

"We started a war of aggression for no reason & commenced it by accidentally bombing an elementary school & killing over 100 kids." That simple fact is so horrific that it's just kind of bouncing on the surface of our collective consciousness. We can't absorb its full implications & significance.

A great point in @lkatfield.bsky.social's book on MAGA right is how all this grandiose playacting reflects a hyper-masculine ethic that’s deeply solipsistic and juvenile—so much so that it's actually “unmanly.” WH and DHS twitter feeds traffic in this constantly. 6/ newrepublic.com/article/2076...

Trump's Iran war is breaking up the MAGA coalition. Among young and nonwhite working class, only *one in five* approve, per new data I've obtained. That's extraordinary and heartening to see. It's also delivering another blow to Trump's "realignment." 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2076...

@lkatfield.bsky.social Reading Furious Minds. So much to love about it. One thing in particular is how you treat your subjects with a lot of respect, at least “intellectual respect”. Instead of just polemical analysis, it’s like you give them enough rope.

Who wants this dog? (His name is Reese Potato Gremlin.) My friend is sponsoring him and he needs a forever home. www.petfinder.com/dog/reese-po...

The Century of Humiliation continues.

Great assessment of Trump’s overall situation by @gregsargent.bsky.social: “Americans are seeing the real “America First” agenda up close—militarism, imperialism, malign nationalism, unabashed authoritarianism—and they’re recoiling.“

I sometimes wonder if we just named "soft power" something like "tall turgid thrusting power" would these guys have been more in favour of it and thereby less self undermining.

Extremely excited to announce that we've added @lkatfield.bsky.social and @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com to our lineup! Once again, tickets are free! But you must register. Donations are welcome, of course, but it's your presence we desire the most!

In case you missed our event with Oren Cass on his 2018 book The Once and Future Worker, the recording is now available on our YouTube channel. @lkatfield.bsky.social @stevenlivingston.bsky.social @ieres-gwu.bsky.social

Excited for this conversation with @jamellebouie.net and @lkatfield.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/live/-5-mGzH...

Breaking MS NOW: Agents with the FBI's elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown U. in December because there was no FBI plane available. Kash Patel was in south Florida at the time with one of the FBI's two available jets.