New: 3 yrs ago I published exposé revealing Richard Hanania used pseudonym to write for Nazi sites Ever since I've watched centrist media rehabilitate him, accepting his ludicrous claim to have left white nationalism behind. My look at what it means, for @marisakabas.bsky.social' The Handbasket

You don’t have to hand it to Richard Hanania

The so-called "former" white supremacist's work doesn't show accountability—or that he's actually moved on from his earlier views, Christopher Mathias writes.

thehandbasket.co

Jamelle Bouie ( @jamellebouie.net) on what Democrats actually need: not a Leninist conformity to a single agenda, but a set of principles—democracy, fairness, economic equality—and then let the most talented people pursue their ends. Start with the lodestar, not the median voter.

Where Will the GOP—and Where Should Democrats—Go After Trump: A Conversation with Jamelle Bouie

The New York Times columnist offers his thoughts on the great MAGA crackup and the rightward shift of centrist Democrats

theunpopulist.net

This feels like the unlikely fulfillment of a prophecy.

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 9h ago

Rome's ancient Nero's Bridge has reemerged from the Tiber River as exceptionally low water levels expose parts of the historic structure near St. Peter's Basilica.

Folks, who is telling high school students -- who I am sure are smart and talented and ambitious -- to cold email college professors and volunteer to do research or collaborate with them? This is not a good idea. Please stop this.

A problem with this I feel it's necessary to point out is that Dunkin' Donuts is not a coffee shop.

Technology Brobdingnagian@dfeldman.org · 9h ago

Does she even go to this school?

www.wsj.com/us-news/trum... today in hegemonic self-destruction for no good reason

Exclusive | Trump Orders Navy to Restore Older Tech on Aircraft Carriers, Costing Billions

The Navy spent years fighting the president’s push to go back to steam catapults.

wsj.com

The last bit of the screenshot is especially peculiar. You don’t have to agree with Burke to think the French Revolution “went too far” (not even Burke’s position, but I digress). You can just agree with Benjamin Constant, i.e. the defining figure of French liberalism. bsky.app/profile/vand...

Kristian van der Vliet@vanders.bsky.social · 17h ago

Something funny about this something funny is that Xavier is almost completely irrelevant to the Dark Phoenix saga. Until the final couple issues he’s barely in it at all, and he’s never important to it. (Contrast with the McAvoy movie.)

Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · yesterday

Something funny to me about X-Men comics is that from very early on, creators have been trying to ditch Professor X, and absolutely nobody has managed to do it for any length of time

"Dear gifted parents, We are once again sad to inform you that graduation ceremonies have been canceled following the 52nd straight year of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters campus being exploded and every member of the faculty listed as 'presumed dead.' Currently reading your mind, Chuck"

There should be at least *one* run by *one* writer who actually treats the place as a school. A school has a rhythm and cycle: first day of classes, exams, advance a grade, graduation. It has classes besides Death Dodgeball. AFAIK there's never been a graduation issue! 60 years and no degrees!

Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · 15h ago

Okay, I'm genuinely throwing this out to people: what are your mildly shit-stirring takes on X-Men comics and characters?

A fun little game is to try to infer the origins of any given day’s odd discourse topic— say, Isaac Newton— from context before you find a link to the piece people are mad about.

montrealgazette.com/news/quebec-...

Don't treat English-language universities 'unfairly,' union tells political parties ahead of Quebec election

The CSN is demanding Quebec's parties pledge to increasing funding for higher education.

montrealgazette.com

First day of class outfit

Agatha Chocolats@agathachocolats.bsky.social · yesterday

In six words or fewer, write a story about this photo. #sixwordstory #WritingCommunity

Pointing out real cases of “woke 1 run amok” does not negate my argument that it was mostly a few isolated cases. The backlash to the Peak Woke era is cutting funds, changing curricula and explicitly politicizing science — actions that affect millions.

Athul K. Acharya@athul.acharya.cc · yesterday

I think part of what’s going on here is some No True Scotsmaning. Isabell Fall, for just one example, would not consider Woke 1’s excesses “silly.” But if you consider yourself part of Woke 1, maybe you figure the incredible, crushing amount of vitriol directed at Fall didn’t come from true Scotsmen

Even the isolated cases don’t compare. We’ve had numerous people imprisoned for months due to their political statements since Trump took power. Even at its worst, Woke 1 didn’t send anyone to jail.

MISSED CONNECTION: I was the guy who posed nude for your class. You were the math professor who called campus security

The leading intellectual lights of our society were throwing fits about how the left was threatening academic freedom and they missed the story of Project 2025 scheming to end academic freedom period, despite years of experience with don't say gay and anti-divisive concepts laws.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 3d ago

Personally, I think what needs reckoning with is how fake it all was. Centrists convinced themselves annoying leftists on twitter were an equivalent threat to Jan 6 insurrectionists. They wildly inflated the threat of left-wing authoritarianism while ignoring how it was taking hold on the right.

"All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it." -Henry David Thoreau

The worst parts of Woke 1.0 happened: -in universities, media organizations, & progressive NGOs, in alliances between overweening HR departments & younger employees (or students) vs. Olds -and on twitter as it became Tumblr-ified. You couldn't invent a better recipe for excessive media attention.

Ryan North @ryannorth.ca is very very good at writing Fantastic Four stories. That’s it, that’s the skeet.

“Silly” is a good way to put it! There were excesses in 2020 but they were mostly low-stakes efforts by well-intentioned people to address real injustices. The excesses of the right during the same era were far more harmful. The reckoning we need now is about how elites lost sight of that.

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 4d ago

Being more serious re the Atlantic piece, I do actually wonder what people who went in for the sillier aspects of Woke 1 now think of it all?

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... New in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social by Sefa Secen and Ramazan Kılınç

The War on Universities: Illiberal Tactics in Turkey, Hungary, and the United States | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core

The War on Universities: Illiberal Tactics in Turkey, Hungary, and the United States

cambridge.org

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

Quick, everyone go scrub your old tweets about what a <1% win in a contested Democratic primary for Michigan Senate means for The Whole State Of Things, they're likely to contradict your new tweets about that from Wisconsin Governor.

Speaking of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (see previous thread about ICE) Am I to understand that there is a deleted scene with Claire Temple/ Night Nurse/ Rosario Dawson? Not that the movie isn't already packed with charismatic performances, but why would you ever delete a scene with Rosario Dawson?

My THIS IS FOOD brand name has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my brand name

i burst out laughing

tinyurl.com/mvhb4rkb "Canada is spending big to recruit top global minds. They may find it hard to stay in the country - if they can even get in."

by Trump corruption standards the Truth Social API deal is appalling. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

Corruption All the Way Down

If you're the president I guess blatant insider trading is quasi-legal now?

open.substack.com

Not a permanent power grab, an exit ramp: @andycraig.bsky.social proposes expanding the Supreme Court now, in exchange for staggered 18-year terms that foreclose future court-packing.

The Unfortunate Necessity of Court Packing to Stop America’s Authoritarian Drift

A proposal to add justices without opening a cycle of mutually assured destruction

theunpopulist.net