Remember, you are under no obligation to ever side with Tucker Carlson when he makes some anti-Trump comment. He is a fascist apologist who apparently thinks Hitler winning WWII would have been fine. He is, in my humble opinion, a silver spooned bigot who romanticizes white supremacy.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d ago

Tucker: “I never understood why 🇬🇧 fought World War 2?” 😕 Rees-Mogg: “It was good vs. evil…We did the right thing…” Tucker: “Has 🇬🇧 benefitted?” RM: “We defeated Hitler… We’d all be speaking German…” Tucker: “Who cares?” 🤔

whether or not someone is meaningfully promoting "human values" or "safety", or is -- conversely -- a control freak, is meaningfully predicted by whether or not they work in a shop where harassing subordinates and scamming donors is considered acceptable

i'll even admit that i am interested in large part because i am ideologically opposed for other reasons, but here's the thing: the reason these organizations are toxic and the way they promote their agenda is overbearing is that their staffing is shit and selects for being a shitty person

has anyone actually ever had a law firm do an audit of MIRI, lightcone, SFF, or any of these other organizations? even defensively. one would think that you should get ahead of problems before complete outsiders figure out how to identify and/or profit by filing concerning violations of federal law

i don't wanna be bitter or whatever but the fact that people on bluesky are a meaningful force here is insane and should tell you that this entire area is deeply fucking ill. i don't know or like these people. if complete strangers can infer that your shop is Sexual Harassment, 501c, how bad is it?

the "bad misstatement" in question is to the effect of "yes, I commit sexual harassment regularly and utilize the funds made available to me via nonprofit grants to commit sexual harassment and to induce people to have sex with me and to participate in sexual events which i attend"

“you can’t be mad at us for any of the stuff we did” trial balloon sinking under the weight of World Historic Crimes

the DOJ “reviewing watergate” has the foulest stink of desperation. trying to rewrite history to rescue nixon’s name from the mud as if he’s not already a sitcom punchline. I wonder if there’s another historically corrupt executive suddenly worried about his own legacy? probably just a coincidence

"No conservative who longs for an earlier age suggests cutting themselves off from the modern world in an intentional community, as the Amish have—because that would mean accepting an inferior place in the hierarchy of power."

The Illiberal's Dilemma

In January of this year, media personality Matt Walsh tweeted “Singapore is able to have nice things in part because they execute drug dealers by hanging and arrest even petty vandals and thieves and ...

liberalcurrents.com

Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST@chathamharrison.bsky.social · 2d ago

Yeah, one might assume that they adopt liberal rhetoric because if they used straight language people would understand how racist they are, but that's not all it. It's also because if they used straight language *they'd* realize how racist they are, & that scares them as much as it excites them

yet also pathetic: trapped in the logic of the modernity they reject

i just think these people are profoundly evil

as ever i'm struck by the doublethink of these people, who feel the need to dress up their mindless longing for heirarchy and exclusion in the language of liberalism--"high trust," material prosperity, blah blah blah it's a form of magical thinking: "if we do enough racism, good things will happen"

Christopher Mathias@letsgomathias.bsky.social · 2d ago

New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...

Is it too much to want a Defense Secretary focused on ending the war in Iran, instead of whatever this is?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d ago

Hegseth: "It's worth saying again so the fake news understands it. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that -- no fatties no trannies no beardos no weirdos no wimps no radicals. Just warriors."

"Imperialism uses violence as a mechanism for administration, fascism uses administration as a mechanism for violence"?

I had this conversation with a colleague yesterday and I think my distinction is that the bloodshed and violence of Empire is an inevitability of the ideology, whereas the bloodshed of fascism and Nazism is the Point of the ideology

finrodsauronverynsfwprivatefolderdonotlook@yungdreyfusard.bsky.social · 2d ago

the idea that the nazis were trying to do in eastern europe what, say, the british did in southern africa, only on a drastically sped-up timeframe, obviously has some merit re: the nazis' other targets, but it categorically fails to deal with their judenhass, which did operate on a different logic.

If the things you say are designed solely to get other people to believe what you want them to, or do what you want them to, the concept of someone who isn't going to deviate from their beliefs out of convenience doesn't scan.

There's no amount of money, no possible threats, no leverage that can make the fucking POPE go out in public and say a machine can be conscious. Even the shitty popes of the last few centuries would almost certainly agree with him!

At a really fundamental level Leo XIV is just a person with sound, well-reasoned, moral stances on the world and how life should be lived who isn't afraid to say those things in public. That kind of person simply does not make sense to business leaders and politicians for whom speech is convenience.

Parkscope Joe@parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is insane.

I recommend people read this to get a sense of the president's grave cognitive impairment. Trump is either unwilling or unable (or maybe both) to answer the questions he's actually asked, so he just rants and raves while the interviewers do their best to provide structure to his random brain firings

Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript

The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.

time.com

I do think it's important to give grace to people who realize they made the wrong choice. I don't want to. but other nicer people def should do that. I dont give a shit.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

"Voters have a regret or two, and we've seen this in poll after poll. The regret has grown since the beginning of Trump's presidency" -- Enten unpacks polling showing that Kamala Harris would easily beat Donald Trump if they were both on the ballot again next month

It's so funny that they think they can buy the Pope the same way they think they bought the current president

Parkscope Joe@parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is insane.

Pete is lost in terms of modern war. I use the example of this outgunned Ukrainian army officer who successfully terrorized a Russian unit for weeks because she "did the math." At the time, someone commented, "yeah, in combat, 'I did the math' beats 'I can do 100 pushups' every time."

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d ago

Hegseth: "The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top."

not that you should expect anything more than rank idiocy from this pair of racists, but the idea that whiteness means a "high trust" society of "social cohesion" is some of the stupidest shit i have ever heard. these people live in a fantasy land that you could dispel by simply opening a book.

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing

To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...

talkingpointsmemo.com

"The method of force which hides itself in secrecy is a method as old as humanity. The kind of thing that men are afraid or ashamed to do openly, and by day, they accomplish secretly, masked and at night."

Which makes me wonder to what extent the SCOTUS Republicans are just doing a more genteel version of Trump's core fuckup: they think they are now our Guardian Council and have no idea how to actually build legitimacy for authoritarian rule, ignorantly leaping off a bridge thinking they can fly.

Zoomer Antimillenarian@surcomplicated.bsky.social · 4d ago

Not true. The stage-managed *appearance* of due process is something a lot of authoritarian states put real investment into, because it directly affects the perceived legitimacy of the government.

It's astonishing just how committed this SCOTUS is to burning its own institutional legitimacy to the ground.