This piece started out as an attempt to get to the bottom of a clash over free speech and Southern manners and ended up a kind ode to feisty Southern grandmothers slate.com/news-and-pol...

A Southern Grandma Wore a Shocking Outfit to a No Kings Protest—and Was Violently Arrested for It. I Went to Her Trial. It Was Even Worse Than I Expected.

Never has a “Dick Tator” pun caused so much trouble.

slate.com

The Waffle House teleportation story from last was obviously...odd, but imo a lot of people are missing just how *conventional* the FEMA guy's type of supernatural thinking has become in American evangelicalism slate.com/life/2026/04...

There’s a Reason MAGA Figures Can’t Seem to Stop Talking About Aliens. It’s Much Darker Than It Appears.

The scary part is where these beliefs are coming from.

slate.com

Very excited to share that we're launching a monthly newsletter @foreignpolicy.com to showcase our growing Books coverage, including criticism, excerpts, curated reading lists, and an international fiction column. Sign up for FP Bookshelf here:

Scott Hanson just said on Gold Zone that Hunter Hess (the free skier Trump called a loser) is 6-foot-9, "one of the tallest Olympians." U.S. Ski & Snowboard told me+@mollyolmstead.bsky.social that Hess is actually 6-foot flat. 6-foot-9 is a typo in his Team USA bio!!! slate.com/culture/2026...

Why a Floppy-Haired 27-Year-Old Olympic Skier Is Making Conservatives So Very, Very Angry

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think,” he said, fatefully.

slate.com

Even if you don't buy into reports of Nick Fuentes' influence, it's clear that his kind of white nationalist edgelord internet politics are taking over classrooms. The good news, experts say, is there are ways to help kids snap out of it—if you catch it early enough slate.com/news-and-pol...

You Love Him. He Just Fell for the Most Insidious Movement in America. Now What?

Too many young men are turning to Nick Fuentes’ neo-Nazi movement. Their loved ones are fighting to bring them back.

slate.com

Tucker Carlson just keeps getting worse. Now he's bought into the chemtrails conspiracy, which is (among every other problem with it) a climate-denial ploy slate.com/news-and-pol... by @mollyolmstead.bsky.social on @slate.com

Tucker Carlson’s Latest Conspiracy Theory Takes Things to a Whole New Level

The former Fox News host’s chemtrails era is upon us.

slate.com

Before the U.S. started shipping immigrants off to the terrifying Salvadoran mega-prison CECOT, YouTubers were touring it, trying on shackles and marveling at the security. Millions of people were introduced to CECOT this way—as a cool innovation in crime-fighting. slate.com/life/2025/04...

The Prison Where Trump Thinks He Can Send Anyone He Wants Became Famous for a Bizarre Reason

For people who make videos about extreme places, the CECOT pitch was irresistible.

slate.com

Religion aside: If Hegseth is pushed out, it'll be a blow to the growing power of conservative Calvinist "theobros." Hegseth attends a church in the small denomination co-founded by Doug Wilson, arguably the spiritual leader of theobros. religionnews.com/2024/05/31/t...

The second coming of Doug Wilson

(RNS) — Conservatives are elevating long-controversial Idaho pastor Doug Wilson, framing him as a champion of a relatively moderate form of Christian nationalism — but critics say his ideas remain ext...

religionnews.com

NPR@npr.org · last yr.

BREAKING NEWS: The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

When writing this obit, I kept asking which parts of Pope Francis' legacy could be undone. Experts all said that policies could be rolled back but that Francis had changed things more fundamentally—the Latin American pope was the first to make the church truly global. slate.com/life/2025/04...

Pope Francis Changed a Lot About the Church. One Thing Cannot Be Reversed.

The Vatican will never be the same.

slate.com

A bloody end for Pizzagate gunman Edgar Maddison Welch, who shot up Comet Ping Pong in 2016. Police say they shot him at a traffic stop over the weekend after he pulled a gun. www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/c...

‘Pizzagate’ gunman fatally shot by police outside Charlotte in traffic stop

Kannapolis police said Edgar Maddison Welch pointed a gun at officers on Saturday, two of whom then fired at him.

charlotteobserver.com

Some in the far-right internet are cheering Meta rolling back its fact-checking program & its content moderation, claiming Mark Zuckerberg "kissed the ring & bowed to Donald Trump" & was "bending the knee in our direction," along with being amazed it was "this easy" to get these changes announced.

Brian Fung@brianfung.me · 2y ago

Zuckerberg says Meta plans to eliminate its fact-checking program, move content moderators to Texas to address claims of bias, raise the bar for enforcing its terms and lift certain “restrictions” on immigration and gender talk. Huge shift in platform policy.

In a Twitter/X Space last week, Brian Gamble — a board member of Michael Flynn's organization America's Future & a former CIO of Flynn & Patrick Byrne's organization The America Project — said that "it is going to take blood in the streets" in order to stop the supposed "Islamification" of the UK.

Let’s talk about a different aspect of Pete Hegseth: His views on religion and the military, and how the two intertwine. We have been reviewing his extensive writings and connections. Here is a closer look at some of what we’ve found. 1/11 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/u...

Pete Hegseth and His ‘Battle Cry’ for a New Christian Crusade

The veteran picked to lead the Defense Department has praised the brutal religious military campaigns of the past and has called for a Christian approach to governing.

nytimes.com

Looking to talk to some folks about religion and seed oils for a story.

I hate to crosspost, but masks are coming off and Fundamentalist Twitter is realizing that some folks who think America should be run as a Christian nation also have other thoughts that may or may not be almost verbatim Hitler quotes.

People for the American Way has drawn connections between Trump's AG pick and the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation. Also note that Lance Wallnau, prominent NAR leader, boasted in October about his interview with Linda McMahon (education secretary pick). www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...

The conservative women’s magazine Evie has released their new cover featuring Ballerina Farm. Evie has peddled health conspiracy theories & disinfo, patriarchal relationships, and anti-LGBTQ views under an aesthetic guise. It’s time to stop saying that tradwives aren’t political.

As I wrote this, people kept asking if Bannon is actually still relevant, since the Trump fallout. I really think so—he has sway over the MAGA types in Congress, and his allies (the kind of people he says "I love you" to on the show) are staffing up the next administration slate.com/news-and-pol...

I Just Listened to Steve Bannon’s Show for a Week. What’s Coming Is Clear.

He's gloating. But he's also sounding a warning.

slate.com