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Drunk On Mystery @drunkonmystery.bsky.social · 2h

In Nuzzi's case specifically, it's why they kept insisting on the complete black-is-white nonsense that her writing was remotely good or interesting, when anyone with eyeballs could see it was self-absorbed, navel-gazing tripe that would be embarrassing coming from a 1st year creative writing class.

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Drunk On Mystery @drunkonmystery.bsky.social · 2h

"These people are socialites" also applies to a lot of political journalists, which is why so many of them were ready to rush to defense of people like Olivia Nuzzi:

They're not interested in whether she does or does not follow basic journalism practices, because they don't either.

ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 2h

Talia doesn't want us to save democracy, she wants to make sure the people who show up to protests are still people she wants to date. I'm going to keep observing this about everyone who posts stuff like this, because it's true. These people are socialites, not activists.

Buttadeus @thewanderingjew.bsky.social · 3h

This is where theory gets you

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Drunk On Mystery @drunkonmystery.bsky.social · 27m

Confronting real evil makes "radicals" of normal people.

It's how you ended up with someone whose qualifications in life were "random dude from Iowa" giving absolutely insanely metal quotes about fighting like: "By God, I'll fight till hell freezes over, and then I'll cut the ice and fight on"

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Drunk On Mystery @drunkonmystery.bsky.social · 27m

It's obviously not a 1-to-1 comparison, but a lot of soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War left the North thinking "Slavery is bad, but not like...BAD bad", then got one look at what it actually was in practice, and became staunch abolitionists almost immediately.

ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 39m

I actually think "radlib" is a pretty good term for myself, and I feel like appropriating it. Like I've referred to myself sarcastically as a "neolib" but that's *actually inaccurate*; I think "radlib" 100% describes my views. I am radically in favor of freedom

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Oversight Dems @oversightdemocrats.house.gov · 30m

Adelita Grijalva was elected to Congress 3 weeks ago. Republicans are refusing to swear her in because she’ll be the tie-breaking vote to release the Epstein files.

The cover-up must end. @robertgarcia.house.gov is demanding Speaker Johnson swear-in @adelitaforcongress.bsky.social immediately.

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Billy Corriher @billycorriher.bsky.social · 1h

NC Court of Appeals rules that lawmakers violated the separation of powers by taking away the governor's power to appoint the Commission on Public Health, the Board of Transportation, and the Economic Investment Committee appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=... #ncpol

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K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · 2h

There's some rich analogues to draw on! The East India Trading Company was a real life horrifying megacorp that functioned as a state

K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · Feb 4

The corporate state begins to make some sense if you look at it through a colonial lens. If the citizens of the imperial core have a regular state, and then that empire does an imperialism through corporations, then the corporation acts as a state to the colony and a corporation to the empire.

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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 2h

Talia doesn't want us to save democracy, she wants to make sure the people who show up to protests are still people she wants to date. I'm going to keep observing this about everyone who posts stuff like this, because it's true. These people are socialites, not activists.

Buttadeus @thewanderingjew.bsky.social · 3h

This is where theory gets you

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K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · 2h

Along with the everything "shadowy figures throwing gas cans back" go viral

Buttadeus @thewanderingjew.bsky.social · 3h

This is where theory gets you

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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 2h

This is not activism in a sincere way. They are not trying to save our democracy.They want a social scene and they use utterly unrelated personal characteristics and vibes to determine who they want in. They want to stop No Kings bc protesting in a given city is something they see as their territory

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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 2h

I feel like people likely think that I'm being purely hyperbolic here, but this is my sincere impression of Bluesky leftist culture: that if you say people here are "social activists," the emphasis is on the "social." It's about developing a network of people with certain characteristics.

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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 2h

They talk about how "dangerous" it is for them to have normies show up to their events, but, sincerely, it is that they don't want cringe olds in their social event. And they aren't maintaining a "community" in the way they present publicly, bc it is very much about youth and attractiveness.

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Stephen Clermont @sjclermont.bsky.social · 1h

Except for that one time

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Mike Johnson: "We've always stood with Capitol police and law enforcement. We've shown that in word and deed."

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Doc Revan @docrevan.bsky.social · 1h

Clearly the solution is to just make Marco Rubio the acting director for both and unite them in a personal union

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 1h

the only line in this story that matters is “would require congressional approval”

US Justice Department considers merging DEA, ATF in major shakeup, memo says

The U.S. Justice Department is considering merging the lead agencies enforcing drug and gun laws in a major shakeup as it follows President Donald Trump's instructions to sharply streamline the government, according to a memo first reported by Reuters.

www.reuters.com

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Prince Caspian @nysea.bsky.social · 44m

Absolutely fuck the wrong-protest-rock people. They're wreckers who don't care about anything except protest for protest's sake. That's it. It's an aesthetic. And so rather than welcoming a few million normal Americans with open arms, they instead say to them: fuck off, poseurs.

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Il Pomodoro @dabenner.bsky.social · 41m

I am going to apply the wisdom of Solomon here, some were like this, and some were not. What happened was internal competition among republican factions kept this stuff from spilling out, and complete subservience to Trump made them think (erroneously, I guess) no intra-squad rules needed.

grimm ☀️ @mugrimm.bsky.social · 2h

They have 100% always been this way, though notably the transition from helicopter rides and referencing crushing minorities abroad humorlessly transitioned to nazi shit, but like that's basically a new layer of paint instead of a new perspective.

Amanda Marcotte
@amandamarcotte.bsky.social
+ Follow
For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this.
That's why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed -because Young Republicans weren't radical enough.

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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social · 2h

Yeah I just feel like the more over-the-top this talk gets, the sillier it's going to look when there are these huge crowds on television clearly NOT made up of Trans Furry Communists.

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 2h

this idiot talking point doesn’t make any fucking sense, but, boy, they’re real shook about what the special birthday boy is gonna see on television this weekend

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

Bessent: "This crazy No Kings rally this weekend, which is gonna be the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic Party, which is a big title. No Kings equals no paychecks."

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Mel, AnarcHochulist 🏳️‍⚧️🔰♨️ @astruckpersonn.bsky.social · 1h

every time i hear about “radlib” or “radical liberal” i think of this january 5th meme

RADICAL LIBERAL RAPHAEL WARNOCK
Image of a skateboarder doing a trick with Senator Warnock’s face photoshopped over it

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Perfectly Harmless Effy @effinvicta.bsky.social · 3h

Somebody really needs to write a handy-dandy explainer on angels in the Torah, the rest of the Tanakh, the apocrypha, and the Christian Bible. (Not that there's a gigantic difference between them...)

A penitent who is loud @loudpenitent.bsky.social · 10h

Good lord I hate the Biblically Accurate Angels meme.

I've said it before but guys, most angels in the Torah just look like pretty or scary people. The really wild weird stuff is often either folkloric or apocrypha.

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Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 1h

My extremely normie aunt and uncle (a former Catholic priest, FWIW) sent an email to the family urging everyone to attend a No Kings rally

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Johnson: "We call it the Hate America Rally that will happen Saturday. Let's see who shows up for that. I bet you you'll see Hamas supporters, I bet you'll see antifa types, I bet you'll see Marxists on full display, people who don't want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic"

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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, interesting. Because old-timey Eurocentric "ethnic" stereotypes like that just don't even really play with contemporary audiences, at least in America! We wouldn't get it! (Which is good, heh!) But yeah, "shouty humorless blowhard, probably violent" seems to have been the thing.

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Don't Fret. It Adores You @seed-corn-thoughts.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, "Nazi as sinister aristocrat" was a more common trope in *recent* times- in older media, they're almost always unpleasant and offensive German stereotypes.

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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social · 3h

Also, if you're the right age, THIS guy. Creepy sadistic weirdo who gets his hand horribly burned and then his face melted off for good measure. As is right and proper.

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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social · 3h

The inflatable animal suits, which take up way too much space on the sidewalk and obscure the wearer's vision, are a perfect metaphor for liberal "protest" and the way it dominates space needed by marginalized elements. In this essay I will

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