Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 8m

It’s so neat that capitalism put us back in the era of mad kings ranting about their own interpretation of the Bible.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 26m

part of the conditions for reopening the govt should be clawing back these slush funds

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29m

Even as FBI is being downsized, it must allocate more of its resources to the only part of the govt that is growing: immigration enforcement.
The scale of this growth is hard to comprehend. DHS has a slushfund of $10B - bigger than the old ICE budget - to pay other agencies and state & local cops.

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sanophale.bsky.social @sanophale.bsky.social · Jul 25

Meme with one Primus fan in Primus costume saying to another "Primus sucks" and the other replying "I know."

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 24m

I think it’s weird you’re cool with a plumber that keeps talking about how much they love genocide.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 37m

So many people think saying it’s impossible makes the the smartest or most reasonable person in the room when it just means they have no understanding of history. This situation is not unique. People and politicians have been fighting fascism and winning forever.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 1h

Sy Ableman?

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🌙🥀Ithewin🍂✨🍉🗝️ @sladeofyaupon.bsky.social · 5d

you need to be having conversations with your coworkers and your boss or manager about how you are going to keep people safe from ICE at your workplace.

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Microplastics Spookmelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 14h

today in "predicted by 30 Rock"

Edie Falco on 30 Rock:
I MISSED THE VOTE ON A BILL TO LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL WHALE TORTURE.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 14h

I love to lift

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👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 22h

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 16h

Look we can’t afford to feed the professional highly trained troops but we can afford to hire the masked untrained gestapo. That’s sustainable right?

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 1d

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 16h

Weirdest part about going to a haunted house is when it activates a new kink. “Oh so getting yelled at by giant clowns. Who knew.”

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 17h

For the love of good dems don’t deal with them. Like paying a guy to paint your house when you know he’s just going to fuck your wife.

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 18h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Justin LaLiberty @jlalibs.com · 19h

What an absolute treasure Diane Keaton was. Her wit never tired, nor did her style.

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Bryan Ward @bryaneward.bsky.social · 22h

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PISS_SHITTER @amiyatzin.bsky.social · 1d

so glad she finally got her Nobel Peace Prize

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17h

vought's view is that the president is an elected dictator and lo and behold he is seizing outright the power of the purse

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 18h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 18h

Neat

Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 19h

And this:
92% of the growth in the entire country this year has been data centers. And some of that is "circular deals" that dont involve actual money

fortune.com/2025/10/07/d...

Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says | Fortune

Is a U.S. without data centers a country without GDP growth?

fortune.com

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 22h

I’m a growing believer that this entire country started on third but thinks it hit a triple. We have vast natural resources and only two countries bordering us. We got lucky when the rest of the world was decimated by WWII. We’re doing politics on easy mode.

The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 22h

At least we no longer have to hear about freedom being in Americans' DNA or whatever. Turns out we love to eat shit and bow to some bloated halfwit like any other people throughout history

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 1d

This begs the question: does anyone know what those phrases mean?

Ryan North? But - he died... 30 years ago this very night!! @ryannorth.ca · 1d

I used to get mad when people misused "decimated" to refer to things that weren't 1/10th destroyed, but I've given it some thought and now I've done a complete 360 on it

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 1d

I’ll admit I’m general counsel for Antifa. It’s actually pretty boring. Contracts among polycules and mediating disputes on whether something is violence.

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Evil Ernest Luckman @ernieluckman.bsky.social · 1d

It drives me crazy that there sayin that not we can make things better. Oh republicans want to double your health insurance premiums. Ok fine what are you doing to make them zero.