Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1h

oh this guy is delusional delusional

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 4h

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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Dr. Tara L. Conley @taralconley.com · 1h

for active military or if you know someone in the military:

“The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may not be legal.”
www.nimj.org/top.html#/

Orders Project

The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may....

www.nimj.org

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Vought is at war with large swaths of the population, with the very idea of a society defined by democratic pluralism. If you have correctly identified that this guy is now in a really powerful position, that people like him are in control of the government, how is that not the main story?

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Meldusa ✨ @mellylamelle.bsky.social · 49m

👇👇👇

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Vought is not interested in “normal” democratic politics: He seeks to “traumatize” civil servants, use the military to suppress protests, and sees Trump as an agent of God’s will. He is convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend his “real America” of white Christian patriarchal rule.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

While Vought traces the “leftwing revolution” back a hundred years, to the progressive era, there is no question that the election of Barack Obama was a radicalizing moment for him and many key thinkers on the radical Right - as were the multiracial protests in the summer of 2020.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Vought is singularly focused on bending the entire government machine to Trump’s will. He believes that any check on the power of Donald Trump, who Vought literally describes as a “gift of God,” is illegitimate. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Russell Vought embodies the radicalization of the conservative movement; his example captures how far removed from democratic politics the Trumpist Right is. Vought is convinced to be fighting a noble war against a vast leftist conspiracy that has supposedly taken over the country.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

It is October 2025, the assault on what is left of American democracy is escalating, and one of the New York Times’ most influential formats insists on presenting one of the Trumpist regime’s leaders as a devout “small government” conservative with a great work ethic.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

The Daily is committed to sanitizing Vought and ignoring what they regard as unsavory ideology. Because engaging with what is actually animating Vought would make it very hard to uphold the “normal politics” framework that defines much of mainstream political journalism.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

Vought is a key figure in the world of Trumpism, with a rare – and dangerous – combination of ideological zeal and operative competence, a fully committed extremist causing massive harm to millions of people.

But if you only listened to The Daily, you wouldn’t get any of that.

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elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 19h

wow is this grotesque

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 20h

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

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Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · 17h

We’re in this weird period in which everyone is afraid of people that almost everyone despises

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 22h

Witkoff tries to praise Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, but has a hard time finishing his thought because of booing

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Jason Karsh @jkarsh.bsky.social · 14h

If we survive this, and Democrats are able to take back power, I guarantee you we will have to endure think-piece after think-piece that demand the rest of us reach out, stop shaming, and forgive fascists and the crimes they’ve committed. I absolutely guarantee it.

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 16h

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 17h

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 15h

Also: if you work for ICE, even if you’re not one of the ones arresting citizens or tackling 15-year-olds or zip-tying kids together and segregating them by race, you’re part of the mechanism making it happen, and you should suffer long-term social and post-regime-change consequences.

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 16h

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 20h

Trump's Argentina Bailout

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 21h

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

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Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 20h

If you work in the Office of Special Education for the Department of Education and have been RIF'ed or if you work in a school that has been notified about it, please message me. My Signal is emgarcia.85. I'll protect your identity.

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 23h

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Meldusa ✨ @mellylamelle.bsky.social · 14h

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 17h

Trump take egg

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 1d

"The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'”

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 16h

They like Trump and want to help him and reporting on this would not help him so they do not do that

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 18h

People are really asking me why the mainstream news is barely reporting the closing of special ed dept at DoEd like all our big media companies aren't owned and run by absolute psychopaths.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18h

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...

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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Missing The Point @missingthept.bsky.social · 14h

“Can you explain this gap in your resume?”

Me thinking quickly on my feet to explain the period when I worked for ICE: “I was selling drugs… ,uh, to children.”

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 16h

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 21h

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

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Kitty’s Ghost @kittysghost.bsky.social · 17h

In Minnesota, a MAGAt murdered a stateswoman and her husband.

Night after night, ICE wreaks havoc on our nation’s cities — leaving property damage, brutalized civilians, and cold blooded murders in their wake.

#FIFY

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

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