Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · 28d

Just pasted the whole book in 1 word doc. I only have to trim a minimum of 800 words! I'd like to thank my 10th grade English teacher.

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Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 29d

They are priming themselves to lead MAGA after Trump, a kind of fascist theocracy.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 29d

"We're going to go after the NGO Networks"

JD Vance and Stephen Miller openly outline how they are going to crackdown on civil society and use the government to crush political opposition.

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 29d

Pretty crazy how "America is a legit, no bullshit fascist country" is now a NYT headline.

White House Plans Broad Crackdown on Liberal Groups

www.nytimes.com

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Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · Sep 11

In 2019 Nick Fuentes' neo-Nazi "Groypers" engaged in a systematic campaign to harass Charlie Kirk at his events for not being racist enough. He responded by becoming more racist.

www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-gr...

How the Groypers Won

In the clash between Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes, the Pepe people prevailed.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Aug 28

Check out this resource library NCA has launched! "Addressing Authoritarianism" is a resource to enable successful pedagogical, research, creative, and administrative interventions into authoritarianism and fascism. www.natcom.org/addressing-a...

Addressing Authoritarianism: A Resource Library - National Communication Association

Addressing Authoritarianism: A Resource Library This resource library has been compiled by NCA members and others to provide public resources to teach, think, and write about the current rise of autho...

www.natcom.org

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Aug 4

Check out my review of @transform6789.bsky.social's fascinating and all-too-timely book Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. And if that doesn't sound like too much nausea for a summer, read the book!!! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

www.tandfonline.com

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Jul 15

"This silence has made a mockery of the slogan 'Never again,' transforming its meaning from an assertion of resistance to inhumanity wherever it is perpetrated to an excuse, an apology, indeed, even a carte blanche for destroying others by invoking one’s own past victimhood."

omerbartov.bsky.social @omerbartov.bsky.social · Jul 15

My NYT op-ed this morning
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

www.nytimes.com

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alice e marwick @alicetiara.bsky.social · Jun 13

Wow @reedvanschenck.bsky.social absolutely killing it on the top papers of ethnicity race & comm panel w their paper on white supremacists, Telegram, and interfaces

Reed Van Schenck, comm scholar, wearing a patterned shirt, in front of a lecturn, gesturing to a PowerPoint slide featuring white nationalist content found on Telegram

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Brandon M @beemooney.bsky.social · Jun 11

Ding ding ding

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Jun 5

Both! The first sense begets the second. For instance, that the platform based web is structured like a network (but centralized in the Global North) lends itself to the silly idea that the internet is democratic, which in turn gives credence to free speech complaints.

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Jun 4

I just signed a book contract!

The Reactionary Web is a book about why white supremacists manage to stay online, and what that teaches us about the racist conceits of the internet at large.

Coming in 2026 from @brisunipress.bsky.social

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · May 28

This happened a couple years ago, and the group that did it has not fared well since, but the point stands.

Kenny Akers @keneakers.bsky.social · May 27

We can keep discussing these societal issues year after year, but nothing is likely to change. Instead, it’s up to you to take proactive steps to protect yourself and your family and live with the reassurance that you can protect your life if the threat arises—plain and simple.

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · May 14

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Israel,

"We do not trade with a genocidal state"

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Apr 28

So basically, there was a Signal chat with tech folks and some Harpers Letter writers, and the Harpers folk were chased out when Andreessen realized they would not go along with censorship. But the tech guys stuck with Chris Rufo. www.semafor.com/article/04/2...

The breaking point came on July 5, 2021, when Foster and Williams, along with the never-Trump conservative David French and the liberal academic Jason Stanley, wrote a New York Times op-ed criticizing new laws against teaching “critical race theory.”

“Even if this censorship is legal in the narrow context of public primary and secondary education, it is antithetical to educating students in the culture of American free expression,” they wrote.

The conservatives had thought the Harper’s letter writers were their allies in an all-out ideological battle, and considered their position a betrayal. Andreessen “went really ballistic in a quite personal way at Thomas,” a participant recalled. The group ended after Andreessen “wrote something along the lines of ‘thank you everybody, I think it’s time to take a Signal break,’” another said.

The meltdown of this liberal-tech alliance was, to Rufo, a healthy development.

“A lot of these technologists hoped that the centrist path was a viable one, because it would permit them in theory to change the culture without having to expose themselves to the risk of becoming partisans,” he said. “By 2021, the smartest people in tech understood that these people were a dead end — so the group chats exploded and reformulated on more explicitly political lines.”

Rufo had been there all along: “I looked at these chats as a good investment of my time to radicalize tech elites who I thought were the most likely and high-impact new coalition partners for the right.”

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Apr 24

Yes, and this has been the case for a long time. Still genuinely unsure whether I prefer the brutal honesty of the present or the duplicity of the Pelosi types.

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Apr 24

Seems like all those tactics people have been using to diminish the value of Tesla have worked more effectively than both the legislative and judicial branches.

NPR @npr.org · Apr 23

Elon Musk tells Tesla investors he’ll spend less time on DOGE after profits fell 71%.

As Tesla profits plunge 71%, Elon Musk says he'll spend less time on DOGE

Elon Musk says he'll cut back his work with the federal government to one to two days per week. He said demand for Teslas is still strong, despite protests and plunging sales.

www.npr.org

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Apr 24

We have a Congress?

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Typewriter Skeleton @tpwrtrmnky.bsky.social · Apr 24

A "sex" that's immutable even if you change every single sex characteristic you have is not a biological one actually

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Robert Maguire @robertmaguire.bsky.social · Apr 23

It's a high bar, but this from @radleybalko.bsky.social might be one of the most fucked up things I've read in the new Trump era. For context, this TX lawyer had just had an informal conversation with a family caught up in ICE raids.

Seriously. Read this. radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-courag...

“A couple days later, on March 6, I was working from home at around 11:30 when I got a notice that my VPN had gone down,” he says. “I didn’t think much about it. It can cut out from time to time. About 10 minutes later, I got a knock at the door.”

Two men were outside Jackson’s door, dressed in slacks and polos. They were not wearing badges.

“I first thought they were going to try to sell me something. But as soon as I opened the door they said, ‘Are you Clayton Jackson?’ I think I shook my head or said ‘yeah,’ and then I heard, ‘We have information that you are obstructing an ongoing immigration investigation.’”

Jackson says alarms went off in his head. “My first instinct was to want to know what this was about. That it must be a misunderstanding. So I started to tell them about how I’ve been involved in some pro bono work. Then this voice in my head kicked in and just said, you need to shut the fuck up — don’t say anything.”

The officers never identified themselves. They did ask if they could come inside.

“I said absolutely not,” Jackson says. “I asked for their names and badge numbers. They said they didn’t have to provide that information at this time. So I told them I’d be calling my lawyer and I shut the door behind me.”

Jackson says his mind started racing. “I needed to know who they were, what agency they were with. Then I remembered that I have the Ring camera. Maybe I could watch the video of the incident and figure out who they were from that.”

There was no video. “That’s when I learned why my VPN had gone down. It wasn’t the VPN. Someone had shut off my Wifi.”

About 15 minutes after the interaction at his front door, Jackson’s Wifi was up and running again.

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · Apr 22

I feel like we need to keep saying this because it’s so insane: This is a legal U.S. resident who has been detained for over a month now for his political opinions.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Apr 22

The Department of Homeland Security denied Mahmoud Khalil permission to attend the birth of his first child, who was delivered at a New York hospital on Monday, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times.

Mahmoud Khalil’s Son Arrives After ICE Refuses to Let Him Attend Birth

Mr. Khalil, a permanent resident detained in Louisiana, had requested a monitored furlough for the birth. His request was denied in less than an hour.

www.nytimes.com

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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · Apr 21

Pope Francis staying alive long enough to insult JD Vance is an amazing exercise in will. May his memory be a blessing.

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🏳️‍⚧️ Josephine Riesman (Horrifying) @josie.zone · Apr 21

Wow

Punked JD Vance and then just dropped the ultimate mic

Hall of fame hater moment

RIP to a real one

News Feed @news-feed.bsky.social · Apr 21

@WSJ: Breaking: Pope Francis, who sought to refocus the Catholic Church to promote social and economic justice rather than traditional moral teachings, has died. He was 88.

Main link in OG tweet

https://on.wsj.com/42nWbLE

on.wsj.com

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Reed Van Schenck @reedvanschenck.bsky.social · Apr 11

I'm not sure how it is possible to burn cold brew but the Starbucks next to campus found a way.

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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · Apr 9

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

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