Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Annika Brockschmidt

Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 12h

Call me old school, but I don't think a person illegally blowing up boats and unleashing masked goons on his citizens would be a serious candidate for a peace prize.

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Paul Rosenberg @paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 5h

Nice Nobel Peace Prize you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it... or the whole damn country!

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 5h

What if the guy who inspires fear of reprisal for not winning does not actually deserve the Peace Prize?

headlines describing Norway shitting itself for when Trump does not win.

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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 4h

Is that a black sun in the background?

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Will Hutchinson 🌻 @unnamedwill.bsky.social · 1d

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 7h

Last month, ICE’s own investigators found that Texas’ massive Camp East Montana had subjected detained individuals to conditions that have violated _at least 60 federal standards_.

Detained individuals have been “held virtually incommunicado from the outside.” www.npr.org/transcripts/...

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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 10h

Mood.

Fluffy dog lifting one corner of her mouth, showing lower teeth, one eye mid-wink

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10h

"It's very funny when the government gets to decide who is a Real Jew and who is not! We are all laughing. It is funny, yes."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

JD Vance describes Chuck Schumer as "one of the most famous Palestinians in the world"

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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 4d

The first day of the 2025 legislative session also featured prominent pastors and lawmakers calling for spiritual warfare and, at one point, praying on the walls of the Capitol to ward off demonic spirits they believe control Austin.

Texas GOP chair claims church-state separation is a myth as lawmakers, pastors prep for “spiritual battle”

Abraham George’s comments are the latest sign of the state GOP’s embrace of fundamentalist ideologies that seek to center public life around their faith.

www.texastribune.org

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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 4d

Last month, two Republican State Board of Education members appointed David Barton, a Christian nationalist activist and widely debunked "amateur historian," as an expert advisor for the state's upcoming revision of curricula to focus on Texas and American history.

He Calls Church-State Separation a Myth. He’s Now Weighing In on Public School Curricula.

David Barton, far-right Christian activist and founder of Wallbuilders, has been appointed by Texas's board of education to advise on social studies instruction.

www.texasmonthly.com

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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 10h

If your foetus is in the placenta (?) something is indeed very wrong (not that any of these guys would know) and it has nothing to do with tylenol

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 10h

“She, like [Rev. David] Black, said she has been shot multiple times with pepper bullets, including while she was praying with her eyes closed and hands lifted, wearing a clerical collar and stole.”

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 10h

"Every time we have been attacked w/pepper bullets or tear gas or pepper spray … it has felt like it came from anger that we were there, and not from any determined safety need or protocol," said Rev. Hannah Kardon, who has been shot w/pepper bullets _multiple times_. "They are unhinged."

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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 11h

"Jack Posobiec, a far-right influencer and conspiracy theorist... called Bray a 'domestic terrorist professor.' 'The day after the Posobiec tweet, I received a very direct death threat saying that someone was going to kill me in front of my students,' says Bray." Jack was at the White House on Wed.

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 13h

Doug Wilson co-authored a (plagiarized) book that defended the institution of slavery *as it was practiced in the antebellum South*. This is how Douthat introduced the subject while providing him with the NYT's platform:

Douthat: So, just to take a related example, one of the controversies of many that you’ve been mixed up in has to do with slavery, and whether slavery is absolutely forbidden by the Bible, absolutely forbidden to Christians, or whether it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: And you think it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: On this, on a straightforward reading of the New Testament, I would agree with you. I would say, pretty clearly, there is a pretty clear path from the message of the Bible to the abolition of slavery. But there is no moment in the New Testament when Jesus insists on the manumission of slaves.

Wilson: Right.

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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 1d

Incredible.

Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.

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Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 13h

I went ahead and did the starting work for someone who wants to chase this angle. Most right-wing influencers who participated in the "Antifa" roundtable at the White House yesterday have easily provable ties to TPUSA (8 of 12). The other four need a closer look I don't have time for right now.

right-wing influencers standing for a photo together at the white house

(Left to Right)

Jack Posobiec - TPUSA employee
Seamus Bruner - Government Accountability Institute (GAI)
James Klug - TPUSA Ambassador
Jonathan Cho - TPUSA employee
Nick Sortor - Influencer
Julio Rosas - Former TPUSA, Blaze Media
Nick Shirley - Influencer
Andy Ngo - Human Events Media Group*
Brandi Kruse - Influencer
Savannah Hernandez - TPUSA employee
Katie Daviscourt - Former TPUSA, Human Events Media Group*
Cam Higby - TPUSA employee

(Human Events Media Group is closely tied to TPUSA. https://humanevents.com/about-human-events )

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Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s an angle for a journalist looking for a fresh take on the White House “Antifa” roundtable — most of the people who participated are employed by or have a direct financial connection to Turning Point USA. I think that’s pretty telling, no?

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13h

This is the guy who looked in the mirror and called himself “David Duke without the baggage”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Scalise: "When a good day for you is defined by how much suffering you can impose on other people, maybe you need to look in the mirror and check yourself at the door and wonder what it is you're up here trying to accomplish."

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Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 17h

Mark Bray — scholar of European history and radicalism, and the author of several books including ‘ANTIFA — the anti fascist handbook’ — on the rise of antifascist movements from the 1930s to today, and why Trump's terror designation recalls authoritarian crackdowns through history

What exactly is Antifa? | CBC Radio

In late September, Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization. Today, we’re tracking the meaning and history of antifascist protest — from 1930’s Europe, to today — and asking: how ...

www.cbc.ca

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Sarah Szalavitz💡 @dearsarah.bsky.social · 18h

Rutgers Professor @mark-bray.bsky.social, who studies & writes about Antifascism,Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats

By the time he & his family reached the gate, their tickets were cancelled.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/n... flagrantly & appallingly lawless. Hope he & his family are ok.

Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats

www.nytimes.com

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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 13h

💯

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 14h

perhaps not a contradiction, but an intention

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14h

This pretty much captures the contradictions of the politics of Kirk and Turning Point: Of course we oppose doxxing and violence, but we will absolutely use inflammatory language, false claims, and enemies list that fuels threats and intimidation.

Several days after publishing the petition calling for Dr. Bray’s dismissal from Rutgers, the Turning Point USA chapter added an update saying that it did not support harassment or the doxxing of him or anyone else.

“I think that all death threats and doxxing are unjustified and not how political disputes should be resolved in civilized society,” Ava Kwan, a Turning Point USA chapter member, said in an email on Wednesday.
But she defended the broader point of the petition, saying, “I think Dr. Antifa, who believes in violence as a political tool, should be fired, of course. Taxpayer money should not fund the salaries of terrorists.”

For years, Turning Point USA has maintained a watch-list of hundreds of professors whom the group accuses of advancing leftist propaganda in the classroom. Dr. Bray is on the list.

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Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 14h

We don't support suppression of speech, but we do create watchlists and doxx people and flood universities with angry phone calls and emails (not to mention death threats) and call professors woke commie Nazi scum who should be fired.

You know, free speech advocacy.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14h

This pretty much captures the contradictions of the politics of Kirk and Turning Point: Of course we oppose doxxing and violence, but we will absolutely use inflammatory language, false claims, and enemies list that fuels threats and intimidation.

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 15h

A woman who was shot multiple times by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not ram them with her car and had her weapon stored in her purse at the time of the incident, according to her lawyer, contradicting accounts by the Department of Homeland Security.

www.reuters.com/world/us/bod...

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Alessandro Nai @alessandronai.bsky.social · 21h

Maybe a coincidence. But the fact that it very well might not be one says a lot about the current situation. And about disturbing times ahead.
Solidarity with Mark Bray

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 1d

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 15h

Well done - and I really felt the face palm. I hope you’ll get to safety soon.

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