Brendan Nyhan

@brendannyhan.bsky.social

130K followers 4.3K following 10K posts

Dartmouth political scientist and Bright Line Watch co-director. Previously Upshot NYT / CJR contributor, Spinsanity co-founder, All the President's Spin co-author.

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/
http://brightlinewatch.org .. more

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Brendan Nyhan is an American political scientist and professor at Dartmouth College. He is also a liberal to moderate political blogger, author, and political columnist. He was born in Mountain View, California and now lives in Hanover, New Hampshire. .. more

Political science 39%

Sociology 22%

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 7d

There is nothing complicated or subtle or hard to understand about what is going on.

Trump may not succeed. But he will only fail if patriots stand up and defend our democracy and the Constitution. We must act, as @mashagessen.bsky.social writes, while we still can. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Luke Smith Morgan @slukemorgan.bsky.social · 11h

the pinned post from this morning (i.e. when Steve tried to post) says everyone's videos are stuck in review

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Silvia Secchi, Pamela K. Gilbert , and 4 more Brendan Nyhan, Silvia Secchi, Pamela K. Gilbert, Peter Jacobsen, Peter Gratton, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen

Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 11h

Here's a regular white guy (literally "Chad") not a protester. because, "It seemed pointless, or just a way for people to expiate their sense of guilt." Chad witnessed something shattering. And, that all changed in a moment.

Excellent article!

One of those latecomers was a 46-year-old documentary filmmaker named Chad Knutson. On the morning after Good was killed, he was at home with his two hound dogs, watching a live feed from the Whipple Building, where ICE is based, a five-minute drive from his house. A protester had laid a rose on a makeshift memorial to Good. As Knutson watched, an ICE agent took the rose, put it in his lapel, and then mockingly gave it to a female ICE agent. They both laughed.

Knutson told me he had never been a protester. It seemed pointless, or just a way for people to expiate their sense of guilt. But when he saw those ICE agents laughing, something broke inside him.

“I grab my keys, I grab a coat, and drive over,” Knutson told me. “I barely park my car and I’m running out screaming and crying, ‘You stole a fucking flower from a dead woman. Like, are any of you human anymore?

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Daniel W. Drezner, Karen Benjamin Guzzo , and 3 more Brendan Nyhan, Daniel W. Drezner, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Robert C. Richards, Aaron Sojourner, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 11h

This is one of the things that I find is most shocking to people outside Minnesota who don’t realize it yet—the scale at which everyone who isn’t white has been forced into a spectrum of hiding.

Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.

Knutson mentioned in passing that his neighbor had “an adopted brown kid down there; they hid her in the basement yesterday.” This kind of thing no longer sounds weird in Minneapolis. Many people are hiding indoors—so many that, in a city with a substantial minority population, I hardly saw any Black or Latino faces on the street.

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 11h

“we’ll take it from here, alex”

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h

While Bezos cuts away at the Washington Post

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 12h

What a waste of money

Reposted by Ameet Sarpatwari, Laurent Pech, Robert C. Richards , and 2 more Ameet Sarpatwari, Laurent Pech, Robert C. Richards, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, David Darmofal

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h

A teacher literally shaking as she describes the threat from her own government to the children she teaches www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 12h

What a waste of money

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 12h

As Hannah Arendt says, the absence of independent judgment and the willingness to instantly regurgitate the Leader's line at all times is exactly what a fascist government seeks in its acolytes.

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h

The Wall Street Journal: "The American City That Found Itself at War With the U.S. Government"

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 13h

The fatal shooting of a VA nurse by federal agents marked a new and alarming phase in the battle for Minneapolis. How a city found itself at war with the U.S. government.