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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1h

Another strong piece from @adamkinzinger.substack.com. Why can't @housedemocrats.bsky.social address far-right authoritarianism with as much clarity as former neocons?

Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 1h

Trump’s rhetoric has crossed a line — from “Deep State” conspiracy to open fascist playbook.

open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

Trump’s “Enemy Within”: How Fascist Rhetoric Became U.S. Policy

Behind talk of “vermin” and “enemies,” Trump’s administration is mobilizing the tools of state power against its own citizens.

open.substack.com

Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1h

I'd be chuckling along with you, if I didn't think University boards will eventually steam-roll most schools into signing something like this.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1h

Planning to teach Octavia Butler for the first time next semester, but still vacillating between #Kindred & #ParableOfTheSower. Very stuck.

Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1h

So, what is the best technical term for ICE now? It's been fully militarized, it operates under the direct control of the executive branch, & it not only routinely violates judicial orders, but it would seem to violate the constitutional prohibition of a standing army. A personal paramilitary force?

In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 5h

The 13th largest military in the world is occupying and waging war on the people of Chicago.

“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago

As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

inthesetimes.com

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 2h

I so don't want to read more about these neoreactionary hate-clowns, but I just might have to check out "Gilded Rage."

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2h

"Gilded Rage" isn’t simply a rehash of existing reportage. What separates Silverman’s book from other writeups, and where his book truly shines, is in his attempt to get at the root of Silicon Valley’s anti-democratic lurch. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...

Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn

A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Craig Franson

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 17h

Sometimes we need a moment, but if you tune out completely, they win. Fascism doesn’t need your support, just your silence.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1d

Can I suggest Coleridge's "Christabel" before you get to "The Vampyre" and Carmilla? (If you haven't already read it)

Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 1d

Posting to read later.

In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 1d

Octavia E. Butler saw the future—and warned us.

Aina Marzia reviews Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris, a new biography tracing Butler’s journey to literary legend, showing how her vision transformed both sci-fi and Black liberation.

inthesetimes.com/article/octa...

Octavia Butler speaks passionately, set against a vibrant abstract background with bold geometric shapes and vivid colors, conveying energy and creativity.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 5d

Reposting to read later.

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 7d

“Much about what Ezra Klein argues is objectionable,”—including “the appeal to debate as ’persuasion,’ which confuses the mere appearance of giving and responding to reasons with the substance of good-faith rational inquiry,” writes columnist @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social.

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 6d

Pinning to read later.

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 6d

The flip side of this exceptionalizing is to erase and excuse the slow and less spectacular violence of American political life. When ICE agents raid homes, when Medicaid is stripped from millions, both politicians and media speak of “policy” rather than “violence.” @eric-reinhart.com

What Is Political Violence? - Boston Review

Pundits and politicians conceal the truth: it’s all around us, perpetrated by our political system itself.

www.bostonreview.net

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 15d

You can't understand U.S. politics today without making a serious study of antisemitism.

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 15d

This is, without any exaggeration, exactly how Putin and Orbán proceeded — using antisemitism to discredit the idea of civil society and political opposition, and as an excuse to undo the rule of law.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation

www.nytimes.com

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Time for everyone to read up on the Spanish Falange & the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Micheal.

No reason.

Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

How did the national enshrinement of Kirk sound to scholars & journalists who specialize in the far right?

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 18d

Man alive. I have studied Right Wing authoritarianism for years and have watched some truly fucked up shit and today’s memorial service is maybe the most concentrated example of how messed up and disturbing that sector truly is.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 19d

Yeah, I don't think any of us interacts with many legitimately persuadable people anymore on social media. At its best, a meme-centered discourse like this is probably nothing more than a big, binary, WOOT!/BOO! machine--or, at its worst, a MURDER!/WORSHIP! machine.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

Please feel free to join the discussion. I'm just trying to think aloud as I process the moment. (My departure points have been Laclau & Mouffe, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, & the larger critical theory & new left traditions).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

Possible symbolic resources for that struggle might come from visionary romanticism, Yiddish fabulism, modernist absurdism, decolonial magic realism, & utopian speculative fiction & fantasy. Comedians, of course, have an enormous role to play, which is why they are being targeted right now.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

The opponents of that pluralistic vision of liberal democracy have to appear small & mean & beatable for mass political mobilization to work. A truly anti-fascist political discourse would need to adapt its persuasive tactics to that end--not minimizing, but tactically belittling its opponent.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

YES

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

We're laughing, but he's winning, bc it's not the judicial verdicts but the threats & the image of strength that are the point.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20d

TRUMP: That's why I sued the New York Times two days ago for a lot of money

KARL: A judge just threw that out

TRUMP: I'm winning. I'm winning the cases.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

The figure of fascism can serve as a foil in that project, perhaps, but it can't center a liberatory political movement. That centerpiece has to be (I think) a compelling vision of liberation that motivates people to mobilize on behalf of a genuinely pluralistic, liberal-democracy of the future.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

But more important, to me, would be increasing the pool of committed leftists in the US by making leftism a more alluring identity. The Democratic party needs to become genuinely populist & do some frankly Utopian world-building (along with promoting real working-class policies).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

It's possible that the word "fascist" has some motivating use for that alienated core of committed leftists (& the Democratic party has no hope of ever regaining power without that activist base).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

In that case, taking a strong, uncompromising stand against an anti-democratic, authoritarian, adversary might be the only tactic that could persuade millions of alienated leftists to identify provisionally with the Democratic party again.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

To presume that there is a moderate, pursuadable "middle" anymore might be to ignore the gaping breach that constitutes the discursive reality of our historical moment. That the Democratic establishment can't stop appealing to this fantasy audience may be what's driving millions away from the party.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 20d

Discussion: In a national symbolic crisis, as party identities fragment & consolidate into new, ad hoc forms, persuasion is certainly happening, but the gaping authoritarian/non-authoritarian fault-line would have to displace it to different populations who emerge as the "persuadables."

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