Brian Hester
@ibehester.bsky.social
🌟 Medieval history (really any history), Politics, languages (living and dead), science, Georgia Football, and Good Beer. Yale/Hopper, Painter and girldad. Educational consultant for folks trying to get into college.
Pinned
This is a beautiful statement from Leo
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
November 15, 2025 at 5:43 PM
This is a beautiful statement from Leo
Combatting disinformatiom must happen in the context of social identity.
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.
blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Combatting disinformatiom must happen in the context of social identity.
@ossoff.senate.gov I live in Cumming and would like the senator to vote for new leadership in the Senate. The latest capitulation was plain embarrassing (and will not protect ACA).
November 10, 2025 at 2:29 PM
@ossoff.senate.gov I live in Cumming and would like the senator to vote for new leadership in the Senate. The latest capitulation was plain embarrassing (and will not protect ACA).
Reposted by Brian Hester
lol she got his ass and he knows it
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
lol she got his ass and he knows it
Reposted by Brian Hester
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
October 30, 2025 at 8:07 AM
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵
The process of completely insulating rightwingers from any reasonably objective knowledge continues...
Elon Musk’s new competitor to Wikipedia says apartheid wasn’t that bad, cites the Kremlin, and gives legitimacy to “white-genocide theory.”
Musk is constructing a parallel universe in his own image.
Musk is constructing a parallel universe in his own image.
What Elon Musk’s Version of Wikipedia Thinks About Hitler, Putin, and Apartheid
The next step in Musk’s propaganda machine
www.theatlantic.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:01 PM
The process of completely insulating rightwingers from any reasonably objective knowledge continues...
I notice news outlets don’t make it clear that the Insurrection act is not equivalent to martial law at all.
Elaborating b/c there's a lot of misunderstanding on this.
Insurrection Act does nothing except you can then use soldiers as cops. They can enforce laws, but they're the same old laws. It doesn't suspend the Constitution. No martial law, no closing courts, no removing state officials, none of that.
Insurrection Act does nothing except you can then use soldiers as cops. They can enforce laws, but they're the same old laws. It doesn't suspend the Constitution. No martial law, no closing courts, no removing state officials, none of that.
Even if he did, which I'd bet is likelier than not, none of this is true. The Insurrection Act is not a declaration of martial law. It doesn't close the courts. It doesn't suspend habeas corpus. It means you can use the military to enforce federal laws, but the laws themselves remain the same.
October 20, 2025 at 11:12 AM
I notice news outlets don’t make it clear that the Insurrection act is not equivalent to martial law at all.
All the good people
“All my friends murdered and raped, sometimes they hung out at my house. Get over yourself.”
October 20, 2025 at 1:55 AM
All the good people
@jamellebouie.net how can we find out why the NYT has buried what may be the largest protests in US history on its site (there are like a dozen stories above)
October 19, 2025 at 7:18 PM
@jamellebouie.net how can we find out why the NYT has buried what may be the largest protests in US history on its site (there are like a dozen stories above)
Can we get Chotiner to interview one of these SCOTUS frauds?
Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."
October 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Can we get Chotiner to interview one of these SCOTUS frauds?
Creepy and “concerning”
Thinking more and more about Dead Internet Theory - especially every time I see someone who means well posting gen-AI slop by mistake... www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...
The ‘dead internet theory’ makes eerie claims about an AI-run web. The truth is more sinister
Is most of the content on the internet fake? Here’s what the dead internet theory really means – and why we should be warier of how we’re manipulated for profit and political gain.
www.unsw.edu.au
October 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Creepy and “concerning”
RUN FOR THE HILLS!
“A second inflatable frog has now been spotted wiggling through Portland.”
October 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
RUN FOR THE HILLS!
Reposted by Brian Hester
The Who record “Who Are You” 48 years ago today — at a time, Daltrey said, when the band “felt very threatened by the punk thing.”
“.. It was like, ‘Well, they think they’re f–king tough, but we’re f–king tougher.’ .. When I listen back .., I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive.”
“.. It was like, ‘Well, they think they’re f–king tough, but we’re f–king tougher.’ .. When I listen back .., I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive.”
October 4, 2025 at 4:41 PM
The Who record “Who Are You” 48 years ago today — at a time, Daltrey said, when the band “felt very threatened by the punk thing.”
“.. It was like, ‘Well, they think they’re f–king tough, but we’re f–king tougher.’ .. When I listen back .., I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive.”
“.. It was like, ‘Well, they think they’re f–king tough, but we’re f–king tougher.’ .. When I listen back .., I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive.”
💯
If I’m a Dem in Congress I’m asking my constituents to log into healthcare.gov and tell me how much their premium is going up next year and I’m posting that on social media all day long.
October 3, 2025 at 5:48 PM
💯
This is full of great insights. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to John Ganz's substack.
October 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
This is full of great insights. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to John Ganz's substack.
My current personal hero
“To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.”
- Judge William Young, September 30, 2025
- Judge William Young, September 30, 2025
September 30, 2025 at 10:56 PM
My current personal hero
Exposure, acrylic on canvas
September 27, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Exposure, acrylic on canvas
Hugely consequential and not well understood by the general public
All roads lead to Ronald Reagan, apparently true with today’s FCC. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 made possible the Fox News Network and the rise of a nationwide talk radio network. The USA has been dividing itself ever since.
September 19, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Hugely consequential and not well understood by the general public
Ancient DNA study shifts Uralic origins east: ancestors of Finns, Estonians & Hungarians trace back to Yakutia ~4,500 yrs ago—far beyond Indo-European steppe homelands.https://tinyurl.com/4uapb497
September 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Ancient DNA study shifts Uralic origins east: ancestors of Finns, Estonians & Hungarians trace back to Yakutia ~4,500 yrs ago—far beyond Indo-European steppe homelands.https://tinyurl.com/4uapb497
More of this please. Anyone will a big megaphone needs to speak up now.
After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel
Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.
www.yahoo.com
September 18, 2025 at 3:35 PM
More of this please. Anyone will a big megaphone needs to speak up now.
Many fascinating things going on in this graph. Obviously, the US's performance is crappy, given expenditures. I find the success stories interesting as well, particularly Japan, Italy, Israel, and South Korea.
Check out this scatterplot of health spending per capita (x axis) & life expectancy (y axis) in OECD countries (lines = averages).
The United States sits alone in the bottom right area due to its very high spending rate and below-average life expectancy.
More www.oecd.org/en/publicati... 🧪
The United States sits alone in the bottom right area due to its very high spending rate and below-average life expectancy.
More www.oecd.org/en/publicati... 🧪
September 16, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Many fascinating things going on in this graph. Obviously, the US's performance is crappy, given expenditures. I find the success stories interesting as well, particularly Japan, Italy, Israel, and South Korea.
This will get lost in the shuffle today, but holy shit!
Are you telling me these people are malicious *and* incompetent? Well, I never
The mortgage fraud claim against Lisa Cook is false, per documents obtained by Reuters.
Bill Pulte's accusation, the sole pretext Trump used to fire her from the Fed, was that she claimed two homes as primary residence.
These docs show she did not.
www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...
Bill Pulte's accusation, the sole pretext Trump used to fire her from the Fed, was that she claimed two homes as primary residence.
These docs show she did not.
www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...
September 12, 2025 at 10:43 PM
This will get lost in the shuffle today, but holy shit!
A great scientist and a great writer about the uses and misuses of science. Happy Birthday Stephen Jay Gould!
September 11, 2025 at 5:21 PM
A great scientist and a great writer about the uses and misuses of science. Happy Birthday Stephen Jay Gould!
My Senator is correct
Frankly, I have seen enough.
Secretary Kennedy should be fired immediately.
He's destroying the agency responsible for keeping diseases (like measles and Ebola) under control. This is deadly serious.
Secretary Kennedy should be fired immediately.
He's destroying the agency responsible for keeping diseases (like measles and Ebola) under control. This is deadly serious.
September 5, 2025 at 7:15 PM
My Senator is correct