Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jared Yates Sexton

@jysexton.bsky.social

93K followers 1.1K following 3K posts

Hoosier, Political Analyst, The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis, Co-Host Muckrake Podcast, newsletter Dispatches From A Collapsing State, Political Adviser: The Change Campaign

Videos

Jared Yates Sexton is an American author and political commentator from Linton, Indiana. He was an associate professor in the Department of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University. .. more

Political science 42%

Sociology 30%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · Dec 17

The wealthy have intentionally destroyed class consciousness so that they can exploit the vast majority of people.

If we’re going to fight back and ultimately win this class war, it’s time we got familiar with how our politics actually work.

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/a-thorough...

A Thoroughly Confused Country: An Introduction to Class Politics and a Way Forward

Americans suffer from a lack of class consciousness, which makes them easy prey for manipulation

jaredyatessexton.substack.com

200 1.5K 4K

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 2h

It was inevitable that, without needed change and reform, the War on Terror would swing back to America

It’s the march of capitalism and its reliance on hidden and then overt authoritarianism. We can see where this is going by looking at what we did to others, and so we must band together with them

3 32 150

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 16h

It’s fun and not at all disturbing that the fascists and tech oligarchs who control this country are all absolutely marinated and cooked in brain rotting conspiracy theories and pseudo-ideological drivel.

11 55 350

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

As I said in the article, unless we do something to address intentional scarcity and declining conditions, we may very well look back on the Trump/MAGA era as the precursor to something much more dangerous and destructive.

We have work to do. A lot of work.

11 50

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

The schism within MAGA is an opportunity, but it will only help openly fascist movements and projects unless we fight to change our status quo, which helped create this problem in the first place.

Failing to do that likely means something even worse after Trump.

1 8 42

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

We’ve seen how this has been solved in the past. America’s fascist movements were stopped when a political movement began addressing the material conditions that fueled the radicalization.

Choosing to just hope these disenchanted supporters vote Democratic gets us nowhere.

2 7 36

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

Add in tech tools that increasingly pipeline Right to Far Right ideas, and that they’re controlled by oligarchs who openly disdain democracy and human dignity, the odds of ex-MAGA supporters moving toward fascist opinions and projects is increasingly likely.

1 5 31

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

There’s always been a ton of contradictions in MAGA, including religious zealots who live in cultish adoration and those who see Trump as a useful idiot.

The former group includes fascistic tech oligarchs and fascist groups that want to go well beyond liberal democracy and Trump himself.

1 6 33

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

It’s not a coincidence that growing schisms in MAGA are coinciding with the growth in popularity of Far Right personalities and communities that are explicitly fascistic.

The anger that animates MAGA is shifting toward more overtly antidemocratic and authoritarian sources.

1 10 46

Reposted by Mark Rice

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 21h

It’s true that some MAGA supporters are losing faith in Trump and expressing frustration. But evidence and trends suggest they’re flocking to explicit Fascists and growing more radicalized.

We can’t just sit back and hope. We have to fight.

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/where-its-...

Where It's All Heading: The Fascist Right Post-Trump

Watching parts of the Right grow weary of Trump might be hopeful, but without needed change the situation will only worsen

jaredyatessexton.substack.com

12 98 330

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 1d

You cannot reason with a fascist. You can’t endear yourself to a fascist. They will turn on everyone, including their own family, their allies, their sycophants and collaborators.

Fascists hate themselves and they hate the world. This doesn’t stop unless it is stopped.

2 62 230

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 1d

Framing it as Trump simply going after his political enemies is misleading because to a fascist every other living person is their political enemy.

You’re his political enemy. You just haven’t been identified yet.

6 130 380

Reposted by Jared Yates Sexton

Kimberley Johnson @kimberleyjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

New #StartMeUp 👅 podcast with @jysexton.bsky.social.

Every time I talk with Jared, I'm wiser. We discussed how acts of kindness & helping others in your community can be powerful tools against fascism. And he highlights the resilience of the human spirit.💙

Listen: www.patreon.com/posts/140831...

15 48

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 2d

Well, yes, of course. Absolutely.

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 2d

The brutal and repulsive content being out by the fascist regime isn’t just propaganda, it’s creating ready-made and easily-shareable materials for intimidation and stochastic terrorism.

2 42 150

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 2d

If you’re talking about the Midterms or the 2028 Presidential Election you’ve lost the plot at this point.

23 60 410

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 3d

I hate AI with a fiery passion and I resent all these companies attempting to push it down our throats. But you have to admire on some level their ability to create products that literally no one wants. It’s an incredible commitment to failure.

Brian @sirfahrenheit.bsky.social · 3d

I can’t

Email I got from Carvana that says “Shaq’s AI twin wants to talk cars with you!” There’s a picture of Shaq smiling in front of his computer with text that says “Chat with Shaq’s A.I. Twin.”

6 47 210

Reposted by Jared Yates Sexton

Brian @sirfahrenheit.bsky.social · 3d

I can’t

11 17 160

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 3d

*Takes a look at 1929 through 1945, then another look at a series of booms and busts and past authoritarian movements. Takes a sip. Moves on*

1 3

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 4d

It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters pull off stunt after stunt while the defense just stood there.

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 4d

It’s really something, the history of politicians who hurt the country by staying too long out of hubris. Brutal, brutal shit. History will not be kind to Schumer and every day that he holds on it will only get worse.

7 12 200

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 4d

For the love of all that is holy, Chuck Schumer, retire.

Go spend time with your family. Let people who understand what’s going on, who have even a modicum of fight in them, do what needs to be done.

Every time you speak you make it clearer that you cannot do this.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 4d

Schumer: I want to say to Donald Trump, to Johnson, and to Thune: come to the Capitol, sit down in public, and debate us on the health care crisis that’s afflicting Americans.

The public needs to see this.

24 110 620

Reposted by Jared Yates Sexton, Federica Genovese

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 4d

130 470 2.3K

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Yes. Exactly.

3 50

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Fascism in America will not stop unless we stop it and that means coming together in collective action to shift the paradigm and begin answering the material conditions that created this crisis.

Seeing how this system works make it obvious. It will continue until we stop it.

10 98 430

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Again, Trump is a symptom of a larger disease.

Whether it's him or someone else, conditions right now necessitate the wealth class embracing a fascist project. You have to look beyond him and see it's not an aberration but an evolution that we must stop.

7 120 490

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

And yes, some of the media conglomerations are capitulating, but what is being revealed, day by day, is that the wealth class isn't just afraid of Trump, they're on board with the ongoing fascist escalation that we've been watching for decades. It helps to see this clearly and not living in denial.

6 97 480

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Weiss's ascendance represents the need for the wealth class to continue moving rightward as capitalism requires fascism. Individuals like Klein are there to help moderate white liberals begin to accept that "necessity." That's how this whole thing works and has always worked.

4 110 570

Reposted by Silvia Secchi, Gerald Friedman

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Hopefully the whole Bari Weiss thing and Ezra Klein thing starts waking people up to the fact that corporate media is mostly populated with mediocre people who have made millions and gained unbelievable influence because they threaten nothing and tell wealthy people exactly what they want to hear.

210 3.1K 11K

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

Just a reminder that authoritarians use the vulnerabilities of liberal democracy against itself, including concepts of "free speech" and the "healthy exchange of ideas."

They do not value these things. They are not sincerely held principles. They're cudgels and they will erase them once in power.

17 240 750

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 5d

All of this could be over if we got past our own shit, joined together, and presented a brave collective front.

We could have a new day. We could have a better world. It's that simple.

24 86 380