Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4h

"Denmark collects 43 percent of its GDP in taxes per year. The United States collects a scant 25 percent. Making up the difference would require broad-based tax increases amounting to $5 trillion per year." www.liberalcurrents.com/billionaires...

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

5 19 56

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 6h

"The Trump administration is building its case for authoritarian action on a fictional idea of America’s cities." www.liberalcurrents.com/all-in-our-h...

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

3 8 24

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 11h

"If your government is for sale to any billionaire willing to pay, you do not have a democracy." www.liberalcurrents.com/billionaires...

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

5 17 71

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 12h

"They say that Elon Musk has enough and couldn't care for more.

"But what's wealth, what's money?" (from February) www.liberalcurrents.com/what-do-you-...

What Do You Think Money Is?

Yes, Elon Musk wants more power.

www.liberalcurrents.com

2 2 12

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 13h

"There are at least ten billionaires at the highest levels of government, from Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick." www.liberalcurrents.com/billionaires...

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

3 36 86

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 16h

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

150 680 2.5K

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

"Americans have spent years internalizing a deeply unrealistic vision of their country’s urban places." www.liberalcurrents.com/all-in-our-h...

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

2 10 30

Reposted by Liberal Currents

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

"The Trump administration is building its case for authoritarian action on a fictional idea of America’s cities [as] wastelands of murder and despair, covered over with a patina of liberal decadence."

Good @aselrod.bsky.social on centrality of fiction to MAGA
www.liberalcurrents.com/all-in-our-h...

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

6 77 140

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

Half the Answer #39: Christopher Mathias, author of "To Catch a Fascist," speaks to Caitlin and Trent. They discuss misconceptions about what "antifa" is and what kinds of activities they are engaged in, and the Trump administration's demonization of community defenders and antifascists in 2025.

Half the Answer #39: What Is Antifa, and How Do You Catch a Fascist?

Christopher Mathias, author of "To Catch a Fascist," speaks to Caitlin and Trent about the events of 2020, clashes between violent fascist clubs and "community defense" groups. They discuss misconcept...

www.liberalcurrents.com

2 6 20

Reposted by Liberal Currents

Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote about how hard it is to do politics in reality right now, both because of the fictions beings imposed on us and because of the fictions we maintain in our own minds. Read at @liberalcurrents.com

www.liberalcurrents.com/all-in-our-h...

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

4 38 83

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

“There is no degree of acquiescence to Trumpism that will satisfy this administration or MAGA at large. All there is is a choice between offering a faint echo of the false reality they’re selling and creating dissonance by speaking the reality of the situation to the public.”

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

4 58 160

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 2d

"Education Wars": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social and @jackschneider.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...

Half the Answer #37: Education Wars

Trent and Caitlin speak with Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider about their recent book The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual. They discuss the faulty beliefs and logics that lea...

www.liberalcurrents.com

4 4

Reposted by Liberal Currents

deedeel.bsky.social @deedeel.bsky.social · 3d

THIS comment - reminded me of the following lengthy discussion on the point in @liberalcurrents.com Pod: Neon Liberalism .

www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 3d

This thread highlights a point I have been making for many years: the logic of authoritarianism and the logic of domestic abuse are exactly the same. It is only a difference of scale.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 3d

Y'all who keep lecturing protesters to "not give them an excuse" need to pause for a minute. Imagine yourself telling a DV victim, "Be sure not to mouth off or make any mistakes so he won't hit you. Don't give him an excuse! It's what he wants!" That's what you fools sound like.

4 22

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 3d

Half the Answer #38: Caitlin and Trent talk with journalist Jacqueline Sweet about how violence is framed in media as political, the rush to score points for one side or the other, inconsistent standards for freedom of the press, and the scammy nature of our president and his public statements.

Half the Answer #38: Mass Shootings, MedBeds, Media Mistakes and Misconceptions

Trent and Caitlin talk with journalist Jacqueline Sweet about how violence is framed in media as political, the rush to score points for one side or the other, inconsistent standards for free speech a...

www.liberalcurrents.com

1 10 22

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 3d

"'We’re training warriors, not defenders,' Hegseth said. And he was eager to dispense with the idea that those warriors should fight with anything like restraint or rules. Those are for sissies, sissies like the women and LGBTQ+ soldiers Hegseth wants out of the uniform."

War Fighters and the Enemy Within: Trump, Hegseth, and the Assault on the American People

Trump and Hegseth are cultivating a military that sees liberals and minorities as enemies to be fought and is willing to follow orders to do so.

www.liberalcurrents.com

5 19 45

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 3d

"One wonders how the rightwing defenders of religious liberty feel when federal agents show up at their church. Or how they feel about having their homes invaded, or their neighbors kidnapped off the street."

The Totalitarian Logic of Immigration Controls

Reading Chandran Kukathas' "Immigration and Freedom" during the second Trump administration.

www.liberalcurrents.com

2 11 25

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4d

"At the time nobody thinks that toleration is a good thing. Toleration is an expression of weakness. It's unfortunate."

No one wanted religious toleration, but once they were forced to have it they learned to value it. Samantha and Lucian Staiano-Daniels, author of "The War People," discuss the connection between libe...

TikTok video by Liberal Currents

www.tiktok.com

4 30

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4d

"MAGA has declared their intention to use a muscular assertion of presidential power to relitigate the fundamental principles of the republic, from the nature of checks and balances to the fundamental questions of citizenship, and to do so in the public and cultural arena."

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

7 20 63

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4d

"On the list of individuals who ought to be sent to the Hague when Trump is out of power, Miller may be at the top, above even Trump himself." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-oppositi...

The Opposition Report #6

Charlie Kirk, the shutdown, mass deportation and militarization, and more.

www.liberalcurrents.com

4 16 56

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4d

"Churchill rallied a broad front against fascism. He set the table for the postwar liberal settlement. He even, in the fight against fascism, made choices that would doom the future viability of his beloved British Empire." www.liberalcurrents.com/a-popular-fr...

A Popular Front of Memory

As the right begins to revise their view of Hitler, we must revive the example Churchill set in that era.

www.liberalcurrents.com

1 11 29

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 5d

Neon Liberalism #46: Samantha and Lucian Staiano-Daniels, author of "The War People," discuss the connection between liberalism and toleration and the dark history of religious civil war. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

Neon Liberalism #46: Liberalism 101: Liberalism and Toleration

Samantha and Lucian Staiano-Daniels, author of "The War People," discuss the connection between liberalism and toleration and the dark history of religious civil war. How did the European Wars of Reli...

www.liberalcurrents.com

1 7 13

Reposted by Liberal Currents

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 7d

this piece has been in the works a while but honestly i could not have asked for a better foil than ezra klein's interview with ta-nehisi coates. klein longs for peacetime--but you don't get to decide when you're in a fight.

www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

42 400 1.4K

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 7d

“Dooming is itself a liberation from the burden of choice. If everything is ruined forever, if your allies have already forsaken you, if the battle is already lost, you aren't responsible for your choices. They can't affect the outcome. You're free.” www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

7 58 140

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 7d

“Peacetime breeds rule-followers. In war the rules go out the window. The old certainties become terrifyingly malleable. You are assailed on all sides by phantasms: and it takes a particular kind of moral courage to see your way through” www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

3 26 71

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 8d

We've joined TikTok and posted our first video there: www.tiktok.com/@liberal.cur...

If you're not on TikTok, no worries—we're planning to post the same video on Instagram Reels about two weeks from now.

Liberal Currents's Creator Profile

www.tiktok.com

4 11