Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Meg Pillow

@megpillow.bsky.social

5.4K followers 1.6K following 3K posts

Writer | Dr. | Project Manager for Roxane Gay | Co-editor The Audacity | 🌈😷| Rep’d by Alyssa Jennette | Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · Jul 31

My essay is up at @literaryhub.bsky.social about the late, great Lana Clarkson and other promising young women whose lives have been derailed or destroyed by men. It’s also about my childhood sexual abuse and how I have tried, and failed, to reckon with it.
lithub.com/on-promising...

On Promising Young Women (and the Nameless Men Who Get in Their Way)

“The woman is a footnote in the man’s history.” –Rebecca Hazelton * There’s this photo of Lana Clarkson that I think about often. She’s outside, backed by a blue sky, the green and brown spotted hi…

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 10h

essentially no one looks worse in all this than Biden, followed closely by the tiresome, morally bankrupt blue wave scolds who shouted at all of us about how Biden couldn’t do anything

Andrew Exum @exum.bsky.social · 11h

This week has confirmed my suspicion that Biden’s Middle East policies will look worse, and will be even more embarrassing for Democrats, with the passage of time.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Erin Overbey @erinoverbey.bsky.social · 11h

the group & people most deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize this year are the Palestinian journalists in Gaza, who kept courageously telling the world the truth no matter the cost #nobelpeaceprize @nobelprize.bsky.social

Illustration of some of the Palestinian journalists in Gaza

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 10h

None of us can do everything but each of us can do SOMETHING.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

WLKY - Live. Local. Late Breaking. @wlky.bsky.social · 13h

BREAKING NEWS | Ex-LMPD officer Brett Hankison is officially in prison. He's in custody in New Jersey. https://www.wlky.com/article/brett-hankison-lmpd-breonna-taylor-prison/68987320

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 13h

Republicans have had 15 years to come up with an Obamacare replacement plan. They still haven’t

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 12h

I think we agree on a lot! And do understand your perspective -
being unwilling to fight on their battlegrounds is understandable. I am just totally fine with some ppl being sand in their gears and giving them back their same rhetorical treatment. Designated pains-in-the-ass to fascism :)

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 12h

Maybe we’ll be in a position again where debate will be our mode of politics again. But that’s not where we are. We are facing a very particular, very U.S. form of authoritarianism that lies and spews disinformation. Debate is useless. Action is what’s required now

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 12h

And because this is a fact - because we can see evidence of this not just in rhetoric, or in executive orders, or in directives handed down to universities and corporations - it IS your business. It’s my business. We are in the business of protecting vulnerable ppl. This is what our focus should be

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 12h

Much of white America is used to debates, but in many places, we are far past that point - on immigration, on trans ppl, on abortion, on public health. We now have to be willing to actually physically put our bodies between ppl in danger and those who are endangering them. This is reality.

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 12h

This thread is a good read and well intended. But I disagree with it because the ppl in charge are not just making arguments.

It’s not a debate anymore. We now have to be willing to step in between those in power and trans ppl to keep them from getting institutionalized or killed.

Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 13h

I believe this is actually central to our political predicament. For example, for nearly everyone, the appropriate answer to the question, "Should trans girls be allowed to play on girls sports teams?" is "What business is it of mine?"

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 19h

Related!

bsky.app/profile/katt...

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 19h

One of the crazy things about the AI bubble bursting is that consumer sentiment toward AI has always leaned skeptical to outright negative but it’s an industry propped up by pure billionaire greed, sycophancy, and childish fantasy

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 19h

Watching the financial gurus finally catch up to what us neurodivergents with solid pattern recognition skills have known since the beginning is really wild.

Better put down those chatbots and pick up some shovels because we’re about to get hit with a mountain of shit

www.ft.com/content/6cc8...

Quote from the attached Financial Times article reads: Despite mounting threats to the US economy — from high tariffs to collapsing immigration, eroding institutions, rising debt and sticky inflation — large companies and investors seem unfazed. They are increasingly confident that artificial intelligence is such a big force, it can counter all the challenges.
Lately, this optimism has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year. And some analysts believe that estimate doesn’t fully capture the AI spend, so the real share could be even higher.
AI companies have accounted for 80 per cent of the gains in US stocks so far in 2025. That is helping to fund and drive US growth, as the AI-driven stock market draws in money from all over the world, and feeds a boom in consumer spending by the rich.
Since the wealthiest 10 per cent of the population own 85 per cent of US stocks, they enjoy the largest wealth effect when they go up. Little wonder then that the latest data shows America’s consumer economy rests largely on spending by the wealthy. The top 10 per cent of earners account for half of consumer spending, the highest share on record since the data begins.

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 19h

Totally respect that! There are a number of just excellent pieces that I love despite not liking the protagonists lol

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 19h

I started off not liking them and then by the end I totally switched up because they were both so human and flawed and vulnerable. And I think about how the writer let us close enough to see that, how rare it is to be able to be your most flawed self with someone. I loved that

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 19h

You’re welcome! I’m so glad I saw
this in my feed!

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 20h

“I’m not after sex. A look, a friendly gesture, maybe. Someone who will slow it all down. I’ve been doing this for over six years and no one has ever taken the bait. This outcome always leaves me so low I no longer feel hungry. And isn’t that the greatest savings tip of all?”

This is wonderful.

Chris Gonzalez @livesinpages.bsky.social · 20h

I have a new story out today @maudlinhouse.bsky.social! Writing it was heavily inspired by the increasing cost of groceries and general anxieties around money and trying to live a stupid little life!

Maudlin House @maudlinhouse.bsky.social · 23h

Tap It, Swipe It, Charge It by Christopher Gonzalez

maudlinhouse.net/tap-it-swipe...

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 20h

Chris, this is great. Thank you so much for writing it.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · 20h

The ceasefire is just the beginning of families in Gaza rebuilding their lives so help if you can ❤️

Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · 1d

I’m sharing a Palestinian account every day and today is Hadeel. Before the war Hadeel’s husband was a fisherman and they tried for 11 years before they had their first child Hani who is 10 now they also have a daughter Dana, 6 and little Adam who is just 2. They’re displaced and struggling.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 21h

“We Are Elated by the Gaza Ceasefire News. Now, the World Must Hold Israel to Account for 2 Years of Genocide”

In an emotional essay for Zeteo, former Palestinian negotiator Diana Buttu reacts to the ceasefire announcement, what it means for Palestinians, and what still worries her.
Your #mustread:

We Are Elated by the Gaza Ceasefire News. Now, the World Must Hold Israel to Account for 2 Years of Genocide

In an emotional essay, former Palestinian negotiator Diana Buttu reacts to the ceasefire announcement, what it means for Palestinians, and what still worries her.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Travis @someforeignfield.bsky.social · 1d

It's clear that when the US wants a ceasefire deal, one miraculously occurs. Makes the "working tirelessly for a ceasefire" stuff from last year even more disgusting.

Reposted by Meg Pillow

Words Without Borders & WWB Campus @wwborders.bsky.social · 22h

OH WOW! Congratulations to our contributor, László Krasznahorkai, for winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature!!! 😍🥳
wordswithoutborders.org/.../view/lsz...

László Krasznahorkai - Words Without Borders

László Krasznahorkai is the recipient of the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature, the 2015 Man Booker International Prize, and the 2013 Best Translated Book Award in Fiction.

wordswithoutborders.org

Reposted by Meg Pillow

William Nomikos @wnomikos.bsky.social · 1d

Goosebumps watching this. Chicagoans fighting for this country. Mass collective action is the only thing that can keep fascism away.

Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d

Michigan Avenue right now.

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I complain about it a lot too! I firmly believe it showcases both the best of humanity and the absolute WORST

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 1d

Social media can absolutely be terrible. I’ve also had some horrific, scary experiences here. But it has been so, so good at connecting me, a queer writer and single mom in Kentucky, with the bigger world, and I will always be grateful for the people and opportunities it has brought to my life

Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 1d

I have published work, had work go viral, and received solicitations from journals because of social media. I met some of my writing heroes here and got a job with one of them. I met several of my dearest friends here and the person I fell in love with. It’s been instrumental in improving my life.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?