Patrick Luck
@patrickluck.bsky.social
Historian of slavery in the lower Mississippi valley and early republic
Union president
Author of Replanting a Slave Society, https://upress.virginia.edu/title/5665/
Book review editor for H-Early-America
Union president
Author of Replanting a Slave Society, https://upress.virginia.edu/title/5665/
Book review editor for H-Early-America
Reposted by Patrick Luck
I also previously thought amoral but rational capitalists used rubes by cynically deploying vicious / silly right wing ideologies. But I now think I underestimated how many true believers there are, some of the previously rational got internet brain poison, and there's been change in who's in power.
i had sincerely thought that sexism was a dying prejudice because, in all honesty, up until 2025 i also sincerely believed on at least some level that powerful capitalists with rational but amoral priorities controlled everything and understood the value women bring to the workforce
January 10, 2026 at 8:10 AM
I also previously thought amoral but rational capitalists used rubes by cynically deploying vicious / silly right wing ideologies. But I now think I underestimated how many true believers there are, some of the previously rational got internet brain poison, and there's been change in who's in power.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
I think it’s fair to say that there is a low-intensity civil conflict in Minnesota right now.
January 10, 2026 at 5:37 AM
I think it’s fair to say that there is a low-intensity civil conflict in Minnesota right now.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
Donald Trump says landback?
Trump talks about Denmark and Greenland just now: "The fact that they landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."
January 9, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Donald Trump says landback?
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A lot of our politicians are increasingly Very Online Weirdos and I often wonder how they sound to the majority of voters who are not Very Online Weirdos.
The thing about any UK Twitter/X ban is that our political class are addicted to it. McSweeney bases his entire ideology on what weirdos on there are saying, Farage uses it because it boosts his reach and its where Kemi Badenoch finds all her favourite conspiracy theories.
January 9, 2026 at 9:57 AM
A lot of our politicians are increasingly Very Online Weirdos and I often wonder how they sound to the majority of voters who are not Very Online Weirdos.
I still find it amazing that the Democrats won the White House and Congress when "wokeness" was at its peak, but the "moderates" just keep pretending that "wokeness" is the problem.
January 9, 2026 at 12:26 PM
I still find it amazing that the Democrats won the White House and Congress when "wokeness" was at its peak, but the "moderates" just keep pretending that "wokeness" is the problem.
I don't even understand the logic of this. Even in the most cynical position on politics, I don't see the advantage.
7 Democrats just voted today to confirm a Trump judicial nominee who refused to say what happened on January 6 or answer who won the 2020 election:
Durbin
Hassan
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Shaheen
Welch
Durbin
Hassan
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Shaheen
Welch
January 9, 2026 at 11:38 AM
I don't even understand the logic of this. Even in the most cynical position on politics, I don't see the advantage.
Man....
Senate Democrats are CURRENTLY negotiating a plan to INCREASE ICE funding by another 10%
SCOOP: Senate Negotiators Eye Another ICE Funding Increase
GOP pushes for even more "operational capacity" while Schumer and Jeffries balk at drawing red lines, fearing "Defund" optics.
migrantinsider.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Man....
I play a game in class about the 1968 DNC, and students are universally taken aback when they find out a majority of the American public supported the police response.
Most people -- including "experts"! -- still don't understand how despicably ghoulish many Americans are in their support for authoritarian political violence. Same goes for the depth & breadth of supremacist views by race, religion, & gender. (Marginalized ppl understand too well.)
January 8, 2026 at 2:45 PM
I play a game in class about the 1968 DNC, and students are universally taken aback when they find out a majority of the American public supported the police response.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
Most people -- including "experts"! -- still don't understand how despicably ghoulish many Americans are in their support for authoritarian political violence. Same goes for the depth & breadth of supremacist views by race, religion, & gender. (Marginalized ppl understand too well.)
![A Gallup poll taken the day after the shootings reportedly showed that 58 percent of respondents blamed the students, 11 percent blamed the National Guard, and 31 percent expressed no opinion.[89] However, there was wide discussion as to whether these were legally justified shootings of American citizens, and whether the protests or the decisions to ban them were constitutional. These debates further galvanized uncommitted opinions through the terms of the discourse. The term "massacre" was applied to the shootings by some individuals and media sources, as it had been used for the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five were killed and several more wounded.[3][5]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4q6ctl7imutpx4wxfzub554r/bafkreih6q773s4co7hu4bone34bz5cjidx26qbd7hv3t5izfqgnkuopzqi@jpeg)
January 8, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Most people -- including "experts"! -- still don't understand how despicably ghoulish many Americans are in their support for authoritarian political violence. Same goes for the depth & breadth of supremacist views by race, religion, & gender. (Marginalized ppl understand too well.)
Overall a helpful article, but I kind of take issue with the reference to "protesters" in the photo captions since most of the people just seemed like students, school staff, parents, and neighbors who the cops decided to confront.
After the killing of Ms Good, Greg Bovino of the CPB led a raid on a Minneapolis HS. An official there said: They don’t care. They’re just animals,” I’ve never seen people behave like this.”
All MPLS schools now closed for the week.
www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
All MPLS schools now closed for the week.
www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Minneapolis schools cancel classes after Border Patrol clash disrupts dismissal at Roosevelt
Minneapolis schools closed for the week citing safety concerns after an encounter involving armed Border Patrol agents near Roosevelt High School.
www.mprnews.org
January 8, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Overall a helpful article, but I kind of take issue with the reference to "protesters" in the photo captions since most of the people just seemed like students, school staff, parents, and neighbors who the cops decided to confront.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
there's no other word to describe the contemporary american media class other than decadent, i think
January 8, 2026 at 12:42 PM
there's no other word to describe the contemporary american media class other than decadent, i think
People need to watch this video. It's nuts.
January 8, 2026 at 12:24 PM
People need to watch this video. It's nuts.
The theory they are feeding him AI-videos seem plausible.
man, did the viziers in the WH not actually show him the actual video?
January 8, 2026 at 11:18 AM
The theory they are feeding him AI-videos seem plausible.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
This is why you prosecute the Bush administration officials for the torture program
January 7, 2026 at 10:11 PM
This is why you prosecute the Bush administration officials for the torture program
Reposted by Patrick Luck
reminder that the concept of "bear witness" as in "gotta watch all the bad videos yourself" is a goofy byproduct of the video age, and would be absolutely inscrutable to most people before like the 20th century
January 7, 2026 at 7:10 PM
reminder that the concept of "bear witness" as in "gotta watch all the bad videos yourself" is a goofy byproduct of the video age, and would be absolutely inscrutable to most people before like the 20th century
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A bajillion dollars spent on consultants and endless obsession over squashing the left to protect party messaging just to produce this.
You can care about the President's reckless and illegal imperialism and his economic incompetence at the same time, but this just trivializes both.
You can care about the President's reckless and illegal imperialism and his economic incompetence at the same time, but this just trivializes both.
The White House is laser focused on threatening a military takeover of Greenland.
Where’s the same focus on lowering costs?
Where’s the same focus on lowering costs?
January 7, 2026 at 4:34 PM
A bajillion dollars spent on consultants and endless obsession over squashing the left to protect party messaging just to produce this.
You can care about the President's reckless and illegal imperialism and his economic incompetence at the same time, but this just trivializes both.
You can care about the President's reckless and illegal imperialism and his economic incompetence at the same time, but this just trivializes both.
I can't help but imagine some German moderate in 1939: Hitler is laser focused on threatening a military takeover of Poland. Where's the same focus on lowering costs?
The White House is laser focused on threatening a military takeover of Greenland.
Where’s the same focus on lowering costs?
Where’s the same focus on lowering costs?
January 7, 2026 at 4:34 PM
I can't help but imagine some German moderate in 1939: Hitler is laser focused on threatening a military takeover of Poland. Where's the same focus on lowering costs?
Pet peeve: If you are teaching two sections of the same course, section 1 should meet earlier in the day than section 2.
January 7, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Pet peeve: If you are teaching two sections of the same course, section 1 should meet earlier in the day than section 2.
Launching wars of aggression was one of the central crimes at Nuremberg.
January 6, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Launching wars of aggression was one of the central crimes at Nuremberg.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
I'm not even talking just about Democrats here; Republicans claim to believe that there was a conspiracy to rig the 2020 election and almost none of them act like that was true. It gets treated with the same level of scrutiny and emotional investment as Cracker Barrel changing their fucking logo.
January 6, 2026 at 6:36 PM
I'm not even talking just about Democrats here; Republicans claim to believe that there was a conspiracy to rig the 2020 election and almost none of them act like that was true. It gets treated with the same level of scrutiny and emotional investment as Cracker Barrel changing their fucking logo.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
I don't know how to describe it, but there's this profound brokenness in the American body politic where nobody can take the implications of anything seriously. People keep saying things that should be existential threats to the political system, and then everyone just keeps going on as normal.
fuck outta here
January 6, 2026 at 6:28 PM
I don't know how to describe it, but there's this profound brokenness in the American body politic where nobody can take the implications of anything seriously. People keep saying things that should be existential threats to the political system, and then everyone just keeps going on as normal.
The thing is I've traveled a lot and eaten a lot of different cuisines, and I don't think I've ever come across one that, done well, wasn't good, which seems kind of obvious if you think about it.
my main problem with the "british food is bad" jokes are that it's old and really dated material. it's not really true, but more importantly, it's hack
'British food is bad' has been untrue for like a generation and a half at this point but really sticks around in the U.S. U.S. supermarkets are inferior to their U.K. counterparts!
January 6, 2026 at 6:06 PM
The thing is I've traveled a lot and eaten a lot of different cuisines, and I don't think I've ever come across one that, done well, wasn't good, which seems kind of obvious if you think about it.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
my main problem with the "british food is bad" jokes are that it's old and really dated material. it's not really true, but more importantly, it's hack
'British food is bad' has been untrue for like a generation and a half at this point but really sticks around in the U.S. U.S. supermarkets are inferior to their U.K. counterparts!
January 6, 2026 at 5:52 PM
my main problem with the "british food is bad" jokes are that it's old and really dated material. it's not really true, but more importantly, it's hack
People were not kidding about the shingles vaccine. The side effects are brutal.
January 6, 2026 at 11:26 AM
People were not kidding about the shingles vaccine. The side effects are brutal.
The "people in charge" just don't take violence, aggression, or death very seriously anymore. It's a change that's happened over my lifetime, and it's terrifying.
imagine a cheery BBC news report in 1938 breezily asking "which countries could be in Hitler's sights after the Sudetenland?"
January 6, 2026 at 11:16 AM
The "people in charge" just don't take violence, aggression, or death very seriously anymore. It's a change that's happened over my lifetime, and it's terrifying.