Rick Perlstein
@rickperlstein.bsky.social
"O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet..."
The land that never has been yet..."
I'm watching "Misery" for the first time. Immediately recognized the author character is basically the same protagonist as "Pluribus," right down to the personality. And because I, too, know authorial misery...
January 31, 2026 at 11:05 PM
I'm watching "Misery" for the first time. Immediately recognized the author character is basically the same protagonist as "Pluribus," right down to the personality. And because I, too, know authorial misery...
Thread about the first investigation file on Epstein, if you can stomach accounts of powerful men reducing children to quavering shells. Here's a good detail about a gentleman who retains great favor with the Senate Minority Leader. (Schumer loved his idea of judges issuing "storture warrants."
Dershowitz enters the chat by providing PBPD with social media evidence that one of the victims posted on her blog that she smoked weed and loved her boyfriend.
January 31, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Thread about the first investigation file on Epstein, if you can stomach accounts of powerful men reducing children to quavering shells. Here's a good detail about a gentleman who retains great favor with the Senate Minority Leader. (Schumer loved his idea of judges issuing "storture warrants."
I have a riff in "The Infernal Triangle" about a Timseman writing around an obvious fact in so artful a way it's like he's mastered a journalistic version of quantum physics--all for the benefit of not telling the truth.
Look at how hard they have to bend over backwards to avoid stating the obvious. COULD IT BE that Amazon was trying to curry favor with Trump, or did they sincerely think "Melania" will be a monster hit? Critics are wondering! Will the mystery of their motives ever be solved? Who knows!
The $35m marketing push for “Melania” is 10x that of some other high-profile documentaries.
Hollywood is questioning whether it’s just an attempt by Amazon to ingratiate itself with a president who uses the office to reward allies & punishes critics.
Hollywood is questioning whether it’s just an attempt by Amazon to ingratiate itself with a president who uses the office to reward allies & punishes critics.
January 31, 2026 at 10:05 PM
I have a riff in "The Infernal Triangle" about a Timseman writing around an obvious fact in so artful a way it's like he's mastered a journalistic version of quantum physics--all for the benefit of not telling the truth.
Okay, I so need to know more about this "Melania’s exclusive senior adviser" character.
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
January 31, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Okay, I so need to know more about this "Melania’s exclusive senior adviser" character.
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
It is a characteristic of Washington Post Style Section reporting, in is purest ore, that the observation in the parentheses is NOT a sneakily subversive criticism. No--this author, in the Sally Quinn tradition, is reporting that as a good thing. I have a lot about this in The Infernal Triangle.
January 31, 2026 at 1:59 AM
It is a characteristic of Washington Post Style Section reporting, in is purest ore, that the observation in the parentheses is NOT a sneakily subversive criticism. No--this author, in the Sally Quinn tradition, is reporting that as a good thing. I have a lot about this in The Infernal Triangle.
This asshole can fuck fight off. Right off into a Twighlight Zone episode where he spends eternity being forced to watch "Soundtrack to a Coup d'État" with his eyelids propped open.
January 31, 2026 at 1:42 AM
This asshole can fuck fight off. Right off into a Twighlight Zone episode where he spends eternity being forced to watch "Soundtrack to a Coup d'État" with his eyelids propped open.
So, America now.
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
January 31, 2026 at 12:36 AM
So, America now.
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
Worst. Paywall. Ever.
January 30, 2026 at 10:42 PM
Worst. Paywall. Ever.
Now they're releasing Epstein files to distract from the distraction from the Epstein files.
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
January 30, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Now they're releasing Epstein files to distract from the distraction from the Epstein files.
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
This is a piece of intellectual journalism of rare richness, nuance, and moral insight.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Strange Story of the Famed Anti-Fascist Lament “First They Came…”
In his celebrated mea culpa, the German pastor Martin Niemöller blamed his failure to speak out against the Nazis on indifference. Was that the whole reason?
www.thenation.com
January 30, 2026 at 12:52 AM
This is a piece of intellectual journalism of rare richness, nuance, and moral insight.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
January 29, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Once, visiting my parents during college, my late father asked me what I did that day. I told him I visited the Black Holocaust Museum, a Milwaukee institution whose sign was prominent along the freeway to downtown--so both of us would have seen it a million times. I had never been there...
January 29, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Once, visiting my parents during college, my late father asked me what I did that day. I told him I visited the Black Holocaust Museum, a Milwaukee institution whose sign was prominent along the freeway to downtown--so both of us would have seen it a million times. I had never been there...
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
I felt better prepared for our current time because @rickperlstein.bsky.social did such a phenomenal job chronicling the rise of the modern right from Goldwater through Reagan. It's all there.
January 29, 2026 at 4:00 PM
I felt better prepared for our current time because @rickperlstein.bsky.social did such a phenomenal job chronicling the rise of the modern right from Goldwater through Reagan. It's all there.
I'm not really a prediction guy, but here's one: on "The Pitt," there's going to be a huge cock-up caused by AI. (Chekhov's pistol.) Bonus prediction: everyone will be talking about the episode.
January 28, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I'm not really a prediction guy, but here's one: on "The Pitt," there's going to be a huge cock-up caused by AI. (Chekhov's pistol.) Bonus prediction: everyone will be talking about the episode.
Let's put it plain: Axios is acting as conveyor belt for regime propaganda.
I missed the Pravda in this headline at first: "misleading claim." Normal people don't use fascism-laundering language like that. It sounds cult-like. The elite cult of consensus. It comes down to power worship. As if the alligator will eat them last.
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
Scoop: Stephen Miller behind misleading claim that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" agents
The episode illustrates the sheer power of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser.
www.axios.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:08 AM
Let's put it plain: Axios is acting as conveyor belt for regime propaganda.
They assaulted him once. He went right back. There's a great old word to describe that: "valor." The kind they give medals for in wars. The other side are such cowards. We will win.
edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/u...
edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/u...
Alex Pretti was in earlier confrontation with federal agents who tackled him, broke his rib, sources say | CNN
Federal immigration officials have been collecting information on protesters and agitators, sources told CNN.
edition.cnn.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:51 AM
They assaulted him once. He went right back. There's a great old word to describe that: "valor." The kind they give medals for in wars. The other side are such cowards. We will win.
edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/u...
edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/u...
I missed the Pravda in this headline at first: "misleading claim." Normal people don't use fascism-laundering language like that. It sounds cult-like. The elite cult of consensus. It comes down to power worship. As if the alligator will eat them last.
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
Scoop: Stephen Miller behind misleading claim that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" agents
The episode illustrates the sheer power of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser.
www.axios.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:30 AM
I missed the Pravda in this headline at first: "misleading claim." Normal people don't use fascism-laundering language like that. It sounds cult-like. The elite cult of consensus. It comes down to power worship. As if the alligator will eat them last.
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
I've seen this movie. It didn't end well for Rohm, but it didn't hurt Hitler.
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
Scoop: Stephen Miller behind misleading claim that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" agents
The episode illustrates the sheer power of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser.
www.axios.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:04 AM
I've seen this movie. It didn't end well for Rohm, but it didn't hurt Hitler.
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...
This free-solo climb of a skyscraper in Taiwan on Netflix is exquisitely beautiful.
January 28, 2026 at 12:47 AM
This free-solo climb of a skyscraper in Taiwan on Netflix is exquisitely beautiful.
(1) Hot Type books coming out this fall with a new edition my first book. A new afterword will reflect on it in the Age of Trump, 25 years on.
(2) Anyone finding new typo or mistake wins a steak dinner, Or, you know, a signed copy. Go! Go! Go!
(2) Anyone finding new typo or mistake wins a steak dinner, Or, you know, a signed copy. Go! Go! Go!
January 27, 2026 at 5:35 PM
(1) Hot Type books coming out this fall with a new edition my first book. A new afterword will reflect on it in the Age of Trump, 25 years on.
(2) Anyone finding new typo or mistake wins a steak dinner, Or, you know, a signed copy. Go! Go! Go!
(2) Anyone finding new typo or mistake wins a steak dinner, Or, you know, a signed copy. Go! Go! Go!
From this I surmise that the two shooters heard "he's got a gun!" as, "you can shoot this person who humiliated you and get away with it."
(And, of course, they might be correct.)
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
(And, of course, they might be correct.)
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti
A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.
www.nytimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 3:40 PM
From this I surmise that the two shooters heard "he's got a gun!" as, "you can shoot this person who humiliated you and get away with it."
(And, of course, they might be correct.)
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
(And, of course, they might be correct.)
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
"ICE has to take off the kid gloves" is pretty much the take these days in the right.
January 27, 2026 at 2:57 PM
"ICE has to take off the kid gloves" is pretty much the take these days in the right.
Does he get to keep the coat?
January 27, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Does he get to keep the coat?
Michael Ansara - "The Hard Work of Hope" - Rick Perlstein | Seminary Co-op Bookstores
www.semcoop.com
January 27, 2026 at 2:26 AM