Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 3h

Recapturing the “civics and history” dialogue from the right is an important step in this. Right now, it’s mostly a dogwhistle to teach nationalism and right wing propaganda in education.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Lesson in Civics

The School of Civic Life and Leadership’s public fighting is part of a long-running rupture about the mission of civics schools around the country.

www.theassemblync.com

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 3h

C-SPAN has always been like this. It’s a channel for deep political nerds of every type, and they will not tolerate people being rude to their callers.

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Seth Rudy @sethrudy.bsky.social · 4h

Meanwhile in #Portland

Kermit faces off with Hopper in The Muppet Movie

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 3h

The Venezuelan right has a long history of massacres and running the nation like an oil plantation.

The leftist regimes have not had to be competent. They just need to provide a bit of food and medicine to the poor and point to how the right treated the people when they had power.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 3h

Carlin was very good at constantly calling himself an asshole while coming off as genuinely kind and thoughtful.

Burr’s always been an “I’m an asshole, but I’m YOUR asshole” act.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 3h

Davidson is another turn in the cycle from “Sexiest Man in Hollywood” to “Creepy Old Dude Who Cannot Maintain Relationships.”

wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

You do a command performance for the brutal king, and no one thinks you are there for the common people unless you end up getting executed after.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

And Chappelle has bought an entire town. Rich people who do shit like that can go spectacularly broke.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

He can’t.

He’s assumed the “inheritor of George Carlin” mantle, and his brand is cutting through the bullshit with moral clarity.

“Ha ha! I’m just another bullshitter” doesn’t work if your act is “last honest man in comedy.”

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

Burr seems to be belatedly realizing that he cashed out his brand in Riyadh.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

Genuine reportage with comedy is an enduring style, and it absolutely depends on the audience trusting the comedian as someone who can honestly cut through the bullshit.

This is also why kitsch and “Ow, my balls!” styles of comedy are commonly associated with fascism. You don’t need “comedians.”

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 5h

I've noticed the opposing team's fans only cheer when the opponents score on us. To win those fans over, I recommend we score on ourselves repeatedly; that will surely make them so happy they'll start supporting us. And I'm sure all our fans will keep cheering for us—who else is there to cheer for?

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

Bircherism, in general, was ridiculous, and it was founded to honor McCarthy.

The joke in Dr. Strangeglove is that Colonel Ripper is just regurgitating John Birch Society newsletters.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

McCarthy was a visibly drunk ranter who just made shit up on the fly. He screwed up when he went after the Army, but making anti-communism unpalatable in Cold War Washington took a lot of effort.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 4h

A big reason the Venezuelan dictators have endured is that the nation is 70 to 80 percent impoverished, and the middle class democratic activists keep advocating for restricting the right of the poor to vote and eliminating social support programs.

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cow tools daily @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social · 5h

it's not FOR us

edited comic panel. Batman is breaking a lump-with-handle cow tool over his knee and saying "this is the tool of the cow. we do not understand it. we will not use it."

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 5h

The performative ridiculousness is part of how fascists gain power. It’s “why are you hitting yourself?” bullying, with the cops doing the hitting.

Tells everyone else that they can be targeted too for any reason, and that the leaders will make a show of it when they do.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 5h

Any return of power to the right wing will require another round of Plan Ávila, and everyone there knows it.

Plan Ávila - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 5h

A perennial problem with the Venezuelan democracy movement is that its leaders talk about suppressing the poor vote and eliminating social aid.

It’s a bosses and oil executive movement, and that’s why it doesn’t get much traction in a nation where 70 to 80 percent live in poverty.

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1d

The New York Times also just kind of introduces Turning Point USA as this ambiguous entity without explaining what it is, or detailing any of its dodgy behaviors as a super shady right wing propaganda organization

this kind of generous framing isn't done by accident

NYT: "In the weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, he has become a target of right-wing hate, accused of being a part of the movement he studied. Jack Posobiec, a right-wing influencer, called Dr. Bray a “domestic terrorist professor” on X. The Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA then circulated a petition accusing Dr. Bray of being an “outspoken, well-known antifa member” and called for him to be fired.

The petition referred to him as “Dr. Antifa.”

“My role in this is as a professor,” Dr. Bray, an assistant teaching professor at Rutgers, said in an interview on Wednesday, hours before his planned departure. “I’ve never been part of an antifa group, and I’m not currently. There’s an effort underway to paint me as someone who is doing the things that I’ve researched, but that couldn’t be further from the truth."

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AmeriKraut @inchargeofthegirls.bsky.social · 16h

sherman, for the love of god!

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Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 14h

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 10h

Don’t argue with people like this. Even if this is an actual human being, they aren’t really human anymore.

wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 11h

It’s a thing.

Milei posts bizarre list rejecting ‘fake news,’ denies having sex with his sister - Buenos Aires Herald

The far-right candidate also denied talking to his dead dog, Conan

buenosairesherald.com

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wishda @wishda.bsky.social · 16h