Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 30m

Fascinating to ponder how little effort US politicians need to put into actually persuading people to change their votes, if they can just routinely engineer situations where votes against them don't count.

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 12h

A decade after it was written, I find myself pulling out the @cingraham.bsky.social's gerrymandering explanation to help people understand why California’s Prop. 50 is so important to pass.

wapo.st/3WfcjeB

This is the best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see

By simplifying gerrymandering we see how problematic it really is.

wapo.st

1 2 6

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 33m

"Outlandish conspiracy-theories about shadowy murderous groups secretly driving society towards their ends? Well, THAT's never happened before...!"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illumin...

Illuminati - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

5

Reposted by Dave Andress

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 47m

Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org

The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org

The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...

www.nobelprize.org

4 110 280

Reposted by Dave Andress

Fourth Crown War FPV Drone Operator 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 37m

Let's be clear here, what Stephen Daisley called for in the Spectator is a cultural genocide and mass expulsion of UK Muslims and implicitly all minorities that he has deemed insufficiently "model."

2 2 23

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 37m

"I am too stupid to understand that all this happened a hundred years ago, too, therefore I will blame the internet."

1 6

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 39m

Just unbelievable how horse-shitty some people can get about what "populism" is or isn't. It's like Fukuyama has never heard of the Blood Libel, or the Protocols, or "Judeo-Bolshevism".

www.persuasion.community/p/its-the-in...

3 10

Reposted by Dave Andress

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 50m

Throughout arguments, both the right’s lawyer and the conservative justices framed being gay as something unnatural and self-loathing among youth as caused by queerness, not stigma.

This inverts reality.

www.salon.com/2025/10/08/s...

2 25

Reposted by Dave Andress

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 2h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

74 1.8K 4.5K

Reposted by Dave Andress

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Trump calls for Brandon Johnson and JB Pritzker to be imprisoned

Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!

180 450 1.1K

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1h

George Orwell, *Burmese Days*, has it all, including the sickness below the surface...

3

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1h

Is it going to take *someone else* murdering 60 or 70 people in the name of a manifesto extensively quoting from the rightwing press for people to wake up to their menace? Because it certainly seems like one of them wasn't enough.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_...

Anders Behring Breivik - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1h

Last time I checked, the "culture" of the Spectator was extremely relaxed about having open antisemites on their team. So I guess we'll be advocating their mass deportation now, eh?

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 1d

The Manchester synagogue attack is a story of mass immigration and multiculturalism. We must bring an end to both.

My latest for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/immi...

1 8

Reposted by Dave Andress

Fourth Crown War FPV Drone Operator 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 1h

It is not possible to guarantee safety for a minority group except through a multicultural society. This is a basic fact of hard reality. Wise up, Steve.

Stephen Daisley @stephendaisley.bsky.social · 1d

The Manchester synagogue attack is a story of mass immigration and multiculturalism. We must bring an end to both.

My latest for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/immi...

3 9 90

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1h

Fun to contemplate how much of this trading does not involve any actual physical gold, but rather nominal entitlements to a share in the value of an unspecified amount of possibly actual gold.

FT Edit @ftedit.ft.com · 1h

Early this morning, gold hit a “historic milestone” as it climbed above $4,000 a troy ounce for the first time. Gold prices have already risen by more than 50% this year.

What’s driving this record run? An #FTEdit 🧵

1 4

Reposted by Dave Andress

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 3h

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 19h

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

8 120 430

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1h

*slave.

20

Reposted by Dave Andress

William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 1h

The subtext of ‘we should be more like Dubai’, beyond the obvious racism, is ‘I should have a servant’.

6 18 120

Reposted by Dave Andress

trasgernder @gemma.transwrites.world · 1h

Time to update the scoreboards so everyone knows what's up before JK Rowling drops another few hundred grand on being a bigot loser

Money wasted on being a dick to trans people: literally millions upon millions.

Women saved from harm or even vaguely supported by being a dick to trans people: 0

2 52 240

Reposted by Dave Andress

dr joshua phillips @woolfianjosh.bsky.social · 1h

Not to be outdone, Sir Keir Starmer announces that he will go harder and faster in delivering patriotic renewal by detonating tactical nukes underneath every university library library’s 800 shelfmark section.

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 4h

UK Tory Party Conference: Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch declares war on English degrees.
#literature #language #English #HigherEd #University

3 10 16

Reposted by Dave Andress

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 2h

Badenoch: "While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China built five nuclear reactors."

A perfect summary of conservative idiocy. Glorifying authoritarian post-communism for its efficiency while vilifying democracy for seeking nuance and respect.

It is the Right who hate their own countries.

39 110 490

Reposted by Dave Andress

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 1h

“Their strategy is to play divide and conquer, rewarding friends and brutally punishing opponents. They win when society cracks, creating a self-enforcing set of expectations, in which everyone shuts up and complies because everyone expects everyone else to shut up and comply, too.” - excellent

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1h

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

18 39

Reposted by Dave Andress

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 1h

Matthew Syed, who recently wrote a long read about why he just joined the Conservatives, objected to his BBC introduction including this fact: "Yes, I just joined the Conservatives, but I still see myself, first and foremost, as an objective journalist, if I may say so."

Phew! Glad that's settled.

18 25 150

Reposted by Dave Andress

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 1h

They have made it clear that they believe if they make it awful enough to be trans, people will stop being trans. In service of that, the assault of children is a welcome outcome for them.

Dr Robert Bohan @robertbohan.bsky.social · 2h

When politicians like Trump, or Starmer, say & do transphobic things, parents talk about it in front of kids & then the kids bring it to school.

It’s horrific that these kids are being taught to hate & at such an early age.

It is critical we do not import this into Irish politics:

11-year-old trans child allegedly assaulted by fellow student

An 11-year-old trans child was allegedly assaulted by a fellow student over their gender identity, the student's father has claimed.

www.thepinknews.com

1 38 120

Reposted by Dave Andress

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2h

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

130 450 2K

Reposted by Dave Andress

Martin Warne @martinwarne.net · 1h

Bold assertion from the woman who once hacked into another MP’s website.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2h

Criminals should face "the full force of the law" says Kemi Badenoch

10 32