Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

A Dead Weird Carnie

@ecarney.bsky.social

1K followers 680 following 7.2K posts

Executive dysfunction, a conspicuous lack of marketable skills, and a paradoxical ambition to build a better society from the ground up.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · Feb 21

Growing up, I recall a lot of people asking, "How could the German people let this happen?" but no one ever asked, "Would they have let if happen if they could effortlessly access detailed information about current events and history and had also been warned all their lives to not let this happen?"

2 6 40

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 2h

Feels like the collective mask really started to come off the American Nazi Party today.

Meanwhile we all just had to keep going about our little tasks, occasionally sending out our little posts...

Reposted by A Dead Weird Carnie

Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org · 2h

4 17 130

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 2h

You mean I have to occasionally interact with another human being when it's time to replenish my toilet paper? This must be what medieval peasants felt like.

1 1

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 2h

Holy shit, left-wing political groups are aligning themselves with anti-fascist ideology? This is huge.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Jonathan Choe to Trump: "Another group right now that is behind antifa and working with antifa very closely based on the research that we have right now that we're gonna give to you and your team are the Democratic Socialists of America."

Reposted by A Dead Weird Carnie

elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 2h

the president refers to killing as “actually an act of kindness” and it’s genuinely not news because baby we are frogs and we are coookin’

2 16 83

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 7h

What gets to me is that the people least likely to be affected by these stories are those who've spent much of their lives openly panicking over imagined threats to kids in their own country. They recognize harm to children as the greatest evil, but only where they choose to actively think about it.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 7h

Maybe it's because I'm a parent, but avoidable harm to kids really gets to me. My kids can be difficult when they don't get an afternoon snack at the usual time. I'm sure various parents and teachers can say the same. Watching a kid starve to death? And the US govt did it on purpose?
Unconscionable.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

1 1

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 7h

"Nothing has gotten better in my lifetime" say members of a generation that witnessed same-sex marriage go from completely unheard of to legally accepted nationwide in less than a decade.

2 10

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 8h

Radical objectives backed by sensible liberal strategies, what a concept.

1 19

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 8h

In all sincerity, I do not understand how people in my social stratum can afford their vehicles. My GF just told me that her insurance went up by $250/yr for no reason, and is among the cheapest plans available. That's just insurance and she barely makes more money than I. The math seems impossible.

Reposted by A Dead Weird Carnie

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 14h

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

350 7.7K 20K

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 8h

The urban deer really baffle me. I mean, there's wilderness along the Scajaqueda Creek, but it's like 30 feet wide at its most spacious. Where the hell do they hide before and after they've wandered by my office window?

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 8h

Curious to know what percentage of the US population hears "discrimination in medical care is good, actually" and concludes that there's no way that principle could ever be turned against them.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

2 1

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 8h

Forcing the ladies to crank 'em out is a better way of creating a permanent underclass.

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 9h

youtu.be/4dLEVyY_56o?...

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 9h

I'm also remembering the time when a Fox contributor was outraged that the villain of the Muppets movie was a greedy billionaire and asked why the Muppets weren't filming their traditional role of illustrating the importance of values such as "sharing."

2 9

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 9h

Cue flashbacks to the Great Tinky-Winky Panic.

2 7

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 9h

I can understand clamoring for more data centers if you are absurdly credulous A.I.'s economic potential, but I honestly struggle to imagine how states and municipalities expect to benefit from having those data centers in their own backyards.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 9h

"For instance, CNBC found that one Microsoft data center in Illinois received more than $38 million in data center sales tax exemptions but created just 20 permanent jobs."

www.cnbc.com/2025/06/20/t...

In race to attract data centers, states can forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to tech companies

Amazon, Meta and Google are among the beneficiaries of state tax exemptions for data centers that help power AI.

www.cnbc.com

Reposted by A Dead Weird Carnie

Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 9h

I think of this image a lot

Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw, celebrating the starvation of human beings due to DOGE's coup of the U.S. government

6 110 540

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 11h

Don't kid yourself, Faine. If a pig ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about.

1 3

Reposted by A Dead Weird Carnie

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 12h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

The Case for the Forever Shutdown

Senate Democrats actually allowing the GOP to stop funding the government is only the first step. Now they have to make the case that Trump’s government is illegitimate.

newrepublic.com

39 380 1.2K

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 11h

Fanny spittles? Ew, no thank you.

Oh wait, did you say *primrose* fanny spittles...?

Actual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 11h

Primrose Fanny Spittles

England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 11h

Conservative backlash might just make me shell out for a ticket and get over my years-long aversion to movie theaters.

Nolan Zugernat @zugernat.bsky.social · 11h

‘“For this movie to make any sense at all, one has to believe the United States, today, right now, is a fascist dictatorship,” wrote David Marcus at Fox News.’

Damn, this movie must make a lot of sense.

Conservatives Take Aim at ‘One Battle After Another’: “Year’s Most Irresponsible Movie”

While Paul Thomas Anderson's film is being heralded as a masterpiece by many, some conservatives accuse it of potentially inspiring left-wing violence.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

1 1

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 23h

If it was too hit, you could've at least hit 'em with the Robert Stack Special.

a man wearing a hat and sunglasses is standing in front of a map .

ALT: a man wearing a hat and sunglasses is standing in front of a map .

media.tenor.com

1 5

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 1d

I've always assumed that when my cats lick me, they are seasoning me.

1 9

A Dead Weird Carnie @ecarney.bsky.social · 1d

While we're on the subject, I've seen posts asserting that if you simply take a walk, it will also solve all your problems, and as someone who walks every day, I can tell you: Nah.