Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

3K followers 980 following 1.4K posts

Just a progressive scientist who actually cares more about people than scoring points. What's so wrong with being compassionate and caring? It's a lie that we have to trample our neighbors in order to succeed.

Posts Replies Media Videos

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Living the high life.

November 2, 2025 at 11:43 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Only pets get a pass to use their humans as furniture...

November 2, 2025 at 4:37 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

October 19, 2025 at 1:43 AM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

October 13, 2025 at 7:14 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Speaker Mike Johnson recently claimed, 'We are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors. We are responsible for our own choices and our own character. This idea of inherited guilt is toxic, and it is profoundly un-American.'

It’s unclear who exactly is pushing such an idea of inherited guilt. Certainly he can’t be referring to the teaching of slavery, and the effects it has had on society. Why would anybody feel guilty that wasn’t responsible? If the assertion is that a student might interpret this negatively, we merely have to take Johnson’s own word that “we are responsible for our own choices and our own character.”

Further, he claims there is systemic anti-Christian bias and supports government intervention to correct this, so he cannot take issue with acknowledging and addressing the ongoing effects of historical injustices on marginalized communities. That Johnson refutes such systemic injustices exist today makes it clear he understands the present institutions are not asking for people to be held accountable for past misdeeds, but to address current injustice. That he would purposefully lie to the American people about this is deeply disturbing.

In fact, many followers of Johnson's religion, Christianity, can interpret biblical teachings as promoting the very concept of inherited guilt that Johnson claims to be against. For example, in Deuteronomy 5:9-10, it is written, 'For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.' This passage suggests that the sins of our ancestors can have consequences for future generations. He can argue until he’s blue in the face that there is a benign interpretation, but he cannot deny that a person reading such a passage would be highly likely to interpret this to mean that one can be punished for the sins of his ancestors.

October 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Conversion therapy bans for minors aren’t about policing ideas. They’re about stopping a harmful medical practice.
Courts are asking why these laws focus on licensed professionals and not “all speech.” The answer is simple: states regulate health care to prevent harm—especially to kids who can’t legally consent. Talk-based “conversion therapy” is delivered as treatment by licensed providers; that makes it professional practice, not casual debate.
Here’s what the evidence shows:
• No proof it changes orientation or identity.
• Real harm to minors: studies consistently link exposure to these “therapies” with much higher depression and roughly double the risk of suicide attempts compared to peers who weren’t subjected to them.
• Consent problems: minors are often forced in by parents or go under intense pressure, hoping to “fix” themselves despite being told it likely won’t work and may make things worse.
That’s why bans target licensed care for children. They don’t stop pastors from preaching or adults from seeking whatever counseling they want. They simply say: a state-licensed therapist may not perform a discredited, harmful treatment on minors.
I strongly support free speech. I’m an adult; I can choose what to hear. But children deserve safety in the clinic. Regulating dangerous treatment isn’t censorship—it’s basic child protection.
Bottom line: Protect kids. Keep conversion therapy out of pediatric care. Let speech stay free; keep health care safe.

October 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Grandma as a powerful sorceress (I'm having too much fun learning Krita AI).

@nzepsa.bsky.social

October 3, 2025 at 12:58 AM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

I thought it was leaking, but no, just cat shenanigans.

October 1, 2025 at 4:09 AM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

The view must be nice up there.

September 30, 2025 at 4:21 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

This looks super comfortable

September 28, 2025 at 2:36 AM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Not so subtle spy...

September 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

youtu.be/UhzN7SfnNeY?...

Need to believe in a story you tell yourself to avoid feeling like you're the bad guy?

Take a good look, you just may be the villain in your own story.

September 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Kirk wanted a Christian Nationalist America. So basically an authoritarian illiberal democracy with elements of ethnocracy.

MAGA should try peddling that instead of invoking the name of Jesus Christ, who from all accounts seems like a nice chap.

September 18, 2025 at 12:12 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

In case anybody is wondering, this is what America would look like under Christian Nationalism.

September 18, 2025 at 10:42 AM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Charlie Kirk and Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, both fathers of young children, both needlessly killed, might both still be alive had the political climate been less extreme.

I condemn the violence perpetrated against both, and call for justice for both.

You're welcome to join me.

September 14, 2025 at 5:36 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

I tried to figure out what Johnson has been telling us he believes, the little sicko.

September 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

If we take them at their word, it's pretty damning...

September 11, 2025 at 1:11 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

Mike Johnson said to "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it" to understand his political views.

I took the challenge, starting with some claims he's made and then logically extending out to see what he must believe about right and wrong.

Disturbing...

www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/mike...

Asked about his political views in 2023, he responded: "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview."

Regarding morality, he’s said: "If we don't have a heavenly boss who tells us what's right and wrong, then we define it for ourselves."

What can we infer?

Johnson thinks any given instance of an act, no matter how harmful, unjust, or antithetical to human flourishing, can be right or wrong, depending only on what God says about that particular instance. Since God is all-powerful and can do anything, his instructions can change at any time and contradict anything from the Bible, making it impossible for Johnson to say whether anything is right or wrong without God communicating that to him. Since God can also change his mind and alter the past, Johnson can only ever know whether something is right or wrong at the exact moment God has communicated that to him, and not for any point in time before or after.

Is Johnson hearing things from God?

Recounting the days leading up to him becoming Speaker,

“And the Lord kept telling me to, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’” Johnson recalled. “So I waited, I waited. And then at the end … the Lord said, ‘Now step forward.’”

He interpreted this as God putting him in the role of Moses. Moses, a character described as having received authority from God to be the one to dictate to all mankind what they were being commanded by God to do.

Conclusion

Johnson believes God is speaking to him, that what he hears in these messages determines what is right and wrong, and that he has a divine mandate to dictate to everybody else what they must do.

September 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM

Filip Vanevski, PhD

@filipvanevski.bsky.social

I'm not religious or any type of authority on the subject, but I decided to take the claims and stated premises of these sickos, assume the Bible is true, and logically extend the reasoning to see what they must believe.

What I got is consistent with their actions, and also scary nightmare fuel.

September 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM