Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

The director of the FBI glamorizing a vigilante (Punisher) who kills people bc the law isn’t ’strong enough.’ This is clearly fascist symbolism.

Sam @samd.bsky.social · 5d

reddit occupied government

Ken Dilanian
@DilanianMSNBC
Follow
The challenge coins being handed out by @FBIDirectorKash. Seems someone put a lot of thought into this.

1 14 91

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

3c) Want to take the opportunity to share this great article from @truthout.org about racism/fascism and The Punisher character

Marvel’s “Punisher” Was a Hate Symbol Long Before Police Co-opted His Character

The Punisher has long been embraced as a classic superhero, but his comics spread reactionary ideology.

truthout.org

2 21 92

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

3b) That tension in breaking the law in the name of the (new or real) law is central to fascism and evident in the popular Blue Lives Matter Punisher imagery. Also evident in much of what Trump has to say about the subject.

3 10 61

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

3a) Notable in the "Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals:
- the desire to do politics as warfare (important given the legacy of WWI)
- the argument that what was needed at the start of fascism was a 'revolutionary' violation of the (perverted) law to restore 'order', i. e. the "new law."

Mussolini and other fascists marching in black shirts

It was the very faith that had ripened in the trenches and in intense reflection on the sacrifice accomplished in the course of battle, a sacrifice for the only worthy goal: the vigor and greatness of the fatherland. It was an energetic, violent faith, unwilling to respect anything opposed to the fatherland's vigor and greatness. This is how squadrism arose. Determined youths, armed, organized in military fashion, and dressed in black shirts, placed themselves outside the law in order to institute a new law. They fought the state in order to found a new state.

1 4 52

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 5d

3) Next, some primary sources like "Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals" (1925) by the "philosopher of fascism," Giovanni Gentile.

Given fascism's renunciation of rational consistency, there is arguably something paradoxical in the notion of a "fascist intellectual." Anyway...

"Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals" (1925)

On 29-30 March 1925 the first Conference on Fascist Culture was held in Bologna under the leadership of Giovanni Gentile. Over four hundred profascist intellectuals lent their names to the event, though actual attendance was more modest. Its aim was to rally Italian intellectuals behind the regime in an effort to enhance the image of the newly declared dictatorship both at home and abroad. One of the congress's immediate results was the following manifesto, largely drafted by Gentile...

2 3 51

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 7d

2a) Apart from featuring his definition of fascism (which he offers reluctantly), Paxton observes how the fascist relation to ideas is merely tactical and not grounded in intellectual consistency.

Useful for today's world to remember how fascists dont feel the need to "justify" changes in position.

The fascist leaders themselves, as we observed in chapter 1, called
their movements ideologies, and many interpreters have taken them at
their word. It is commonplace to see fascism defined by extracting common threads from party programs, by analogy with the other “isms.” This works better for the other “isms,” founded in the era of educated elite politics. I tried earlier to suggest that fascism bears a different relation to ideas than the nineteenth-century “isms,” and that intellectual positions (not basic mobilizing passions like racial hatreds, of course) were likely to be dropped or added according to the tactical needs of the moment. All the “isms” did this, but only fascism had such contempt for reason and intellect that it never even bothered to justify its shifts.

3 24 120

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 7d

2) For the same class we read Ch. 8 of Robert Paxton's classic The Anatomy of Fascism. I used his definition of fascism in my book Antifa.

I love his argument that a definition of fascism "encompasses its subject no better than a snapshot encompasses a person."

Cover of The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton. It shows a woman giving a fascist salute.

What Is Fascism?

The moment has come to give fascism a usable short handle, even though we know that it encompasses its subject no better than a snapshot encompasses a person.

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by
obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

1 24 120

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 8d

1a) 1 takeaway is comparison between the "fascism-producing crisis[es]" of past + present characterized by the prevalence of the "nonintelligibility of power."

When a prominent historian of interwar Europe says we are living through a similar crisis amidst the rise of fascism, we need to listen.

A page of text from the essay with certain sections underlined.

With dynamics already apparent from the early 2000s, but sharply
worsening since2008-2010, the US polity has entered a steadily escalating version of the dual crisis outlined earlier, one suddenly magnifed and massively jolted by COVID-19: a crisis of cohesion, a crisis of legitimacy.

Not only is the polity broken, but very large masses of people have
stopped believing in its repair. On the one hand, we have the extreme
atrophy of democratic practices in the state, whether inside the legislature or in the relations of the presidency, Senate/Congress, and Supreme Court; or in the attack on voting rights, voting access, and the conduct of elections; or in the curtailment of civil liberties and the scale and character of the carceral state. On the other hand, there is now a default conviction among the citizenry that government consists only in burdensomeness, corruption, incompetence, and nonaccountability– a still-widening popular belief in what I would call the nonintelligibility of power, the belief that power is exercised in a distant place, behind closed doors and opaque glass, by conspiracies of elites who are beholden to no one and simply do not care.
crisis of consent; government paralysis, democratic impasse– the prospects can be severe indeed. If we add the fields of structural determation outlined briefly at the very start of this chapter, whose ruinous consequences are now immeasurably expanded and sharpened by the intervening calamity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the severity grows further again. The deeper structural setting will need to be fully proceeding from the huge transformations begun in the 1980s. Here, we need to talk about fundamental capitalist restructuring: deindustrialization and neoliberal globalization. We need to talk about drastic class recomposition, including the reorganization of work and labor circuits and the rewriting of the labor contract...etc

1 12 82

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 8d

1) To start, we read the essay "Liberalism in Crisis" by Geoff Eley from the book Fascism in America.

This essay beautifully balances grounding our understanding of fascism in the interwar context with the need to conceptualize a more portable fascism that can apply to today.

Cover of the book Fascism in America: Past and Present showing the Statue of Liberty doing a fascist salute.

First page of the essay "Liberalism in Crisis" by Geoff Eley.

2 11 100

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

irina cerić @irinaceric.bsky.social · 18h

This is a really clear yet meaty interview with @mark-bray.bsky.social about the actual tactics and history of antifa movements. Will be sharing with students! www.cbc.ca/radio/frontb...

What exactly is Antifa? | CBC Radio

In late September, Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization. Today, we’re tracking the meaning and history of antifascist protest — from 1930’s Europe, to today — and asking: how ...

www.cbc.ca

1 57 140

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 14h

Thank you for your solidarity, fellow members of @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social !!

Defending Our Colleagues from Attacks by the Rutgers Chapter of Turning Point USA - Rutgers AAUP-AFT

This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray has come under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Their campaign to have Dr. Bray fired has resulted …

rutgersaaup.org

1 26 160

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 11h

Solidarity!

RutgersAAUP-AFT @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social · 11h

This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY

3 110 490

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 9h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

130 1K 3.7K

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 8d

I teach a history of antifascism course @ruhistorydept.bsky.social and figured I'd start an ongoing thread this semester to share some insights from course readings and recommend some great works on antifascism.

🧵

17 270 840

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Shane Burley (Blue Sky Edition) @shaneburley.bsky.social · 3h

This is really fucking scary and the only thing we can do is basically show up with solidarity as much as possible. Whatever mark and their family need

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 9h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

9 43

monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she @moniquedhooghe.bsky.social · 7m

antonwest84
MAGA are going to honor
Charlie Kirk on October 14 for his
birthday. George Floyd's birthday
is October 14 as well. I'm calling
on everybody to honor George
Floyd all day on October 14.

(Picture of George Floyd in a white t-shirt wearing a backwards baseball cap and glasses)

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 4h

“America’s senior military officers, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, must approach Trump now and make clear to him that they will not obey illegal orders to act against American citizens or disrupt the American political process.”

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here

The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.

www.theatlantic.com

110 840 2.6K

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 7h

If we are taking in “trillion” of dollars in tariffs:

1. Why haven’t we paid down a cent of the debt?

2. Why can’t we afford to not fuck millions of people over with expiring insurance subsidies?

3. Why is none of it being used to help the abysmal job market?

660 3.9K 13K

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

copilot tormentor @hellonerds.bsky.social · 5h

I would like to remind everyone that ICE literally kidnapped a whole roofing crew in the middle of their job, like three miles away from me

2 14

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

copilot tormentor @hellonerds.bsky.social · 5h

Here’s something you can do: if there’s a Latino crew doing work in your neighborhood, go over and say hi! You can also pull up Google translate and say “xxx is my house. You are safe there. Please run here if you need to”

If you’re feeling saucy you can add “chinga la migra”

You know, neighborly!

4 3 27

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

copilot tormentor @hellonerds.bsky.social · 5h

Just gonna leave this here

bsky.app/profile/hell...

copilot tormentor @hellonerds.bsky.social · 5h

Here’s something you can do: if there’s a Latino crew doing work in your neighborhood, go over and say hi! You can also pull up Google translate and say “xxx is my house. You are safe there. Please run here if you need to”

If you’re feeling saucy you can add “chinga la migra”

You know, neighborly!

3 10 84

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

ksrnow @ksrnow.bsky.social · 8h

4 110 560

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 8h

Michigan Avenue right now.

870 9.1K 31K

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Graham Jones @oldmanrambling.bsky.social · 1d

#Bees #InsectsOfBluesky
#MacroPhotography
#EastCoastKin
#Bloomscroling
#England
“Good morning. What can I do for you? Another photograph? Sure, happy to oblige. Now, kindly buzz off, some of us have work to do.”
The bees in our garden are working late into the year as our Cosmos keeps flowering.

This Bumble Bee with it’s fluffy yellow back arched, looks like it has found plenty to feed on at the centre of a purple-and-white streaked Cosmos flower as it crouches with its face covered in yellow pollen. The bulbous black eyes seem to look straight into the lens as the bee’s legs cling on to the bloom and its antennae are alert overhead.
Twiggy brown remains of other plants snake over the flower to the right and the sun-drenched background is of green leaves.

18 64 580

Reposted by monique d'hooghe ♿ they/she

Arash Mohebbi @thatoldbear.bsky.social · 7h

What if every queer Portlander was in a colossal polycule with the Mythic Antifa Girlfriend, like a kind of Hyperactivist One Big Wife?

3 5