Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 6d

"This Committee was initially created during the McCarthy Era, a dark time when the federal government repressed and persecuted American citizens for their political beliefs [...]"

To the voices that will be heard / May they speak loud and clear.
#academicsky #writingsky
www.npr.org/2025/10/01/n...

Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech

The Committee for the First Amendment first launched in the 1940s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee accused Hollywood actors, directors and writers of being communists or sympathizers.

www.npr.org

2

Reposted by not surprised

Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 21d

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

280 7.2K 30K

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 25d

That's a nice list 👀

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 25d

Oooh, I haven't read an entertaining Fanged Fic in a while. I shall check out Play Nice and So Thirsty, thank you!

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 25d

Every couple hours it's like a new level of absurdity unlocks: Oldheads are avoiding (Boomer) parents' bewildered texts, The Chronically Online feel like they're on crazy pills, all while The Hypocrisy™ burns through yet another layer of the social contract.

The vibes aren't just off. They're gone.

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 25d

Just took a quick googlepeek: demons and childhood homes, oh my! 👀 Is it good?

1 1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · 25d

What are you reading right now? Fiction, non-fiction, speculative, genre, you name it.

#academicsky #writingsky

2 1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 28

WTF.

Project MUSE is an academic lifeline! Cutting access is deliberately hurting researchers' access to multiple knowledge bases!

Horrible.

#academicsky #writingsky

Sheila Liming @seeshespeak.bsky.social · Aug 28

My university canceled its library subscription to Project MUSE, making it harder for me to do research, but enrolled all us faculty in Salesforce

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · Aug 19

People working in universities know a lot of the work that makes the organization function is outsourced to for-profit companies (catering, landscaping) or runs on platforms requiring payments to such companies: Workday, Canvas, Microsoft, Zoom.

This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/

6

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 20

The vibe these days:

All the juice has been squeezed. The violent re-squeezing for the last few drops.

A vending machine stops working. Cue banging, rattling, more banging, more rattling. Nothing.

Irresponsible persons clicked on obvious malware. All computers jitter, freeze, bluesceen.

#humpday

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

It is exactly the kind of ideology that builds planetkilling plagiarism machines, terrororises innocents, gladly wrecks nature, and considers abandoning Earth and everyone on it a Worthy thing.

This is an old, old war. Only this time, as Klein & Taylor point out, the entire planet is at stake. /End

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

For, as vicious as it is self-fulfilling, the horrific binary is fundamentally Life-hating.

It loathes humanity and human creativity. It exists in terror of anything Earth-bound and of the body. It is an ideology that is blind to Earth's beauty and disdainful of its breathtaking diversity. 12/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

That binary is a global problem. Its underlying hopelessness needs adressing, meaning genuine results.

There is a way, as Klein & Taylor agree: By insisting on the future that is possible. By refusing to be sidelined by the poverty of imagination "secular Rapture"-ideologues try to enforce. 11/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

It's refreshing how Klein & Taylor take the Christian-imperial rapaciousness at the heart of the techbro-1%er "secular Rapture" ideology to task, considering how we're collectively witnessing just how the Chosen/Worthless binary unleashes the cruelty & destruction needed for imperial expansion 10/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

The hopelessness is integral to the greed.

Those who have hope, who are willing to change (never mind the inconvenience, exhaustion and heartbreak), those who have faith in a good life on Earth For All do not deal in despair. They deal in life now, not death + hopefully-something-better after 9/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

will happily enforce the vicious binary, where they alone are The Chosen and all others deserve neither consideration nor care.

Without this hopelessness, the horrific binary has neither attraction, legitimacy, nor merit, and thus the apocalyptic greed of imperial practice cannot be sustained. 8/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

What Klein & Taylor sketch so succinctly is the third part of this faith-based logic:

3) The abject hopelessness at the heart of the Chosen/Worthless binary: Those who have given up hope of a better future (or maliciously see the danger in hope & those who have it, and so want all stamped out) 7/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

the ideological framework that legitimised(-es) imperial expansion, such as the "terra nullius" ultraviolences (1400s onwards), the Midatlantic slave-trade (1600s-1800s), the social engineering via eugenics (1800s-1900s), and the housing, healthcare, and and civil rights cruelties (1900s-2000s) 6/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

This is an old, old binary, a very old script. It's an imperial algorithm that's been running malware across the globe for centuries, with a bevy of imperial philosophies, infrastructures, legalities, and socio-cultural texts to uphold this very binary, thus building, maintaining and sustaining 5/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

2) The wretched racial supremacy embedded in this binary of "Chosen/Worthless", "Pure/Disgusting", a binary that stipulates who gets to be "The Chosen" (i e. pure/good) and so must be obeyed vs. who can be tortured, terrorised, and discarded without remorse, i.e. "The Worthless" (corrupt/bad). 4/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

in favour of a puritanically righteous and decidedly non-earthly Afterlife.

Cue an obsession with (sexual & racial) purity paired with a deep hatred of joyful physicality (considered disgusting/corrupt/fallen) leading to a deep disdain for the Earth itself, which exists only to be used at will 3/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

Additionally, Klein & Taylor point out the obsession with (secular) Rapture running like algorithm through our harrowing times, making this current global assault deeply Christian in its internal logic:

1) "The Chosen" vs "The Worthless" binary, allowing a complete disregard of earthly Life... 2/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

Klein & Taylor are deft in streamlining observations colleagues versed in European & Imperial history have addressed over the years, esp. how these unprecedented times are ideologically precedent. One convo about the 30-Year's War's ideological impact and its reach into the 21st c comes to mind 1/13

1

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 17

A necessary read.

Considering developments, this is a good reminder of the macro-currents at play. It's noteworthy that Klein & Taylor frame what's happening as a religion-adjacent global assault.

Yes, it's bad. No, it's not hopeless.

#academicsky #writingsky

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

www.theguardian.com

1 2 9

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 16

This is no isolated problem.

More like a paradigm shift, where we now witness nations' core beliefs on full display in real time, never mind bots/faux news:

The populace is speaking, individuals in the tens of millions are saying their piece. And far too often, that piece is ghastly.

/rant off/

not surprised @notsurprised.bsky.social · Aug 16

Like two sides of the same disturbing coin, core beliefs are now on full display, e.g.:

Blatantly sadistic avarice, deeply malicious intent, and nonstop mendacity

all fully enabled by

masochistic longsuffering, credulous good faith approaches, and relentless denial of the viciousness at hand 4/5

1