Paul Crider
@paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com
Liberal in the Smith-Douglass-Mill-Anderson vein. Writer and editor for Liberal Currents. https://bsky.app/profile/liberalcurrents.com
The Democratic base is pretty monolithic in their anger at ICE. And a majority of Independents have an unfavorable view of ICE. Democratic lawmakers need to get where their base is.
January 13, 2026 at 12:41 AM
The Democratic base is pretty monolithic in their anger at ICE. And a majority of Independents have an unfavorable view of ICE. Democratic lawmakers need to get where their base is.
Okay, but like three days ago @gallego.senate.gov was saying "there can be proper deportation." We need to fire, prosecute, and strip *all* ICE agents of their pensions, not just a few bad apples. There is no reforming ICE and DHS. #AbolishICE or get the fuck out of the way.
January 12, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Okay, but like three days ago @gallego.senate.gov was saying "there can be proper deportation." We need to fire, prosecute, and strip *all* ICE agents of their pensions, not just a few bad apples. There is no reforming ICE and DHS. #AbolishICE or get the fuck out of the way.
Anyway, I'm prepared with the perfect laptop sticker for this: Treason against whiteness is loyalty to humanity.
January 10, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Anyway, I'm prepared with the perfect laptop sticker for this: Treason against whiteness is loyalty to humanity.
"By the way, that dress you are wearing is green."
January 9, 2026 at 5:24 AM
"By the way, that dress you are wearing is green."
Portland bookstore haul 2025. Burnside and Hawthorne Powells, and an adorable little shop called Melville's. I feel like I'm really channeling @mattpolprof.bsky.social with this selection.
January 2, 2026 at 1:28 AM
Portland bookstore haul 2025. Burnside and Hawthorne Powells, and an adorable little shop called Melville's. I feel like I'm really channeling @mattpolprof.bsky.social with this selection.
Okay but what liberals are we talking about? Two-thirds of Democrats favor giving current immigrants a path to citizenship, and that jumps to 85% if you say they have to pay a penalty. Elected Democrats have a much more anti-immigrant closed border view. 🧵
January 1, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Okay but what liberals are we talking about? Two-thirds of Democrats favor giving current immigrants a path to citizenship, and that jumps to 85% if you say they have to pay a penalty. Elected Democrats have a much more anti-immigrant closed border view. 🧵
23. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow - Tom King. Just under the wire for 2025! This was pretty good. I've never read much DC. Supergirl seems nice. I like that she cusses.
January 1, 2026 at 3:35 AM
23. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow - Tom King. Just under the wire for 2025! This was pretty good. I've never read much DC. Supergirl seems nice. I like that she cusses.
Wood gives a helpful definition of capitalism: producers are detached from the means of production, and those means of production are subject to markets. But also, producers are no longer (largely) prey to direct coercion or extraction, but are subject to economic forces (market imperatives).
December 27, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Wood gives a helpful definition of capitalism: producers are detached from the means of production, and those means of production are subject to markets. But also, producers are no longer (largely) prey to direct coercion or extraction, but are subject to economic forces (market imperatives).
22. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View - Ellen Meiksins Wood. Wood argues that capitalism arose not from the expansion of commerce, but from a novel property relation in England that made alienated producers and landowners both dependent on the market in a way they were weren't before.
December 27, 2025 at 4:09 PM
22. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View - Ellen Meiksins Wood. Wood argues that capitalism arose not from the expansion of commerce, but from a novel property relation in England that made alienated producers and landowners both dependent on the market in a way they were weren't before.
21. Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce - EK Bramsted & KJ Melhuish. I really liked this. From the 70s, so it's interesting to see this choice of documents (>120) to represent liberalism. A nice balance of right and left liberals from multiple European backgrounds.
December 25, 2025 at 5:31 AM
21. Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce - EK Bramsted & KJ Melhuish. I really liked this. From the 70s, so it's interesting to see this choice of documents (>120) to represent liberalism. A nice balance of right and left liberals from multiple European backgrounds.
Closing in on the finale of Lucifer. Will finish on a trans-Pacific flight today. It's a goofy-ass show, only very loosely inspired by the more serious source material. But it's fun, lovable, compulsive viewing. I'll miss these characters.
December 23, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Closing in on the finale of Lucifer. Will finish on a trans-Pacific flight today. It's a goofy-ass show, only very loosely inspired by the more serious source material. But it's fun, lovable, compulsive viewing. I'll miss these characters.
Just take it easy, Lex.
Every once in a while you read something from one of the old dead-and-gones that lets you place them exactly where they'd fit in today's politics.
Every once in a while you read something from one of the old dead-and-gones that lets you place them exactly where they'd fit in today's politics.
December 22, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Just take it easy, Lex.
Every once in a while you read something from one of the old dead-and-gones that lets you place them exactly where they'd fit in today's politics.
Every once in a while you read something from one of the old dead-and-gones that lets you place them exactly where they'd fit in today's politics.
Alexis de Tocqueville on Cancel Culture.
December 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Alexis de Tocqueville on Cancel Culture.
It's just an abject failure to consider substantive policies and actual political actions in favor of lazily taking responses to dubiously worded survey questions at face value. MAGA have less zero-sum beliefs than Democrats? Lol
December 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
It's just an abject failure to consider substantive policies and actual political actions in favor of lazily taking responses to dubiously worded survey questions at face value. MAGA have less zero-sum beliefs than Democrats? Lol
Does what it says on the tin.
(I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS MEANS.)
(I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS MEANS.)
December 17, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Does what it says on the tin.
(I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS MEANS.)
(I DON'T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS MEANS.)
Taiwanese bartender, halting English: Would you ... like ... a goodbye shot?
Me, with the opposite of halting English: YES!
Me, with the opposite of halting English: YES!
December 17, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Taiwanese bartender, halting English: Would you ... like ... a goodbye shot?
Me, with the opposite of halting English: YES!
Me, with the opposite of halting English: YES!
This and the above are from Lamennais' The Conditions of Liberty, excerpts of which are in Western Liberalism: a History in Documents from Locke to Croce, ed. EK Bramsted and KJ Melhuish.
December 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
This and the above are from Lamennais' The Conditions of Liberty, excerpts of which are in Western Liberalism: a History in Documents from Locke to Croce, ed. EK Bramsted and KJ Melhuish.
Dude, the Felicite de Lamennais was spitting straight fire. 🔥🔥
December 17, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Dude, the Felicite de Lamennais was spitting straight fire. 🔥🔥
Buh-luddy hell! I read this nice essay on the state and individual—not freedom from the state but freedom within the state. Really rich essay! I looked a little more into Heinrich von Treitschke and he was basically a proto-nazi talking about "pitiless racial struggle" and "noble German blood." 😧
December 17, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Buh-luddy hell! I read this nice essay on the state and individual—not freedom from the state but freedom within the state. Really rich essay! I looked a little more into Heinrich von Treitschke and he was basically a proto-nazi talking about "pitiless racial struggle" and "noble German blood." 😧
This is really just something to behold.
December 16, 2025 at 12:59 AM
This is really just something to behold.
This is a powerful case for liberalism. But the observation that class inequalities are ultimately the products of old ethnic conflicts, with their attendant violence and oppression, suggests, in my view, liberal socialism. We are all the heirs of plundered and plunderer alike. Share the spoils.
December 13, 2025 at 12:52 AM
This is a powerful case for liberalism. But the observation that class inequalities are ultimately the products of old ethnic conflicts, with their attendant violence and oppression, suggests, in my view, liberal socialism. We are all the heirs of plundered and plunderer alike. Share the spoils.
20. The Communist and the Revolutionary Liberal in the Second American Revolution: Comparing Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass in Real-Time - August Nimtz and Kyle A Edwards. A really fascinating mode of analysis. They review these contemporaries' reactions to the same events as they unfold.
December 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
20. The Communist and the Revolutionary Liberal in the Second American Revolution: Comparing Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass in Real-Time - August Nimtz and Kyle A Edwards. A really fascinating mode of analysis. They review these contemporaries' reactions to the same events as they unfold.
19. The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality - Angela Saini. How patriarchy arose isn't obvious. Saini goes over the evidence, showing a variety of non- and less-patriarchal societies (but all gendered). Best she offers is patriarchy arose from captive-taking and the state's human resources needs.
December 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM
19. The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality - Angela Saini. How patriarchy arose isn't obvious. Saini goes over the evidence, showing a variety of non- and less-patriarchal societies (but all gendered). Best she offers is patriarchy arose from captive-taking and the state's human resources needs.
18. Abaddon's Gate - James S. A. Corey. Third book of the Expanse. Great stuff. It's interesting how some of the characters of the show were mixed and cobbled together from the books. It means reading the books still presents some suspense!
December 2, 2025 at 4:16 PM
18. Abaddon's Gate - James S. A. Corey. Third book of the Expanse. Great stuff. It's interesting how some of the characters of the show were mixed and cobbled together from the books. It means reading the books still presents some suspense!