Seth Cotlar
@sethcotlar.bsky.social
Teaches US History at Willamette Univ. Working on a book about the long history of the US Right. https://rightlandia.ghost.io/
Hard to identify the best part of this 1964 ad--the obvious headline, the misspelling of Reagan's last name, or the shout out to John Stoemer's blockbuster (and howlingly inaccurate) conspiracy-ridden book "None Dare Call it Treason" about the supposedly "treasonous" thread of the US left.
December 12, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Hard to identify the best part of this 1964 ad--the obvious headline, the misspelling of Reagan's last name, or the shout out to John Stoemer's blockbuster (and howlingly inaccurate) conspiracy-ridden book "None Dare Call it Treason" about the supposedly "treasonous" thread of the US left.
It’s been interesting to see how the tone of Trump’s emails have shifted recently from angrily apocalyptic and boasting to this sort of “woe is me,” sad sack posturing.
December 11, 2025 at 8:43 PM
It’s been interesting to see how the tone of Trump’s emails have shifted recently from angrily apocalyptic and boasting to this sort of “woe is me,” sad sack posturing.
This is indeed sad. And also, as any person who knows anything about Trump could tell you, he’s never used a laptop in his life.
December 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
This is indeed sad. And also, as any person who knows anything about Trump could tell you, he’s never used a laptop in his life.
It appears that someone accidentally sent out to Trump’s email fundraising list a text he meant to send to Olivia Nuzzi.
December 11, 2025 at 8:30 PM
It appears that someone accidentally sent out to Trump’s email fundraising list a text he meant to send to Olivia Nuzzi.
In 1978, an antisemitic White Christian Nationalist named Walter Huss was elected chair of the OR GOP. When the party's moderate establishment held a meeting to engineer Huss's ouster in May 1979, Huss's supporters gathered outside the venue to do spiritual warfare on his behalf. It didn't work.
December 11, 2025 at 7:51 PM
In 1978, an antisemitic White Christian Nationalist named Walter Huss was elected chair of the OR GOP. When the party's moderate establishment held a meeting to engineer Huss's ouster in May 1979, Huss's supporters gathered outside the venue to do spiritual warfare on his behalf. It didn't work.
It's notable to me that one of the main guys the NYTimes pays to be on the "conservatism" beat has long seemed to have almost no understanding of the movement he's paid to analyze.
December 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
It's notable to me that one of the main guys the NYTimes pays to be on the "conservatism" beat has long seemed to have almost no understanding of the movement he's paid to analyze.
And when Kolvet tells Ross this fairy tale about how the 18th century founders of the US were inspired by Kolvet's brand of 21st century non-denominational evangelical Protestantism that none of them believed in...and that Kolvet's God is Providentially steering the country, Ross pushes back, right?
December 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
And when Kolvet tells Ross this fairy tale about how the 18th century founders of the US were inspired by Kolvet's brand of 21st century non-denominational evangelical Protestantism that none of them believed in...and that Kolvet's God is Providentially steering the country, Ross pushes back, right?
The dude has a long track record of circulating complete bullshit lies that ruin other Americans lives, and then he comes on Ross's NYT show and is like "it's important to be fact-based" and so of course Ross was ready with a follow up about all of this guy's lies...right? RIGHT?
Of course not.
Of course not.
December 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
The dude has a long track record of circulating complete bullshit lies that ruin other Americans lives, and then he comes on Ross's NYT show and is like "it's important to be fact-based" and so of course Ross was ready with a follow up about all of this guy's lies...right? RIGHT?
Of course not.
Of course not.
When I saw that conspiracies were on the topic list my curiosity was piqued. It turns out that this guy whose entire worldview is built around a wacko conspiracy theory about "the left" and its domination of US culture isn't a big believer in conspiracies now that his org is the subject of one.
![Douthat: Good. [Laughs.] We'll do a show about those subjects.
But it is also the case that there is a wildness to conspiracizing on the right, in the era of Trump, in the era of Covid, with the 2020 election and so on, that it's just a distinctive part of conservative culture.
Do you regard that more critically, now that you've been on the receiving end of theories about yourself that you know not to be true?
Kolvet: Well, I've never been a hugely conspiratorial person in general, but I'm very sympathetic to why people are. When you think about the conservative mind-set and the conservative wiring, you realize, I think, even more why this is happening.
What we are living through is an era where conservatives have this bent to conserve our tradition, conserve our culture, conserve our heritage. But those institutions that are supposed to be doing the heavy lifting for us are not in alignment. The institutional capture by the left in America is pretty dramatic. And so I understand that that's actually fueling a lot of this.
And then you throw in J.F.K., you throw in 9/11, you throw in Covid
- all of these things that people question. They question: Are they getting the real narrative or not?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:miczfsfixolk42l7343z3bpd/bafkreidgmdho5kyhyvy4xtbbukgqfz3cutidbamqk3gmnc6z2usmxf7hw4@jpeg)
December 11, 2025 at 4:47 PM
When I saw that conspiracies were on the topic list my curiosity was piqued. It turns out that this guy whose entire worldview is built around a wacko conspiracy theory about "the left" and its domination of US culture isn't a big believer in conspiracies now that his org is the subject of one.
Apologies for yet another thread with a hate read of a Douthat joint, but we need to talk about the role the credulous "center-right" is playing in normalizing fascistic illiberalism in the US. Kolvet is a rabid Islamophobe and anti-trans hatemonger, but you'd never know that from this interview.
December 11, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Apologies for yet another thread with a hate read of a Douthat joint, but we need to talk about the role the credulous "center-right" is playing in normalizing fascistic illiberalism in the US. Kolvet is a rabid Islamophobe and anti-trans hatemonger, but you'd never know that from this interview.
Additional further updates to The New Colossus for the Trumoposcene.
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A polo-shirted man with a torch, whose flame
Is the impersonated lightning, and his name
Father of Assholes. From his beacon-hand
Glows world-wide menace; his wild eyes command
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A polo-shirted man with a torch, whose flame
Is the impersonated lightning, and his name
Father of Assholes. From his beacon-hand
Glows world-wide menace; his wild eyes command
December 10, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Additional further updates to The New Colossus for the Trumoposcene.
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A polo-shirted man with a torch, whose flame
Is the impersonated lightning, and his name
Father of Assholes. From his beacon-hand
Glows world-wide menace; his wild eyes command
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A polo-shirted man with a torch, whose flame
Is the impersonated lightning, and his name
Father of Assholes. From his beacon-hand
Glows world-wide menace; his wild eyes command
One notable feature of contemporary GOP discourse is that they bash immigrants in rabidly racist ways and then say the Democrats win only because they supposedly "import" voters from other countries. I mean, maybe newly naturalized immigrants are less likely to vote for you because you hate them?
December 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
One notable feature of contemporary GOP discourse is that they bash immigrants in rabidly racist ways and then say the Democrats win only because they supposedly "import" voters from other countries. I mean, maybe newly naturalized immigrants are less likely to vote for you because you hate them?
According to the Oregon Republican Party, Democrats have turned Oregon into an economic wasteland where it's almost impossible for hard working people to support themselves, and also, when able bodied poor people rely on government assistance to feed themselves they should be shamed for it.
December 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
According to the Oregon Republican Party, Democrats have turned Oregon into an economic wasteland where it's almost impossible for hard working people to support themselves, and also, when able bodied poor people rely on government assistance to feed themselves they should be shamed for it.
Or compare Musk's recent posts about "Black crime" and the threat that non-white immigration poses to "our women" and "our civilization" to this 1974 piece in the official magazine of the White Citizens Council. The article was lamenting "Black Monday," i.e. the Brown v. Board decision.
December 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Or compare Musk's recent posts about "Black crime" and the threat that non-white immigration poses to "our women" and "our civilization" to this 1974 piece in the official magazine of the White Citizens Council. The article was lamenting "Black Monday," i.e. the Brown v. Board decision.
This is the front cover of the 1967 Rockwell Report from which that text came. FWIW, Musk has frequently complained about how American schools supposedly teach white children to hate themselves, and that Jews are somehow behind this anti-white agenda. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
December 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
This is the front cover of the 1967 Rockwell Report from which that text came. FWIW, Musk has frequently complained about how American schools supposedly teach white children to hate themselves, and that Jews are somehow behind this anti-white agenda. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Compare the message of Musk's post to this description George Lincoln Rockwell gave of a speech he observed Dick Gregory delivering to a room of mostly white college students in 1967.
December 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Compare the message of Musk's post to this description George Lincoln Rockwell gave of a speech he observed Dick Gregory delivering to a room of mostly white college students in 1967.
That account Musk retweeted has almost a million followers and is filled with content like this fantasizing (ironically of course) about the day daddy Trump will sex traffic/import some blond ladies for him and the fellas to enjoy.
December 10, 2025 at 1:58 PM
That account Musk retweeted has almost a million followers and is filled with content like this fantasizing (ironically of course) about the day daddy Trump will sex traffic/import some blond ladies for him and the fellas to enjoy.
This post by the world’s richest and most divorced man on the site he bought to promote his far right extremism is ripped straight from the Klan messaging of the 1870s or the 1915 film Birth of a Nation that inspired the Klan’s rebirth as a PR stunt/Ponzi scheme/terrorist organization in the 1920s.
December 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
This post by the world’s richest and most divorced man on the site he bought to promote his far right extremism is ripped straight from the Klan messaging of the 1870s or the 1915 film Birth of a Nation that inspired the Klan’s rebirth as a PR stunt/Ponzi scheme/terrorist organization in the 1920s.
Young Republicans are looking for Trump to “be their Franco” but don’t you dare call them fascists.
December 9, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Young Republicans are looking for Trump to “be their Franco” but don’t you dare call them fascists.
Fitting that I just received this preorder offer from the good folks at Posting Through It.
December 8, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Fitting that I just received this preorder offer from the good folks at Posting Through It.
Is that a university in your pocket, or did you just clean your room while considering the lobster?
December 8, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Is that a university in your pocket, or did you just clean your room while considering the lobster?
As this tweet from 9 years ago today reminds us, the dismantling of the institutions and habits of mind that make modern governance possible in a pluralistic democracy has been a project that "conservatives" like Gorsuch have been on board with for a long time.
December 8, 2025 at 7:07 PM
As this tweet from 9 years ago today reminds us, the dismantling of the institutions and habits of mind that make modern governance possible in a pluralistic democracy has been a project that "conservatives" like Gorsuch have been on board with for a long time.
Elon logic:
The majority of people who voted to pass the Violence against Women Act were men, so really, it’s men who should be proud they ended violence against women
The majority of people who voted for the Civil Rights Act were white, so while people should get the credit for ending segregation
The majority of people who voted to pass the Violence against Women Act were men, so really, it’s men who should be proud they ended violence against women
The majority of people who voted for the Civil Rights Act were white, so while people should get the credit for ending segregation
December 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Elon logic:
The majority of people who voted to pass the Violence against Women Act were men, so really, it’s men who should be proud they ended violence against women
The majority of people who voted for the Civil Rights Act were white, so while people should get the credit for ending segregation
The majority of people who voted to pass the Violence against Women Act were men, so really, it’s men who should be proud they ended violence against women
The majority of people who voted for the Civil Rights Act were white, so while people should get the credit for ending segregation
Today’s episode of “right wing influencer kayfabe designed to goose engagement amongst the small community of too online MAGA fans.”
December 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Today’s episode of “right wing influencer kayfabe designed to goose engagement amongst the small community of too online MAGA fans.”
I appreciate Donald Trump, Jr. letting us know just what sort of "Christian values" he espouses. He posted the image on the right yesterday on Instagram. I suspect that most Americans would not let their child go on a playdate at the house of a kid whose father posted something like that.
December 7, 2025 at 10:11 PM
I appreciate Donald Trump, Jr. letting us know just what sort of "Christian values" he espouses. He posted the image on the right yesterday on Instagram. I suspect that most Americans would not let their child go on a playdate at the house of a kid whose father posted something like that.