Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 59m

The resistance’s mascot being the Frog of War seems about right.

Reposted by Lunch/Counter/Punch

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

There’s also the question of what kind of feeling you’re stimulating. Most people don’t obsess over these matters. When they hear “immigration is a mess” that stimulates one kind of feeling. When they hear “immigrants are our friends,” another. The latter is what slows fascism by the way.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 2d

The people that you are trying to persuade by moving right won’t believe you (the opposition doesn’t change their messaging against you! Your underlying values look unclear!), and your base gets demoralized.

Adam H Johnson @ahjohnson.bsky.social · 3d

Accepting every MAGA premise on “immigration” has moral costs, but assuming they’re all Savvy Trolly Problem Knowers, they should at least acknowledge it has **political downsides as well**. That it alienates many and makes counter messaging impossible because you look like total phony hypocrites.

2 9

Reposted by Lunch/Counter/Punch

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

The weight of the task ahead — excising the cancer of bigoted, violent nationalism from our culture and politics — might be lifted by thinking of MAGA as an aberration, or a fever that will break. But it only prolongs the life of an ideology that is, and always has been, a dagger to our democracy.

Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 1d

We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.

A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/

2 9 12

Reposted by Lunch/Counter/Punch

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

Since the Iraq War, at least, a defining feature of America’s elite/expert class seems to be getting blindsided by very obvious outcomes.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 4d

I’ve never known a person, personally or in the public eye, whose motivations, intentions, and character have been more obvious. And yet…

2 7 36

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 3h

They drained the swamp…into the East Room.

2

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 4h

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 9d

Tenderizing the public for when the admin tries to bring the killing to American streets.

4

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 4h

The sole focus on healthcare gambit is working well enough that most Dems, shallow thinking cowards that they are, will now proudly retreat to this position. It will naturally blow up in their faces later.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 5h

Universal liberation is such a threat, and oppression of such value, to the well positioned that they’ll happily swim in hypocrisies and degrade their purported ideals without a second thought.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 9h

A deficit of dignity, and a surplus of smarm.

2

Reposted by Lunch/Counter/Punch

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

Months after this picture was taken, Joe Biden was howling about funding the police.

Police viciously pepper spray a seated protestor.

1 1 4

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 12h

We are in a battle of good values versus bad values. Dems need to impress upon the public that siding with the Republican Party in this moment is an immoral choice.

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 12h

The best way to get beyond the "it's just politics" mentality is to avoid framing our current crisis as left vs. right and instead frame it as decency vs. indecency.

1

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

🙏🏽✊

1

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

The Dems may not have what amounts to political operatives running big media companies, but they do have the ability to grab their attention for coverage in dozens of (usually unused) ways.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

“Incompetence or malice?” is a question I long to put to bed!

1 1

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

The weight of the task ahead — excising the cancer of bigoted, violent nationalism from our culture and politics — might be lifted by thinking of MAGA as an aberration, or a fever that will break. But it only prolongs the life of an ideology that is, and always has been, a dagger to our democracy.

Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 1d

We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.

2 9 12

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

That our police forces are funded without limit, and can behave criminally and violently with near impunity, is horrifying, and a potential dagger to democracy. We are all within reason to be extremely disturbed!

1 1 2

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

Months after this picture was taken, Joe Biden was howling about funding the police.

1 1 4

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

Weiss, like all of the ascendant incompetents among us, only knows how to play-act. She play-acted being persecuted, and now she's doing the same as a newsroom boss. "Do the fucking news" holds some cinematic cachet for her; for the rest of us, it's painfully humiliating nonsense.

6

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 1d

Voted and promoted.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

Who those with power and/or status give the benefit of the doubt to is often the only information one needs to understand their morality.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

Since the Iraq War, at least, a defining feature of America’s elite/expert class seems to be getting blindsided by very obvious outcomes.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 4d

I’ve never known a person, personally or in the public eye, whose motivations, intentions, and character have been more obvious. And yet…

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

One minute, mimicking Goebbels like a star-struck teen, the next, too cowardly to own up to the design of his own racist project. A true turd, with accompanying stench.

1

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

The Frog of War.

2

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

Since the Iraq War, at least, a defining feature of America’s elite/expert class seems to be getting blindsided by very obvious outcomes.

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 4d

I’ve never known a person, personally or in the public eye, whose motivations, intentions, and character have been more obvious. And yet…

2 7 36

Lunch/Counter/Punch @theultrasecret.bsky.social · 2d

There’s also the question of what kind of feeling you’re stimulating. Most people don’t obsess over these matters. When they hear “immigration is a mess” that stimulates one kind of feeling. When they hear “immigrants are our friends,” another. The latter is what slows fascism by the way.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 2d

The people that you are trying to persuade by moving right won’t believe you (the opposition doesn’t change their messaging against you! Your underlying values look unclear!), and your base gets demoralized.

Adam H Johnson @ahjohnson.bsky.social · 3d

Accepting every MAGA premise on “immigration” has moral costs, but assuming they’re all Savvy Trolly Problem Knowers, they should at least acknowledge it has **political downsides as well**. That it alienates many and makes counter messaging impossible because you look like total phony hypocrites.

2 9