Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 22m

the social consensus mechanism is so strong that most people don't even seem to experience their views on the subject as an opinion, rather than just an observation of reality, and respond to contrary views as if you'd argued the sky was orange.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 23m

and what we see is virtually everyone shaping their views to fit within that consensus. "the consensus is incorrect" is not even really treated as an option, and people mostly consider the question completely settled, almost as a matter of objective fact.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 25m

AI on bluesky is a great illustration of this because it's an area that is new and confusing where you would reasonably expect a mishmash of different viewpoints, but also, as it happens, it's an area where there is a very aggressive, loud consensus echoed by the most prominent voices in the network

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 27m

anyway yeah not a theorist, but I think people's views are mostly a reflection of their sense of what they are socially expected to believe (which they experience as their sense of what smart people believe), and that powerfully interacts with the holographic parasocial communities of digital media

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 30m

the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw this lol

"is this about... oh no"

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 3h

The problem with a lot of prominent Democrats is that they legitimately seem like lizard people, and doing things like “randomly dropping f-bombs in speeches because their consultants told them to” makes that problem worse, not better

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

This is not why he won, though. People didn’t really understand this

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

But I keep getting told that the experts (read: consultants) have solved the 2500-year old problem of effective political rhetoric and will give you the exact right words that will inspire everyone and earn their votes and respect, and Obama just, like, got lucky or something

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

The most effective Democratic messenger of my lifetime is the guy who broke every single rule Democrats are currently trying to follow: Barack Hussein Obama, the guy with the weird name who talked like a professor, made sweeping appeals to higher principles, and never once appeared salt-of-the-earth

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Reposted by Will Stancil

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 4h

It's a well-established global phenomenon: secret police organizations always recruit losers, mediocrities, people who can't succeed in a competitive environment, whether bureaucratic, academic or commercial. These are people who will follow orders and engage in depraved, violent conduct when asked.

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Reposted by Will Stancil

Eric Blair @protecttruth.bsky.social · 4h

We are in late-stage authoritarian media takeover.

Fox and CNN are owned/controlled by rightwing billionaires.
Twitter and Truth Social
WSJ and WaPo
CBS and ABC
Newsweek, Sinclair, now Tegna; TikTok getting close.

We are far along in the Putin-mold media takeover plan.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

I got bored six seconds in, it’s godawful, a disgrace

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

He looks like 86 instead, he can barely walk. He looks like he’s wearing a diaper

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

They’ve been doing this a while to no effect bsky.app/profile/whst...

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · Mar 26

Good message but can we please call a moratorium on the thing where Democrats think the solution to Trump is to curse a lot? I pretty much hate it at this point

Tammy Duckworth @duckworth.senate.gov · Mar 26

Pete Hegseth is a f*cking liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed.

He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

Oh is the narrative broken now

Did it work

Juke Slytalker @blackskyeddie.blacksky.app · 4h

You're so wrong on this. Swearing is exactly the type of thing that breaks the narrative around Democrats, even if it's obviously pandering. What easier way to break the perception that you're a boring stick in the mud that's more concerned about propriety than helping than just dropping a "fuck"?

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

That would not be a meme, you can’t just declare something a meme, it has to not suck

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah if there was a Democrat who just plausibly talked like that it would be fine. What is unbelievably cringe is to be a 30-year politician who starts dropping random profanity in the world’s most transparent effort to be like “Hello fellow blue-collar Americans.” It makes me want to die

isaiah @drinkingbeers.bsky.social · 4h

Swearing would be fine if it wasn’t so embarrassingly obvious why they’re now doing it all of a sudden lmao

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

I mean of course you’re impressed Chuck Schumer used the f-word in a video. You’re 12

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

The problem isn’t that my sensitive ears are offended by swears, it’s that swearing in official communications is an obvious and transparent to be fake-edgy and looks stupid. These things are scripted, it’s incredibly dumb

themamu.bsky.social @themamu.bsky.social · 4h

Stfu and stop being a baby. Fucking cursing is fine

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

Chuck Schumer can’t be Donald Trump. He needs to find something that works for him. If he can’t, he should retire (preferred option, really).

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

I hate the thing where Dems curse now so much. Purely reactive. “Trump curses, Trump won, we’ll do what he did.” No you morons

Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 6h

"So, Democrats have three words for this: no fucking way. It's literally life or death. We will not let Republicans blow up our health care system."

This is, hands down, the best comms work Chuck Schumer has done in YEARS. Surprisingly good.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

Thinking for yourself, going against the grain, having principles are currently an enormous liability in every part of public life. The way to succeed is to be the kind of person who believes exactly what your boss tells you to believe, has no core ideology, and turns a blind eye to evil on command

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

We need to have solutions for the Collaborator Problem: the way the fascist takeover of all our institutions has led to the promotion of soulless, facile, subservient mediocrities filling vitally important roles across the breadth of our society

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Reposted by Will Stancil

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 5h

Boston Globe. “Longstanding policy” is federal law passed in 2019. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/07/n...

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 7h

What thing

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