Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 7h

One piece of evidence in favor of Thomas’s argument is that every single other populist movement in human history emerged without social media

Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 7h

I think there’s a comfort in blaming our current politics on social media.

When I think a boring but more accurate story is that plutocratic tech elites and right-wingers *made a lot of choices*.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/o...

Edsall from NYT: “ The rise of the smartphone and the fall of western democracy”

In an Oct. 2 essay posted in Persuasion, “It’s the Internet, Stupid: What Caused the Global Populist Wave? Blame the Screens,” Fukuyama, after nearly a decade of examining the causes of rising global populism, wrote, “I have come to conclude that technology broadly and the internet in particular stand out as the most salient explanations for why global populism has arisen in this particular historical period, and why it has taken the particular form that it has.”

The advent of the internet, Fukuyama continued,

can explain both the timing of the rise of populism, as well as the curious conspiratorial character that it has taken. In today’s politics, the red and blue sides of America’s polarization contest not just values and policies, but factual information like who won the 2020 election or whether vaccines are safe.

The two sides inhabit completely different information spaces; both can believe that they are involved in an existential struggle for American democracy because they begin with different factual premises as to the nature of the threats to that order.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 7h

This is absolutely disgusting. Don’t you dare believe that this is locker room talk: you don’t joke about gas chambers and you don’t joke about rape

Politico @politico.com · 13h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 10h

If the U.S. has all these extra soybeans, might as well make cooking oil out of them. But that would compete with other vegetables oils, harming those U.S. farmers. Could always make more margarine and Crisco, but those compete with Big Dairy and Big Hog

In conclusion, stupid tariff wars are stupid

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 10h

US President Donald Trump said he might stop trade in cooking oil with China, injecting fresh tensions into the trade relationship between the world’s two largest economies

Trump Threatens China Cooking Oil Trade as Retaliation for Soybean Boycott

US President Donald Trump said he might stop trade in cooking oil with China, injecting fresh tensions into the trade relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

bloom.bg

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Reposted by Tom Pepinsky

Sandy ✨🦋 @srosnato.bsky.social · 10h

MEANWHILE IN PORTLAND….🤭

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 11h

thank goodness Gold Standard Whey is still the gold standard of not-having-lead-in-it

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 12h

<Winston Smith> Obliteration of the Self
<Mustapha Mond> Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry?

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 13h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 17h

This move also creates a nice, convenient public list of every college and university in America that has pledged to federalize itself in order to get preferential access to grants. I conjecture that university leaders—regardless of trustees’ political leanings—will think twice about that.

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 17h

this is a further sign of weakness, not strength, imo. It's not the red state publics that they needed to set off a general stampede. It's places like MIT. Turning this into a red state thing makes it _less_ likely to spread www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

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Reposted by Tom Pepinsky

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19h

Did a tariff write this?

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 21h

Righty-o.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 19h

No matter how thoroughly the legacy media debase themselves to please Trump, he will always be ungrateful, and he will always demand that they bow and scrape even more

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 20h

lol

Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump

Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time. They "disappeared" my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird! I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 1d

Here is Prabowo Subianto asking Donald Trump if he can meet Don and Eric. Then they’ll talk about “Harry,” which is almost certainly a reference to Hary Tanoe: this guy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hary_Ta...

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

don’t even have to change the words

"And they say they're a part of you
And that's not true, you know
They say they've got control of you
And that's a lie, you know
They say you will never be free"

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

I’m telling you, the recipe said use any greens. These were the only ones at the store (aside spinach) and I have no regrets

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

I’m sure you can, although it will be very salty to adjust accordingly. But you can also just make the paneer: all you need is milk, citric acid, and cheesecloth (that’s what I did here)

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Reposted by Tom Pepinsky

Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 2d

👇 @tompepinsky.com @johndelury.bsky.social (delighted, as you can imagine, to see my book mentioned in this smart commentary)

Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 2d

Excellent piece in @theguardian.com on the recent wave of youth protests in Asia and Africa www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... that brings in popular culture & history in thoughtful ways

The Guardian view on gen Z protests: these movements share more than an interest in anime | Editorial

Editorial: A new global wave of unrest is unfolding, driven by generational discontents and taking cues from each other

www.theguardian.com

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

Good ol’ Lodge cast iron skillet, $19.95

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

I made saag paneer with kale instead of spinach. Never going back

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

I’m sure that’s right. But in 2025, reaching back to build on those with fresh approach is sorely needed, and it’s good for both CP and PT to get away with their current preoccupations with things that aren’t politics

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

This is really good. But stepping back, it is also a sign of where comparative politics and political theory are going these days, towards productive engagement on basic questions of civilian rule, republicanism, and the politics of order. The field needs more work like this.

Avishay BSG (Ben-Sasson-Gordis) @avishaybsg.bsky.social · 2d

🧵 I'm excited to share that my article "Democratic Backsliding and the Limits of Civilian Control of the Military" has been accepted @thejop.bsky.social.

It answers the question "how ought militaries act when civilian leaders turn on democratic institutions?"

1/
#CivMilSky #PolTheory

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d

<Anthony Kiedes voice, Dave Navarro guitar>

Cheese said! All the whey. All the whey.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 3d

I simply cannot understand the enterprise case for racist AI. “Fill out these forms and don’t be a girl about it”? “Write these memos and PowerPoints like an asshole”? “Replace call center workers with edgelords”? What is the audience except for other racist founders?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 4d

and the taco trucks! Every city and every town

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 4d

can’t believe you made a top-10 list of lousy American pronunciations that didn’t include “maitre d”

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 4d

live shot of me leaving the frat party after 2 Red Dogs

CJ Fogler @cjzero.bsky.social · 5d

"WOOOOOOOOOO ... FUCK YEAH!"
Cam Skattebo

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 4d

Knowing that these memos will 100% be submitted to some Gen AI machine to be repackaged into soft platitudes for the new C-suite brunchlords, I recommend CBS employees explore the myriad delights of hidden text

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 4d

Here's the full memo.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 4d

Every day I wake up into a nation of dissidents, tinkerers, peddlers, dreamers, resisters, weirdos, and third sons who won’t inherit. All the best ingredients! Wouldn’t have it any other way.

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