Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1h

Oh yeah he's got an elite ability to project toward the camera *and* to project toward other people around him while the camera is rolling

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1h

The ability to "be natural" in front of, let alone toward, a camera lens is a freakish artificial skill and the demand for it almost certainly has left scammers and sociopaths overrepresented in political leadership; probably not great that we've now organized everyday society around it too

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 2h

It's a sign of how many people (and journalists) live inside a media-created alternate reality that skill in the style of televised public performance associated with Hollywood actors is considered equivalent to 'authenticity'

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 3h

This is an obsession of mine - a huge pathology of the press is coverage suggesting that politicians who are less skilled performers are somehow less "authentic"

Me on Romney coverage in CJR: www.cjr.org/united_state...

Me on Hillary Clinton coverage in The Upshot:
www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/u...

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Reposted by Tom Scocca

Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 3h

“A shithead in rural Texas saw something he didn’t like on the Internet and lost his mind” isn’t really a story of disenfranchisement, is it

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Reposted by Tom Scocca

elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 3h

i think it’s noteworthy that a lot of centrist pundits have decided to just take it as a given that jd vance lies constantly and to treat this as almost part of his intellectual program so that only gauche rubes would bother to mention or care about it.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 18h

SERPICO 2020 let's green light this

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 18h

I was thinking more of a cop falling into Candy Crush

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 18h

Tron 2025 should have been about a guy getting pulled inside a freemium time-waster phone game

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 18h

Also to the extent anything did give the original Tron any cachet at the time it was the idea of immersing a person inside a computer game; the trailers for this were like, what if glowing zappy power-things were zooming around regular life smashing things up, like any and every Marvel movie?

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 19h

Diane Keaton was so cool she singlehandedly turned an otherwise unwatchable Woody Allen movie about Woody Allen having sex into one of the greatest movies of all time.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 23h

This Bluesky is about the Machines

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 23h

Thanks Google for sending more robots to read through my email to produce this very useful and informative new feature

Screenshot from Gmail of a "Happening soon" box with a tiny photo of a bottle of orange juice and the message "39 items from Fresh Direct / Expected tomorrow," directly above an email line with the sender "FreshDirect" and the subject line beginning "Your order for Sunday,"

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 23h

Thanks Google for sending more robots to read through my email to produce this very useful and informative new feature

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

Times headline writers literally do not believe headlines are for saying what the news is; headlines are for showing that the paper is reserving judgment about events and not getting carried away

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

This isn’t really a classic both-sides treatment, it’s more the institutional rule that it’s rude and unsophisticated to summarize the facts of a situation in a headline if you can write an archly detached vague understatement instead

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

This isn’t really a classic both-sides treatment, it’s more the institutional rule that it’s rude and unsophisticated to summarize the facts of a situation in a headline if you can write an archly detached vague understatement instead

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

“The fact that figures like Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have seemingly done better — or at the very least no worse — than credentialed diplomatic professionals has striking implications for how we think about expertise in foreign policy” hmm also the fact that they take huge foreign bribes—?

Daniel Larison @daniellarison.bsky.social · 1d

In his foreign policy, Trump launches illegal attacks, murders people, and starts pointless and destructive trade wars. Is that what Douthat wants at home? Because he’s already getting it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/o...

Opinion | Why Can’t Trump’s Domestic Policy Be More Like His Foreign Policy?

www.nytimes.com

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

LOL nah good night, if they don't care, I don't need to care

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Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 1d

Like how can we have endless pieces about fucking dissertation plagiarism and not one about "the spokesperson for DHS tells specific, easily-disproven lies constantly to provide cover for serious crimes against the public" how is that not a big deal? Do I have to write this shit myself?!?!?

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

You got an extra "not" in there

Steve @steve5kxc.bsky.social · 1d

Springsteen has never not been cool.

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Momster for Gliberty 🧟 @fakegreekgrill.bsky.social · 2d

This has been one of the biggest things the Trump admin has changed my mind about. I used to be indifferent to billionaires, but I no longer find that an option.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Just gonna note that this blog was published long before Elon Musk climbed the list

Joseph Morris @morris.cloud · 2d

My favorite formulation of this one remains @tomscocca.bsky.social 's: hmmdaily.com/2018/10/16/n... so short, yet convincing

No Billionaires

hmmdaily.com

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Joseph Morris @morris.cloud · 2d

My favorite formulation of this one remains @tomscocca.bsky.social 's: hmmdaily.com/2018/10/16/n... so short, yet convincing

No Billionaires

hmmdaily.com

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Big talk from somebody who only managed to publish maybe like two blogs a day on her fully staffed website

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 2d

Here's the full memo.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah the only person dumb enough to believe him saying that about Musk would be Musk

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Peter Thiel is such a devoutly unhinged liar that mentally or morally normal human beings have real trouble grasping that he never, ever means a single thing he says, so it's helpful when he throws in one that's so blatant as to give the whole game away www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Screenshot of text:

Thiel had kinder words about Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to the recordings, calling the entrepreneur, who has recently praised Christianity, one of the “smarter, more thoughtful people,” he knows.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Oh right January 2024, when the news stopped talking about the price of groceries because prices had returned to their normal rate of increase

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

Jesus that was like a brainstorming session for finding the worst possible way to lose

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