Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1h

Absobleepinglutely not, JD. This isn't "kids being kids." It's bleeping bigots being bleeping bigots, and if that doesn't get squished now, they turn into you. You can't acknowledge how bad this is because you'd have to acknowledge how much you agree with them. And you know you can't do that.

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 2h

CFP for the 2026 Society for the Study of Social Problems annual meeting is live! I'm organizing a session on Contingency in the Professions and would love to see proposals from people with things to say about that.

The Society for the Study of Social Problems | 2026 Call for Papers

Enter a page description here

www.sssp1.org

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 3h

I heart page proofs, especially when I see mistakes I can't believe I missed the first 39222933933982228329 times I read the bleeping thing.

3

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 3h

Of course not, but they want their voters to be. It's scapegoating 101. "Those people" are the source of all your problems, so if we just punish them harshly enough, all your problems go poof!

No, it doesn't make sense because it's made up BS, but it seems to work for them, so they keep doing it.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 4h

It really is bizarre to me that every single member of GOP House leadership & the admin has decided their coordinated talking point this week is that the No Kings demonstrations this Sat are essentially acts of domestic terrorism. Are they that afraid of free & peaceful assembly?

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 9h

Today in Both-Sidesing Something One Party Did:

“It’s not OK — coming from either party... — and we need to figure out how to get past it and get back to dialogue.”

Is there bigotry on the left? Yes. Celebrated with such glee? I've never seen it. That's what makes this shocking.

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 9h

It’s incredible that the VT State Senator wrapped up in this hasn’t resigned yet — every major GOP leader in the state has called for his resignation. Fixing democracy requires restoring shame to public life. And accountability. Lots of accountability. vtdigger.org/2025/10/14/v...

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 9h

Thinking more about this: I wonder how many of the right wing students who complain about being "silenced" in our classes are upset about being asked not to say things like this? And they feel oppressed because they can't be openly horrifying?

Yes, I really do wonder, not "just asking questions."

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 21h

I know, I know, not all Republicans, but these are the supposedly smart and talented ones. And "we were just joking around" is.not.good.enough.

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 1d

‘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/news/2025/10...

3

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 20h

ICYMI, there is no wave of violence against ICE. It's literally made-up horseshit. I'm so sick of these people and their relentless nonsense.

Also, what Mike said.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

I seem to recall that it was the biggest 1st Amendment attack in American history when the Biden admin alerted social media companies to some content and said "hey does this violate your policies?" Will Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and (lol) CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss call this out?

Tweet from Pam Bondi:

Today following outreach from
@thejusticedept
, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target
@ICEgov
agents in Chicago.

The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

Reposted by Seth Kahn (he/him)

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 1d

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 1d

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says

www.nytimes.com

450 4K 14K

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 21h

I know, I know, not all Republicans, but these are the supposedly smart and talented ones. And "we were just joking around" is.not.good.enough.

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 1d

‘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/news/2025/10...

1 2

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 23h

Everyone who follows #AcademicSky should see this.

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Finally had the headspace to read @novumsimulacrum.com's Jacobin article that takes the "corporate university" riff in a direction it sorely needed to go. And of course, huzzah to a recent union president for directly making the point about the consequences for labor organizing.

Universities Are Selling Themselves Off Piece by Piece

American higher ed has become a mesh of corporate contracts and outsourced services. From dining halls to student records, private vendors now run many institutions’ most basic operations — atomizing ...

jacobin.com

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

I'd feel better about that possibility if I had any sense of who he expects to hear the message and take it seriously.

2

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

He's not wrong, but this is bitter coming from a guy who has spent most of the last 20 years accusing anyone else who made this exact point of being alarmist or extremist.

2 3 58

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Y'know who else was (is?) prone to this sort of, um, stuff? TPUSA staff. For a brief moment, St. Charlie even pretended to be upset about it and fired a couple of people.

Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 1d

in 2019 I found myself at a DC young republicans’ women-only event where they all complained about sexual harassment and abuse by men in the organization

wonder how many of them stayed

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, for sure. I'm just saying, the idea of a God that needs saving doesn't square with an omniscient, all-powerful Creator, which is kinda the basis for all the rest of it.

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Says the network that screams about "Soros-funded protesters" and Great Replacement fantasies.

3

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

How could anyone who understands the least bit of Christian theology hear this and think, "Oh, thank goodness these heroes are on the case?"

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Damn, I'd missed that--CDC fired their IRB, which means they can't do any federally compliant research involving human participants. Which of course is exactly what the science-hating eugenicist goons in charge want.

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 1d

CDC HR employees were brought back from furlough to process these RIFs and then end their own department

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 1d

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

That's crazy talk.

Reposted by Seth Kahn (he/him)

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

It’s almost like billionaires and strong vibrant institutions of civil society can’t coexist

12 170 720

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

But it takes away an opportunity to scapegoat poor people and hold kids hostage for the struggles of their families, so obviously right wingers can't support it.

Ohio Capital Journal @ohiocapitaljournal.com · 1d

Making free meals available to all public students wouldn't only produce benefits equal to the costs, it would produce social benefits with a net worth of about $520 million a year, according to an economic analysis released last Monday. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/14/a...

Analysis: Universal school meals in Ohio would pay for themselves — and then some • Ohio Capital Journal

Most Ohio school kids already get free meals. Making them free for all students would produce big social benefits, new study says.

ohiocapitaljournal.com

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Of course, Rufo et all don't care about the losses because: (1) not their money, so what's the problem; and (2) this is just the cost of "curing woke." But the truth is much simpler than that. They're a bunch of incompetent quacks who have no idea how to do anything, including this.

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, and a point I'd add: Miller has continuously claimed that there's a "war" and/or an "emergency" that justifies his, er, no, the President's, so, well, yes his decisions. He uses those terms because they're alarming, but also because they have legal consequences.

Stephen Miller's radically bogus idea of "plenary authority"

This is not how the Constitution works.

open.substack.com

2

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Aaron Blake is hardly the only journalist who does this, but he's made a meal since 2015 of authorizing Trump lies by making them sound like legitimate disagreements about obvious reality.

1

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

Finally had the headspace to read @novumsimulacrum.com's Jacobin article that takes the "corporate university" riff in a direction it sorely needed to go. And of course, huzzah to a recent union president for directly making the point about the consequences for labor organizing.

Universities Are Selling Themselves Off Piece by Piece

American higher ed has become a mesh of corporate contracts and outsourced services. From dining halls to student records, private vendors now run many institutions’ most basic operations — atomizing ...

jacobin.com

1 2

Seth Kahn (he/him) @badpacifist.bsky.social · 1d

I wish I could remember who said this (pls claim it if it was you!), but this is a clear sign of weakness. McFascist offered this to the universities he was sure would say yes because that would create momentum. Since none of them did, even UTx which seemed enthusiastic at first, he's flailing.

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

Doing an open call for volunteers to sign up for my protection racket

Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 1d

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

2