Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dan Collen

Anthony L. Fisher @anthonylfisher.bsky.social · 1d

Politico is recommending a column by a guy who literally blogged for Richard Spencer's original alt-right site--but who has since been rehabilitated as a very serious political commentator--on why we need to bring back "internet gatekeepers."

67 300

Reposted by Dan Collen

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

bitch what

Onedrive settings. A toggle for using AI to detect and identify faces is set to on. The caption says, you can only turn off this setting 3 times per year.

92 1.2K 3.9K

Reposted by Dan Collen

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

130 580 4.2K

Reposted by Dan Collen

Matthew Gillikin @mtgillikin.bsky.social · 2d

As someone who was providing direct care to COVID patients from the start of the pandemic, but couldn’t get tested for almost 8 months, this was particularly infuriating

5. KENT arrived at UVA just before the COVID pandemic. Just after he started, he
left for a vacation with his family to the Caribbean for two weeks. When he returned, and once
there were finally limited tests for COVID available, KENT dictated that his family and close friends be tested routinely for the virus, coupling the results of the testing with fake medical records so as to hide the identity of those being tested, and, instead of using the limited tests on staff and physicians who were still treating patients through COVID and the patients who were arriving at the hospital with COVID-type symptoms, KENT prioritized testing on the University's football
players.

2 11 85

Reposted by Dan Collen

David Neiwert @davidneiwert.bsky.social · 2d

And in the case of the Minnesota murders, the inversion of reality couldn’t be more stark: The killer was a classic far-right domestic terrorist who was directly inspired by Donald Trump.

www.npr.org/2025/06/16/n...

The suspect in the shooting of 2 Minnesota lawmakers had a 'hit list' of 45 officials

Vance Boelter was captured in a wooded area on Sunday night, and charged in the shootings of two state lawmakers and their spouses. He appeared in federal court after being charged with murder.

www.npr.org

2 25 82

Reposted by Dan Collen

David Neiwert @davidneiwert.bsky.social · 2d

That was followed by Mike Pence blaming “leftists” for the shootings during his GOP convention acceptance speech.

Whatever MAGA claims, you can almost guarantee that it will be an inversion of factual reality.

www.dailykos.com/stories/2020...

By portraying Oakland cop killer as 'leftist,' Pence joins GOP chorus erasing far-right violence

As Mike Pence demonstrated last night in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC), conservatives have come up with a handy way to simply erase far-right domestic terrorism fro...

www.dailykos.com

1 12 59

Reposted by Dan Collen

David Neiwert @davidneiwert.bsky.social · 2d

And of course, their plan worked because the media are so lazy and corrupt. It wasn’t long before there was a congressional hearing at which Sen. Ted Cruz blamed the shootings on “antifa”.

www.dailykos.com/stories/2020...

Turning reality on its head, Cruz claims right-wing ‘Boogaloo’ killer was ‘antifa’

Republicans have long embraced Trumpian lies they call “alternative facts,” but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz this week reached new depths by outright falsifying the record about a domestic terrorist who killed...

www.dailykos.com

1 12 60

Reposted by Dan Collen

David Neiwert @davidneiwert.bsky.social · 2d

This has always been part of the GOP playbook: Downplay incidents of right-wing violence, and then repurpose them as supposed acts of leftist terrorism for public consumption. They first did this in 2020.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

16 230 570

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 3d

While these firings are not the most related to it, this really reminds me that at this rate of de-emphasizing health, the world (but especially certain regions) are going to be so unprepared for the next pandemic that it'll make COVID look like an average flu season. And that's despicable.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

2 6 19

Reposted by Dan Collen

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3d

in 2011, the president of antifa hired me to give fashion consultancy to the organization. i recommended everyone wear navy suits with tan shoes, dress sneakers, and golf polos with slim chinos. if you arrested everyone today wearing these things, you'd destroy antifa

280 2.4K 18K

Reposted by Dan Collen

Michael Edison Hayden @michaelehayden.bsky.social · 3d

Very serious person Andy Ngo has now been reduced to pleading with his audience to please please PLEASE take the dancing antifa muppets seriously

43 210 1.4K

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 3d

I have never seen this clip and i am shocked to find out i can still be shocked

1

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 3d

I think you should consider that perhaps antisemitic circumcision conspiracy theories pertaining to autism rates might not have much to do with the genocide in Gaza

1 1

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 3d

But they dont want to be antizionist. They want to be antisemitic.

Comic strip. Spider man tells Sauron (a dinosaur) that he could cure cancer. Sauron tells spider man he doesnt want to cure cancer, but instead wants to turn people into dinosaurs.

1 1

Reposted by Dan Collen

sri (but spooky) @sri.plur.ca · 3d

yeah I built an AI that hangs out on your porch and drinks a six pack for you so you can write regexes at work

3 39 320

Reposted by Dan Collen

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 5d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

340 8.9K 28K

Reposted by Dan Collen

hannah gais @hannahgais.bsky.social · 3d

Those are three people in inflatable frog suits.

@MrAndyNgo
Now that the local and national press have started to cover the Portland ICE area round-the-clock in reaction to the President, Antifa have devised a plan where they are encouraging one another to come in animal costumes.

The costumes serve the function of masking the violent extremism to make the direct action appear like a family-friendly gathering on camera, and to whitewash the past ultraviolence.

In 2019, Antifa devised a similar plot by giving out free "milkshakes" at a protest. But they couldn't contain their bloodthirst and nearly killed me when they saw me. In 2020, they mobilized a fake "Wall of Moms" where female Antifa supporters and members wore yellow shirts to act as human body shields while violent rioters behind them hurled projectile weapons.

photo of three people in inflatable frog costumes

410 680 4.5K

Reposted by Dan Collen

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 4d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

370 1.2K 9.6K

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, and this outcome is often viewed as a Jewish plot.

1

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 4d

Incels for most of my life have also have aired a whole lot of unhinged circumcision theories. Many of them likewise blame the Jews. But a lot of them blame their parents and John Kellog. I don't know how and when so many of them reached the broader manosphere, but the tapestry is rich now.

2 21

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 4d

For the normal people in the room, you should probably know this shit is a hit with neo-Nazis. The 14-year old Groyper you know has more space in his head for circumcision conspiracies (all of which blame the Jews) than you have space in your head for your cousins' first names.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 4d

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

12 110 320

Reposted by Dan Collen

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 4d

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

1.5K 1.1K 4K

Reposted by Dan Collen

Jimmy Thomson @jameswsthomson.com · 4d

Three headlines that tell a very disturbing story

7 42 140

Dan Collen @dancollen.bsky.social · 4d

P.O.S but most of you aren't ready for it

Reposted by Dan Collen

kate conger @kateconger.com · 5d

Jonathan Rinderknecht, a white man, was charged with starting the Palisades Fire. But on X, the company's news summary tab shows a photo of a black man.

Screenshot depicting posts on X, one showing the suspect accused of starting the Palisades Fire, a white man. The X news tab reports on the suspect's arrest, but shows a photo of a black man instead.

20 1.5K 3.5K