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Elizabeth Spiers

@espiers.bsky.social

160K followers 3.4K following 7.4K posts

NYT opinion writer, Slate Money co-host, Dem messaging consultant, NYU prof, former EIC The New York Observer, Dealbreaker founder and Gawker founding editor. Brooklyn via Bama. Rednexican. Striver with no chill. https://linktr.ee/elizabethspiers

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 29d

I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning

The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn't a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division

www.thenation.com

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 2h

Yes. And i don’t do both sides-ism and it doesn’t stop me from criticizing them. I don’t think progressives abandoning mainstream outlets does anything but make the right wing view seem like the majority one when it’s not.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 2h

Yep

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 2h

Also not an unusual story!

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 2h

Also just not true. I have a family full of hunters and if you shoot a deer through the neck that is generally considered a miss.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

It is not, but I do think there is in an institutional fear of portraying white Evangelicals as resentful or malicious and it has to do with the fact that so few staffers have any real experience with them

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

I think some of them suspect, very deep down, that we are not and that makes them even more resentful

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

And then when they inevitably do they claim their hand was forced, that they’d had enough. And the only thing they’ve really had enough of is not being able to control mouthy liberals.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

In my experience people like this guy create persecution narratives for themselves where white Christian people are being endangered by liberals (and this woman isn’t even liberal) and are dying for the opportunity to harm those people

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

So the idea that this guy has never tried to punish people who don’t conform to his religious ideas of what’s acceptable is contradicted by his history. And a campaign of harassment against a person who wrote something on their private social media page that he found rude is not a both sides story

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

If you’re going to another country and telling people they’re going to suffer eternal damnation if they don’t adopt your beliefs and norms, that is not charity, no matter how you justify it with your religion

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

And the tone is very much, “he was a good guy until someone pushed him over the edge”. I grew up Evangelical and knew people who were missionaries. That is not evidence of their goodness and in many cases it is evidence of their need to impose their beliefs on others and punish deviance from them

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

And she was just on the other side of the issue. But first of all, she expressed an opinion he didn’t like and he went out of his way to harass and put her in danger. At worst she said something rude about a public figure who had dehumanized people like her repeatedly.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3h

I was trying to put my finger on what bothered me about this portrayal and I think it’s that it just takes the guy’s words at face value, like he was a nice guy and reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death just pushed him over the edge www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/u...

She Despised Charlie Kirk. He Resolved to Make People Like Her Pay.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 4h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3h

New, from me:
Trump's 3 step plan to create a military omniforce
1. Purge - those deemed disloyal
2. Merge - different parts of law enforcement/military
3. Surge - impose the omniforce on Dem cities; instigate unrest; assert dominance; silence dissent
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...

Purge, Merge, and Surge

Trump is creating a omniforce of armed loyalists to establish his police state

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

Alyssa Katz @alykatzz.bsky.social · 2d

Your timely reminder that Donald Trump tried to claim NYC residence to take a $49,000 tax break on his Manhattan condo while he and Melania lived in the White House, only to get it yanked after my colleague and I caught the misrepresentation.

EXCLUSIVE: City nixes property tax break for Trump’s NYC apartment

New York City has nixed a $48,000 tax break President Trump was set to receive on his Trump Tower condo following inquiries from the Daily News about whether he is still eligible for the savings. O…

www.nydailynews.com

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 4h

The deportation order is based on Vedam’s conviction for murder—a crime he did not actually commit and for which he’s now been wholly exonerated. He entered the US at 9 months old and was a legal permanent resident before his conviction. We are so, so, so far from the light of justice.

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 16h

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 15h

I’m not sure. I only started writing for them after she took over.

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 17h

Also: if you work for ICE, even if you’re not one of the ones arresting citizens or tackling 15-year-olds or zip-tying kids together and segregating them by race, you’re part of the mechanism making it happen, and you should suffer long-term social and post-regime-change consequences.

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 18h

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 15h

No, separate fact checking staff.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 16h

I get fact checked there.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 21h

Like Bob has ever been anywhere near a campus lol

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 1d

Kid Rock: Do you know what is stupid… these chicks running around on campuses with blue hair, five nose rings.

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 3d

So glad people are coming around to the fact that @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social is an opportunistic hustler, not a serious scholar or a careful intellectual.

Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz.bsky.social · 4d

"Haidt’s thesis is broader than just 'new thing bad.' In The Anxious Generation and his public commentary you find a dismissal of young people as a thinking, feeling group: they are anxious because of phones, they empathize with Gaza because of phones."

now is not the time to ban phones

why Jonathan Haidt sucks

howtodothingswithmemes.substack.com

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Reposted by Elizabeth Spiers

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

Douthat: So that’s the first purpose of your political project, for America to stop making God angry.

Wilson: Yes. And most people think that when they are confronted with that project, they think that we want to get our tentacles into everything and start controlling everything. I actually think we need limited government. The government should be significantly smaller than it is, and we need to curtail a lot of the busybodyness that we have. That’s why I would call myself a theocratic libertarian. There is a true libertarian element in this, and yet, the transcendent grounding for what we’re talking about means that we acknowledge the authority of God.

We have racked up quite a body count of awful crimes, and I believe the only way out is for us to repent and turn to Christ. This would be things like no more Pride parades, no more drag queen story hours, no more abortion on demand, no more legalized same-sex unions — all of that, done. That’s the repentance part.

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