Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 13h

What a deeply refreshing conversation. This is the discourse that the left should be having more of.

In truth, I feel that there is no chance of a return to normalcy without fundamental reform of our constitutional system.

Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 15h

My discussion of the US constitution with Aziz Rana is out with @education.dsausa.org

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

What Should the Left Say About the Constitution?

Podcast Episode · Class · 10/13/2025 · 1h 30m

podcasts.apple.com

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Kelly C @kacphl.bsky.social · 2d

Yup. This guy nailed it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Qv...

How I View the US After 13 Years Living in Europe

YouTube video by Evan Edinger

www.youtube.com

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not sure if we're 10 years too early or 10 years too late for ED-209 to be a thing, but if it were available today I can't help but imagine Stephen Miller would be literally jizzing in his tighty-whiteys at the thought of deploying them as-is in LA, Chicago, and Portland.

A still shot of the robot ED-209, from the movie Robocop (1987).

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 4d

I love me some Tron, but if Tron as a franchise has to be the sacrificial anode to end Jared Leto's career as a going concern, so be it.

Cosmic Marvel @dailycosmicmarvel.bsky.social · 4d

‘TRON: ARES’ has earned $14.3M in its opening day at the domestic box office.

For comparison, ‘MORBIUS’ opened to $17.3M.

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Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 8d

Never, ever Newsom. Fuck that guy.

LGBTQ Nation @lgbtqnation.com · 8d

Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, declines to sign other trans protections - buff.ly/MTUAV85

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 11d

This speaks to the contradiction in the beating heart of America: the "proposition that all men are created equal" has rarely been supported by a majority of people.

The fundamental cleft between left and right is the right's love for hierarchies, and naked desire to see them brutally enforced.

Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 11d

"Gratitude" is the reverse side of the "Uppity" coin. Both are terms reserved for perceived lessers.

When they say you should show gratitude, what they mean is you should know your place and show deference to your betters.

jenn m. jackson @jennmjacksonphd.bsky.social · 11d

The Vice President of the United States used his social media page to tell Joy Reid, a private citizen with no connection to the government, that she should express "gratitude" for how this country has treated her.

Black women remain the most consistent targets in all of this.

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ben schwartz @benschwartz.bsky.social · 13d

My new piece, up now @thenation.com: "If only trans activists had known what size check to cut for Chappelle, they could have shut him up years ago and saved themselves all the picketing at Netflix." www.thenation.com/article/cult...

The Sad Spectacle of American Comedians Selling Out in Saudi Arabia

It turns out that edgy free-speech warriors will scuttle their principles for a check from a brutal autocratic regime.

www.thenation.com

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 14d

"Ah yes, I too remember [a retail chain that was in every town] and [the most popular music of the time] and [a popular soda brand]. How did they so perfectly capture my totally unique life??"

Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 14d

I just realized that those AI slop videos that are making the rounds have the *exact* same vibe as those weirdly specific targeted t-shirts that you'd see advertised on Facebook like 10-15 years ago, that pulled data from your user profile, like, "My husband was born in APRIL and loves MOTORCYCLES."

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 14d

My mother is 78 and undergoing treatment for cancer. So now instead of having a routine check-in with her doctor from her bed, now I have to take an entire day off work, get her up before dawn, and drive 2 hours (each way) to see her specialist for basically a 5-min conversation?

So efficient.

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Jeremy Parish, imperial aerosol kid @jparish.bsky.social · 16d

Buying a company by taking out a massive loan, then making the company you bought responsible for paying off that loan, is so patently evil that it should be beyond illegal. The kind of thing that inspires enlightened societies without corporal punishment to bring back the death penalty as a one-off

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 16d

Every American should, over their life, be able to afford to:

* Own their home
* Raise a family
* Take vacations
* See a doctor
* Retire

If Democrats want to be elected, they should be screaming from the hilltops about how they plan to solve these five problems.

Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 17d

It's telling that we have a specific word—unplugging—specifically for the act of getting away from these people and everything they have devoted their existence to.

I'm struggling to think of an equivalent term for any other field of human endeavor.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 21d

I've heard it proposed that he should be played by Jared Keeso, and I can't honestly say that's wrong.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 22d

Gov., I hope with all of your preparing you’ve discovered that the state cannot absorb more layoffs and pay cuts for state workers.

If you want to protect core services, you NEED to take the lead on major systemic tax reform. Fix our broken tax code and make the rich pay their share, at long last.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 23d

What? C'mon, it's "Abuiəuazenh". Rhymes with "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," just like we all learned in school.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 23d

Given the historical parallels, calling us “Luddites” isn’t wholly without merit—as long as you can see past the centuries of smear tactics against the Luddite movement.

Ned Ludd was a hero, even if he probably never existed.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 29d

To them, an insincere smile, feigned laugh, or joyless recitation of fealty is better than those given in earnest, because they represent total power over the giver. They are “safe” because they cannot be rejected, on pain of death.

Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 29d

The demand we are seeing to speak only lovingly of Charlie Kirk speaks to a great sickness of the radical right. Namely: the need to be loved by force, because consensual love is necessarily conditional, and therefore can be withdrawn.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · 29d

I think, as it often does, Star Trek captured this mentality well.

Star Trek: DS9 - Dukat schools Weyoun

YouTube video by MiG2880

youtu.be

Reposted by Firelight

Star Wars Holocron @swholocron.bsky.social · Sep 15

“The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident”

Every day this line feels more and more relevant.

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Firelight @firelight616.bsky.social · Sep 13

“Treat others as you wish to be treated,” is the golden rule. Surely then a corollary must be, “respond to your treatment by others in kind.”

It is absurd that those who purvey hated in the name of bigotry should expect anything less in return.

Reposted by Firelight

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · Sep 10

Charlie Kirk spent his life‘s work and all of his energy and time targeting out-groups while arguing for a world in which gun massacres would be easy to enact, plentiful, and inevitable, and he became famous and wealthy doing it, and we’re now not supposed to mention that because it’s not polite.

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Daniel J. Willis (That’s already a scary name.) @bayareadata.press · Sep 10

If Fox News want to report that Democrats are celebrating Charlie Kirk getting shot they’ve shown over and over that they don’t need to cite posts to do it. They attribute all sorts of things to Democrats without evidence and being on your best behavior won’t stop them.

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