Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
@joshuafoust.com
Made the CommSky Starter Pack https://go.bsky.app/QkcgePD
Assistant Professor at Syracuse. I study public relations, military esports, video games, and gender theory. Happily 🏳️🌈.
Assistant Professor at Syracuse. I study public relations, military esports, video games, and gender theory. Happily 🏳️🌈.
Pinned
Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
@joshuafoust.com
· Jan 9
Public Relations in Times of Dissensus
Public relations are entering an era marked by increasing societal dissensus, where shared narratives are breaking down and contentious communication defines th…
www.bloomsbury.com
Yay! Thrilled that the volume I co-edited with Saima Kazmi and Burton St. John is available for pre-order: Public Relations in Times of Dissensus: Narratives, Artifacts, and the Challenges of Meaning. It’s a pretty timely exploration of how we can communicate with the public when we all disagree.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
"the elite of the antebellum South were degenerate gamblers who financed their lifestyles with industrialized rape and would kill you for pointing this out" is a straightforwardly accurate statement
February 14, 2026 at 2:28 PM
"the elite of the antebellum South were degenerate gamblers who financed their lifestyles with industrialized rape and would kill you for pointing this out" is a straightforwardly accurate statement
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
this thread is really not disabusing me of my sense that these people think and dream about AI like they’re wannabe roman aristocrats discussing their slaves
February 15, 2026 at 4:16 PM
this thread is really not disabusing me of my sense that these people think and dream about AI like they’re wannabe roman aristocrats discussing their slaves
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
this quoted post is uninformed nonsense. policy changes towards trans people have been profound at both the state and federal level.
the EEOC won’t even process charges of trans discrimination right now for fucks sake.
the EEOC won’t even process charges of trans discrimination right now for fucks sake.
now, personally, I don’t care about making fun of streamers but I simply wouldn’t pretend to give a shit about trans people while minimizing their oppression and doing this in support of vote shaming for a transphobe like Newsom 2 years early
February 15, 2026 at 12:17 PM
this quoted post is uninformed nonsense. policy changes towards trans people have been profound at both the state and federal level.
the EEOC won’t even process charges of trans discrimination right now for fucks sake.
the EEOC won’t even process charges of trans discrimination right now for fucks sake.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Btw, a well-executed interview is always revealing.
Here’s the quintessential FIRE feint in one train of thought. Removing DEI offices is censorship every bit as much as prohibiting students from discussing specific topics. In fact, the two are part of the same censorious program . . . 1/2
Here’s the quintessential FIRE feint in one train of thought. Removing DEI offices is censorship every bit as much as prohibiting students from discussing specific topics. In fact, the two are part of the same censorious program . . . 1/2
February 15, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Btw, a well-executed interview is always revealing.
Here’s the quintessential FIRE feint in one train of thought. Removing DEI offices is censorship every bit as much as prohibiting students from discussing specific topics. In fact, the two are part of the same censorious program . . . 1/2
Here’s the quintessential FIRE feint in one train of thought. Removing DEI offices is censorship every bit as much as prohibiting students from discussing specific topics. In fact, the two are part of the same censorious program . . . 1/2
Surely Chuck Schumer’s demand for body cams and warrants will stop this
Broken bones, burning eyes: How Trump's DHS deploys 'less lethal' weapons on protesters www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Broken bones, burning eyes: How Trump's DHS deploys 'less lethal' weapons on protesters
Federal immigration officers have repeatedly used force in ways that appear to violate their own policies or general policing guidelines, NBC News found.
www.nbcnews.com
February 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Surely Chuck Schumer’s demand for body cams and warrants will stop this
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
We have a relatively small group of price insensitive game buyers that, if interested in a game, will buy regardless of price, and will buy the most expensive edition available.
Most others will wait for dirt cheap sales, giveaways or sub services.
K shaped game buyers for the K shaped economy.
Most others will wait for dirt cheap sales, giveaways or sub services.
K shaped game buyers for the K shaped economy.
Besides being #indiedev who prices low already and has dropped over the years and supports affordable games.
Consider this:
My kids buy games at $2.99 or $1.99 on sale. Down from $19.99 (on Switch, but Steam is no different).
it's called a race to the bottom, we've hit the bottom. We're there.
Consider this:
My kids buy games at $2.99 or $1.99 on sale. Down from $19.99 (on Switch, but Steam is no different).
it's called a race to the bottom, we've hit the bottom. We're there.
February 15, 2026 at 3:03 PM
We have a relatively small group of price insensitive game buyers that, if interested in a game, will buy regardless of price, and will buy the most expensive edition available.
Most others will wait for dirt cheap sales, giveaways or sub services.
K shaped game buyers for the K shaped economy.
Most others will wait for dirt cheap sales, giveaways or sub services.
K shaped game buyers for the K shaped economy.
Surely this can be fixed with Chuck Schumer’s demand for body cams!
“In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January…
The United States has not made any public deal with Cameroon.”
The United States has not made any public deal with Cameroon.”
U.S. Deports Nine Migrants in Secret, Ignoring Legal Protections
www.nytimes.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Surely this can be fixed with Chuck Schumer’s demand for body cams!
This is a useful counterpoint to that grisly, lazy Tyler Austin Harper hack job in The Atlantic.
NEW: Read this terrific piece @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social for @thenerve.news in which she unpicks Edge.org, the hugely influential 'salon' funded by Epstein & threaded through with race science & eugenics.
1/
www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...
1/
www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...
The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science
Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...
www.thenerve.news
February 15, 2026 at 2:18 PM
This is a useful counterpoint to that grisly, lazy Tyler Austin Harper hack job in The Atlantic.
Obvious caveats apply for something off Reddit, but this is at least a plausible thing to happen. I have a feeling we’ll see more, better documented cases that executives want to keep quiet bubble out if the business press over the next year.
February 15, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Obvious caveats apply for something off Reddit, but this is at least a plausible thing to happen. I have a feeling we’ll see more, better documented cases that executives want to keep quiet bubble out if the business press over the next year.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Sunday reading: What is “Un-American”?
We must acknowledge America’s history of state authoritarianism and racial violence – but also dare to claim its aspirational tradition of egalitarian democracy.
Let’s Make MAGA un-American, finally.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
We must acknowledge America’s history of state authoritarianism and racial violence – but also dare to claim its aspirational tradition of egalitarian democracy.
Let’s Make MAGA un-American, finally.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
What is “Un-American”?
We must acknowledge America’s history of state authoritarianism and racial violence – but also dare to claim its aspirational tradition. Make MAGA un-American, finally.
steady.page
February 15, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Sunday reading: What is “Un-American”?
We must acknowledge America’s history of state authoritarianism and racial violence – but also dare to claim its aspirational tradition of egalitarian democracy.
Let’s Make MAGA un-American, finally.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
We must acknowledge America’s history of state authoritarianism and racial violence – but also dare to claim its aspirational tradition of egalitarian democracy.
Let’s Make MAGA un-American, finally.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
Conservatives across society benefit from far lower standards and expectations.
The kind of utter confusion Brooks is going to inflict on Yale undergrads.
February 14, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Conservatives across society benefit from far lower standards and expectations.
There’s a reason CNN (and MSNOW) are both in a long term ratings decline: they stand for nothing, and people generally aren’t interested in nothing. Stuffing panels with right wing freaks who shout lies appeals to no one in their core audience, which is why Fox has 3x the viewership.
God the gall of @jaketapper.bsky.social lecturing that Minneapolis small business owner about the meaning of the word "concentration camp" while people are being crammed into poorly resourced buildings by the thousands and shuttled off never to be heard from again
February 14, 2026 at 6:54 PM
There’s a reason CNN (and MSNOW) are both in a long term ratings decline: they stand for nothing, and people generally aren’t interested in nothing. Stuffing panels with right wing freaks who shout lies appeals to no one in their core audience, which is why Fox has 3x the viewership.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
I may say more later but part of what some of us need to understand is that the right has built an entirely distinct civic society, with its own hierarchy and (mostly networked) cultural institutions. That includes celebrity.
“The convergence of influencer culture and venture capital is part of a broader shift reshaping America’s institutions.”
Jake Paul may have gotten his jaw broken on Netflix, but he and his $65 million fortune are laughing their way into Silicon Valley boardrooms | Fortune
“We’re going to do amazing things in 2026,” said Steve Han, a partner at Paul's Anti Fund, told Fortune. “And then hopefully we'll show it over YouTube.”
fortune.com
February 14, 2026 at 5:50 PM
I may say more later but part of what some of us need to understand is that the right has built an entirely distinct civic society, with its own hierarchy and (mostly networked) cultural institutions. That includes celebrity.
Is Kori Schake still saying this isn’t that worrisome and it’s probably apolitical?
February 14, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Is Kori Schake still saying this isn’t that worrisome and it’s probably apolitical?
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
this feels like a Roger Bannister four minute mile moment for "reactionary centrism". a level of reactionary centrism doctors (of political science) assured us was impossible but that training, dedication, ingenuity, and the Indomitable human spirit were determined to overcome
Physically incapable of analyzing politics outside of this insipid frame.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
February 14, 2026 at 2:20 PM
this feels like a Roger Bannister four minute mile moment for "reactionary centrism". a level of reactionary centrism doctors (of political science) assured us was impossible but that training, dedication, ingenuity, and the Indomitable human spirit were determined to overcome
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
the other bizarre thing about this is that it treats American slavery — a social, cultural, political and economic institution — as somehow beyond and outside of politics, and thus untethered to contemporary political questions. which, again, the mind of a simpleton. bsky.app/profile/mich...
Physically incapable of analyzing politics outside of this insipid frame.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
February 14, 2026 at 1:37 PM
the other bizarre thing about this is that it treats American slavery — a social, cultural, political and economic institution — as somehow beyond and outside of politics, and thus untethered to contemporary political questions. which, again, the mind of a simpleton. bsky.app/profile/mich...
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Yes. This is it. Some people believe their politics; other people adopt politics as an excuse to hurt other people for fun and tell themselves it’s for a good cause and they can’t be blamed.
The internet has let all the people in the latter group find each other and make better rationalizations.
The internet has let all the people in the latter group find each other and make better rationalizations.
I often think the real ideological divide online is not really ideology by whether politics exists as a permission structure for behaviour or not
February 14, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Yes. This is it. Some people believe their politics; other people adopt politics as an excuse to hurt other people for fun and tell themselves it’s for a good cause and they can’t be blamed.
The internet has let all the people in the latter group find each other and make better rationalizations.
The internet has let all the people in the latter group find each other and make better rationalizations.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
And I just checked, and, yes my university's approved AI gave the same answer.
February 14, 2026 at 12:40 PM
And I just checked, and, yes my university's approved AI gave the same answer.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
February 14, 2026 at 9:53 AM
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
Really hard to overstate the decades of damage this regime is imposing on us. I honestly don’t know if we can ever recover. It’s that bad.
The call is from inside the house. Enemies of US 1.0 could only dream of doing something like this: "Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather and climate research center" www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/w...
Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather research center | CNN
A leading American research lab is slated to lose its critical supercomputing facility, according to a letter released Thursday by the National Science Foundation.
www.cnn.com
February 14, 2026 at 12:39 PM
Really hard to overstate the decades of damage this regime is imposing on us. I honestly don’t know if we can ever recover. It’s that bad.
Chuck Schumer’s insistence on “reining in” ICE is so infuriating because they simply do not believe themselves bound by the law. The only solution to ending the concentration camps, the torture, the abductions, the murder, is to disband the agency and prosecute the lawbreakers.
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records ...
www.reuters.com
February 14, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Chuck Schumer’s insistence on “reining in” ICE is so infuriating because they simply do not believe themselves bound by the law. The only solution to ending the concentration camps, the torture, the abductions, the murder, is to disband the agency and prosecute the lawbreakers.
DEI is objectively good!
February 14, 2026 at 4:26 AM
DEI is objectively good!
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
ICYMI: I introduced my Trans Bill of Rights with @markey.senate.gov — legislation to defend trans people across this country as Republicans continue to push anti-trans rhetoric and bills.
To our beloved trans community: We see you, we love you, and we will always stand with you.
To our beloved trans community: We see you, we love you, and we will always stand with you.
February 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM
ICYMI: I introduced my Trans Bill of Rights with @markey.senate.gov — legislation to defend trans people across this country as Republicans continue to push anti-trans rhetoric and bills.
To our beloved trans community: We see you, we love you, and we will always stand with you.
To our beloved trans community: We see you, we love you, and we will always stand with you.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
One of the purest examples of a moral panic in our time. A clinic that had years-long waitlists and required an average of 7 appointments before providing transition care smeared and shut down for being reckless.
a clinic that provided services to 12,000 people being closed on the basis of 8 complaints perfectly captures the nature of the uk 'trans-debate'
www.thepinknews.com/2026/02/11/n...
www.thepinknews.com/2026/02/11/n...
NHS closed Tavistock over care complaints – there were only eight
An eye-opening FOI report has revealed that just eight people complained about the Tavistock gender clinic's care provision in 10 years.
www.thepinknews.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:50 PM
One of the purest examples of a moral panic in our time. A clinic that had years-long waitlists and required an average of 7 appointments before providing transition care smeared and shut down for being reckless.
They buried this in paragraph 37? And left out that he injected his 17-year old girlfriend with unregulated cosmetic peptides on camera? After all the years of institutional hostility about “protecting” girls from the transes?
This is deeply, deeply irresponsible. Just appalling.
This is deeply, deeply irresponsible. Just appalling.
February 13, 2026 at 8:18 PM
They buried this in paragraph 37? And left out that he injected his 17-year old girlfriend with unregulated cosmetic peptides on camera? After all the years of institutional hostility about “protecting” girls from the transes?
This is deeply, deeply irresponsible. Just appalling.
This is deeply, deeply irresponsible. Just appalling.