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.
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.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
This piece attempts to offer a comprehensive look at what's wrong with the theory of persuasion that the Dem consultant class is broadly still in thrall to, and why the events of the last year call for a major reassessment. Please check it out:
“[V]oters who tune out politics are regularly buffeted by gale force deluges of information from all directions. Their convictions about public policy—and their views on what the parties stand for—are shallowly rooted at best.”
Yep. Mass persuasion ≠ one-on-one persuasion of intimates.
Yep. Mass persuasion ≠ one-on-one persuasion of intimates.
How the Democrats Can Play Offense on Immigration
Typically, Democrats run for the hills when immigration comes up. But as two blue-state governors are showing, the winning play is actually to confront ICE and MAGA xenophobia head on.
newrepublic.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:24 PM
This piece attempts to offer a comprehensive look at what's wrong with the theory of persuasion that the Dem consultant class is broadly still in thrall to, and why the events of the last year call for a major reassessment. Please check it out:
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
This is more or less an admission that they know this is destructive. They are consciously set in opposition to civil society, and are trying to evade scrutiny. It’s just plain evil.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
“‘We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,’ according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs,“
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:24 PM
This is more or less an admission that they know this is destructive. They are consciously set in opposition to civil society, and are trying to evade scrutiny. It’s just plain evil.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
the federal govt is engaged in what may be the most sweeping right wing authoritarian attack on free speech in higher ed in US history, and outlets like the atlantic and nyt continue to blithely spew this shit.
February 13, 2026 at 5:48 AM
the federal govt is engaged in what may be the most sweeping right wing authoritarian attack on free speech in higher ed in US history, and outlets like the atlantic and nyt continue to blithely spew this shit.
Killing a million people for an apparatchik’s armored SUV is failed state behavior
“.. using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought ..”
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
February 13, 2026 at 1:37 PM
Killing a million people for an apparatchik’s armored SUV is failed state behavior
My hypothesis for why you don’t see more people out protesting is that protesting will risk your ability to have health insurance and housing.
February 13, 2026 at 1:25 PM
My hypothesis for why you don’t see more people out protesting is that protesting will risk your ability to have health insurance and housing.
The Trump administration death toll will be in the millions. You absolutely should hold his voters accountable for choosing this evil.
The US administration is going to kill its people while they cheer.
In January, Moderna’s announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market.”
1/4
In January, Moderna’s announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market.”
1/4
February 13, 2026 at 12:43 PM
The Trump administration death toll will be in the millions. You absolutely should hold his voters accountable for choosing this evil.
This is more or less an admission that they know this is destructive. They are consciously set in opposition to civil society, and are trying to evade scrutiny. It’s just plain evil.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
“‘We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,’ according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs,“
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:24 PM
This is more or less an admission that they know this is destructive. They are consciously set in opposition to civil society, and are trying to evade scrutiny. It’s just plain evil.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
You guys gotta delete your Instagram accounts. Stop funding this shit.
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
Your regular reminder that "social media addiction" is a made-up thing and using the language of addiction for social media use causes people to pathologize their perfectly normal use and destroys their ability to self-regulate www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Overestimates of social media addiction are common but costly - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Overestimates of social media addiction are common but costly
www.nature.com
February 13, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Your regular reminder that "social media addiction" is a made-up thing and using the language of addiction for social media use causes people to pathologize their perfectly normal use and destroys their ability to self-regulate www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
This is rich: "Sam Altman-led OpenAI accused DeepSeek of ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI" www.reuters.com/world/china/...
OpenAI says China's DeepSeek trained its AI by distilling US models, memo shows
OpenAI has warned U.S. lawmakers that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is targeting the ChatGPT maker and the nation's leading AI companies to replicate models and use them for its own...
www.reuters.com
February 13, 2026 at 11:51 AM
This is rich: "Sam Altman-led OpenAI accused DeepSeek of ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI" www.reuters.com/world/china/...
Reposted by Joshua Foust 🪖🎮
It’s not every journalist there but I personally know that the New York Times has in recent years published lies without any fact checking
And I know this with complete confidence because the lies were about me and I know that no fact checkers contacted me
This is a huge problem
And I know this with complete confidence because the lies were about me and I know that no fact checkers contacted me
This is a huge problem
February 12, 2026 at 1:18 PM
It’s not every journalist there but I personally know that the New York Times has in recent years published lies without any fact checking
And I know this with complete confidence because the lies were about me and I know that no fact checkers contacted me
This is a huge problem
And I know this with complete confidence because the lies were about me and I know that no fact checkers contacted me
This is a huge problem