Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 7h

New attempt at "Divide and Rule:"

Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT

The Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re...

www.bloomberg.com

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 8h

Grozev:

"Aber wenn ein Diktator süchtig danach wird, ständig gelobt zu werden, dann macht das die anderen, die echten Journalisten, in seinen Augen noch verabscheuungswürdiger."

Investigativreporter Christo Grozev wird von Putins Agenten verfolgt

Christo Grozev ist ein furchtloser Reporter. Wegen seiner Recherchen steht er auf Putins Todesliste. Nun wurde Grozev als europäischer Journalist des Jahres ausgezeichnet. Was bedeutet ihm das? Und wi...

www.faz.net

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 10h

... it seemed for once a well-researched piece on HU ...

Gabriela Greilinger @gabrielagreilinger.bsky.social · 10h

The issue with this @nytimes.com article citing László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian author who recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature? It seems to be citing a fake account.

See:
www.derstandard.at/story/310000...

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Gabriela Greilinger @gabrielagreilinger.bsky.social · 10h

The issue with this @nytimes.com article citing László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian author who recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature? It seems to be citing a fake account.

See:
www.derstandard.at/story/310000...

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 12h

File under: Why billionaire owners are not the solution for securing a free press.

ICYMI: Benioff has also come out as a more or less unconditional Trump supporter.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 13h

Just in case the dramatically low Leni Riefenstahl-style angle was too subtle, they used a word from her most famous movie

Time magazine cover featuring a photo of Trump from a dramatically low angle

HIS
TRIUMPH
by ERIC CORTELLESSA
THE LEADER ISRAEL NEEDED
by EHUD BARAK
HOW GAZA HEALS

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 12h

I think the main barrier to honest, direct coverage from the mainstream media in Trump 1.0 was professional norms/reflexive both sides-ism. In 2.0, that's still a factor, but a bigger barrier may be ownership. Reporters/editors know that many media owners are wary of too much anti-Trump coverage.

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 13h

Just in case the dramatically low Leni Riefenstahl-style angle was too subtle, they used a word from her most famous movie

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

👇

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

“We dishonor those who came before us if in this moment of crisis we remain silent,” Mr. Stevenson said. “I don’t think it’s just unempathetic. I don’t think it’s just cowardly. I think it’s dishonorable."

Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told

www.nytimes.com

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

"...many of the late-analytic philosophers...boasted even in the 1970s that they never read novels, and for them MacIntyre’s (and Rorty’s) recognition of literature’s value was a sign that they had...put philosophy on a slippery slope which was likely to lead to cultural and political disaster."

Raymond Geuss, Storyteller — Sidecar

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025).

newleftreview.org

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Ben Stanley @benstanley.eu · 1d

I’d go on a search for all the Independence Benches which the Polish public were “gifted” (that is, paid for from their taxes) by PiS in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. (Finland celebrated its 100th the year before; it got a beautiful new library)

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

"Academia is broken"-pseudo-reporting is some people's unrealistic morning lament.

(As oposed to...: "Das Zeitungslesen des Morgens früh ist eine Art von realistischem Morgensegen").

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

This confused "kids these days" lament that offers very little empirical support for a set of remarkable bold assertions. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

www.nytimes.com

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

"...die Perspektive des westeuropäischen Christentums der Nachkriegszeit, das...eine stark verfreundlichte und ins Sozialethische gewendete Variante der christlichen Religion darstellt."

Und die entfreundlichte rechtfertigt sich wie nochmal...?

Religiöse Rechte in den USA: Christentum im Kampfmodus

In den Vereinigten Staaten fällt die Kluft zwischen den Parteien immer stärker mit einer religiösen Kluft ineinander. Darin steckt eine Lehre für Europa.

www.faz.net

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Nieman Lab @niemanlab.org · 1d

"For news organizations, our findings are in some ways bitter medicine." www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/peop...

People are using ChatGPT twice as much as they were last year. They’re still just as skeptical of AI in news.

"For news organizations, our findings are in some ways bitter medicine."

www.niemanlab.org

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VSquare.org @vsquare.bsky.social · 1d

⚡️Across Central Europe, politicians used paid social media ads to attack journalists, activists, NGOs. From Hungary to Slovakia, these campaigns spread disinformation and hate, reaching tens of thousands while Meta and Google profit from #SponsoredHate.

Sponsored Hate: How Politicians Paid for Meta Ads to Attack Journalists - VSquare.org

Across the Visegrád countries, politicians have increasingly used paid social media ads to attack journalists, human rights activists, and civil society organizations.

vsquare.org

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 1d

"Since the wealthiest 10 per cent of the population own 85 per cent of US stocks, they enjoy the largest wealth effect when they go up... the latest data shows America’s consumer economy rests largely on ...[the spending of the] top 10 per cent" #AI #irrationalexuberance www.ft.com/content/6cc8...

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

Truth-telling. It seems so easy when it’s done. You just have to do it.

Of course Trump might now threaten ABC with a lawsuit for claiming that Vance had not answered the question…

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 1d

The Trump administration is attempting to undermine elections. Efforts have included rewriting election rules to burden voters, threatening to prosecute election officials, and supporting election deniers. Keep track and learn more with our new interactive timeline: bit.ly/3IZMSdG

Timeline of the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Undermine Elections

Together, these actions form a concerted strategy to interfere with elections.

www.brennancenter.org

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

👇🎯

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d

My version of this is that Vought, Yarvin etc represent a kind of braindead right-Gramscianism, which leaves out all the interesting subtleties and treats civil society _only_ as a realm of indoctrination, where one ideological master-narrative can readily be substituted for another.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

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 · 1d

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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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

This confused "kids these days" lament that offers very little empirical support for a set of remarkable bold assertions. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

www.nytimes.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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John Raimo @johnraimo.bsky.social · 2d

There's some evident authorial cosplaying here that the interviewer uncritically gobbles down--it's quite funny, actually--but I still quite enjoyed reading this: www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...

László Krasznahorkai, The Art of Fiction No. 240

László Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in Gyula, a provincial town in Hungary, in the Soviet era. He published his first novel, Satantango, in 1985, then The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), War and Wa...

www.theparisreview.org

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Lisel Hintz @liselhintz.bsky.social · 2d

Adding to the regrettably relevant research.

We explain how authoritarian regimes use local forms of bureaucratic hamstringing and rhetorical vilification to delegitimize opposition actors.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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BostonJoan 🏳️‍🌈 🦫 @bostonjoan.bsky.social · 2d

It’s something many of us can do to support our neighbors in times of forced austerity.

If we are going to win, we must build democratic resilience to the tactics of the techno-fascists. That includes creating physical spaces, where commerce is not the dominant mode of interaction.

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USA TODAY @usatoday.com · 2d

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

bit.ly

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 2d

👇🎯

Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 2d

I’d invite German newspaper readers to reflect on the number of articles you’re seeing atm about a researcher on anti-fascism having to flee the US (I found 2) compared to the time a student thought the bánh mì was inauthentic.

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