Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Michan Connor

Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 5h

Sure, I can’t talk or think and parts of me turn purple and sometimes half my face is 2” lower than the other half and I talk about heaven regularly at inappropriate times but don’t let that fool you I’m as healthy as a horse.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9h

Hi Sally. When Weiss published a supposed expose on the death of George Floyd, a veteran criminal justice reporter showed in deep detail that the piece was not just wrong but filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations. Weiss did not retract the piece. What do you think of that?

Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · 11h

This is really smart. Amazed at the hysteria over the ascendance of a woman entrepreneur who clearly knows how to cover and sell news and who's not afraid to take on a mob. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss

The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.

www.theatlantic.com

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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 8h

She’s bravely battling the most powerful people on earth (trans folks and Palestinians) to stick up for the underdogs (billionaires)

Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 11h

So it’s *better* researched than a typical Hartocollis higher ed piece is what you’re saying….

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h

"Look at the picture... One of these is a member of a private militia that supports the President and was involved in a violent effort to overturn the election, the other is an agent of the state. Can you tell the difference?" donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...

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Jared Farmer @geohumanist.bsky.social · 12h

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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 12h

Wastefully driving cars on perfectly good whiskey

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 3d

Over 40% of corn grown in Indiana is used to make ethanol that cars burn. One acre of corn yields about 16,500 vehicle-miles per year of ethanol, which sounds high until you realize that one acre of solar yields about 2,700,000 vehicle-miles per year: 16,000% more driving for a given plot of land.

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 15h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 15h

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 15h

“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 16h

That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.

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Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 1d

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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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 1d

a woman wearing a hat and vest says la-de-dah on the screen

ALT: a woman wearing a hat and vest says la-de-dah on the screen

media.tenor.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

I know Trump and his minions all have sneering contempt for kids with special needs, but trust me when I say that their parents will absolutely fucking destroy anyone who messes with the special education supports to which they are entitled by law.

Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 1d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 1d

Hard to find a more obvious example of the journalism adage “If someone says it’s raining outside and someone else says it isn’t, your job is not to quote them both, your job is to go outside.”

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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norbizness @norbizness.bsky.social · 1d

At some point everybody's going to have to stop typing RIFed like they're cool new savvy reporters for whom human misery is no big deal, it's ILLEGALLY FIRED WITHOUT CAUSE. This ain't a bad John Carradine movie on MST3K.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 2d

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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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

“.. Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2d

Can an historian of journalism please explain to me how the rule developed where a president says something, it has to be taken seriously as possibly true, even if it is obviously false. This rule must have a history (meaning, it can change! That is my point!)

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 1d

When Republicans are pre-butting a pro-democracy rally like No Kings and making shit up left and right to scare people, you know they're losing and in panic mode.

Pedal to the floor.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

NYT piece calls these MAGA types "provocateurs." It describes "dueling versions of reality." Both are common MSM tropes.

But these are not provocateurs. They're propagandists. Only one side is employing deliberate deceptions on a vast scale for instrumental ends. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 1d

Same in higher ed. Admins have bent over backwards to welcome gaslighters and hate mongers who degrade education and endanger our campuses.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

The conventions of political reporting today are not well equipped to handle this concerted use of pretexts for instrumental purposes and the bottomless bad faith they employ. Grasping the industrial-scale deception at the core of MAGA politics is essential. 6/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 1d

Deep dive into the surge in US pedestrian deaths:

"It’s not that more pedestrians are getting hit by vehicles; it’s that the ones that are getting hit are more likely to die."

"[That] seems like fairly strong evidence for the theory that the rise in large SUVs is behind the uptick in ped deaths."

Why Are So Many Pedestrians Killed by Cars in the US?

It’s unfortunately not uncommon for pedestrians to be killed by cars in the US.

www.construction-physics.com

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