paul johnson
@rhetoricpj.bsky.social
I live in pittsburgh and like it. wrote a book about conservative populism. have spent the last 15 years studying the right.
go arsenal! I like gin.
Book: https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817321093/i-the-people/
go arsenal! I like gin.
Book: https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817321093/i-the-people/
Three weeks of travel/hosting dusted, ye gods
November 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Three weeks of travel/hosting dusted, ye gods
Watched Eddington last night. Brutal stuff. But thought it was very good.
November 29, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Watched Eddington last night. Brutal stuff. But thought it was very good.
Reposted by paul johnson
I’m glad I’m not a Northwestern alum, as I’d be more ashamed than I am of my alma mater, which is Penn State
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I’m glad I’m not a Northwestern alum, as I’d be more ashamed than I am of my alma mater, which is Penn State
Holiday season is for watching too many movies out of inertia
November 28, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Holiday season is for watching too many movies out of inertia
Lol this is how i learned u went to high school with vandys football coach
This is how I learned that the official title of Vanderbilt’s head coach is “the E. Bronson Ingram chair in football”
Clark Lea has agreed to a contract extension to remain at Vandy.
November 28, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Lol this is how i learned u went to high school with vandys football coach
This movie so racist it makes Popeye Doyle look like Eldridge Cleaver
Watching 48 HRS, which I've weirdly never seen??
November 28, 2025 at 2:56 AM
This movie so racist it makes Popeye Doyle look like Eldridge Cleaver
Watching 48 HRS, which I've weirdly never seen??
November 28, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Watching 48 HRS, which I've weirdly never seen??
Think it's kind of the opposite (in a sense): it conjures up an impossible twinned sense of alterity and suffering that can never be real so they gotta try to make it real
I think both their absolutely unhinged cruelty and their frustration at not hitting their numbers have the same root: that in their terminally racist brains the word “immigrant” conjures something extremely specific that they’re having trouble finding in reality
November 28, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Think it's kind of the opposite (in a sense): it conjures up an impossible twinned sense of alterity and suffering that can never be real so they gotta try to make it real
Watched Carpenter's Christine tonight. Weird movie but appreciate it knew what was up with petromasculinity
November 26, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Watched Carpenter's Christine tonight. Weird movie but appreciate it knew what was up with petromasculinity
Few shots in film can match the look Eddie Murphy gives the camera in Trading Places when the Duke brothers explain bacon to him
November 26, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Few shots in film can match the look Eddie Murphy gives the camera in Trading Places when the Duke brothers explain bacon to him
Reposted by paul johnson
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
Reposted by paul johnson
So very proud of Emily Winderman, whose book is out in the world as of this October!! The cover is AMAZING and the book is INCREDIBLE. Pick up a copy for yourself or your library!!
tinyurl.com/Back-Alley-A...
tinyurl.com/Back-Alley-A...
Back-Alley Abortion
A Rhetorical History
tinyurl.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:00 AM
So very proud of Emily Winderman, whose book is out in the world as of this October!! The cover is AMAZING and the book is INCREDIBLE. Pick up a copy for yourself or your library!!
tinyurl.com/Back-Alley-A...
tinyurl.com/Back-Alley-A...
Reading about the writing of Hiroshima, didn't realize they surprised a famous survivor of the bombing with a shock appearance on This Is Your Life where they BROUGHT ON THE PILOT OF THE ENOLA GAY TO MEET HIM
November 20, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reading about the writing of Hiroshima, didn't realize they surprised a famous survivor of the bombing with a shock appearance on This Is Your Life where they BROUGHT ON THE PILOT OF THE ENOLA GAY TO MEET HIM
Guy in the row ahead of me on this flight is telling his seatmate the entire plot of the movie Alive what a GOAT move
November 19, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Guy in the row ahead of me on this flight is telling his seatmate the entire plot of the movie Alive what a GOAT move
Reposted by paul johnson
It’s not that they don’t have a moral compass, it’s that the poles are reversed
The White House just blasted this out under the headline "Good News You May Have Missed"
November 19, 2025 at 10:12 PM
It’s not that they don’t have a moral compass, it’s that the poles are reversed
So much cabln be understood by seeing if we'd not had postwar accumulation and the Cold War we would have been cooked much earlier
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
November 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
So much cabln be understood by seeing if we'd not had postwar accumulation and the Cold War we would have been cooked much earlier
One thing i feel in my daily life right now are new, small frictions that are indexing AI destroying our society
November 19, 2025 at 7:34 PM
One thing i feel in my daily life right now are new, small frictions that are indexing AI destroying our society
Reposted by paul johnson
I also just got a presser about this forthcoming book. Preordered real fast.
November 19, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I also just got a presser about this forthcoming book. Preordered real fast.
l-m-a-o
HUGE development IN hearing for Comey selective prosecution motion, It turns out that the grand jury NEVER saw the operative indictment. Whole separate basis for dismissal. Standby for more.
November 19, 2025 at 5:29 PM
l-m-a-o
or let's say you're in highest of high moments for a thing called "dominance masculinity" and its whole iterative function is about constantly dominating and abjecting, and then all of a sudden, when that is interrupted, whole matrix threatened with legitimacy crisis
not saying it ends well, but...
not saying it ends well, but...
I don't know if the Epstein vote is a one-off or not, but I've been thinkin of that very thin, translucent sticker film that comes when you order, say, a new monitor. It's devilishly hard to get the first little bit of the corner to separate but once you do, the entire thing pulls off very easily.
November 18, 2025 at 9:07 PM
or let's say you're in highest of high moments for a thing called "dominance masculinity" and its whole iterative function is about constantly dominating and abjecting, and then all of a sudden, when that is interrupted, whole matrix threatened with legitimacy crisis
not saying it ends well, but...
not saying it ends well, but...
will i get to experience the New Airport Terminal tomorrow?????? seems possible.
November 18, 2025 at 9:04 PM
will i get to experience the New Airport Terminal tomorrow?????? seems possible.
Reposted by paul johnson
This book has been a labor of love! It's Linda Williams' final writing alongside brilliant essays by great scholars, examining the role of melodrama in current life and politics across the globe. Available for pre-order from the always-wonderful @dukepress.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
This book has been a labor of love! It's Linda Williams' final writing alongside brilliant essays by great scholars, examining the role of melodrama in current life and politics across the globe. Available for pre-order from the always-wonderful @dukepress.bsky.social
Reposted by paul johnson
I feel like we already failed the test of white nationalism's "electoral unviability"
this is just a wild thing to tweet a week after democrats won a statewide in Georgia by 20 points. completely divorced from the current electoral environment
November 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I feel like we already failed the test of white nationalism's "electoral unviability"