Author | Lightnews

Rob Fields

@robfields.bsky.social

460 followers 350 following 280 posts

Connecting people, art, and ideas via arts consulting, marketing and art advising. Boards: @uniondocs, Volta Art Fair, @abgmf Image: Joana Choumali, "Whose Peace Is It Keeping?" 2024 https://linktr.ee/robfields

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Apr 6

It was a privilege to be in conversation and community with curator and fellow art advisor Moriah Alise. Here's our conversation on her YouTube channel, #DearGlory

youtu.be/ADSh_dEedC8?...

Demystify the Art World w/ Rob Fields | How to Collect with Integrity, Strategy & Intention

YouTube video by Dear Glory with Moriah Alise

youtu.be

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 15h

Beautiful rework by Stew!

ActiveCultures @activecultures.bsky.social · 1d

Your new Zohran Mamdani theme song, from Tight Natural Productions.

youtu.be/b0qlC6tpBCQ

#vote #music #Zohran #Mamdani

Screen shot of wonky text that says Mamdani as Mayor sounds like music to me

Wonky lyrics video that says Check the box for Zohran & You’ll See, loosely in the colors of the Palestinian flag

An abstract blue and light blue blob behind four stacked syllables
Zoh
Ran
Is
On

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 2d

If you missed #OptOutOctober like I did, here's @eff.org's full guide to improving your digital privacy and security.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security

Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy m...

www.eff.org

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Reposted by Rob Fields

K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · 2d

An entire city of unsupervised theatre kids.

Melanie @grammar-girl.bsky.social · 2d

The music cuts off awkwardly before the end, but this is an incredible NYC Halloween costume compilation.

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 5d

Great! Lest there be any doubt that Musk is a terrible person, there's more right-wing, AI slop on the way.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk launches encyclopedia ‘fact-checked’ by AI and aligning with rightwing views

Grokipedia’s entries hew closely to conservative talking points, with some journalists already saying it contains inaccurate information

www.theguardian.com

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 5d

Via @shannonrwatts.bsky.social: "Good-versus-evil thinking increases cruelty because it gives people a reason to stomach violence."

How to stop cult-like thinking with Jane Borden
open.substack.com/pub/shannonw...

How to stop cult-like thinking with Jane Borden

A Q&A with the author of "Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America"

open.substack.com

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 5d

@drstaceypatton.bsky.social: "What we’re witnessing is the deliberate cultivation of biological exhaustion as social control. Hunger, stress, and deprivation don’t just break spirits, they rewire bodies."

Starving You is the Point: The Neuroscience of Hunger and Obedience in America
bit.ly/3JkXXq4

Starving You is the Point: The Neuroscience of Hunger and Obedience in America

We are watching a government experiment in population management using stress, scarcity, and biology to keep people too tired to fight back.

open.substack.com

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 6d

Via @elmcitytree.blacksky.app

natou @tichatnwa.bsky.social · 6d

'i did not know that there were so many cowards in this country'

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 6d

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 11d

Congrats, Grace Wales Bonner!

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025...

Grace Wales Bonner: British designer behind rise of Sambas to lead Hermès menswear

Founder of eponymous brand worn by Duchess of Sussex becomes first black woman to lead a major fashion house

www.theguardian.com

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · 26d

Via @adamserwer.bsky.social

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 26d

#WarRavagedPortland

Reposted by Rob Fields

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 26d

Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina
Adam Scharpf and Christian Gläßel

Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.

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Reposted by Rob Fields

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 26d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 30

Ya think?

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/p...

Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds

www.nytimes.com

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 29

A common question from new collectors about pieces of art they're considering: "But is it a good investment?" In my latest Substack post, I share some of the signals I evaluate as I advise my clients on potential art purchases. Read on.
open.substack.com/pub/iamrobfi...

How to Tell If the Art You’re Buying Is Investment-Grade

8 signals I use to advise collectors

open.substack.com

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 29

One of the best pieces I've read recently on this moment of constant mass shootings.

"America is reading a suicide note written in the hand of white male grievance...And the country keeps pretending the note doesn’t exist."
drstaceypatton1865.substack.com/p/suicide-tu...

Suicide Turned Outward: Why White Men Are Turning Their Self-Destruction Into Mass Violence

This Substack is reader-supported.

drstaceypatton1865.substack.com

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 25

One of the biggest offenders when it comes to bad faith arguments, Bret Stephens, is at it again. Basically, folks like Stephens believe they should be able to say anything, without consequence.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/o...

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 25

I hate how everybody in this administration is dead-set on linking DEI to "lowered standards", when that's not at all the case. Meanwhile, what folks SHOULD be upset about is the placing of unqualified people in Federal positions just because they're sycophants for Orange Julius.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Sep 25

Duffy on his relationship w/European nations: "They're also pushing sustainable fuels & DEI & there's a lot of spaces you can have that conversation, but in aviation that affects safety. I want the best and brightest pilots & best fuel on my plane. So we're pushing back on those initiatives."

Reposted by Rob Fields

Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · Sep 24

Robby Starbuck is a far-right activist. Meta putting him in the position of being a "bias advisor" for its chat bot is insane.

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · Sep 23

Meta appoints anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck as AI bias advisor with a mandate to make the company's chat bot less 'woke.' www.advocate.com/news/meta-ro...

Meta appoints anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck as AI bias advisor

Robby Starbuck has been appointed as an AI bias advisor at Meta with the goal of making the company's chat bot less "woke."

www.advocate.com

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 25

The Dallas shooter, Joshua Jahn. If he were Black/Muslim, we'd already be hearing things like, "Where were his parents?" or, "Where was he radicalized?" Right-wing trolls would be implying the inherent criminality in our community. Where's the national convo on what's going on w White men & boys?

Reposted by Rob Fields

Aja Romano @bookshop.bsky.social · Sep 25

I've written about this a half-dozen times since 2015, because it continues to be relevant that the alt-right originally weaponized irony and memes in order to 1) spread extremism without consequence and 2) cultivate all these semi-ironic violent extremist edgelords foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/15/c...

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Reposted by Rob Fields

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · Sep 25

The white supremacist conceit that everyone in antiquity was living under some kind of global jim crow segregation is just complete bullshit news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no. — Harvard Gazette

Geneticist explains recent analyses made possible by tech advances show human history to be one of mixing, movement, displacement.

news.harvard.edu

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 23

Where that Rapture at, tho?

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 22

And congrats on your convo yesterday at BKBF!

Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 22

Get ready for that BS.

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Rob Fields @robfields.bsky.social · Sep 20

No backbone, no profits. Ht @hystericalblkns.bsky.social

Victor LaValle @victorlavalle.bsky.social · Sep 20

Reposted by Rob Fields

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Sep 20

By next spring, they'll be bragging about the passenger airliner they shot out of the sky because it was filled with "antifa commandos"

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · Sep 19

This appears to be the 3rd lethal US strike in the Caribbean.

Once again, the specific "terrorist" entity targeted is not identified.

No legal justification is offered for this premeditated killing.

President Trump is asserting a license to kill outside of the law. 1/n

On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans. The strike killed 3 male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel, which was in international waters. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!

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