Shikha Dalmia
@shikhadalmia.bsky.social
President, Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. Founder @ismapolicy.bsky.social. Editor, The UnPopulist www.theunpopulist.net. Classically liberal. Hate dogmas, esp my own. Rightwing populism is the threat of our time to liberal democracy.
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah.
Praying for his full & speedy recovery.
And so deeply inspired by his example.
Praying for his full & speedy recovery.
And so deeply inspired by his example.
December 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah.
Praying for his full & speedy recovery.
And so deeply inspired by his example.
Praying for his full & speedy recovery.
And so deeply inspired by his example.
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
No cherry-picking. No party filter. Just receipts.
And a lot of powerful men are terrified right now.
KASIE HUNT: “Do you have pictures of people engaged in sexual acts as part of this?”
REP. SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, there are people engaged in sexual acts.”
@repsuhas.bsky.social
And a lot of powerful men are terrified right now.
KASIE HUNT: “Do you have pictures of people engaged in sexual acts as part of this?”
REP. SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, there are people engaged in sexual acts.”
@repsuhas.bsky.social
December 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
No cherry-picking. No party filter. Just receipts.
And a lot of powerful men are terrified right now.
KASIE HUNT: “Do you have pictures of people engaged in sexual acts as part of this?”
REP. SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, there are people engaged in sexual acts.”
@repsuhas.bsky.social
And a lot of powerful men are terrified right now.
KASIE HUNT: “Do you have pictures of people engaged in sexual acts as part of this?”
REP. SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, there are people engaged in sexual acts.”
@repsuhas.bsky.social
At the @theunpopulist.net Bill Galston fantasizes about a speech that the next president, hopefully a healer-in-chief, will deliver. "The waves of strife may have eroded the shores of our Republic, but the high ground—our common ground—remains intact."
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
An Inaugural Address to Cure the Dark Passions Dividing Our Country
America desperately needs a healer-in-chief to turn a page on the rhetoric of carnage
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
At the @theunpopulist.net Bill Galston fantasizes about a speech that the next president, hopefully a healer-in-chief, will deliver. "The waves of strife may have eroded the shores of our Republic, but the high ground—our common ground—remains intact."
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
If this is liberty, give me death now please :( (So many libertarians are such lost souls.)
December 12, 2025 at 3:48 PM
If this is liberty, give me death now please :( (So many libertarians are such lost souls.)
Trump is throwing hardworking, wealth generating immigrants out of the country. And turning hardworking,wealth generating Americans into welfare queens by his farming bailouts and other handouts. In the name of protecting the welfare state from immigrants, he's turning US into one big welfare state
December 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Trump is throwing hardworking, wealth generating immigrants out of the country. And turning hardworking,wealth generating Americans into welfare queens by his farming bailouts and other handouts. In the name of protecting the welfare state from immigrants, he's turning US into one big welfare state
There is a logical relationship between neoright nationalism and antisemitism notes @ilyasomin.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net. So it was as predictable as the sun will rise tmrw that Heritage Foundation would become rife w/ antisemitism under its NatCon president
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Nationalism Is Driving the Neo Right’s Virulent Antisemitic Turn
Its zero-sum mentality is fundamentally at odds with American universalism that defends the equal rights of all
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
There is a logical relationship between neoright nationalism and antisemitism notes @ilyasomin.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net. So it was as predictable as the sun will rise tmrw that Heritage Foundation would become rife w/ antisemitism under its NatCon president
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
First Trump destroys their ability to earn a living, then he gives them a government handout -- absolutely the most socialist thing to do.
December 9, 2025 at 8:38 PM
First Trump destroys their ability to earn a living, then he gives them a government handout -- absolutely the most socialist thing to do.
Nails it! At @theunpopulist.net by @ilyasomin.bsky.social "Nationalism doesn’t just historically correlate with bigotry—it consistently drives antisemitism and other racial and ethnic prejudices. Indeed, nationalism intensifies preexisting antisemitic impulses." open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Nationalism Is Driving the Neo Right’s Virulent Antisemitic Turn
Its zero-sum mentality is fundamentally at odds with American universalism that defends the equal rights of all
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Nails it! At @theunpopulist.net by @ilyasomin.bsky.social "Nationalism doesn’t just historically correlate with bigotry—it consistently drives antisemitism and other racial and ethnic prejudices. Indeed, nationalism intensifies preexisting antisemitic impulses." open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Corruption and cruelty go hand in hand in this administration.
The relentless commitment to corruption from this administration continues to astound.
Trump Pardons His Honduran Strongman Buddy Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking as Hegseth Executes Venezuelans Suspected of Drug Smuggling: An Executive Watch Roundup
Our early-December selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
www.theunpopulist.net
December 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Corruption and cruelty go hand in hand in this administration.
Is @theunpopulist.net doing something right or something wrong that it was quoted (favorably) by Tom Edsall of The New York Times and (unfavorably) Laura Loomer of Crazy Land in the same week?
December 6, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Is @theunpopulist.net doing something right or something wrong that it was quoted (favorably) by Tom Edsall of The New York Times and (unfavorably) Laura Loomer of Crazy Land in the same week?
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
The right is no longer conservative in any sense of the word.
They seek to conserve nothing.
Their only remaining impulse is a desire to dominate and destroy.
Every word of this from @tomgpalmer.bsky.social. 👇
They seek to conserve nothing.
Their only remaining impulse is a desire to dominate and destroy.
Every word of this from @tomgpalmer.bsky.social. 👇
December 3, 2025 at 6:37 PM
The right is no longer conservative in any sense of the word.
They seek to conserve nothing.
Their only remaining impulse is a desire to dominate and destroy.
Every word of this from @tomgpalmer.bsky.social. 👇
They seek to conserve nothing.
Their only remaining impulse is a desire to dominate and destroy.
Every word of this from @tomgpalmer.bsky.social. 👇
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
Trump's transformation of the presidential pardon power into an all-purpose instrument for his most depraved and corrupt instincts is truly horrifying.
@tracinski.bsky.social lays it all out in his latest for @theunpopulist.net
Read this and weep
@tracinski.bsky.social lays it all out in his latest for @theunpopulist.net
Read this and weep
Trump’s Pardons Cover Every Conceivable Form of Corruption
He is doling them to crooks, cronies, campaign contributors, violent insurrectionists, child sex offenders, convicted drug dealers, and others
www.theunpopulist.net
December 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Trump's transformation of the presidential pardon power into an all-purpose instrument for his most depraved and corrupt instincts is truly horrifying.
@tracinski.bsky.social lays it all out in his latest for @theunpopulist.net
Read this and weep
@tracinski.bsky.social lays it all out in his latest for @theunpopulist.net
Read this and weep
Yes, this is fucking depraved!
They’re killing people as a twitter joke. It’s depraved. Can’t let yourself lose the capacity to be appalled and disgusted and outraged by this.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announces another boat strike in response to a request/wish from Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet.
December 5, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Yes, this is fucking depraved!
Every day as news breaks of yet another corrupt pardon by Trump, we become inured. But when @tracinski.bsky.social put it all together @theunpopulist.net, the picture is jaw dropping. My alternative head was "There Are No Words to Describe Trump's Corrupt Pardons." open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Trump’s Pardons Cover Every Conceivable Form of Corruption
He is doling them to crooks, cronies, campaign contributors, violent insurrectionists, child sex offenders, convicted drug dealers, and others
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Every day as news breaks of yet another corrupt pardon by Trump, we become inured. But when @tracinski.bsky.social put it all together @theunpopulist.net, the picture is jaw dropping. My alternative head was "There Are No Words to Describe Trump's Corrupt Pardons." open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...
Ilhan Omar is 100% right: "The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/o...
Opinion | Ilhan Omar: Trump Knows He’s Failing. Cue the Bigotry.
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Ilhan Omar is 100% right: "The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/o...
Trump accused Haitians of eating pets. Now he is calling Somalis garbage, a term that a MAGA speaker also used for Puerto Rico at a Trump rally. He has accused Mexicans of being rapists and criminals. He is turning America into a barbarian country except that that is an insult to barbarians.
December 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Trump accused Haitians of eating pets. Now he is calling Somalis garbage, a term that a MAGA speaker also used for Puerto Rico at a Trump rally. He has accused Mexicans of being rapists and criminals. He is turning America into a barbarian country except that that is an insult to barbarians.
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
i'd go even further and say there is a reason even nixon kept this kind of stuff to himself. you would have to go back quite a bit to find a point at which is acceptable for a president to say anything like this *in public*, to say nothing of in the oval office.
I don’t want to be pollyannish about the past, but it was basically inconceivable twenty years ago that a president would say this publicly
Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."
December 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
i'd go even further and say there is a reason even nixon kept this kind of stuff to himself. you would have to go back quite a bit to find a point at which is acceptable for a president to say anything like this *in public*, to say nothing of in the oval office.
Hegseth is scum for throwing Bradley under the bust. But if he was willing to interpret any ambiguity in Hegseth's instructions in the direction of maximum war criminality, then he deserves to be maximally "scrutinized" and maximally punished. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...
After Decades in Combat, a SEAL Suddenly Comes Under Scrutiny
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Hegseth is scum for throwing Bradley under the bust. But if he was willing to interpret any ambiguity in Hegseth's instructions in the direction of maximum war criminality, then he deserves to be maximally "scrutinized" and maximally punished. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...
From targeting immigration in general they went to targeting specific groups (Mexicans are rapists and criminals, Third World immigrants come from shithole countries). Now from targeting specific groups they have gone on to targeting specific individuals. Shame on them.
In case you were wondering, this oped is even worse than the headline
December 3, 2025 at 12:03 AM
From targeting immigration in general they went to targeting specific groups (Mexicans are rapists and criminals, Third World immigrants come from shithole countries). Now from targeting specific groups they have gone on to targeting specific individuals. Shame on them.
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
In a new NYT essay, @shikhadalmia.bsky.social is quoted extensively on the future of Trump’s MAGA movement. This is excellent stuff.
December 2, 2025 at 4:33 PM
In a new NYT essay, @shikhadalmia.bsky.social is quoted extensively on the future of Trump’s MAGA movement. This is excellent stuff.
The Trump administration is not hypocritical, it is depraved. On one hand, it is commiting war crimes to kill SUSPECTED narco terrorists. OTOH, this POTUS is pardoning PROVEN narco terrorists who are his friends. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...
Trump Administration Live Updates: Honduran Ex-President Is Freed From Prison After Pardon
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The Trump administration is not hypocritical, it is depraved. On one hand, it is commiting war crimes to kill SUSPECTED narco terrorists. OTOH, this POTUS is pardoning PROVEN narco terrorists who are his friends. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...
Belief in: Nation. State. Violent Masculinity. Restoration of Mythic Past. Racial Purity. These are the core concepts that define a fascist. And they fit Musk to the tee! @polphilpod.bsky.social's excellent debut piece at @theunpopulist.net.
www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-by-a-...
www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-by-a-...
Even by a Strict Definition, Elon Musk Is a Fascist
He is weaponizing Tolkien to promote violence by ‘hard men’ against Asian immigrants
www.theunpopulist.net
December 1, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Belief in: Nation. State. Violent Masculinity. Restoration of Mythic Past. Racial Purity. These are the core concepts that define a fascist. And they fit Musk to the tee! @polphilpod.bsky.social's excellent debut piece at @theunpopulist.net.
www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-by-a-...
www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-by-a-...
Reposted by Shikha Dalmia
Brand new at @theunpopulist.net, @polphilpod.bsky.social's fascinating piece showing how Elon Musk's deployment of Tolkien is straightforwardly fascist.
Even by a Strict Definition, Elon Musk Is a Fascist
He is weaponizing Tolkien to promote violence by ‘hard men’ against Asian immigrants
www.theunpopulist.net
November 30, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Brand new at @theunpopulist.net, @polphilpod.bsky.social's fascinating piece showing how Elon Musk's deployment of Tolkien is straightforwardly fascist.