Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Lex Luthor @tyrannosaurid.bsky.social · Aug 25

This is a great essay, and it reminds me of Cory Doctorow’s essay from 2017 condemning SF stories that use “lifeboat ethics” as a justification for violence. “The thing about lifeboat rules is that they are an awfully good deal for lifeboat captains.” locusmag.com/2014/03/cory...

Cory Doctorow: Cold Equations and Moral Hazard

Visit the post for more.

locusmag.com

2 5

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 18h

Cornerstone of the America First doctrine: Spending $40 billion to prop up the Argentine peso and pay off foreign debts

Matthew Hay Brown @matthewhaybrown.bsky.social · 18h

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the bailout for Argentina, now doubled to $40 billion, is part of an effort to swing Latin America to the right

@jacobbogage.bsky.social @davidjlynch.bsky.social David Feliba report

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Bessent says bailout for Argentina will double to boost U.S. influence in region

The Trump administration is working to arrange private sector financing for Argentina that would double the total U.S. financial lifeline for the embattled Latin nation.

www.washingtonpost.com

5 15 71

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 18h

Every refugee I've ever met worked harder than I ever have in my entire life.

2 8 68

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Vote Angel 2028🏳️‍⚧️ 👉😎👉 @benotafraid.bsky.social · 17h

I just thought of something.

This shutdown is a perfect microcosm of how the white majority will blame the minority for their own failures even when they've heavily tilted things in their own favor🙄.

share.google/PzghDLVw47lP...

Mike Johnson continues to blame Democrats for the government shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to blame Democrats for the government shutdown after 10 days of lapsed federal funding. CBS News' Taurean Small reports.

share.google

1 6 34

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 17h

I remember @dieworkwear.bsky.social had a great thread about people looking better in clothes that suit their lifestyle and personality and stiff and costumey in ones that don’t, I’d say Oyster Guy is killing it on that point.

3 1 23

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Ian Rennie @theangelremiel.bsky.social · 17h

Look for the helpers. If you see them, help them. If you don't see them, you're the helpers.

Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 17h

As a historian, I can certify that we are in the bad times. But bad times eventually end.
In the meantime:
• Figure out a small way to help someone
• Figure out a small way to fight back
• Figure out a small place to find joy
• Figure out a small way to grow and thrive

And do it often.

1 13 38

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Second Great Bisexual Awakening @suesswassersee.bsky.social · 17h

I love how when I'm looking for local news about my immediate area the internet is almost entirely useless because local news sites freeze up with ads and videos so then I end up listening to AM news radio like I'm living in 1951. This is not a knock on AM news radio. It works which is what I want.

5 4 72

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 17h

i think a lot of people presupposed that the state of nature of american politics is two roughly equally electorally competitive coalitions with the balance of power held by a sliver of crudely thermostatic voters, and i do not think that is the case

Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 17h

like in a way the Reagan revolution was just a newer republican ~service model~ of political organizing leveraging and therefore socializing suburban women into conservative political actors right as older style democratic party machines were falling apart cus of political entropy

Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 18h

i do actually think the american electorate will respond pretty drastically to this administration, but the key thing is does that reaction actually stick? i really dunno, we've lost a lot of the institutional glue and machinery that would socialize voters into a mostly stable majority

1 5 52

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 20h

tfw your 1,000-word tweets aren't working

770 4.7K 30K

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 23h

"they've always been like this" is always a tempting savvy take but it is just not true that Republican staffers were 100 percent open Nazis back in 2004, or hell even 2014. they just weren't

Michael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 23h

there have been a lot of responses to this arguing that young Republicans were motivated by such feelings but didn't express them openly

and I think a crucial lesson of the Trump era is that there is great value in people not expressing these things openly! that's a big and decisive change!

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 1d

For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this.

That’s why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed — because Young Republicans weren’t radical enough.

87 370 2.8K

Simon St.Laurent @simonstl.com · 18h

"It means you can justify espousing pretty much anything – the easier a statement is to disprove, the more of a power move it is to say it, as it symbolizes how far you’re willing to go." theconversation.com/winning-with...

Winning with misinformation: New research identifies link between endorsing easily disproven claims and prioritizing symbolic strength

Conversations around misinformation that assume everyone cares about literal truth may be missing the point.

theconversation.com

1

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 18h

I am in general skeptical of the value of liberals going on Fox News. You have to be very good at a specific kind of media interaction and most people just aren’t.

This is what it looks like to be good at it.

Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · 20h

Zohran Mamdani uses his appearance on Fox News to "speak directly to the president," since "he might be watching right now."

Mamdani looks straight into the Fox camera as he says this >>>

6 41 340

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 22h

The worst part is I don’t even know who would notice or care if a strain that doesn’t show up on RATs existed.

1 1 18

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

We Call Them Water Dudes @jurisdudence.bsky.social · 22h

The Pope should go down to the Broadciew ICE facility and ask to minister to the detained.

2 5

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 22h

some colleagues have suggested to me that shame is irrelevant because the people on the "other side" don't know or care what "we" (on whatever "this side") think of them. I have...not gotten that impression

Kurtbert Barlowko @albertburneko.bsky.social · 23h

"disliking me is persecution" describes so incredibly many people's entire outlook these days defector.com/free-press-r...

Free Press Reporter Discovers That Being An Amoral Dickhead Can Cost You Friends | Defector

It can be hard to maintain friendships as an adult. People move to new cities, start families, and experience all sorts of other life events that make it difficult to keep in touch. Sometimes, you end...

defector.com

65 450 2.6K

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 1d

One of the most important things I teach when I teach about the history of the FDA is how supplements are not monitored and tested like drugs are. They rely on self or 3rd party regulation, which often fails in so many ways.

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

3 28 77

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Sheo @sheologian.bsky.social · 22h

I guess I didn’t expect the end of the American experiment to be so fucking gaudy

2 3 36

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 23h

Helpful thread. I agree that my essay is unsatisfying and incomplete. I’m working on a longer project that outlines how we might build the “new basic social mechanism” that Fẹ́mi rightly states is missing—a kind of minimal, non-paternal symbolic order suited to the psychotic structure of our era.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

"And yet Táíwò’s own position misses something fundamental about the world we now inhabit. Shame does not operate in a vacuum...today, the sturdy ground that once formed shame’s foundation has collapsed."

Helpful response by @eric-reinhart.com in @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2015...

Why Shame No Longer Works in American Politics

While it once played a role in binding society, shame has lost its power—and so have the liberal tools that depend on it.

newrepublic.com

4 14 67

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

DC Cassandra @dccassandra.bsky.social · 23h

This convo is happening in a lot of families these days

larigrat.bsky.social @larigrat.bsky.social · 23h

I not been in an official organizing capacity but I have close family members who thought I was being hysterical when I said that your average conservative was shifting into a proud Nazi. They do not think I am hysterical any more.

1 2

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 1d

When I sort the deal for the paperback of Be Funny Or Die, this is the edit I want to do before publication. The idea of Twitter as an active space to perform and consume comedy is the thing that now feels incomprehensible, badly dated, and that’s only a year or so ago now.

Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 1d

just finished Yellowface and my takeaway is just how irrelevant Twitter has become. The way it is used by creatives, commentators and consumers is central to the novel. Now, the idea that an artist would care about Twitter feels dated. Tweets used to make the news. Truth Social gets more press now

4 5 53

Reposted by Simon St.Laurent

Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 1d

Cars account for just 4.3% of journeys in Paris. So motorists may be 'living in fear' (although that sounds unlikely) but the vast majority of Parisians, far from seeing red, are pretty happy with expanded space for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users