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sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
20K followers 280 following 19K posts
associate editor at liberal currents. neonliberal. she/her.
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Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
aselrod.bsky.social
Come to Charlottesville this May for a weekend about liberalism, ethics, civic virtue, and public religion.

Feat @jamellebouie.net, @hollybfletcher.bsky.social, @sarahposner.bsky.social, @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com, @shortle.bsky.social and more!

www.pulaskiinstitution.org/events/for-g...
For Good Conference — The Pulaski Institution
The For Good Conference is a weekend dedicated to the intersection of liberalism and what it means to live a good life. Speakers and panelists will discuss questions around public ethics, religion, c...
www.pulaskiinstitution.org
February 3, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
moiradonegan.bsky.social
I hadn’t known this. Two men who were accused of sexual abuse on the Shitty Media Men document that I created back in 2017 reached out to Michael Wolff for help as they looked to sue me, and Wolf forwarded their concerns to Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein offered to help. www.jmail.world/thread/EFTA0...
February 3, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
@gelliottmorris.com continues to have been right about immigration as an electoral issue

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
The evolution of immigration politics over the past year illustrates the Strategist's Fallacy with particular clarity. Early last year, Matthew Yglesias and others counseled Democrats to avoid talking about immigration. Their reasoning was straightforward: immigration represented Trump's strongest issue, and Democratic activists drawing attention to cases like Kilmar Abrego Garcia's -a Maryland father unlawfully deported to El Salvador —were increasing the "salience" of a topic that allegedly damaged the party's electoral position. Democrats should redirect attention elsewhere, they said. This strategic advice assumed voters' preferences on immigration were so rigid that Democratic messaging could not influence them. It treated public opinion as a fixed fact of political reality, not an object that was going to move in the short term or that could be moved. And it ascribed too much influence over voting decisions to issue attitudes.
February 3, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
We have no idea where Yglesias got his numbers but they’re wrong. This debate has for so long been plagued by numbers basically pulled out of thin air

Right pic is from my and @adambonica.bsky.social’s response essay: www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
Matthew Yglesias & @mattyglesias X.com 1-2 percentage points is a small number but it's a very big deal. bostonreview.net/forum/how-not-... Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach claim to find only "small" electoral benefits of moderation, on the order of one to two percentage points. Their subtext is, who could possibly care about an effect of this size? In fact, campaign professionals emphasize to me that this is an enormous effect compared to what you get from spending on campaign ads or mounting field programs to mobilize and turn out voters. A swing of one to two percentage points would have been enough for Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 or for Kamala Harris to win in 2024. Two is a small number, but I don't think that's small change for the world. It's a little bit hard for me to understand what this debate is even supposed to be about given that the skeptics of moderation are willing to concede that both of Trump's election wins were within the bounds of what they say can be plausibly achieved by moderating. To underscore the point: since 2012 there have been seventeen Senate races decided by less than the Bonica-Grumbach margin of moderation. 7:29 AM • 2/3/26 • 14K Views To begin with, Yglesias is way off in claiming that moderation increases a candidate's vote share by "one to two percentage points.' We don't know where he got these numbers, but they aren't in our essay; as our cited graphic shows, the best estimate is less than half a percentage point. He also need not speculate that moderating would have flipped important congressional races — we ran the numbers ourselves and found that moderation would have flipped none of the close House races in 2024. But we're used to seeing incorrect numbers on this subject. In any case, Yglesias's incorrect numbers are not as important as missing the central failures of popularism in recent years. Consider how it has hindered Democrats' leadership on public opinion. G. Elliott Morris is exactly right that trajectories are far more important than what polls say at any given moment. Throughout 2025, as Yglesias was arguing that Democrats shouldn't talk about immigration, the public turned dramatically against Trump on the issue in part due to the leadership of some Democratic leaders like Senator Chris Van Hollen. Now even Trump himself is reportedly "looking to change the subject to his economic agenda as his administration faces growing backlash over his
February 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
sky.skymarchini.net
The fundamental thrust of totalitarianism is that the government dictates terms of how every aspect of every organization, as well as your own life, operates. The Soviet Union, the Nazis, the modern PRC, all have commissars in every org to ensure they follow the government political line.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1h
Breaking news: The Pentagon issued a warning to Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts, saying the organization risks losing its long-standing partnership with the U.S. military unless it rapidly implements “core value reforms.”
Pentagon warns Scouts to restore ‘core values’ or lose military support
The relationship dates back decades, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has criticized the organization for allowing girls to join and changing its name from Boy Scouts.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
ens0.me
the whole point of technology is to subvert "the natural order," because the natural order is disease and decay and suffering and famine
February 3, 2026 at 4:35 AM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
resnikoff.bsky.social
This is all strongly reminiscent of YIMBY-versus-left-NIMBY politics in Sacramento, where a nontrivial part of the opposition to YIMBY bills is driven by the fact that they don't come from within The Family.
resnikoff.bsky.social Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 2h
I guess the question we're all trying to answer here is whether organizing is supposed to be something you do to mobilize a bunch of people on behalf of a concrete goal or whether it's a sort of professional cartel for downwardly mobile PMC types.
February 3, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
kojamf.bsky.social
MAGA Adult Male assaults Texas High School students protesting ICE
February 3, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
the promotion of this Nazi dumb-dumb as some sort of dissident intellectual by a swathe of centre to right figures in the last two years has been deeply fucking embarassing
samthielman.com CHOAM Nomsky @samthielman.com · 2h
I think Hanania must just be an idiot? The climax of American Beauty is Lester realizing how bad it would be to act out his fantasies about his daughter's best friend. The movie is not about how cool it is for dads to bag high school girls. Also Kevin Spacey is a personally notorious kid toucher
Richard Hanania @RichardHanania • Feb 1 By obsessing over Epstein, they're attacking healthy heterosexuality. [screengrab of Mena Suvari in the tub with Kevin Spacey leaning over her from American Beauty. The caption is "The Real Target of Pedophile Hysteria Is Age Gap Relationships," the title of a blog post by Hanania]
February 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
whstancil.bsky.social
Okay, I'm now hearing reports of other locals being removed from Minnesota rapid response for interacting with press, as well as some "organizers" instituting onerous screening processes to join these networks.

It's time for local leaders to step in. These policies are incredibly counterproductive.
February 3, 2026 at 4:09 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
i recently read @daphnelawless.com's (ominously prescient) 2016 essay "against conservative leftism," and this passage really hit me. lawless is clear about the dangers of wreckers and entryists and red-brownism... and yet

leftrenewal.org/articles-en/...
On the international scale, red-browns and conservative leftists join together in cheerleading the Russian bombing of Syria and the strangling of its revolution in the name of “fighting Islamist terror”, and the belief that Russian bombs are somehow better than American bombs. Similarly, conservative leftist Islamophobia (including, sadly, the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt) supported General al-Sisi’s military coup against the democratically elected Islamist-backed Morsi government in Egypt in 2012. For a new radical leftism So what is the alternative? The late British Marxist Tony Cliff explained the ideas of “opportunism” and “sectarianism” like this. Say you’re on a picket line, waiting for the cops to come. The worker next to you starts making racist comments about immigrants taking our jobs. The sectarian response is: you walk off the picket line, refusing to have solidarity with a racist. The opportunist response is: you pretend you don’t hear, you just change the subject. Whereas Cliff argued that the correct revolutionary response is: you argue with the racist ideas, firmly, telling the worker expressing them that immigrants are welcome and those ideas will bring down the movement. But, when the police comes, you link arms against them with everyone on the picket line.
February 3, 2026 at 4:47 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
spanish-ish lentils with sausage, roasted potatoes
February 3, 2026 at 4:39 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
it's a great book!

www.liberalcurrents.com/why-movement...
February 3, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
sarahjeong.bsky.social
ICE tear gassed a bunch of children on Saturday. This was a massive escalation of force. They were shooting tear gas at the back of the crowd, it took these unmasked people maybe 3-5 minutes in the cloud of tear gas to escape in without trampling. www.theverge.com/policy/87278...
ICE is afraid of children protesting
“Next time, I’ll be back with a gas mask.”
www.theverge.com
February 3, 2026 at 2:11 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
wait. it's all status threat?
February 3, 2026 at 2:39 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
anyways. some remarks on how i think about the (actual) strategy of resistance in our current era. do you want power? then think seriously about how you're going to get it.

www.liberalcurrents.com/from-powerle...
From Powerlessness to Power
We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals without exercising state power, and the most effective way to take state power is through nonviolent but confrontational resistance.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 3, 2026 at 1:04 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
the other side of talia's recent great essay on this dynamic in gender studies:

taliabhattwrites.substack.com/p/the-coloni...
February 3, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
tznkai.bsky.social
Factions everywhere, even when it's just a faction of one (it usually is more than that)
tznkai.bsky.social K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · Jul 30
Going to quote my own argument here.

seeinfra.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/y...
Something that every racial minority knows implicitly is that factional struggles within our race are won by convincing whites and our victories are enforced by co-opting whites. When whites talk about Asian values of hard work and discipline, they sided with my parents over the 5th generation Chinese in California. When whites wring their hands about cultural appropriation of minority cultures, they side with the isolationists within those minority cultures over the assimilationists and boundary pushers. When whites make yoga a fashion statement and daily exercise, they side with the physical focused Hindu traditions over the spiritually focused Hindu traditions. When whites complain about Christian bigotry, they empower traditionalists over liberal Christians. When whites call ISIS the Islamic State, they side with the violent extremists against the Muslims who curse and mock Daesh. These choices are almost never made to make one faction the victor. In fact, these choices are most often made ignorant of that dynamic. But you cannot help but choose. The moment you, as a culturally powerful outsider, essentialize another culture, you finger one faction as the true, authentic representative of that culture.
February 3, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
liberalcurrents.com
“Let us be clear: we want the power of the state. We wish to hold the criminals of the regime accountable. We wish to seize back the public funds looted by Trump and his cronies. We wish to undo the damage he has done to the government. More than any of that we wish to rebuild.”
From Powerlessness to Power
We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals without exercising state power, and the most effective way to take state power is through nonviolent but confrontational resistance.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
jamellebouie.net
this particular line is maybe the best statement of purpose i have seen for those of us who want a more militant opposition to this administration
liberalcurrents.com Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d
“Let us be clear: we want the power of the state. We wish to hold the criminals of the regime accountable. We wish to seize back the public funds looted by Trump and his cronies. We wish to undo the damage he has done to the government. More than any of that we wish to rebuild.”
From Powerlessness to Power
We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals without exercising state power, and the most effective way to take state power is through nonviolent but confrontational resistance.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 2, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
liberalcurrents.com
“Amar’s America is one utterly obsessed with decoding and depicting the founders, hailing their character and accomplishments and downplaying their faults.” www.liberalcurrents.com/who-owns-the...
Who Owns the Founding? Akhil Reed Amar’s "Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution"
Amar's book is a useful history that nevertheless smooths over some of the real complexity of the eras it touches on.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 3, 2026 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
really glad that america voted for the epstein party to take control of congress, the white house, and the supreme court

www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-t...
January 30, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
andycraig.bsky.social
They're literally running out of lawyers in a state where the district judges are practically at war with the administration.
newlife2024.bsky.social If we don’t create our dreams, who will? @newlife2024.bsky.social · 17h
BREAKING: 8 more U.S. Attorneys in MN resign from Trump’s DOJ in protest as backlash grows.
This isn’t normal; isn’t routine reshuffling. It’s a rebellion.
Last month, 6 veteran prosecutors quit in protest. Normal staffing for the MN DOJ’s office is around 50 attorneys. They’re down to just 9.
February 3, 2026 at 5:16 AM
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li
unlawfulentries.bsky.social
Why start in the colonial period? Because mechanisms of incentivizing certain migrant streams and disincentivizing others are pioneered in the colonial period, carried over & continued in the early republic. Some aspects of today's US immigration law like "public charge" is form the colonial era.
unlawfulentries.bsky.social Anna O. Law @unlawfulentries.bsky.social · 6h
The Table of Contents is up for my book. For the nerds, the chapts are named for the central argument, not the time periods. The 1st is on the colonial period, 2nd Revo War era, 3rd is Founding, 4-6 on the 19th century. Pre-order here for a March 24 delivery: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Table of Contents of Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship. Introduction 1. Sifting Migrants 2. Belonging 3. Migration and Citizenship at the Founding 4. Regulating International Borders 5. Regulating Interstate Borders 6. Formal Citizenship Defined 7. Historical Antecedents and Legal Precedents Epilogue: Continuity, Change, and Constitutional Memory
February 3, 2026 at 12:47 PM
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
i guess i would like to hear the theory on which setting fire to a random dumpster advances the cause of stopping ice
February 3, 2026 at 12:42 PM