Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 2d

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists.

I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · 2d

This is one of the best episodes of The Dig I’ve ever heard

Daniel Denvir @danieldenvir.bsky.social · 3d

New @thedigradio.bsky.social: SECOND of two w @melindacooper.bsky.social on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. How asset boom and bust drove MAGA’s rise and also revealed powerful monetary tools that could make socialism—that and more www.thedigradio.com/podcast/from...

From Fiscal Austerity to Monetary Abundance w/ Melinda Cooper

Featuring Melinda Cooper on Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Balanced budget conservatism and supply side populism engineered a politics of austerity and budget deficit...

www.thedigradio.com

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Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 5d

1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system.

Thread below ⬇️

Hegel and Colonialism

Cambridge Core - Classical Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism

www.cambridge.org

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Kevin Pham @kdpham.bsky.social · 10d

Check out my new article! “A Postcolonial Theory of Free Speech.” journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

A Postcolonial Theory of Free Speech - Kevin D. Pham, 2025

This article reconstructs a postcolonial theory of free speech from the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm (NVGP), a free speech movement among intellectuals who proclaimed sup...

journals.sagepub.com

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · 15d

Me, desperately trying to relate to my students: “Many say that Heidegger is cringe.”

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 16d

An outstanding interview. Patrick Iber of Dissent Magazine has interviewed the legendary Polish political scientist Adam Przeworski about de-democratisation in the USA, and what lessons he’s gleaned from Chile, Peru & beyond.

Iber’s questions are stellar. Przeworski’s answers, chillingly candid.

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Rory Truex @rorytruex.bsky.social · 19d

Here's 90 minutes with @adamprz.bsky.social,
Sue Stokes, Steven Levitsky, and
@dziblatt.bsky.social on the state of American democracy right now. It was a great honor for me to be able to convene this set of people to speak together at this moment. Please share! open.spotify.com/episode/0F8W...

The State of American Democracy with Steven Levitsky, Adam Przeworski, Susan Stokes and Daniel Ziblatt | The Civic Forum E10

Spotify video

open.spotify.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 19d

I'm not sure what's going on, but this year's freshman class is giving me ... what was that word ... hope?

They're energized and excited, they're doing the reading and doing it well, they're asking great questions and offering smart answers too.

Is this just me or are others seeing it?

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 22d

I need to know more about Anders. Obviously relevant to debates around AI, but not just AI, also the shrugging acceptance of state violence.

Günther Anders, a forgotten prophet for the 21st century? | Aeon Essays

From the ashes of the Second World War, Günther Anders forecast a new catastrophe: technology would overwhelm its creators

aeon.co

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David Harvey @davidharvey.org · 24d

My next book, The Story of Capital: What Everyone Should Know About How Capital Works, will be published on 24 February 2026 by @versobooks.bsky.social

www.versobooks.com/products/337...

The Story of Capital

For decades, David Harvey has been teaching Marx's work, particularly Capital, to great acclaim. He has analysed chapter by chapter - sometimes line-by-line - Marx's three volumes and the Grundrisse. ...

www.versobooks.com

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Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 26d

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

The new TOC from academia dot edu.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

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Michele Riva @riva.wtf · Sep 14

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · Sep 9

Valentina > Frank’s > Cholula > Siete > Yucateco > Melinda’s > Tapatio > Texas Pete=Crystal=Louisiana > Old Bay Hot Sauce > Rooster sriracha > Tabasco

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Colette Shade (buy Y2K!!) @coletteshade.bsky.social · Sep 7

The Aziz x Osita collab is the one we all need right now

LPE Blog @lpeblog.bsky.social · Sep 5

In @thebaffler.com, Aziz Rana and @ositanwanevu.com discuss Nwanevu’s new book, the return of Trump, and the pathway to democratic change.

Remake America | Aziz Rana

If we want democracy to survive, we need a vision that’s going to be more compelling than the one the authoritarians are offering.

thebaffler.com

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Steven Klein @stevenklein.bsky.social · Sep 5

Delighted that my paper with @ethanvporter.bsky.social on democracy and citizen competence is now out in @bjpols.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core

Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework - Volume 55

www.cambridge.org

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Jan Overwijk @jloverwijk.bsky.social · Sep 5

Only reading this now, but solid reflection on the development of Frankfurt School style critical theory and a call for bringing to the surface "subterranean" strands of critical theory that include Marxian political economy.
read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-c...

Introduction: Critical Theory after Frankfurt | New German Critique | Duke University Press

read.dukeupress.edu

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · Aug 30

say the line Bart meme

top image - SAY THE LINE MICHEL

center image: It is indeed the emergence of this biopower that inscribes it in the mechanisms of the State. It is at this moment that racism is inscribed as the basic mechanism of power, as it is exercised in modern States.
from Michel Foucault, "Society Must Be Defended" page 254

3rd image everyone cheers

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Aug 28

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · Aug 9

I’m being generous!

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · Aug 2

Funny to read this as an American

MdB Sören Pellmann @pellmann.dielinkebt.de · Aug 2

Über 1.700 Waffen bei Rechtsextremen – und der Staat schaut weg? Während Antifaschist*innen kriminalisiert werden, bleiben Neonazis bewaffnet.
Deswegen: Rechtsextreme entwaffnen und endlich einen Schritt hin zu einer unbewaffneten Zivilbevölkerung gehen!

Waffe steckt am Hosenbund. Text: über 1700 Waffen in Händen von Rechtsextremen - überfällig: Rechte entwaffnen!

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Doug Henwood @doughenwood.bsky.social · Aug 1

"US children are 80 percent more likely to die before adulthood than children in peer nations."

Alarming & important piece by Courtney Rawlings on the crisis in child health in the US.

jacobin.com/2025/08/us-c...

The American Child Death Toll Is Mortifying

US children are 80 percent more likely to die before adulthood than children in peer nations. Causes range from lax gun laws to privatized health care. What connects them is a corrosive culture of ind...

jacobin.com

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jul 31

Harrowing report about an undocumented mother of two (including a nursing 3-month-old) who called the police on her boyfriend for assaulting her, only for her to end up detained in ICE custody with 30 other women in a men's facility notorious for sexual abuse and medical neglect.

The People Being Arrested By ICE That No One’s Talking About

The Trump administration’s deportation machine is detaining immigrant women at record numbers — and they've become invisible targets.

www.huffpost.com

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · Feb 19

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped?

I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry.

Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto.

It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · Jul 29

I love living in Connecticut and having it consistently be too hot to go outside

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Steve Cucharo @stevecucharo.bsky.social · Jul 20

Huge shoutout to the guy walking by my house wearing a shirt that just says “anxiety”