Dr. William Horne
@wihorne.bsky.social
Writer. Radical. Historian at UMD. PhD in History from GW. In Case of Emergency: https://tinyurl.com/mvmrcuvk. (he/him)
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Dr. William Horne
@wihorne.bsky.social
· Dec 15
White Americans Fail to Address Their Family Histories
There is a conversation about race that white families are just not having. This is mine.
activisthistory.com
As a scholar of white supremacy & Black liberation movements, it's important to me to recall my own family's history supporting slavery & Jim Crow as I do this work. I wrote this piece a few years ago to help me think through how this past both facilitates & informs my research today.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
After the Army forced Black officers out of the ranks in 1863, a group of Black former officers from Louisiana petitioned to be reinstated "to assist in putting down this wicked rebelion. And in restoring peace to our once peaceful country."
Black Former Officers in a Louisiana Black Regiment to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, April 7, 1863
www.freedmen.umd.edu
December 1, 2025 at 4:34 PM
After the Army forced Black officers out of the ranks in 1863, a group of Black former officers from Louisiana petitioned to be reinstated "to assist in putting down this wicked rebelion. And in restoring peace to our once peaceful country."
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
This bleak (but unfortunately compelling) thread makes me think that the individual human mind/psyche is just ill-suited to being plugged into machines that allow everyone everywhere to be simultaneously talking about everything that has ever happened or could have happened at any time in any place.
This is not a "students today" post--it's more "this is a new form of dysfunction" that doesn't look exactly like it's been in previous decades. It's more than just "first-year chaos." It's an across-the-board inability to process instructions, engage with longer texts, and *connect* with others.
November 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
This bleak (but unfortunately compelling) thread makes me think that the individual human mind/psyche is just ill-suited to being plugged into machines that allow everyone everywhere to be simultaneously talking about everything that has ever happened or could have happened at any time in any place.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
And I don't know if the answer is: everyone is too traumatized to do work and we need to reinvent society. Or if it's more like: generations are losing their cognitive abilities and willpower due to destructive technologies. Or: we all have post-viral brain damage. Or: all of the above.
November 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM
And I don't know if the answer is: everyone is too traumatized to do work and we need to reinvent society. Or if it's more like: generations are losing their cognitive abilities and willpower due to destructive technologies. Or: we all have post-viral brain damage. Or: all of the above.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
#FACT👇🏽
So many lessons 2b learned frm all this, but U.S. won’t
Doing so would upend myth of U.S. as a country & white U.S. as a racial grp being “good guys” of history
White ppl are not ready for that, which is part of reason for their being ONLY racial grp whose maj of voting voters voted him in
So many lessons 2b learned frm all this, but U.S. won’t
Doing so would upend myth of U.S. as a country & white U.S. as a racial grp being “good guys” of history
White ppl are not ready for that, which is part of reason for their being ONLY racial grp whose maj of voting voters voted him in
Reminds me very much of the ways that the civil rights laws of the Reconstruction era were dismantled by applying them to corporations or by using, for example, Chinese-Americans as a foil to establish Black Americans as the anti-citizen.
Everyone involved in turning dishonest antisemitism allegations into a cudgel to destroy institutions and civil rights law should be deeply ashamed of themselves. What a extraordinary perversion of the lessons of the past century
November 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
#FACT👇🏽
So many lessons 2b learned frm all this, but U.S. won’t
Doing so would upend myth of U.S. as a country & white U.S. as a racial grp being “good guys” of history
White ppl are not ready for that, which is part of reason for their being ONLY racial grp whose maj of voting voters voted him in
So many lessons 2b learned frm all this, but U.S. won’t
Doing so would upend myth of U.S. as a country & white U.S. as a racial grp being “good guys” of history
White ppl are not ready for that, which is part of reason for their being ONLY racial grp whose maj of voting voters voted him in
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
They came to a uni who caved to authoritarian government so if they do come from illiberal regimes they should instruct Northwestern students on how to deal with Northwestern.
November 29, 2025 at 1:32 PM
They came to a uni who caved to authoritarian government so if they do come from illiberal regimes they should instruct Northwestern students on how to deal with Northwestern.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Nothing says “freedom” like putting international students through an authoritarian tribunal for the crime of wanting to learn.
What an embarrassment and betrayal of higher education’s central ideals.
What an embarrassment and betrayal of higher education’s central ideals.
“Northwestern will assume that international students come from illiberal hellholes and question them about their reasons for being here. Wait”
November 29, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Nothing says “freedom” like putting international students through an authoritarian tribunal for the crime of wanting to learn.
What an embarrassment and betrayal of higher education’s central ideals.
What an embarrassment and betrayal of higher education’s central ideals.
Reminds me very much of the ways that the civil rights laws of the Reconstruction era were dismantled by applying them to corporations or by using, for example, Chinese-Americans as a foil to establish Black Americans as the anti-citizen.
Everyone involved in turning dishonest antisemitism allegations into a cudgel to destroy institutions and civil rights law should be deeply ashamed of themselves. What a extraordinary perversion of the lessons of the past century
Statement from U.S. AG Pam Bondi:
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
November 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reminds me very much of the ways that the civil rights laws of the Reconstruction era were dismantled by applying them to corporations or by using, for example, Chinese-Americans as a foil to establish Black Americans as the anti-citizen.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Everyone involved in turning dishonest antisemitism allegations into a cudgel to destroy institutions and civil rights law should be deeply ashamed of themselves. What a extraordinary perversion of the lessons of the past century
Statement from U.S. AG Pam Bondi:
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
November 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Everyone involved in turning dishonest antisemitism allegations into a cudgel to destroy institutions and civil rights law should be deeply ashamed of themselves. What a extraordinary perversion of the lessons of the past century
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Just reminder all of these people are out of their minds on drugs of some sort and so are a great amount of the hardcore maga followers who want these boats to be bombed by us.
President Trump says no aircraft should fly over or near Venezuela, the airspace is closed in its entirety.
November 29, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Just reminder all of these people are out of their minds on drugs of some sort and so are a great amount of the hardcore maga followers who want these boats to be bombed by us.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
Turkey and sausage gumbo night is a success!
November 28, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Turkey and sausage gumbo night is a success!
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Exactly this! “Communism never works,” for ex, is actually just “the mercenaries of capital killed & starved everyone & then blamed them for being killed & starved.”
This is the imperial playbook. The western nation breaks a country, then they go look at those savages with a broken country.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Exactly this! “Communism never works,” for ex, is actually just “the mercenaries of capital killed & starved everyone & then blamed them for being killed & starved.”
Exactly this! “Communism never works,” for ex, is actually just “the mercenaries of capital killed & starved everyone & then blamed them for being killed & starved.”
This is the imperial playbook. The western nation breaks a country, then they go look at those savages with a broken country.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Exactly this! “Communism never works,” for ex, is actually just “the mercenaries of capital killed & starved everyone & then blamed them for being killed & starved.”
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
This is the imperial playbook. The western nation breaks a country, then they go look at those savages with a broken country.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:47 PM
This is the imperial playbook. The western nation breaks a country, then they go look at those savages with a broken country.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
The term BLOWBACK was originally coined by the CIA back in 1954 to describe the unintended, negative, and often deadly consequences of its covert operations abroad. And just to be clear, CIA covert operations abroad more often than not did not have the best intentions to begin with...
National Guard Shooter Reportedly Fought in CIA-Backed Paramilitary Unit in Afghanistan | The Associated Press reports on what we do and don’t know about the shooting of 2 National Guard members in DC.
National Guard Shooter Reportedly Fought in CIA-Backed Paramilitary Unit in Afghanistan - Bucks County Beacon
The Associated Press reports on what we do and don’t know about the shooting of 2 National Guard members in DC.
buckscountybeacon.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:48 PM
The term BLOWBACK was originally coined by the CIA back in 1954 to describe the unintended, negative, and often deadly consequences of its covert operations abroad. And just to be clear, CIA covert operations abroad more often than not did not have the best intentions to begin with...
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Straight-up sociopath.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Q: Do you plan to attend Sarah's funeral?
TRUMP: I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly something I can conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.
TRUMP: I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly something I can conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.
November 28, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Straight-up sociopath.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Along these same lines, I challenged Joe Uscinski's #bothsidesism pointing out that just because conspiracist cognition was ~evenly distributed across the ideological spectrum that atomic-level observation said nothing about how molecular structures were formed.
www.salon.com/2018/08/18/q...
www.salon.com/2018/08/18/q...
November 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Along these same lines, I challenged Joe Uscinski's #bothsidesism pointing out that just because conspiracist cognition was ~evenly distributed across the ideological spectrum that atomic-level observation said nothing about how molecular structures were formed.
www.salon.com/2018/08/18/q...
www.salon.com/2018/08/18/q...
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
This week, I talk to @tamaranopper.bsky.social about abolition in practice — how people learn through engagement with state violence, what gets in the way of developing shared analysis, and why abolitionists need to take recruitment and counter-recruitment seriously.
Fascism at the Door, Neighbors in the Street: Abolition in Practice
“I think a lot of us could level up our skills,” says researcher Tamara Nopper.
truthout.org
November 27, 2025 at 4:17 PM
This week, I talk to @tamaranopper.bsky.social about abolition in practice — how people learn through engagement with state violence, what gets in the way of developing shared analysis, and why abolitionists need to take recruitment and counter-recruitment seriously.
Genuinely if you don’t understand the world systemically, you are actively seeking to NOT understand it.
There's several reasons conservatism & conspiracy theories go together. Top 4, perhaps: (1) This ⬇️, plus (2) conservatives reject systemic analysis & (3) they reject blaming those with actual power to make things bad. (4) It's a way of creating community bonded by rejecting empirical evidence.
I have this theory that conservatism and conspiracy theories go together because every major conspiracy theory is a claim about where it All Went Wrong and, implicitly, what we should go back to: French Revolution, the 14th Amendment, the Wilson administration, founding of the Fed, the New Deal...
November 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Genuinely if you don’t understand the world systemically, you are actively seeking to NOT understand it.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
There's several reasons conservatism & conspiracy theories go together. Top 4, perhaps: (1) This ⬇️, plus (2) conservatives reject systemic analysis & (3) they reject blaming those with actual power to make things bad. (4) It's a way of creating community bonded by rejecting empirical evidence.
I have this theory that conservatism and conspiracy theories go together because every major conspiracy theory is a claim about where it All Went Wrong and, implicitly, what we should go back to: French Revolution, the 14th Amendment, the Wilson administration, founding of the Fed, the New Deal...
November 27, 2025 at 8:54 PM
There's several reasons conservatism & conspiracy theories go together. Top 4, perhaps: (1) This ⬇️, plus (2) conservatives reject systemic analysis & (3) they reject blaming those with actual power to make things bad. (4) It's a way of creating community bonded by rejecting empirical evidence.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Available as always to talk about the imperial boomerang on your podcast or TV show or just show up at your house and talk at your dinner guests
November 27, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Available as always to talk about the imperial boomerang on your podcast or TV show or just show up at your house and talk at your dinner guests
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
the invasion of Afghanistan is among the most horrific recent chapters of the long history of elite impunity in the US. this coda is grim but fitting - the govt practically explicitly affirming that it should only be Afghans who live with the consequences amid fading public memory of the atrocity
November 27, 2025 at 3:58 AM
the invasion of Afghanistan is among the most horrific recent chapters of the long history of elite impunity in the US. this coda is grim but fitting - the govt practically explicitly affirming that it should only be Afghans who live with the consequences amid fading public memory of the atrocity
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
Ai has stolen everything and still losing money. Them folks not even good at thievery.
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Ai has stolen everything and still losing money. Them folks not even good at thievery.
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
We now know that the man who shot the National Guard troops worked with the CIA for years in Afghanistan in a covert unit that was accused of the widespread killing of civilians. This raises so many questions about why this guy travelled from Washington State all the way to DC to shoot soldiers
November 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
We now know that the man who shot the National Guard troops worked with the CIA for years in Afghanistan in a covert unit that was accused of the widespread killing of civilians. This raises so many questions about why this guy travelled from Washington State all the way to DC to shoot soldiers
Reposted by Dr. William Horne
White supremacy is a built feature of the United States. When Columbus arrived off Hispaniola in 1492, his first thoughts were that the indigenous people could made to labor.
November 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
White supremacy is a built feature of the United States. When Columbus arrived off Hispaniola in 1492, his first thoughts were that the indigenous people could made to labor.