Derrell Durrett
@derrelldurrett.bsky.social
Ex physics. Software. Life-long observer of the public morality. Devoté of Poe's Law.
Potentially voluble.
Boulder Colorado
Born at 318 ppm CO2.
Potentially voluble.
Boulder Colorado
Born at 318 ppm CO2.
Pinned
AOC: “It should be our mission right now to make sure that all people have health care!"
Housing, food, health care, and education.
For all.
That should be a guarantee to all Americans that America makes.
For all.
That should be a guarantee to all Americans that America makes.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
The propagandists on X and in the broader right wing media are working to convince Americans that multi-racial democracy and religious pluralism are ackshually foreign and nefarious forms of cultural Marxism that seek to destroy "our western civilization." It's fascism 101. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Fascinating take on the un-patriotic nature of today's woke American education that conservatives like Chris Rufo and Ben Shapiro will work to undo...oh wait, I'm sorry, these screenshots are from a 1954 pamphlet by an antisemitic and pro-McCarthy organization called "Modern Paul Reveres." My bad.
November 28, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The propagandists on X and in the broader right wing media are working to convince Americans that multi-racial democracy and religious pluralism are ackshually foreign and nefarious forms of cultural Marxism that seek to destroy "our western civilization." It's fascism 101. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
This was Andrew Breitbart's fundamental insight--he taught the right to believe that "politics is downstream of culture." So if you wanted to build a politics of exclusionary, hierarchical, & bigoted illiberalism, you needed to seed a culture that affirmed those values. Not an easy thing in the US.
November 28, 2025 at 2:27 PM
This was Andrew Breitbart's fundamental insight--he taught the right to believe that "politics is downstream of culture." So if you wanted to build a politics of exclusionary, hierarchical, & bigoted illiberalism, you needed to seed a culture that affirmed those values. Not an easy thing in the US.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
What Norman Lear didn't fully take on board was the possibility that the future could belong to the theocratic bigots of the moral majority with the Pat Buchanan-ite white nationalist bigots who were very much on the back foot in the 1970s, but whose forces were gathering steam for the fight ahead.
November 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
What Norman Lear didn't fully take on board was the possibility that the future could belong to the theocratic bigots of the moral majority with the Pat Buchanan-ite white nationalist bigots who were very much on the back foot in the 1970s, but whose forces were gathering steam for the fight ahead.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
French police are on the trail of ‘experienced’ criminals who stole a whole year’s worth of produce from Jean-Mathieu Dauvergne’s L’Escargot des Grands Crus
stzl.ink
November 28, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
“It’s very surprising because they stole 450 kilos of snail meat.”
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Before we were fired, we were interrogated. This had a very Office Space "so what would you say you do here" vibe, appearing to assume that government employees are ineffective, our systems broken.
They kept announcing things like "performance standards" as though we didn't already have them:
They kept announcing things like "performance standards" as though we didn't already have them:
Original Email to Employees
Welcome to opm.gov
www.opm.gov
November 26, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Before we were fired, we were interrogated. This had a very Office Space "so what would you say you do here" vibe, appearing to assume that government employees are ineffective, our systems broken.
They kept announcing things like "performance standards" as though we didn't already have them:
They kept announcing things like "performance standards" as though we didn't already have them:
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
18F was liquidated at midnight and our website deleted at the same moment, apparently to end our leftist conspiracy. In general DOGE appeared quite preoccupied with the idea that websites, mass emails, etc controlled by longtime government employees would be used to conspire against them.
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 AM
18F was liquidated at midnight and our website deleted at the same moment, apparently to end our leftist conspiracy. In general DOGE appeared quite preoccupied with the idea that websites, mass emails, etc controlled by longtime government employees would be used to conspire against them.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
My group's firing appears to have been a consequence of a right-wing article from 2023 calling us, and I quote, "a cabal of perpetually triggered leftists obsessed with politics and pronouns"
The article echoed around Twitter until Musk saw it, tweeted we were "deleted" which DOGE then implemented
The article echoed around Twitter until Musk saw it, tweeted we were "deleted" which DOGE then implemented
November 26, 2025 at 2:56 AM
My group's firing appears to have been a consequence of a right-wing article from 2023 calling us, and I quote, "a cabal of perpetually triggered leftists obsessed with politics and pronouns"
The article echoed around Twitter until Musk saw it, tweeted we were "deleted" which DOGE then implemented
The article echoed around Twitter until Musk saw it, tweeted we were "deleted" which DOGE then implemented
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Partisan messages like this violate the Hatch Act and, as nonpartisan civil servants sworn to uphold the law, we would never do this.
But conspiracy-brained people don't know we truly uphold the law, and in this case probably don't even know the law at all.
But conspiracy-brained people don't know we truly uphold the law, and in this case probably don't even know the law at all.
November 26, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Partisan messages like this violate the Hatch Act and, as nonpartisan civil servants sworn to uphold the law, we would never do this.
But conspiracy-brained people don't know we truly uphold the law, and in this case probably don't even know the law at all.
But conspiracy-brained people don't know we truly uphold the law, and in this case probably don't even know the law at all.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
They thought we, being radical leftists apparently, would put a "DOGE sucks" type of message onto government websites or into government communication systems
My evidence for that: the right did exactly this to government websites. So they were projecting what they planned to do onto us.
My evidence for that: the right did exactly this to government websites. So they were projecting what they planned to do onto us.
November 26, 2025 at 2:44 AM
They thought we, being radical leftists apparently, would put a "DOGE sucks" type of message onto government websites or into government communication systems
My evidence for that: the right did exactly this to government websites. So they were projecting what they planned to do onto us.
My evidence for that: the right did exactly this to government websites. So they were projecting what they planned to do onto us.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
One possible motivation to demand access was to steal data, and I think that was a part of it, but also I think DOGE (or Musk, anyway) was motivated by a conspiracy theory:
The belief that government workers would conspire to use the government's computer systems against them.
The belief that government workers would conspire to use the government's computer systems against them.
November 26, 2025 at 2:39 AM
One possible motivation to demand access was to steal data, and I think that was a part of it, but also I think DOGE (or Musk, anyway) was motivated by a conspiracy theory:
The belief that government workers would conspire to use the government's computer systems against them.
The belief that government workers would conspire to use the government's computer systems against them.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Musk's people infiltrated the GSA technology arm early on and demanded root-level access to computer systems, trying to circumvent normal security procedures. Here's one example where they pushed so hard they forced someone to resign rather than give in.
Why did they do this?
Why did they do this?
Musk Ally Demands Admin Access to System That Lets Government Text the Public
A worker resigned in protest rather than giving Thomas Shedd access to Notify.gov, which they said would allow him to see "all personally identifiable information moving through the Notiy system, incl...
www.404media.co
November 26, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Musk's people infiltrated the GSA technology arm early on and demanded root-level access to computer systems, trying to circumvent normal security procedures. Here's one example where they pushed so hard they forced someone to resign rather than give in.
Why did they do this?
Why did they do this?
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Zero reckoning from any of the elites who credulously parroted the absurd idea that the right wing was in favor of free speech.
Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters.
www.rawstory.com/alternet-pos...
www.rawstory.com/alternet-pos...
Alarm as Tennessee libraries shut down for Republican 'book purge'
Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters.For Popular Information, Rebecca...
www.rawstory.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Zero reckoning from any of the elites who credulously parroted the absurd idea that the right wing was in favor of free speech.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Ordering no quarter, as Hegseth effectively did, isn't a newfangled modern war crime. It was understood as a crime as far back as the Revolutionary War. Washington threatened to do reprisals over it. The bad guy in 'The Patriot' is (very loosely) based off a British officer who was notorious for it.
November 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Ordering no quarter, as Hegseth effectively did, isn't a newfangled modern war crime. It was understood as a crime as far back as the Revolutionary War. Washington threatened to do reprisals over it. The bad guy in 'The Patriot' is (very loosely) based off a British officer who was notorious for it.
I don't think he realizes this isn't an America First policy.
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 11:16 PM
I don't think he realizes this isn't an America First policy.
I don't know how we stop this, but it feels like we need to try.
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 11:15 PM
I don't know how we stop this, but it feels like we need to try.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
So denaturalize and deport Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, both of whom are public charges and security risks who undermine domestic tranquility and routinely promote radical foreign ideologies incompatible with America's pluralistic, scholarly, and secular traditions.
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
So denaturalize and deport Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, both of whom are public charges and security risks who undermine domestic tranquility and routinely promote radical foreign ideologies incompatible with America's pluralistic, scholarly, and secular traditions.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Fascinating article debunking a particularly important case of a conservative claiming that academia is ideologically unwelcoming to conservatives.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The Inconvenient Scholarship of Kevin Roberts | Los Angeles Review of Books
Samuel G. Freedman traces the long and contradictory intellectual journey of the man behind Project 2025.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Fascinating article debunking a particularly important case of a conservative claiming that academia is ideologically unwelcoming to conservatives.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
A graph that, if accurate, tells a remarkably damning story.
Woke up to my tweet trolling Senator Mike Lee going viral.
November 28, 2025 at 11:04 PM
A graph that, if accurate, tells a remarkably damning story.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
A real president would not declare he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries” after the heinous action of one person. He’d be capable of recognizing entire populations are not responsible for the actions of one troubled individual—and not act in a reactionary, racist way.
November 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
A real president would not declare he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries” after the heinous action of one person. He’d be capable of recognizing entire populations are not responsible for the actions of one troubled individual—and not act in a reactionary, racist way.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
I've taken a deep dive into the DOGE bro's open source software code commits to verify they never wrote (or even oversaw) any code beyond culture war messaging. It's all trivial stuff like this: taking out the "nonbiary" option on some form.
November 26, 2025 at 3:39 AM
I've taken a deep dive into the DOGE bro's open source software code commits to verify they never wrote (or even oversaw) any code beyond culture war messaging. It's all trivial stuff like this: taking out the "nonbiary" option on some form.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
utterly defanged sequined flapper bullshit is understandably a more tolerable stand-in for an era just as defined by gutter racism and eugenics
100 years later, 'The Great Gatsby' still speaks to the troubled dream of America
Great works of art are great, in part, because they continue to have something to say to the present: They're both timebound and timeless. And, boy, does Gatsby have something to say to us in 2025.
www.nprillinois.org
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
utterly defanged sequined flapper bullshit is understandably a more tolerable stand-in for an era just as defined by gutter racism and eugenics
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
Have I got a book for you if you weren't taught historic US immigration policy. My book about how the US migration & citizenship policy history and law, from the colonial period to 1888 is available for pre-order for March 10, 2026 delivery. Order info in the link on my bio.
Trump and Miller want to turn the clock back to the era of American immigration politics I think few of us were taught honestly about in American public education, outside reading The Great Gatsby
November 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Have I got a book for you if you weren't taught historic US immigration policy. My book about how the US migration & citizenship policy history and law, from the colonial period to 1888 is available for pre-order for March 10, 2026 delivery. Order info in the link on my bio.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
This is fundamentally Nazism. The idea that different peoples than the favored races carry degradation in their very genes, that they cannot strive to become better because biology compels them to be worse. It’s not just repugnant, it’s a bald faced lie.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
This is fundamentally Nazism. The idea that different peoples than the favored races carry degradation in their very genes, that they cannot strive to become better because biology compels them to be worse. It’s not just repugnant, it’s a bald faced lie.
Reposted by Derrell Durrett
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American culture.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American culture.