Banning controversy reveals Bluesky’s federation isn’t there yet Bluesky’s protocol is so complicated that not even the biggest alternative network has figured out how to become independent

The Link banning controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality.

Bluesky’s protocol is so complicated that not even the biggest alternative, Blacksky, has been able to become independent plus.flux.community/p/banning-co...

As Trumps targets Portland, the MAGA war on blue America turns increasingly literal Conjuring fantasies of mayhem and anarchy to justify the latest domestic troop deployments, MAGA cites an "enemy within" that turns out to be. . . ordinary Americans just living their lives

As Trumps targets Portland, the MAGA war on blue America turns increasingly literal. Trump's "enemy within" that turns out to be. . . ordinary Americans just living their lives: plus.flux.community/p/as-trumps-...

Trump’s shutdown strategy is far more radical than you know White House budget director Russell Vought is waging war on the government, secularism, and modernity itself

The deep dive that @donmoyn.bsky.social and I did into what Russell Vought and Donald Trump are seeking in their shutdown is now published with transcript and show notes.

We also covered the history of right-wing public administration and Vought's religious extremism, and much more!

Triumph of the ill will Look below the surface of RFK, Jr.'s insane anti-health policies, and you'll glimpse the basic fact of Donald Trump's urge to dominate the American citizenry however he can

Triumph of the ill will: Look below the surface of RFK, Jr.'s insane anti-health policies, and you'll glimpse the basic fact of Donald Trump's urge to dominate the American citizenry however he can

Via @jtccarroll.bsky.social plus.flux.community/p/triumph-of...

Far-right pastor brags that his Bible study class led to millions of Americans losing health insurance Ralph Drollinger says Senate Republicans are turning his anti-compassion form of Christianity into law

Far-right pastor Ralph Drollinger brags that Senate Republicans took his advice to kick millions of people off Medicaid.

“Here is our Bible study being enacted into policy!”

Drollinger teaches private propaganda sessions to the most influential Republicans in DC. He should be better known.

Far-right pastor brags that his Bible study class led to millions of Americans losing health insurance Ralph Drollinger says Senate Republicans are turning his anti-compassion form of Christianity into law

Far-right pastor Ralph Drollinger brags that Senate Republicans took his advice to kick millions of people off Medicaid.

“Here is our Bible study being enacted into policy!”

Drollinger teaches private propaganda sessions to the most influential Republicans in DC. He should be better known.

Why everyone wants a piece of ancient Egypt Egyptologist and documentarian Kara Cooney on why Romans, Napoleon, and even Mormons have sought the mysteries of Kemet

Disinformation is as old as humanity. It was a lot harder to document in the past, however.

One of the more interesting hoaxes that's persisted to today is the Mormon "Book of Abraham" that was concocted before ancient Egyptian was readable in the US.

UCLA Egyptologist Kara Cooney and I discuss:

🧵 In the latest Theory of Change, I spoke w/ @karenattiah.bsky.social about how anti-Trump leaders need to be much more serious about power and money if they want win.

"It's not enough just to be right. It's also, you also have to be resourced and organized." plus.flux.community/p/to-stop-tr...

Proclaiming a jihad against a "radical left" that includes most of us, Trump and MAGA will reap the backlash A movement that considers everyone from feminists and city dwellers to minorities and scientists to be un-American zealots is making a bad bet on mass intimidation

My latest @flux.community: As the Trump administration declares war on the "radical left," opponents of Trump need to remind their fellow Americans that MAGA includes most of the population in this group. 1/
plus.flux.community/p/proclaimin...

Has liberalism become pathological? Toby Buckle on how John Rawls made liberalism too weak to defend itself, and whether ‘reactionary centrism’ is an accurate term

🧵 Liberal elites have become pathological, so committed to their own Rawlsian neutrality that they are unable and unwilling to defend their own philosophy.

This thread is a summary of the latest "Theory of Change" episode featuring @polphilpod.bsky.social. Continue here or click through 👇

Americans want big ideas, but Trump’s opponents aren’t providing them Seth Flaxman on why neither Democrats nor the broader center-to-left have been willing to make a case to the public

In my latest Theory of Change episode, Seth Flaxman discusses how Democrats have failed to articulate a broader alternative to Trump's MAGA claims and why opposition is not enough.

Reactionary hate can only be defeated when opposition is paired with inspiration: plus.flux.community/p/americans-...

Sending in troops against made-up mayhem, Trump plays little dictator in D.C. Four and a half years after his attempted coup, the president is sending in the military to secure the city against criminals — excluding himself, of course

"Trump has invented an alternate reality, rooted in racism, bloodlust, and a desire for domination. In this alternate reality, DC is beset by 'bloodthirsty criminals' and 'roving mobs of wild youth…'"

@jtccarroll.bsky.social on Trump's fascistic DC takeover despite 30-year lows in crime

Government support for religion doesn’t make citizens more religious As right-wing policymakers force religion into public spaces, evidence shows it makes people less interested in faith

Reactionary American Christians think that forcing their faith into public spaces will make people more religious. In fact, evidence shows the exact opposite appears to be the case.

Keeping religion out of government protects citizens and protects faith. plus.flux.community/p/government...

Why mediocrity seems to be the key to innovation in evolution and technology Technologist and author Venkatesh Rao on how minds work and why it matters for AI and humanity’s future

1/🧵 There's been so much hype, naysaying and doomerism about AI that I wanted to do two episodes about it on "Theory of Change" with @vgr.bsky.social and @davekarpf.bsky.social.

The discussion w/Rao centers on his idea of "mediocrity" and its significance in natural, economic, and AI processes.

AI is not the main problem—how we use it can be Political scientist Dave Karpf on how politics and technology have always shaped each other

In the latest "Theory of Change," I spoke with @davekarpf.bsky.social about how today's controversies over AI echo past discussions over "Big Data," and that how technology is used by society is the most important question to keep in mind about innovations.

Why mediocrity seems to be the key to innovation in evolution and technology Technologist and author Venkatesh Rao on how minds work and why it matters for AI and humanity’s future

The latest episode of my "Theory of Change" podcast is out!

@vgr.bsky.social joined me to cut through the AI hype and doomerism, exploring how large language models really work and why "mediocrity" is often the secret ingredient behind breakthroughs in evolution, technology, and the economy.

Epstein, Grok, and the right’s epistemic collapse What happens when you really believe that reality is liberally biased?

My latest @flux.community: Nothing Trump does about Epstein will satiate his raving mob, and Musk's attempts to "de-woke" Grok will always end in electronic Hitlerism.

This is what happens when you actually believe that reality has a liberal bias. plus.flux.community/p/epstein-gr...

Republicans treat politics like viral marketing, Democrats don’t Creator Congress founder Rynn Reed discusses how Republicans intuitively understand para-social relationships and influencer marketing

🧵 Social media permanently changed American political campaigning, but only Republicans have changed with it.

Donald Trump won the 2024 election, not because people liked him, but because his party understands network marketing.

@rynnreed.bsky.social and I discussed. Click thru or continue here...

Tupac Shakur and the political soul of hip-hop Dean Van Nguyen on the rapper’s thoroughly political legacy and why even Donald Trump is trying to claim it

One of the weirdest sub-plots of 2024 was Donald Trump marketing himself as a hip-hop icon following his arrest.

Sadly, several prominent artists helped, a sick degrading of the revolutionary ethos of Tupac and early rap.

I spoke with @deanvannguyen.bsky.social about Tupac's political legacy 👇

Trump’s colossal screwup in Iran Iran’s uranium enrichment program has not been destroyed, and its resolve to get a nuclear bomb is now certain

My latest @flux.community: Trump accomplished the opposite of what he intended in Iran.

The country's uranium isn't destroyed. It now knows what Israel and the US know about its operations. And it 100% is going to move toward nukes.

plus.flux.community/p/trumps-col...

Ten years of Trumpism: America’s lost decade A live-stream discussion with Paul Campos and Erik Loomis about how neither Trump nor Democratic leaders have changed much of anything in 10 years

Ten years of Trumpism: America's lost decade

I did a livestream episode of Theory of Change with @erikloomis.bsky.social and Paul Campos on how neither Trump nor his Democratic opponents have barely changed a thing in their policies and campaign tactics since 2015

The delusion of ‘Donald the Dove’ has been blown to bits America’s malignant child-president has wanted to bomb Iran for decades, but the dangerous myth of an anti-war Trump has persisted

🧵 1/ Donald Trump just bombed Iran’s nuclear sites—obliterating not just the targets, but one of the dumbest myths in modern politics: that he’s “anti-war.” He never was. This was always coming--but lazy pundits and naive Americans refused to see it

plus.flux.community/p/the-delusi...

Trump's war on American war fighters is a clear threat to national security Efforts to transform the military into a MAGA army aren't just bigoted and immoral — they are also an attack on the country's ability to defend itself

Donald Trump's attacks on science are of a piece with reactionism's hatred of secular truth, but we shouldn't miss that he's also trying to destroy the civic culture of America's military as well by politicizing it and degrading service, as @jtccarroll.bsky.social writes @flux.community

The right-wing wars on science and sex are linked New Moon Network founder Savannah Sly on the radical right’s attack on self-knowledge and autonomy

The far-right attacks on science and sex are part of its larger war on reality and knowledge.

@savannahsly.bskyverified.social and I talked about how and why Republicans are so obsessed with criminalizing porn on the latest Theory of Change episode plus.flux.community/p/the-right-...

Liberalism’s epistemic crisis enabled Donald Trump’s victories Author Matthew McManus discusses why both liberalism and socialism have been ineffective at countering the authoritarian right

🧵 Donald Trump's 2024 victory is part of a global shift toward a reactionary politics that pretends to be "populist."

It's a "next-level" enemy that the Anglo-speaking left has never faced.

Continue here or click through to watch/read my discussion w/ @mattpolprof.bsky.social.

Trump’s looming attack on higher education Former University of California associate chancellor Nils Gilman discusses the far-right war on education and science

🧵Trump's looming war on universities

Trump’s second term has begun, and one thing is clear: a full-scale assault on higher education is coming. Here’s how it'll play out—and why academia still doesn’t get it.

Join me as I summarize my Theory of Change episode featuring @nils-gilman.bsky.social...

Trump’s looming attack on higher education Former University of California associate chancellor Nils Gilman discusses the far-right war on education and science

A new episode of "Theory of Change" is out! Join @nilsgilman.bsky.social and @matthew.flux.community for a discussion about Trump's looming attack on higher education plus.flux.community/p/trumps-loo...

The Apocalypse of Don: Trump, Nietzsche, and Antichrist America Why far-right Christians turned to the world’s most infamous atheist

🧵 The world is on fire. Chaos reigns.

Why is this happening? Primarily because fundamentalist Christianity has become an undead intellectual zombie.

What's even more bizarre and grotesque, however, is that Trumpian Christianity is much more about Nietzsche than Jesus.

Trump’s looming attack on higher education Former University of California associate chancellor Nils Gilman discusses the far-right war on education and science

"But one thing we can be sure is going to happen in the second Trump administration is that he will conduct a full-scale assault on America's colleges and universities"

@matthew.flux.community with nilsgilman.bsky.social

plus.flux.community/p/trumps-loo...

Northern overexposure: Trump's dumb dreams of Greenlander pastures and Canadian statehood An unpopular obsession with senseless territorial expansion may prove to be a major weakness for a president drunk on his own self-regard

My latest @flux.community: Trump's obsession with taking over Greenland and Canada reflects MAGA imperialist thought and his own bottomless need to dominate others - but is also fundamentally stupid in a way that's easy for critics to communicate to the public.
plus.flux.community/p/northern-o...