@pheller.bsky.social
Political Sociologist at Brown university
I talked with @victorerikray.bsky.social about the repression we’re facing at public universities here in Florida, where the state is attempting to impose a textbook on our intro classes, insisting that no published textbook complies with state law.
Here’s Part 1. Part 2 drops next week.
Here, I write about the public health threat posed by ICE.
Renee Good, Alex Pretti, & the dozens of others killed by ICE in recent months make this clear. But ICE also kills more slowly & covertly, by inducing chronic stress, fear, & threat.
Abolish ICE.
www.providencejournal.com/story/opinio...
Republican states are colonizing civil society: “Mr Creighton, the lawmaker-turned-chancellor … reckons that in Texas public universities … should be understood as “an extension of state government”.
economist.com/united-state...
The issue examines when and how protest translates into durable policy change, with articles by Anindita Adhikari and @pheller.bsky.social (India); Giorleny Altamirano Rayo, @emosinger.bsky.social, and @kaimthaler.bsky.social (Central America) [2/3]
30.01.2026 19:36 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Candelaria Garay (@candelariagaray.bsky.social), Jessica Rich (@jessicaajrich.bsky.social), and I co-edited a special issue of World Development on the policy consequences of social movements in the Global South. [1/3]
30.01.2026 19:36 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 1Petro-imperialism.
28.01.2026 16:49 — 👍 8 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...
27.01.2026 04:15 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...
26.01.2026 23:28 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Fuck off, Bessent. 🇨🇦
23.01.2026 16:02 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Building on Robert Paxton’s classic study of fascism Michelle Goldberg gets it just right.
Resistance Libs Were Right www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...
Amazing to me that Donald Trump has not been asked once to comment on this insanely Neo-Nazi post from his Homeland Security department, nor asked who are the 50 to 60 *million* US citizens that his DHS say they want to ‘deport.’
10.01.2026 18:44 — 👍 1708 🔁 440 💬 129 📌 26American Reich
x.com/dhsgov/statu...
Can a Corporation Be Complicit in War Crimes? Sweden Is Trying to Find Out. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/o...
31.12.2025 05:18 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Manhattan Institute The Current GOP overwhelmingly—69% to 24%— believes that American society is "too feminine" and that more masculine thinking is needed. Men are the most likely to hold this view (78% to 17%), but women also agree by a substantial margin (58% to 31%). Support is especially high among black Republicans (77% to 19%) and Hispanic Republicans (75% to 21%). The data also provide evidence for a broader generational and educational backlash among younger conservatives, particularly men. Although college graduates in the general population are less likely to support Trump, college-educated Republicans are more likely than their non-college counterparts to endorse the view that society has become too feminine. Younger Republican men, who have experienced these dynamics most directly, express the strongest support: 83% of Current GOP men under 50 agree, and nearly half (46%) strongly agree.
“Everything is gender” theory finds more confirmation
manhattan.institute/article/the-...
The bulldozed demolition of MGNREGA - www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead... For the best experience read this on The Hindu App. bit.ly/THNewsApp
22.12.2025 14:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Rights-based welfare is being replaced by neo-patrimonial patronage.
20.12.2025 16:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The repeal of India's "Right to Work" program (the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) which was the world's largest ever anti-poverty program, is just the most recent example of what I called "retrenchment populism" in my 2020 article "The Age of Reaction."
20.12.2025 16:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The Indian government wants to repeal its most effective poverty reducing program ever.
Government tables Bill to replace MGNREGA amid protests - www.thehindu.com/news/nationa... For the best experience read this on The Hindu App. bit.ly/THNewsApp
A lot of the “eurosclerosis” discourse is based on comparing GDP in nominal US$ in Europe vs US
Yesterday, the US ambassador to the EU compared Europe’s GDP per capita to that of Mississippi
This makes little sense, because it ignores the higher cost of living in the US
Passing out while your underlings are sucking up to you is a neat illustration of what unitary executive theory gets us.
02.12.2025 19:01 — 👍 839 🔁 134 💬 16 📌 2
A party with an actual theory of contemporary capitalism and what to do: see interview with Fernando Haddad, Brazil's Finance Minister
www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/b...
💡 @timmonsroberts.bsky.social makes 3 points at the @caadcoalition.bsky.social & @ucs.org presser #COP30:
1 Disinformation is everywhere
2 Those w/ structural power deploy disinformation to maintain status quo.
3 Solutions exist & they're urgent.
More info @cssn.org & cssn.org/news-researc...
Mamdani’s rallying cry for civil society: “To get to any of us, you have to go through all of us”
06.11.2025 03:45 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The sweep in election outcomes from public utilities in Georgia to the ref in California, governors, and Mamdani points to 2 clear conclusions: republicans don’t turn out when trump’s not on the card and dems are super angry and mobilized. New wave in the making.
06.11.2025 03:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
How a Fringe Movement of Gun Nuts, Backwoodsmen and Free Marketers Paved the Way for Autocracy www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/o...
26.10.2025 14:26 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Trump’s patronage machine laid bare and why the taxpayer pays the price.
They’re Small, Yellow and Round — and Show How Trump’s Tariffs Don’t Work www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/o...
Lula: Brazilian Democracy and Sovereignty Are Non-Negotiable www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...
15.09.2025 18:17 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The rule of law
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
