Peter Jauhiainen

Sanitizing Fascists and White Supremacists isn't Objective or Neutral — It's Normalizing an Authoritarian Political Project Formerly fringe figures of the Religious and Political Right met at the National Conservatism conference earlier this month in Washington, DC to bask in their success at mainstreaming their ideas with...

My latest for @religiondispatches.org on "neutral" coverage that falls for bad-faith claims by right-wing actors:
religiondispatches.org/sanitizing-f...

He’s confusing “golden” with “gilded.”

How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights in Two Months

I've covered race for two decades. I knew the 2nd Trump Admin would be dangerous for civil rights. Yet the collapse of the federal civil rights architecture and national will to address racial inequality and work on integration is stunning. Here's my latest. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/m...

Here is Joni Ernst sharing the real Republican plan. "Well...we all are going to die."

We are cheaper when we are dead. What an awful person.

The GSS just dropped new data this week. Here's an interesting shift over the past 10 years. Among Americans as a whole, fewer say that being a Christian is "very/fairly important" to being truly American. But Republicans actually *increased* in that view, reflecting the hard ethno-nationalist turn.

White Fragility Comes to the Naval Academy Treating America’s soldiers and sailors like scared children, too delicate to read a history of lynching, shows the administration’s deep contempt for them.

"Unable to control their hypersensitivity, these fragile white folks respond to discomfiting knowledge with an ignorant and incoherent rage, lashing out in the hopes that bluster and aggression will be mistaken for the strength they lack." www.liberalcurrents.com/white-fragil...

So, a historian, sociologist or political scientist teaching about the subtleties of post-colonialism is letting ideology seep into education?

If the agent of an embittered KGB officer somehow won the US presidency and entered into the office bent on destroying the USA in its national influence, network of alliances, and the American people’s quality of life, what would he be doing differently?

Opinion | Trump’s Lust for Power Cannot Be Satiated The tariff saga is just the latest example of the president’s urge to dominate.

There’s no economic plan with tariffs, at least not one relating to national interest or the welfare of the American people. Everyone who goes looking for one, or tries to craft one onto what they see, fails.

As @jamellebouie.net argues, it’s a personal desire for domination, making others losers.

Trump’s Big New Propaganda Push Nothing says “restoring truth and sanity to American history” quite like lying about it.

I wrote about Trump's executive order, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," and how it's a bunch of fascist lies.

www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-big-...

Don't Take the Bait — Kristi Noem and Fascism's Sadistic Eroticization of Power The image above is an altered detail from a video posted on X by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, along with a series of still photographs from her tour of the El Salvador prison to which T...

Thanks to @religiondispatches.bsky.social for republishing my essay on the fascist eroticization of power in Kristi Noem’s prison video. religiondispatches.org/dont-take-th...

Tech's dystopian plans for "freedom cities" expose why Musk wants to end government by the people Tech's dystopian plans for "freedom cities" expose why Musk wants to end government by the people

Musk doesn't seem worried that he and Trump threaten social and economic collapse. On the contrary, it appears that's his goal.

Musk swims in a tech-fascist ideology that believes democracy should be replaced by billionaire dictators — like himself.
www.salon.com/2025/03/17/t...

I had to look at this on my way to work this week.

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell.

This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

Changes Our University Is Making to Pre-Comply with Possible Future Regulations “[T]he University of North Texas administration recently censored the content of more than two hundred academic courses, including by mandating the...

This is a very funny satire of the situation of universities under Trump.

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cha...

The Christian Nationalist Plot to Disenfranchise Women Voters The SAVE Act, which purports to fend off the phantasmal threat of voter fraud, would throw millions of women off the voting rolls.

Christian nationalists claim to "venerate" wives and say it's a woman's "highest" calling.

But also, they think you should lose your right to vote if you pursue this "highest" calling.

newrepublic.com/article/1914...

More and more people pointing to distinctions between the Trump/Musk gov’t and a fascist regime—true, not fully there yet—as a way of avoiding plain evidence, long on the table, that this is a fascist movement. Not fully consolidated. I believe we need to name it to stop it from getting there.

The top 0.1% of Americans control $22 trillion in wealth.

The bottom 50% control $3.8 trillion in wealth.

Read that back.

Folks, this is what oligarchy looks like.

Crusades, Christendom, and Pete Hegseth’s Tattoos - A Deep Dive Podcast Episode · Straight White American Jesus · 12/16/2024 · 44m

A propos of Hegseth firing anyone who isn’t a White man. Our deep dive on his Crusaderism and White nationalism.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Republicans shouldn't be surprised Trump blames Ukraine — his sexual assault views predicted this Trump's claim that Zelenskyy "started it" echoes his long history of excusing violence against women

Republicans seem surprised that Trump victim-blames Ukraine for the war.

Feminists aren't surprised. This is how Trump has always talked about sexual violence.

Rape and fascism are related phenomena. Both are how weak, pathetic men feel powerful.

www.salon.com/2025/02/21/s...

I just had my best discussion of the semester—all students fully engaged for two hours—using @kkdumez.bsky.social “For Our Daughters” and material from @bethallisonbarr.bsky.social “Biblical Womanhood” for my unit on Sex and Gender—American religion course. Thank you for your work.

Cuts to Academic Programs with ‘Low ROI’ Hide Political Censorship - PEN America Targeting academic programs on the grounds of ROI revokes students’ ability to choose what subject to study.

A great piece by my @penamerica.bsky.social colleague Clare Carter on how the Manhattan Institute is using "return on investment" as a smokescreen to ban academic programs they don't like and limit student educational choice.

pen.org/cuts-to-acad...

Opinion | Trump’s War on D.E.I. Is Really a War on Civil Rights (Gift Article) The genius of the right-wing crusade against D.E.I. is that the term is amorphous enough that it can mean many different things to many different people.

sorry, this is the gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/o...

…or thinking that changing your name to Harry Bolz is somehow masculine.

Glad to see you here. A much better place.

This piece by @karenattiah.bsky.social is spot on.

Last week, IA Gov Reynolds (a Lutheran) refused to defend Iowa Lutheran Services from attack by Elon Musk. Today, she gave defense but tried to have it both ways. She said Musk's just doing a "review." He's not. He already declared Lutherans guilty: publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/lutherans-...

I am so happy for you.

Bluesky has come to the rescue. Love it!

I’m with ya.