Dr. William Horne

But when they do decide to try it on me, I’ll let you know how it goes lol!

🧵*Fascinating*🧵 thread about history of "welfare queen" trope, and use of racist rhetoric for gutting public service programs. Even if you lived through it all, it's older than you think.

Anything the psych ward gives, it takes away in the trauma it delivers that it becomes your task to heal from.

Care does not happen in psych wards. Stabilization of crisis can happen in psych wards, & it's purely being in a contained environment with doctors all around adjusting meds. The rest of what happens in psych wards is torture. We will need to see the end of the psych ward for mad liberation.

This kind of activity is deeply unpopular, but unpopularity alone isn’t enough to stop it bc this regime doesn’t see itself through the lens of democracy. Under such circumstances, an additional set of tools—those grounded in disruption—is required.

Exclusive: Woman detained by feds in Keys says she was following agents’ orders “This is not the America that I grew up in, and this is not the America that we represent.”

“Traumatized, humiliated, degraded.”

The nurse, a US citizen, 4’11”, 85 lbs, says she was following orders when she was dragged out of her car by masked immigration agents in Florida.

It was the 3rd time she had been stopped and told to produce ID.

Free link ⤵️
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

“This is, quite straightforwardly, a program for regime change in Europe, aimed at turning it into an illiberal polity. Accomplishing this transformation would involve undermining existing liberal governments in cahoots with Europe’s own far right”

Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise | The Myth of the Welfare Queen Learn about the myth perpetuated by divisive rhetoric about welfare. Nov. 15 & 22 on PBS.

Talking in class today about Reagan's racist rhetoric & the ways those in power have used the coded language of anti-Blackness to dismantle public services.

"the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."

Imagine being PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and strategizing how to do racism better.

Why do we still pretend these institutions are legitimate or worthy of respect?

ICE Nativity scenes: Churches reimagine Christmas story amid deportations (RNS) — 'We know that Jesus was born into a Roman imperial occupation, and pretty much immediately becomes a refugee in Egypt, has to flee and faces political violence,' the Rev. Michael Woolf said.

In Chicago, a Nativity scene features a zip-tied baby Jesus and Roman centurions in "ICE" vests.

Near Boston, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are absent from a Nativity scene, replaced with a sign reading "ICE was here."

It's all part of growing religious blowback to ICE. religionnews.com/2025/12/05/i...

"In his final drive for power Hitler had considerable financial backing from a fairly large chunk of the German business world...What good [that] eventually did these politically childish men of the business world will be seen later in this narrative."

-The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 242

All comes down to ⬇️

This sums up "Western" imperial politics: driven by racism but pretending not to be.

Everything is about racism because racism is how colonial capitalism operates.

Atwater has to go down as one of the most evil ppl ever to walk the streets of DC. His "I'm sowwwy! Pwease don't send me to Hell!" tour prob didn't work out for him, seeing that after he died they found his unread, wrapped in cellophane Living Bible that he claimed changed his life among his things

white supremacy/nationalism is probably one of the few instances of extremism that has a “polite” socially acceptable expression to the point of being the basis of successive/successful political platforms in a multiracial pluralistic democracy

goldwater, atwater, & andy johnson’s ghosts haunt us

Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Democracy Awakening’ Shows the Importance of Holding Right-Wing Criminals and Frauds Accountable - Bucks County Beacon Richardson’s work is as much about the contradictions of our shared past as it is an urgent call to action around the current authoritarian crisis threatening American democracy.

Probably important to note that both of these men did some pretty big crime-ing while in office without any consequences whatsoever. That, too, is what got us here.

And more crucially, as a direct result of local, state, & federal policy. The U.S. state itself plundered their communities for centuries & then blamed them for the effects of that plunder.

Ronald Reagan & General Harriet Tubman both lived during part of each other's lifetime

Reagan was a child, but imagine ideals he formed from the adults at the time from how they spoke of her

I remember his "welfare queen speech" & slogan to win"

This is exactly what project 2025 does regarding the supposed antisemitism stance. Reagan: "the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."

YouTube video by The Nation Exclusive: Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy

The impact of this kind of rhetoric, which Nixon & Reagan made integral GOP politics & ideology, illustrates that we can't "go back to normal" if we hope to fix this thing. That's what got us here.

Anyway, the lies & racist rhetoric Nixon employed seems, er, relevant:
"Pointed out that there has never in history been an adequate black nation - and they are the only race of which this is true. Says Africa is hopeless -and the worst there is Liberia, which we built."

Nixon had in fact tried to craft a welfare program that expanded benefits to white Americans while restricting their Black neighbors from benefits. When this failed to adequately inspire white America, he turned more fully to the tactic of race-baiting.

In fact, his "welfare queen" rhetoric built upon Nixon's welfare policy blaming Black Americans for being poor:

"the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."

YouTube video by Bloomberg News Unearthed Audio Captures Ronald Regan Using Racial Slur in Call With Nixon

Reagan was, let's say, not exactly subtle with his racism, as recently declassified material from Nixon's White House Tapes reveals.

Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise | The Myth of the Welfare Queen Learn about the myth perpetuated by divisive rhetoric about welfare. Nov. 15 & 22 on PBS.

Talking in class today about Reagan's racist rhetoric & the ways those in power have used the coded language of anti-Blackness to dismantle public services.

The Soldier in the Illiberal State is a Professional Dead End The American political system today is indeed in crisis. Government function is in doubt, the administration has politicized and weaponized a previously

This piece by @carriealee.bsky.social is one of the most essential things I've read all year. 100% assigning it to my grad students next term. Read it.

warontherocks.com/2025/12/the-...

Democratic politicians need to stop accepting Trump’s white nationalist premise that immigration is bad and proudly and loudly make a positive case for why America’s identity and history as a nation of immigrants is so important.

Oh you mean the culture of white supremacy?

Thank you for sharing this & I love how it flips my initial framing to identify what is of value in education in a different way. And I think you’re exactly right—people are hungry for making & that’s something we can leverage for good.

That sounds like the foundation of a great class!