Emily Witt (@embits) — Bluesky Profile

1 month ago

Emily Witt and Ruby Cramer discuss the situation in Minneapolis, a city effectively under siege by militaristic federal agents on the latest episode of #NewYorkerRadio. swap.fm/l/tny-radioh...

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1 month ago

The Battle for Minneapolis As Donald Trump brings his retribution to a liberal city, citizens, protesters, and civic leaders try to protect one another.

Came back to the city that raised me. www.newyorker.com/news/dispatc...

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6 months ago

The anxieties Tate addresses are real, which is part of the reason his sales pitch is so effective. ‘The system is deliberately designed to oppress and keep people working jobs which barely pay their rent and everyone is semi-depressed,’ he tells Tahsin and Shea. ‘But it doesn’t matter because the elites get to do whatever they want. So, the rules are for poor people. And when you understand how to break the rules, then you can find a very easy way to become rich.’ It’s not just rules that are for simps, but manners, decorum and kindness too. Some of his power, like Trump’s, comes from his acknowledgment that traditional paths to economic and social stability are increasingly blocked off, and in ways that undermine traditional markers of masculine success. ‘We live in a world where you cannot play fair any more,’ he says.

In a recent interview in Jacobin, the anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee described the theories of the manosphere and its female counterpart, the tradwife, as ‘individual escape fantasies’ – a dream that there is some way out of material and social reality, and that the key to comfort, protection and meaning in life is deciphering the messages sent by your endocrine system. ‘It’s sad,’ Ghodsee said, ‘because there’s almost a nascent anti-capitalist impulse here being hijacked toward reactionary ends.’ The clips of young mothers with facial fillers wearing eyelet dresses and stirring with wooden spoons, the thick-necked men discussing their paleo diets and their crypto positions – even the videos of the morning dew on a banana yellow sports car – bely a desperation. If the keys to the good life have been discovered, why this incessant gabbing at the camera?

Really excellent essay review by @embits.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk on the #manosphere and Andrew Tate. It makes very disturbing reading but it is important we all understand these phenomena.
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www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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6 months ago

Our new issue 47.16 is now online, featuring:

@tomstevenson.bsky.social in El Salvador
Kasia Boddy on Dorothy Parker
Seamus Perry on Richard Ellmann’s biography of James Joyce
Ruby Hamilton on David Lynch
and Emily Witt (@embits.bsky.social) on the manosphere.

Read online at lrb.co.uk

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7 months ago

Israel kills Al Jazeera journalists in targeted Gaza City airstrike - Committee to Protect Journalists New York, August 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled to learn of the killing today of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and M...

An entire news crew working for Al Jazeera was killed by Israel as they sought to bring the world firsthand reporting from #Gaza.

Among them was prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who had been previously smeared and threatened by the IDF.

#NotATarget

Full statement: cpj.org/2025/08/isra...

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8 months ago

ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People, Leaked Emails Show The new tool, called Mobile Fortify, uses the CBP system which ordinarily takes photos of people when they enter or exit the U.S., according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. Now ICE is usin...

www.404media.co/ice-is-using...

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8 months ago

Most nabbed in L.A. raids were men with no criminal conviction, picked up off the street A Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal conviction and 58% had never been charged with a crime.

Most nabbed in L.A. raids were men with no criminal conviction, picked up off the street

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8 months ago

The People Being Disappeared by ICE in Los Angeles As communities across Southern California document and protest the escalating raids, loved ones grapple with the unimaginable.

Spectacular reporting & heartbreaking writing by Emily Witt @newyorker.com

The People Being Disappeared by <em class="small">ICE</em> in Los Angeles www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

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9 months ago

Looking for the National Guard in Los Angeles President Trump’s assertions that federal troops have saved the city from destruction did not appear to reflect reality.

There are now more military stationed in L.A. than in Iraq and Syria. Emily Witt reports on the anti-ICE demonstrations and federal presence in the city.

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11 months ago

I wrote about Bernie and AOC's visit to Tucson for @newyorker.com

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1 year ago

Where Do Trans Kids Go from Here? In the wake of Donald Trump’s executive order banning transition-related care for minors, hospitals in blue states began cancelling appointments—forcing families in New York and beyond to consider whe...

I wrote about Trump's executive order targeting gender care for children and the fallout in New York and other cities. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

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1 year ago

From the fednews community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the fednews community

Yesterday many thousands of federal employees were terminated. This is a Reddit thread for federal employees that got laid off.

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1 year ago

Emily Witt – Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso Writer Emily Witt (The New Yorker) on the impact of the Los Angeles fires, the prophetic work of Octavia Butler, and the power of community.

I went on @TalkEasyPod with Sam Fragoso to talk about what it was like in Los Angeles these past couple of weeks. talkeasypod.com/emily-witt/

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1 year ago

Will L.A.’s Fires Permanently Disperse the Black Families of Altadena? In a Los Angeles suburb, multigenerational families like the Benns found affordable housing and a deep sense of connection. After the devastating fires, many wonder whether they’ll be able to rebuild ...

I wrote about a multigenerational family in Altadena who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire. search.app/kqjW9okx2oAj...

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