Craig Franson

Fetching Genes A Note on Sydney Sweeney and Right-wing Manufactured Dissent

Some thoughts about the right-wing paranoia machine. americanid.substack.com/p/fetching-g...

Support for American Eagle ad campaign dominated on X American Eagle launched an ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney and her “good jeans,” stirring a debate on whether it’s something more sinister. On X, the right-wing side dominated.

Here's the source article from @politifact.bsky.social
www.politifact.com/article/2025...

A snap image of two paragraphs from a PolitiFact study. It reads, "Collectively, 58 posts expressing support for the [ad] campaign or opposing the "Nazi" criticism [of Sweeney] gained more than 198,100 shares, 1.8 million likes and 87.1 million views. In the same time frame, we saw four X posts meeting the criteria that criticized the [ad] campaign, with 12,400 shares, 287,000 likes and 11 million views in total. That means there's nearly one post criticizing the ad for every 15 posts defending it."

15/1. That's the ratio between high profile X accounts on the right & left that are sounding off about #SydneySweeney.

The right is so desperate to make "fetch" happen.
@politifact.bsky.social #AmericanEagle #Sweeney

Marketers trolled, influencers shouted, & the right cried about "woke Nazis." Find a story that matters.

An important set of points. Liberal #guardrails didn't hold, & our capitulating institutions are now being occupied in a far-right "war of position." Meanwhile, the #democratic establishment doesn't even know what that phrase means anymore.

Good thing the liberal guard-rails held up so well.

For months myself and others within the countering authoritarianism academic community have been warning that rule of law was being reconstituted as an entirely authoritarian entity. Rule of law is being retooled into an arm of the authoritarian project and is being used to solidify fascist power

Copies of Stephen King's novel, "Fairy Tale," and Tom Stoppard's play, "Leopoldstadt," along with a Kindle opened to Sayers's mystery, "Unnatural Death." Not pictured, Tolkien's "Fellowship of the Ring," also on Kindle this time through.

Somehow simultaneously caught up in King's "Fairy Tale," Sayers's, "Unnatural Death," Tolkien's "Fellowship," & Stoppard's "Leopoldstadt." August's mood is radical, literary non-monogamy.
#SummerReads

It's like that famous saying, something or other... "shoot the messenger."

Bluesky REALLY wants me to discover cute animal vids lately.

This is serious. Very serious.

Trump Spooked! Oval Office Barf! Gen-Z Goes Full Fascist! Podcast Episode · The Next Level · 07/23/2025 · 1h 14m

Otherwise, a fantastic conversation! Love the show! 4/ @thebulwark.com podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Some big, fascist organizations that ISI luminaries either ran or wrote for include the Charles Martel Society, The H. L. Mencken Club, Occidental Quarterly, American Renaissance, VDare, & the Conservative Citizen’s Council (which helped red-pill Dylan Roof). 3/

As I understand it, both William H. Regnery & Sam Francis sat on the ISI board while they were running white nationalist journals, meeting with Klan leaders & European Nazis, & mentoring the kids of the rising alt-right. 2/

Another great chat by @thebulwark.com crew on the new fascist youth (linked below). But @jvl.bsky.social, you're mistaken about ISI, unfortunately, which had at least two fascists on the board into the 2000s. 1/
@timmiller.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social

Sickening.

Only our corporate overlords get nice things.

They're coming for protesters. Lawyer-up, everyone.

Vance Boelter, Spiritual Warfare, and Roots of Political Violence The link between dehumanizing rhetoric and political violence is well-known. When you call people 'filth' or 'baby-killers,' someone somewhere will start to believe they should be treated accordingly.

A must-read on Christian, ultra-nationalist violence from @katherinestewart.bsky.social. After you've read my little piece, go check it out! writekaths.substack.com/p/vance-boel...

A Minnesota Assassin's Creed The Rising Tide of Christian, Ultra-nationalist Violence

Our mainstream & social media drivers have GOT to learn to sustain multiple urgent conversations at once. They're allowing the right to normalize their violence. americanid.substack.com/p/a-minnesot...

A Minnesota Assassin's Creed The Rising Tide of Christian, Ultra-nationalist Violence

Our mainstream & social media drivers have to learn to sustain multiple conversations at once. War involvement in Iran can't distract us from political assassination & Christian, ultra-nationalist terrorism. The US right is successfully normalizing violence. americanid.substack.com/p/a-minnesot...

A Minnesota Assassin's Creed The Rising Tide of Christian, Ultra-nationalist Violence

Why don't we just call them Christian, ultra-nationalist terrorists? americanid.substack.com/p/a-minnesot...

Reich's conclusion: "Tolkien’s palantir fell under the control of Sauron. Thiel’s Palantir is falling under the control of Trump. How this story ends is up to all of us."

The Most Dangerous Corporation in America Friends,

Robert Reich's article on Palantir & Peter Thiel's appropriation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. robertreich.substack.com/p/palantir-t...

Why so Weird about Tolkien? The Founder Fantasies of Silicon Valley

Here's some deeper context for Robert Reich's little article on the dangers of Peter Thiel's Palantir. Tolkien isn't just a weird, little in-joke to Silicon Valley's techno-fascist broligarchs. americanid.substack.com/p/why-so-wei...

Why so Weird about Tolkien? The Founder Fantasies of Silicon Valley

Some recent thoughts on coverage of Tolkien & the Silicon Valley far right. americanid.substack.com/p/why-so-wei...

No Kings On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. ...

Stay alert to your surroundings, help de-escalate tension where you can, & record trouble-makers. They will portray us as violent mobs, but we can make their propaganda harder to sell by generating lots of counter-evidence. www.nokings.org

It’s reasonable to assume some may reprise the roles they played in 2020, posing as protesters & attacking police or vandalizing buildings to give Trump the video he needs to invoke the Insurrection Act & militarize more cities. 3/

They are also encouraging members to go incognito in the crowds to record protestors & inform on them to the FBI. 2/

White Supremacists Advocate Violence at Anti-Trump 'No Kings' Protests White supremacist and far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and White Lives Matter, are mobilizing around the June 14 “No Kings” anti-Trump protests, sharing protest locations, targeting organize...

Fascist & neo-Nazi activists are stirring up their members to disrupt & attack protestors at Saturday’s NO KINGS rallies (several have called for vehicle attacks). 1/ globalextremism.org/post/violenc...