Kyle Thayer (doomscrolling)

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

IMO, instead of lamenting that inter-movement in-fighting and bickering is happening at all (which is pointless), we should be more focused on how to *manage* inevitable interpersonal conflict within activist movements in the social media era.

The successful nonviolence and civil rights movements of the past, as I’ve gathered from reading about them, ALSO featured a shit ton of incessant petty drama and in-fighting.

But crucially, they didn’t have social media - so this was kept far more private.

absolutely, though I think there's something really admirable here in the ability to like . . . be both a victim and also an ally to other victims who suffered greater harm. she knows where she falls on the privilege scale and she's using the platform she was given not to make it all about herself

You cannot do "commonsense reform" for a secret police force that's declared itself exempt from constitutional requirements. You cannot reform ultraviolent agencies that have been corrupt for decades and now have accountability only to the president's goons and lackeys.

I’m actually quite moved by how swiftly she pivots away from her own grief and trauma - real and justified though it is - to remind us not to take our eyes off the women who were assaulted

the Bring Back Shame Popular Front is expanding

Given the news drop of elite institution in the Epstein files, I hesitate to say this about *any* institution but…if Harvard continues to hold out, it will matter. Something that he cannot buy. Nominally anyway.

Conspiracy theorizing is a cognitive error, it’s what happens when our powerful ability to find patterns and construct narratives loses any real braking mechanism and runs completely off the rails, operates unchecked

People are especially vulnerable to it when they feel beset and helpless

Something I picked up pretty early when I started studying sociology is that things that look like grand highly intentional conspiracies are so often just systems of power and incentive structures that connect people who have the same interests

Which isn’t to say there are no conspiracies but

I know the lootbox Bobby kotick Epstein email is wild but microtransactions go all the way back to arcade machines which required quarters to continue playing. lootboxes were not invented by Activision gatcha mechanics preexisted that shit by years. Please believe in the existence of history

But the people who are in denial about the fact that hundreds of millions of people *use* these tools, willingly? That’s *bananas*. It might make you mad, you might not _like_ it, but the behavior is absolutely real. Fixing a problem requires confronting reality. The denialism about it is unreal.

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

pizzagate and qanon were not onto something, they were orchestrated by pedophiles to make accusing people of pedophilia make you look insane so that they could continue doing pedophile shit. fucking christ

there’s been an assumption that when Dems take power again they will keep ICE funded at these ridiculous levels forever and they are now on record voting to end that

they’ll need to go much further than that but it’s a start - and I sure don’t see the politics of ICE improving between now and then

Calling up your Dem senators and thanking them for doing this is how you encourage them to hold the line, no matter how low your estimation of them is

I'm one of the people who got him to delete the old politics board, I'm not sure I feel about finding out I got overridden by fucking epstein

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#TimelineCleanse

Liam himself is five goddamned years old and should be at home with an adult he trusts right now no matter who his parents are. It would not matter if they were literal criminal masterminds, Liam Ramos is a baby and babies do not belong in prison.

For any elected official who needs to hear this, I impart a lesson learned from the NFL:

When the other team is tired and on the back foot, you don’t call a timeout so they can catch their breath. You grind their fucking face into the dirt until the final whistle blows and you’ve won the game.

Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days.

His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”

That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

Political Scientists would call it a "tactical concession" (RRS' Spiral Model). Human rights and democracy campaigners need to make sure it leads to more gains (positive spiral) instead of stalling progress (negative spiral).

if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.

you can see some of this already with, for example, Kathy Hochul (somehow): the promise that, the second it's possible, people perpetrating crimes against civilians will be held accountable by states like New York bsky.app/profile/gove...

one way mobilizing against authoritarianism works is by demonstrating how the long-run costs of complying with an authoritarian's demands are actually higher than the short-term benefits of acceding to them. democratic lawmakers should be informed by sustained mass outrage & promise accountability.

if Bovino is out, then everyone who works with him can see that there are at least some consequences for terrorizing people. now's the moment to make sure all the people who work with him know they should stop now, prepare for the political moment after this one, and anticipate accountability.

There's been a lot of discussion about the echoes of the civil rights movement in the protests today, with people obviously drawing comparisons between the strategies, tactics and coalitions that were vital then and are still vital now.

But this post has me thinking about a different echo ...

Tragic that it took two avoidable murders and countless injustices to arrive at this place where elites are finally acknowledging what the people have been demanding for a year. As someone who has been banging on this drum, I'm relieved with the trend, but dismayed with the consequences of inaction.