‪What he shares with the people around him (Miller, Vought, et al.) is a lack of interest in governance. The difference is that they, for ideological reasons, are committed to the details of dominance and control, whereas he, for psychological reasons, just needs to *feel* dominant and in control.

Nope, biology isn't bigotry. But religious right-wing gender-ideologues invoking biology in an effort to define trans and nonbinary people out of existence? *That's* bigotry.

This meme (circulating on LinkedIn) on the corruption of public debate both made me smile & frown at the same time.... it seems to sum up something about the current state of the world.

#SocialMedia #media #science

So I guess they think it's finally time that economics departments were required to hire some leftists, huh?

(Or at least a few scholars willing to challenge the behaviorist orthodoxy that all decisions, actions, and policies are driven by extrinsic incentives?)

Well, yeah, but Stephen Miller points out that anyone with darker skin isn't, like, *really* an American citizen, right?

The dissonance evaporates once you realize that, for those on the right, "diversity of thought," like "free speech," means silencing all voices that don't agree with them.

More illustrations of Betteridge's Law:

* NYT 6/24: Google Features Uses A.I. for Health Answers. Should It Be Trusted?
* NYT 8/24: Can the GOP Really Become the Party of Workers?
* Forbes 10:24: Could Elon's AI Robots Save a Troubled Education System?
* Boston Globe 5/25: Can Psilocybin Save a Troubled Marriage?

Why?

https://bsky.app/profile/nytpitchbot.bsky.social/post/3logih3buls24

"It's not so hard to figure out why I'm not sleeping. What I can't figure out is why everybody else is sleeping."
- Deborah Eisenberg

Final exam question in a future history class: Explain how an utter buffoon - a needy, greedy, pathetically unselfaware dim bulb - ended up in a position to be able to do this much harm to this many people.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lodzfa75wf2r

Partial explanation?
https://bsky.app/profile/paulwaldman.bsky.social/post/3locqs6d7xc26

Every day brings another announcement that a who-could-possibly-oppose-this program (Meals on Wheels, Head Start, cancer research) has been crushed under the wheels of the cartoonish villains' Cybertruck. And more than 100 million of our fellow Americans grin and applaud.

Déjà vu. In 1988, plans were made for a peaceful protest -- a symbolic maritime voyage in which deported Palestinians (and journalists) would sail to Haifa in a "journey of return." It was a creative attempt to flip the famous Exodus narrative and show the world that now Israel was responsible for violently casting a people out of their homeland.

Israel's response was to blow up the ship before it could leave port.

@SANKOFAB

It's hard to overstate the extent to which people on the far right - those committed to extinguishing civil rights and civil liberties - are all-in for Israel. More than any other country, MAGA's sympathies lie with the one responsible for the most intensive slaughter of civilians in the 21st century - to the point of systematically targeting anyone who protests what Israel is doing.

Of the 38 OECD countries, only one lacks a data protection agency to enforce privacy laws. That would be the U.S., where Trump & Musk "seem to be building a defining feature of many authoritarian regimes: comprehensive files on everyone so they can punish those who protest": https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/opinion/musk-doge-data-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EU8.tzO4.7Sctgx_Qsb27&smid=url-share

https://bsky.app/profile/lastpositivist.bsky.social/post/3lo5xa56e4k2i

I used to encounter this sort of argument-by-etymology when people countered my evidence on the destructiveness of competition by announcing triumphantly that the word literally means to strive together. QED!

I assume these folks also believe that lunatics are affected by the moon and all sinister people are left-handed.

Trump's "ability to direct public school curriculums is limited because public education is primarily controlled at the state & local level. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, can dramatically reshape public education" by mandating what the Republican attorney general of Oklahoma describes as "taxpayer-funded, state-sponsored religious indoctrination": https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/05/supreme-court-oklahoma-catholic-charter-school/

U.S. to rest of world: Please don't hold our fine country responsible for the admittedly despicable actions of Donald Trump! He's a psychologically unstable grifter who doesn't know what he's doing and he doesn't represent America.

Rest of world: So how did he get to be your president (twice)?

U.S.:

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lo4fthktmv2l

Miller: As we destroy everything decent and functional about this country, we will compel children to sing its praises.