Teaches US History at Willamette Univ. Working on a book about the long history of the US Right. https://rightlandia.ghost.io/
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NEW: Mercenary spyware is coming to the US. ICE just quietly unsuspended their contract with spyware maker #Paragon. Remember them? Caught earlier this year being used to hack Italian journalists. This is bad, let's talk about how we got here 1/ jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
Stop the presses!!! Heavens to murgatroid! Are you saying Benny Johnson lied about something!?!? Say it ain’t so.
“He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!”
When the day comes, I hope the family of Colin Powell has a fitting obit queued up.
To gauge how it’s “working,” one would have to be clear on what the actual work is, which is not helping to educate children but rather to imbed these systems in a way that they cannot be removed, establish them as a source of truth, and destabilize labor.
The person leading the effort to ban vote by mail in Oregon has never met an election won by a Democrat that he doesn’t think was stolen. This post is from November 2024.
Virtually every speaker the OR GOP has brought to the state for one of their events since 2022 has been, first and foremost, an election denier. Lying about elections is now basically a requirement for being a Republican in good standing.
I may have mentioned him in this article. www.google.com/books/editio...
For example, I saw this on FB two weeks ago. Tom Paine never said this, but an anarchist who wanted to smash the state did!
This is the old FakeFoundersQuotes tumblr I mention at one point as my initial foray into historian social media. I still see this apocryphal Tom Paine quote all the time on right wing social media sites. www.tumblr.com/fakefounders...
Very much enjoyed this conversation about, in part, how a historian of the founding era like me gradually morphed into someone who writes about the history of the far right in the post WWII-era PNW. As an added bonus you get to see my cat's tail smack me in the face a few times.
Let us celebrate the 13th anniversary of Eric Cantor's classic unclear-on-the-concept Labor Day tweet.
What if they not letting Trump speak because he had a Reverse Fetterman Stroke and hes woke now
It took a day or so to make the switch and get used to it, but in general I'm liking it just fine. Substack was super easy to use, but I just couldn't stand being in that Nazi bar anymore.
Here's a better response to RFK's destruction of our public health system than what Senator Schatz is offering here, from JB Pritzker (with some additional ideas thrown in from me and public health experts): newrepublic.com/article/1998...
This sums up so many conversations I've had where someone simply cannot imagine political agency on the right. It's wild and it leads to absolute absurdity. I've come up with an analogy I've started using:
That was a Candace Owens effort at encouraging Black voters to leave the Democratic Party. In Oregon that movement got little traction, possibly because they could not find any Black Republicans willing to lead it.
In my house I must hear, “the republicans out-organizes every organizer in this country” about three times a day.
I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't promote my own research here--which is about the 60+ year, far right insurgency inside the GOP that finally realized its goal with the nomination of an illiberal, conspiracy-obsessed, anti-leftist populist named Donald Trump. rightlandia.ghost.io/walter-huss-...
yes
Not sure
She was one of the people behind the disinformation campaign about Jo Ann Hardesty. She posts as PDXreal. Her husband (ex-husband?) got in some trouble re. child porn/solicitation I believe.
This is exactly right! The Right’s core claim is that they represent an authentic, “real" America that is constantly being victimized, made to suffer under the yoke of leftist/liberal overreach, and therefore rightfully aggrieved. And too many Democrats/liberals look at that and go: “I agree.”
And here's that "voice of the volk" posing with one of the most important organizers of the far right movement inside the GOP, Morton Blackwell, who's been at it since 1979. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_...
Here's that "voice of the volk" Wm. Ames Curwright, the organizer of the Gathering of the Eagles events, posing for a pic at CPAC 2014 with Joseph Farrah, the editor of WND. He's the person who in 2011 convinced an NYC billionaire to double down on birtherism as his ticket to political prominence.
Anyway...Dems need to break out of the impulse to see 200 white people protesting against Covid restrictions as "the voice of the people which we must heed" while seeing 10X as many people protesting racist police violence as "a niche special interest group that's out of step with real Americans."
One of the honored guests at last year's Gathering of the Eagles was the Gateway Pundit guy. The conservative activist who posted these pictures has described the Catholic church as an agent of Satan. She also has said LGBTQ are demonic, and she made posts celebrating the Proud Boys.
Ames died several years ago, but his "compound" in Turner, OR is still used as the site for this annual Gathering of the Eagles. Here's the lineup for this year. I know of at least one self-avowed neo-Nazi who used to attend these meetings where the Oath Keepers and the John Birchers recruit.
One person I spoke with at this 2009 Tea Party event in Salem was a rich industrialist (who claimed to be a descendant of arch-Federalist Fisher Ames) named William Ames Curtwright. He ran an annual event for right wingers in Oregon called the "Gathering of the Eagles." bsky.app/profile/seth...
The Tea Party was covered in the press like it was a spontaneous eruption of populist anger, but those protests drew far fewer people than the recent protests against Trump's administration. The "Tea Party" was just a well-funded organized, right wing movement promoted by friendly media outlets.
Historian Jefferson Cowie's book, Freedom's Dominion, is an extended meditation on the deeply rooted American anti-democratic tradition he's called "racialized anti-statism." White people have long decried "federal tyranny" while promoting racist systems of state power. bsky.app/profile/seth...
The George Floyd protests radicalized a lot of white people AGAINST structural racism. In response, the right tapped into frustration over Covid restrictions (imposed by Red AND Blue states almost equally) and white resentments to organize an old fashioned, racialized backlash against the gubmint.
This is "the one big trick" that the right has mastered. They present their movement as just "the authentic voice of the volk outraged by Democratic overreach," when really what they're doing is just old fashioned political mobilization. Organize a passle of pissed off people & call it a movement.
What these Schatz posts say to me is that Dem elected officials like him seem incapable of perceiving the right as a *political movement.* The response to Covid mitigation and the Floyd protests was not a spontaneous reaction...it was a right wing backlash organized by a reactionary movement.
Luckily we've got a soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize winner in the White House who has already ended 99 and 44/100ths wars over the past 7 months, so there's no need to be concerned about any sort of land war in Europe or anything.
This is a fascist account that has retweeted Nazi propaganda. hopenothate.org.uk/2024/06/20/e...
"To be curbed, stood up to. In a word, thwarted, exercises the character. Elasticates the spirit, makes it more pliant. It's the want of such exercises that makes rulers rigid."
"We do not use the word 'lunatic' in relation to his majesty" "Oh. Who's to say what's normal in a king? Who's to say what's normal in a king. Deferred to, agreed with, acquiesced in. Who can flourish on such a daily diet of compliance?" youtu.be/jVAhTa26EFQ?...
happy labor day
dawg what are we doing here
you thought I was stupid, but in reality, you thinking that I was stupid means that the stupid one is actually you
Dan Scavino, October 2016: “Look boss, we’re in trouble because people are saying the Access Hollywood tape is sexist.” Trump: “What’s wrong with being sexy?” youtu.be/wrMWRKSNLcs?...
It’s his non-tax exempt slush fund that he can use for just about anything he wants.
I read the political news these days and I ask myself how much more black could it be. And the answer is none. None…more black.
Can you believe some leftists are desecrating our beautiful flag? Well you can spit in their faces by wearing this $45 t-shirt that features me, the guy who inspired a coup attempt and is teasing an unconstitutional run for president in 2028, hugging and kissing the flag!
Smell the glove!
rip to everyone whos become delusional after talking to chatgpt but im built different. like actually different. according to chatgpt im some kind of god. the one who decides
Ok this is extremely not what happened. Any guesses on the real story?
Tomorrow, in Part 1 of a two part episode on the Did Nothing Wrong Pod, I sit down with Professor @sethcotlar.bsky.social to talk about the history of the Radical Right in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Subscribe Today! www.didnothingwrongpod.com/p/did-nothin...
I saw some of the discourse happening today on this app and one observation I have is that the sooner we start to understand that much of what gets called “online left” are actually diagonalists and Nazbols/Red-brown the better off we will all be
Race Isn’t Biological — So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is? @kevinlala.bsky.social and @kztwyman.bsky.social blog about their recent paper in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
Some important “What to expect when we’re electing” messaging from the Brennan Center. Election fraud lies are integrated into the administration’s strategies of election interference going into 2026. What we need to be aware of… and what we can do:
It’s not true that there are no principled conservatives, and every time they appealed to principle it was merely a mask for “it’s bad if you do it, but good when we do it, and we’re eager to do it a lot more.” It’s just that principled conservatives all went NeverTrump, by Jan. 6 at the latest.
An important piece of context here is that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for only the first two years of Obama’s presidency. Republicans currently control not only Congress and the WH, but also the SCOTUS. And still, Trump is governing by EO and fiat.
Ah….never mind. Executive orders are bad when Democrats do them. FWIW, Obama signed 129 EOs in his second term. Trump has issued 198 so far in **the first seven months** of his second term.
Wow! Finally some pushback on that barrage of executive orders coming out of the White House with no attempt to work with Congress to pass legislation. And coming from Chuck Grassley of all people! Oh wait, hang on a sec, I’m getting word that this is not about Trump but rather…
trump can issue as many executive orders as he wants, perhaps coverage should reflect the fact that a lot of these have the legal force of a child's wishlist for santa
remember folks, we cant have gun restrictions because if we do the federal government will occupy our streets, imprison people without due process, ship dissidents to foreign gulags and things of that nature
Just saw someone refer to Cheryl Hines as The Marvelous Mrs. Measles and 💀💀💀💀💀💀
FYI www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
The extent to which ICE is ignoring all civil rights and due process is astounding — and indicative of a culture where they’ve been told they can do literally no wrong. Agency and admin leaders must face sanctions and legal consequences.
🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics. The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.
“In sunglasses” is a gem-like detail that only a world class stylist could come up with.
Jimmy Carter trained to go on a nuclear submarine. Trump has gone nuclear on a sub…contractor.
“caviar topped chicken nugget” - I cannot think of a better objective-correlative for the American ruling class
Felt like a pie chart was in order. Number of mass shooters since 2018: 4197 % of mass shooters since 2018 that were transgender? 0.095% % of mass shooters that were cisgender: 99.905%
South Carolina Ice cream shop political anthropology > Ohio diner/NYTimes political anthropology
A thread of obvious truths that weirdos on Bluesky seem to have a hard time understanding.
I’ve polled 40 students at my liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest. 60% report that they avoid AI chat bots like the plague. 75% report having a generally or strongly negative opinion about how AI will impact the future.
The US Holocaust Museum is planning to "upgrade" its exhibit on the US response to Nazi Germany, and staff are concerned the Trump administration wants to downplay the extent to which the Immigration Act of 1924 doomed more European Jews to die. abcnews.go.com/US/upcoming-...
I will just end this thread on the nature of Trumpian fandom with this anecdote about the first time I ever saw a Trump 2016 flag. bsky.app/profile/seth...
To be clear, Trump has not just rank-and-file fans (who get little of material benefit from what he's doing) but also a small cadre of real constituents (who are his fellow corrupt billionaires & the grifter hangers-on) who are profiting mightily from this admin www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
Constituent service is pretty boring, though very important (esp. if you need it). Fan service delivers little of material use, but is very emotionally satisfying. It makes you feel like you're participating in a world historical movement to save the country from "them." bsky.app/profile/seth...
Related, from Walter Benjamin, before he died fleeing the Nazis:
It's important to note that Trump has surrounded himself with sycophantic, conspiracy-obsessed fans since his first term. This is not new. One of his Mar-a-Lago golfing pals back in 2017-18 was a far right meme obsessed Florida doctor. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Trump's fan service is not a distraction from something more real, it is the essence of the political culture he's built & installed into the hardware & software of the Republican Party. This is why his fans don't know much or care about policy. They want action. They want their fantasies fulfilled.
I believe so, yes. I know I attended that one, but I can't remember for sure if this was it.
Remember Hulk Hogan's absurd introduction of Trump at the 2024 RNC? The most commonly used phrase in that speech was "real Americans." You, Trump's hardcore fans, are the only "real Americans." The other people are our enemies who must be crushed. That was not a distraction. youtu.be/MO1zhWze2J4?...
As I wrote in that March 2024 piece..."Absurdist lies + power = Authoritarian terror." "DC crime is out of control & we're being invaded "(absurdist lies) + $45 billion for masked goons & concentration camps (power) = authoritarian terror (our present moment). Trump's fans are LOVING this.
Needless to say, it is the conspiracy-saturated element of Trump's political persuasion that his most avid fans find most compelling. We must root out the Communist deep state vermin seeking to destroy America, like...the CDC vaccine head, USAID, Lisa Ford, etc. rightlandia.ghost.io/its-funny-un...
This "fan service" dimension of Trump, where he's focused on keeping the most extreme elements of his coalition happy because he knows the others will accept whatever he does, is what lay behind the "right wing ratchet" effect discussed in this thread from last fall. bsky.app/profile/seth...
When politicians do "constituent service," they're beholden to everyone in the electorate. When politicians do only "fan service" they're beholden only to their fans, & especially the most avid amongst them. The nutso present we currently inhabit was, unfortunately, not hard to foresee in Feb 2024.
A few weeks after that "nutty" March 2022 event, that pastor and those Proud Boys and the Oregon Republicans who spoke on that stage (which was rented to them by the Proud Boy who owned it) were all at the Reawaken America tour when it came through town. The local sponsor was that pastor's church.
That March 2022 event was sparsely attended. There were Proud Boys doing "security." There was the pastor of our local Christian Nationalist Church hanging out with hosts from our local MAGA AM radio station. There were cars and t-shirts with Qanon slogans. That nuttiness had no future, right?
It's useful to think of Trump's political style as a form of "fan service," which is distinct from the "constituent service" we used to associate with the role of elected officials. I took this picture in March of *2022* at a Republican event in Salem, Oregon. That flag seemed bonkers at the time.
“If there’s no difference between upholding the Constitution and attacking it, then there’s no honor in service.” Also, there’s not really a Constitution anymore. Just meaningless words on paper.
Youth pastor voice: you know who else everyone thought was dead for three days
So do we think Ben Garrison has an epic Trump obituary cartoon in the can, or do we think he’s in denial about that possibility and just hoping inspiration will strike him in his moment of deepest grief?
I was going to make a joke about how Trump isn’t dead, he is just pining for the fjords…but then I realized that could be interpreted as “he’s plotting the invasion of Greenland.” I hate it here so much.
don't want to let it slip under the radar that racist law prof amy wax lost her discrimination suit against penn and will be suspended from teaching this year
OMG, perfect
Another observation from my 101-year-old grandfather, since he's tickled pink that people enjoy his points of view. He says he listened to Father Coughlin's radio show back in his youth and that nothing reminds him of that infamous antisemite and bigot as Tucker Carlson's commentary today.
LOL. Did this all get touched off by a joke tweet from John Ganz that went viral on Twitter?
Getting major “night of the covfefe” vibes from Bluesky tonight.
“Paul is dead” was the OG boomer Qanon