Least surprising turn of events in last two months tbh RE:
Bluesky Social
Morgan Fairchild (@morgfair.bsky.social)
'Bizarre': Scientists stunned as Trump turns Covid website 'into a conspiracy theory page' https://www.alternet.org/trump-conspiracy-theory-267180...
Not ‘malice OR stupidity’ so much as malice AND stupidity, at this point, across the board. [www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/b...](
Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard
An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization.
 ) [Trump Officials Blame Mistake ...](
Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard
An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization.
 )
A historical image from the White House. No but seriously: yet another example of how political discourse is shaped by the extremely online now. The green lines thing is a meme culture reference to dominance. Media is now going to explain it to normies, creating a whole cycle in that frame. https://morel.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:5bnbgj7gwebt6hhub4pa5c7n&cid=bafkreifknppobx2n3fp4oqxrxswkxsxshfariqaxfv4dq5uzucmccemsna
Every now & then I get Google alerts letting me know I’m namechecked in an aggrieved way in a conservative media outlet. Today it’s The Spectator, where this lady is *mad ab a metaphor I used in the Guardian a year ago*: the “Transitive Property of Bad People”, smearing someone based on association https://morel.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:5bnbgj7gwebt6hhub4pa5c7n&cid=bafkreiadvy27xdysr74jfxd5nhqjk75rau4652ft2krsvmfr43hbr6igai https://morel.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:5bnbgj7gwebt6hhub4pa5c7n&cid=bafkreib4yv67nol5bzhpqracjbnwoo26benluxysvkp27soswlhdkip2le
Hard to overstate the extent to which we have handicapped our ability to deal with adversarial abuse because “ceNsOrsHiP!” screamers have cowed people into ceasing to study, and companies into ceasing to mitigate, the most transparently manipulative things. [www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/17/llm-poisoning-grooming-chatbots-russia/ ) [Russia seeds chatbots with lie...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/17/llm-poisoning-grooming-chatbots-russia/ )
New from me: an essay on the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and its remarkable 30 year history of witch hunts & blacklists. It chronicles the progression of how industries & academia went from capitulation to defiance,& what we can take from that today [www.lawfaremedia.org/article/proc...](
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Process as Punishment: An American History of Political Spectacle
American political theater isn’t new. The House Un-American Activities Committee operated for decades—until targets learned to fight back.
 ) https://morel.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:5bnbgj7gwebt6hhub4pa5c7n&cid=bafkreiapjucolkbbqww5ihxofr5cpoijjgwgt6ajigwhmuzonevo3mow7i
Maybe senators shouldn’t elevate cranks to the level of “top health officials”. https://morel.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:5bnbgj7gwebt6hhub4pa5c7n&cid=bafkreigrgatb36mz6wz42y6wcijum3eygvhqtqlic6amwjoco5kzhyeyvq