Craig Franson
@craigfranson.bsky.social
English professor/democracy enthusiast--18/19th century, popular culture, critical theory, writing & rhetoric. Sometime podcaster & substacker at #AmericanId, former photojournalist & actor, Idaho expat.
#Politics #Romanticism #PopCulture #Tolkien #Buffy+
#Politics #Romanticism #PopCulture #Tolkien #Buffy+
Reposted by Craig Franson
...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site
dissatisfied by the New York Times coverage of Zohran Mamdani?
great news! I talked to the guy Thursday about his campaign’s success at bringing community together beyond this election, and contextualized how it’s potentially shifted youth engagement with politics by simply listening @teenvogue.com
great news! I talked to the guy Thursday about his campaign’s success at bringing community together beyond this election, and contextualized how it’s potentially shifted youth engagement with politics by simply listening @teenvogue.com
Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People
“What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”
www.teenvogue.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:16 PM
...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site
Reposted by Craig Franson
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”
Trump is holding a Great Gatsby/Roaring 20s-themed party at his private club in Palm Beach tonight as he tries to withhold SNAP and health care subsidies from millions of Americans. (via Kellie Meyer)
November 1, 2025 at 1:15 PM
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”
Selfie with bloater. Happy Halloween, all!
November 1, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Selfie with bloater. Happy Halloween, all!
Reposted by Craig Franson
Here are the companies destroying the east wing of the White House
October 23, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Here are the companies destroying the east wing of the White House
Reposted by Craig Franson
I'm always delighted to hear from @schuneke.bsky.social whose research remains alarmingly pertinent. Thanks to him for writing about Weimar with nuance, political violence, and the portents to pay attention to these days.
time.com/7321664/poli...
time.com/7321664/poli...
Can Democracy Survive Political Violence?
Assassinations, coups, and street brawls may be symptoms of democratic decay—or an intentional strategy wielded by democracy’s enemies.
time.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I'm always delighted to hear from @schuneke.bsky.social whose research remains alarmingly pertinent. Thanks to him for writing about Weimar with nuance, political violence, and the portents to pay attention to these days.
time.com/7321664/poli...
time.com/7321664/poli...
And to make it worse, this would be "absolutist" monarchy we're talking about, since constitutional monarchs have parliament running the purse & state properties.
There is no possible democratic, constitutional interpretation of the presidency in which Donald Trump can unilaterally destroy the White House. Because he did, he sees himself as a monarch.
Read about it in today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/of-kings-a...
Read about it in today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/of-kings-a...
October 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
And to make it worse, this would be "absolutist" monarchy we're talking about, since constitutional monarchs have parliament running the purse & state properties.
Reposted by Craig Franson
Some of us on the academic side have been trying to tell yall what is coming for so long. We were not being hyperbolic then and we absolutely are not being hyperbolic or doomers now.
October 23, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Some of us on the academic side have been trying to tell yall what is coming for so long. We were not being hyperbolic then and we absolutely are not being hyperbolic or doomers now.
Accurate.
Merkley: "What we've seen is that democracies no longer die bc men w/guns go in and take it over. Instead, it's electeds who erode the separation of power. If you have a rubber-stamp Congress & courts that deliver more power to the executive, suddenly you have an authoritarian state. It's here now."
October 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Accurate.
Posting for a deep-read later. White nationalist influencers seem to be adopting fundamentalist demonization to build a bridge into ultra-nationalism. www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon...
Calling their opponents “demonic,” some right-leaning online shows are embracing “spiritual warfare” rhetoric
Some right-wing and right-leaning podcasters have embraced the extreme rhetoric of “spiritual warfare” against their political opponents, accusing political and cultural figures they disagree with of ...
www.mediamatters.org
October 17, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Posting for a deep-read later. White nationalist influencers seem to be adopting fundamentalist demonization to build a bridge into ultra-nationalism. www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon...
Another strong piece from @adamkinzinger.substack.com. Why can't @housedemocrats.bsky.social address far-right authoritarianism with as much clarity as former neocons?
Trump’s rhetoric has crossed a line — from “Deep State” conspiracy to open fascist playbook.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
Trump’s “Enemy Within”: How Fascist Rhetoric Became U.S. Policy
Behind talk of “vermin” and “enemies,” Trump’s administration is mobilizing the tools of state power against its own citizens.
open.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Another strong piece from @adamkinzinger.substack.com. Why can't @housedemocrats.bsky.social address far-right authoritarianism with as much clarity as former neocons?
So, what is the best technical term for ICE now? It's been fully militarized, it operates under the direct control of the executive branch, & it not only routinely violates judicial orders, but it would seem to violate the constitutional prohibition of a standing army. A personal paramilitary force?
The 13th largest military in the world is occupying and waging war on the people of Chicago.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago
As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.
inthesetimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
So, what is the best technical term for ICE now? It's been fully militarized, it operates under the direct control of the executive branch, & it not only routinely violates judicial orders, but it would seem to violate the constitutional prohibition of a standing army. A personal paramilitary force?
I so don't want to read more about these neoreactionary hate-clowns, but I just might have to check out "Gilded Rage."
"Gilded Rage" isn’t simply a rehash of existing reportage. What separates Silverman’s book from other writeups, and where his book truly shines, is in his attempt to get at the root of Silicon Valley’s anti-democratic lurch. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...
Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn
A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.
www.thebulwark.com
October 10, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I so don't want to read more about these neoreactionary hate-clowns, but I just might have to check out "Gilded Rage."
Reposted by Craig Franson
Sometimes we need a moment, but if you tune out completely, they win. Fascism doesn’t need your support, just your silence.
October 10, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Sometimes we need a moment, but if you tune out completely, they win. Fascism doesn’t need your support, just your silence.
Posting to read later.
Octavia E. Butler saw the future—and warned us.
Aina Marzia reviews Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris, a new biography tracing Butler’s journey to literary legend, showing how her vision transformed both sci-fi and Black liberation.
inthesetimes.com/article/octa...
Aina Marzia reviews Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris, a new biography tracing Butler’s journey to literary legend, showing how her vision transformed both sci-fi and Black liberation.
inthesetimes.com/article/octa...
October 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Posting to read later.
Reposting to read later.
“Much about what Ezra Klein argues is objectionable,”—including “the appeal to debate as ’persuasion,’ which confuses the mere appearance of giving and responding to reasons with the substance of good-faith rational inquiry,” writes columnist @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social.
How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
www.bostonreview.net
October 5, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposting to read later.
Pinning to read later.
The flip side of this exceptionalizing is to erase and excuse the slow and less spectacular violence of American political life. When ICE agents raid homes, when Medicaid is stripped from millions, both politicians and media speak of “policy” rather than “violence.” @eric-reinhart.com
What Is Political Violence? - Boston Review
Pundits and politicians conceal the truth: it’s all around us, perpetrated by our political system itself.
www.bostonreview.net
October 3, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Pinning to read later.
You can't understand U.S. politics today without making a serious study of antisemitism.
This is, without any exaggeration, exactly how Putin and Orbán proceeded — using antisemitism to discredit the idea of civil society and political opposition, and as an excuse to undo the rule of law.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...
Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation
www.nytimes.com
September 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM
You can't understand U.S. politics today without making a serious study of antisemitism.
Time for everyone to read up on the Spanish Falange & the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Micheal.
No reason.
No reason.
September 22, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Time for everyone to read up on the Spanish Falange & the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Micheal.
No reason.
No reason.
How did the national enshrinement of Kirk sound to scholars & journalists who specialize in the far right?
Man alive. I have studied Right Wing authoritarianism for years and have watched some truly fucked up shit and today’s memorial service is maybe the most concentrated example of how messed up and disturbing that sector truly is.
September 22, 2025 at 12:52 AM
How did the national enshrinement of Kirk sound to scholars & journalists who specialize in the far right?
We're laughing, but he's winning, bc it's not the judicial verdicts but the threats & the image of strength that are the point.
TRUMP: That's why I sued the New York Times two days ago for a lot of money
KARL: A judge just threw that out
TRUMP: I'm winning. I'm winning the cases.
KARL: A judge just threw that out
TRUMP: I'm winning. I'm winning the cases.
September 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
We're laughing, but he's winning, bc it's not the judicial verdicts but the threats & the image of strength that are the point.
Most people don't know what fascism is, & millions are drawn to its mobilizing passions. Sadly, that makes the term a poor tool of persuasion. Study it, learn how to fight it, but don't expect shouting "fascist" to do more than alienate radical moderates & drive conservatives further right.
September 20, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Most people don't know what fascism is, & millions are drawn to its mobilizing passions. Sadly, that makes the term a poor tool of persuasion. Study it, learn how to fight it, but don't expect shouting "fascist" to do more than alienate radical moderates & drive conservatives further right.
Not that I expect an actual moment of recognition to come from any of the oligarchs who helped lead us to this crisis.
#Andor #Resistance #NoKings
#Andor #Resistance #NoKings
September 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Not that I expect an actual moment of recognition to come from any of the oligarchs who helped lead us to this crisis.
#Andor #Resistance #NoKings
#Andor #Resistance #NoKings
There's probably a term for using the total, combined force of government, the market, the culture, & society to stamp out those politically opposed to fascism. I wonder what it could be?
September 18, 2025 at 2:41 AM
There's probably a term for using the total, combined force of government, the market, the culture, & society to stamp out those politically opposed to fascism. I wonder what it could be?
Last call to save what's left of the so-called public sphere.
September 18, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Last call to save what's left of the so-called public sphere.
We no longer have a paper of record in the US.
"The only question is why I have stayed with them for this long."
Will Bunch puts the Washington Post behind him. www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...
Will Bunch puts the Washington Post behind him. www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...
The Washington Post has broken my heart | Will Bunch Newsletter
Plus, the best Democrat in America right now.
www.inquirer.com
September 17, 2025 at 2:46 AM
We no longer have a paper of record in the US.