Tom Nichols
@radiofreetom.bsky.social
Staff writer at The Atlantic. Cat guy, democracy defender. Actor for a day on Succession, Jeopardy champ. New Englander and curmudgeon.
Pinned
Pete Hegseth Should Sit This One Out
By inserting himself into the situation in Minnesota, the secretary of defense is only making things worse.
www.theatlantic.com
"Pete Hegseth might consider adding another task to his many duties, one that would be of immense help to the nation and to the armed forces: He should shut up."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Calvin’s got better things to do this weekend🤣. What are your weekend plans? #CalvinandHobbes
January 31, 2026 at 3:42 AM
"To be fair, most people involved with Melania do seem to feel shame, if not the ones who matter." - @sophiegilbert.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
January 31, 2026 at 3:41 AM
"To be fair, most people involved with Melania do seem to feel shame, if not the ones who matter." - @sophiegilbert.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
Reposted by Tom Nichols
January 30, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Tom Nichols
lol, they’re trying to flood the ratings
January 31, 2026 at 2:22 AM
lol, they’re trying to flood the ratings
"I agree this thing is bad, but what about this other bad thing?"
I think students secretly recording class should be kicked out of class. (For one thing, it's a privacy violation of the other students.) And yes, it's authoritarian - old school McCarthyism.
Now, do we agree both things are bad?
I think students secretly recording class should be kicked out of class. (For one thing, it's a privacy violation of the other students.) And yes, it's authoritarian - old school McCarthyism.
Now, do we agree both things are bad?
If students shouting down campus speakers is authoritarian, what is students secretly recording professors and getting them added to the Dangerous Professor List so they get harassed, threatened, and/or fired?
1. I always limit replies.
2. If Ezra Klein's a conservative, then I'm Trotsky.
3. Students who shout down speakers in a public forum on campus are basically short-pants totalitaritarians.
4. I have fabulous hair and everyone knows it.
2. If Ezra Klein's a conservative, then I'm Trotsky.
3. Students who shout down speakers in a public forum on campus are basically short-pants totalitaritarians.
4. I have fabulous hair and everyone knows it.
January 31, 2026 at 3:26 AM
"I agree this thing is bad, but what about this other bad thing?"
I think students secretly recording class should be kicked out of class. (For one thing, it's a privacy violation of the other students.) And yes, it's authoritarian - old school McCarthyism.
Now, do we agree both things are bad?
I think students secretly recording class should be kicked out of class. (For one thing, it's a privacy violation of the other students.) And yes, it's authoritarian - old school McCarthyism.
Now, do we agree both things are bad?
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Tom's an egalitarian in regards to giving people reasons to senselessly yell at him because they missed the point, or frankly can't comprehend reasoned argument
January 31, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Tom's an egalitarian in regards to giving people reasons to senselessly yell at him because they missed the point, or frankly can't comprehend reasoned argument
Hi. I said nothing about 1A issues. I mean "in public," where the rest of us should act like thinking, civic members of a democracy instead of a mob.
You seem to be conflating what you colloquially describe as "public forums" with what are legally defined as "public forums" owned/controlled by the government and therefore subject to the restrictions of the 1A. There is a whole body of jurisprudence delineating these 👍
tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...
tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...
![A screenshot from the SCOTUS opinion linked above with text as follows:
Widmar v. Vincent, supra, at 269-270.
Public property which is not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication is governed by different standards. We have recognized that the "First Amendment does not guarantee access to property simply because it is owned or controlled by the government." United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., supra, at 129. In addition to time, place, and manner regulations, the State may reserve the forum for its intended purposes, communicative or otherwise, as long as the regulation on speech is reasonable and not an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speaker's view. 453 U. S., at 131, n. 7. As we have stated on several ocса-sions, ""[t]he State, no less than a private owner of prop-erty, has power to preserve the property under its control for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated.""" Id., at 129-130, quoting Greer v. Spock, 424 U. S. 828, 836 (1976), in turn quoting Adderley v. Florida, 385 U. S. 39, 47 (1966).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5yq5nigapu3nwkqyrkzqvq5l/bafkreiaxi6gm5euy4vsytioiakwcoycc4m56nxo5mqylm36a5id45vvlba@jpeg)
January 31, 2026 at 2:34 AM
Hi. I said nothing about 1A issues. I mean "in public," where the rest of us should act like thinking, civic members of a democracy instead of a mob.
I am a man of the people, and answer as many of you as I can, especially if it's to remind you to buy a book
14 bucks too much. musta strucka nerve cuz this is your third time answering, poorly, a burner dog account with 95 sexbot followers. have another brandy.
Yours for $14.89 on Amazon! Cheap!
January 31, 2026 at 2:32 AM
I am a man of the people, and answer as many of you as I can, especially if it's to remind you to buy a book
Yours for $14.89 on Amazon! Cheap!
still peddling this nonsense, as if the current disaster weren’t better predicted by the dishonorable contempt for truth seen in the GWB admin or the jingoism of rick wilson smearing max cleland. missing those chapters but weve got the wokes.
To people asking me why I care about students behaving like ignorant louts: I wrote an entire chapter in The Death of Expertise explaining that part of our current disaster is because colleges failed in their efforts to remind students that they are there to learn, not to teach.
January 31, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Yours for $14.89 on Amazon! Cheap!
Maybe a good model if colleges were just random collections of people scooped up into a dumpster, and not communities of learners and teachers committed to free inquiry and civil debate.
If random wackadoodles can speak at colleges, random wackadoodles should be allowed to speak back to them.
January 31, 2026 at 2:19 AM
Maybe a good model if colleges were just random collections of people scooped up into a dumpster, and not communities of learners and teachers committed to free inquiry and civil debate.
I spent the last few hours watching the final episode of His and Hers (which was *terrible*) and the next ep of "The Pitt" which is, yet again, awesome.
You guys have spent the afternoon fighting around the Paradox of Tolerance, Mill's On Liberty, and Locke's on Toleration.
I'll wuss out and say I don't this something one can simply set some easy rules for, and can be very context dependent.
I'll wuss out and say I don't this something one can simply set some easy rules for, and can be very context dependent.
January 31, 2026 at 2:18 AM
I spent the last few hours watching the final episode of His and Hers (which was *terrible*) and the next ep of "The Pitt" which is, yet again, awesome.
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Agree. Michelle Obama said exactly this to Oberlin (my alma mater) students at a graduation a few years ago. I don't have problems with signs, applause or the occasional boo, silent back-turning, protesting outside the venue, but not disallowing others to hear.
January 31, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Agree. Michelle Obama said exactly this to Oberlin (my alma mater) students at a graduation a few years ago. I don't have problems with signs, applause or the occasional boo, silent back-turning, protesting outside the venue, but not disallowing others to hear.
To people asking me why I care about students behaving like ignorant louts: I wrote an entire chapter in The Death of Expertise explaining that part of our current disaster is because colleges failed in their efforts to remind students that they are there to learn, not to teach.
January 31, 2026 at 2:15 AM
To people asking me why I care about students behaving like ignorant louts: I wrote an entire chapter in The Death of Expertise explaining that part of our current disaster is because colleges failed in their efforts to remind students that they are there to learn, not to teach.
If the college invited him, take it up with the college, but turning college events into a shout-down just affirms that you're not there to learn, you're there to preach.
How about “people who reliably bear false witness should not be platformed” and their views amplified by people who have no affirmative obligation to platform them.
January 31, 2026 at 2:06 AM
If the college invited him, take it up with the college, but turning college events into a shout-down just affirms that you're not there to learn, you're there to preach.
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Not sure I’d say it could NEVER be justifiable to shut down ANY speaker, no matter how vile. But if you’re breaking out the nuclear option for “liberal who mostly agrees with you but criticizes Israel in less vehement terms than you like,” you’re engaged in a gross performance to feel powerful.
I have never read that column, and did not know until now that Klein wrote it. (I have a lot of stuff to keep up on.)
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
Bluesky has issues with Ezra Klein. Can you explain to them what he meant by Charlie Kirk did politics the right way. He didn’t say he agreed with the beliefs of Charlie Kirk
January 31, 2026 at 12:30 AM
Not sure I’d say it could NEVER be justifiable to shut down ANY speaker, no matter how vile. But if you’re breaking out the nuclear option for “liberal who mostly agrees with you but criticizes Israel in less vehement terms than you like,” you’re engaged in a gross performance to feel powerful.
And remember, we all get to decide what's untrue and what's punching down, so just bring lots of bullhorns and let the loudest and most aggressive among us sort it all out, because that's definitely not how we got here
Shout people down if they are saying things that are untrue and punching down. It’s in the owners manual that you get to do that.
I have never read that column, and did not know until now that Klein wrote it. (I have a lot of stuff to keep up on.)
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
January 31, 2026 at 2:03 AM
And remember, we all get to decide what's untrue and what's punching down, so just bring lots of bullhorns and let the loudest and most aggressive among us sort it all out, because that's definitely not how we got here
It's not a matter of rights, it's a matter of value. If you're going to endorse interrupting people you've invited to speak, then why be a forum ideas? Why have speakers at all, when every group can claim the same privilege to interrupt and shout down the invitee? Why bother?
I don't subscribe to the idea that "rights" came into it at all. There is no right to speak at a college without being interrupted by college students.
If government were preventing a speaker to speak, then the "rights" talk would be appropriate.
If government were preventing a speaker to speak, then the "rights" talk would be appropriate.
January 31, 2026 at 2:01 AM
It's not a matter of rights, it's a matter of value. If you're going to endorse interrupting people you've invited to speak, then why be a forum ideas? Why have speakers at all, when every group can claim the same privilege to interrupt and shout down the invitee? Why bother?
I'm defending his right to speak on a college campus where he was invited to speak.
"People I don't like should not be heard" is probably not a principle you should be defending, ever, but especially not these days.
"People I don't like should not be heard" is probably not a principle you should be defending, ever, but especially not these days.
January 31, 2026 at 1:58 AM
I'm defending his right to speak on a college campus where he was invited to speak.
"People I don't like should not be heard" is probably not a principle you should be defending, ever, but especially not these days.
"People I don't like should not be heard" is probably not a principle you should be defending, ever, but especially not these days.
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Louis Brandeis got here first and best, in 1927: “If there be a time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence”.
January 31, 2026 at 12:47 AM
Louis Brandeis got here first and best, in 1927: “If there be a time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence”.
What kind of weapons-grade narcissism has gotten loose in this country
Right, I'm with you Ezra is on the wrong team - he'll make excuses when our friends are swinging from the gallows
January 31, 2026 at 1:55 AM
What kind of weapons-grade narcissism has gotten loose in this country
witchcraft
You want them to listen, then ask questions afterwards? What demon logic are you espousing?
January 31, 2026 at 1:54 AM
witchcraft
Hecklers will always defend the Heckler’s veto
When someone says students should never shout down speakers, they're issuing a commandment that forecloses exactly the questions that matter:
What's the speaker advocating?
What power does the speaker have?
What's the magnitude of the disruption vs. the magnitude of the harm being protested?
etc
What's the speaker advocating?
What power does the speaker have?
What's the magnitude of the disruption vs. the magnitude of the harm being protested?
etc
I have never read that column, and did not know until now that Klein wrote it. (I have a lot of stuff to keep up on.)
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
And I couldn't care less: Shouting down speakers on campus is authoritarian bullshit and college students should never do it.
January 31, 2026 at 12:10 AM
Hecklers will always defend the Heckler’s veto
I’d also point out, as someone who has been doing speaking gigs for a decade, that the speaker gets paid whether people let them talk or not.
I like neither Ezra Klein nor shouting down speakers. I think Ezra Klein profits, metaphorically and literally, by being shouted down by Sarah Lawrence students, and that doing it to him was more or less like trying to discourage a dog by throwing bacon at it.
/1
/1
January 31, 2026 at 12:09 AM
I’d also point out, as someone who has been doing speaking gigs for a decade, that the speaker gets paid whether people let them talk or not.
Reposted by Tom Nichols
Imagine aspiring to being an edgelord but being too cowardly to do it but still trying in public.
January 30, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Imagine aspiring to being an edgelord but being too cowardly to do it but still trying in public.
Personally, I wouldn’t invite him or go listen to him, but if your college invites him, you owe it to the other students who wanna hear him to let him speak. Because that’s part of living in a liberal democracy.
No you should definitely wait until after Curtis Yarvin is done speaking and then calmly explain to him that he's debased himself to the point of no longer being human and that as a soulless dead-eyed Nazi, his words simply have no meaning and disappear into the air
January 31, 2026 at 12:07 AM
Personally, I wouldn’t invite him or go listen to him, but if your college invites him, you owe it to the other students who wanna hear him to let him speak. Because that’s part of living in a liberal democracy.