paul johnson
@rhetoricpj.bsky.social
I live in pittsburgh and like it. wrote a book about conservative populism. have spent the last 15 years studying the right.
go arsenal! I like gin.
Book: https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817321093/i-the-people/
go arsenal! I like gin.
Book: https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817321093/i-the-people/
"There's been a colony on LV-426 for years"
EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells @thebarbedwire.com he spent years burying radioactive fracking waste, which melted the bones in his neck and jaw. Then a residential community — and an elementary school — was built on top. 🧵
thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/11/a...
thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/11/a...
Whistleblower Says Radioactive Fracking Waste Site Melted His Jaw. Now There’s an Elementary School There.
Then an elementary school was built on top of it.
thebarbedwire.com
February 11, 2026 at 6:48 PM
"There's been a colony on LV-426 for years"
I strongly recommend Leonard Levy's The Palladium of Justice. really opened my eyes about what a radical thing a jury is.
Have to confess, if you had asked me which institutions would prove to be formidable against the threat of fascism, I would not have guessed grand juries.
February 11, 2026 at 6:37 PM
I strongly recommend Leonard Levy's The Palladium of Justice. really opened my eyes about what a radical thing a jury is.
obviously there are other, more spectacular examples of the crisis of masculinity.
NEVERTHELESS
NEVERTHELESS
"Boy kibble," an easy-to-prepare bowl of slop that even a dog would love, is the latest TikTok diet fad that some health-conscious men and fitness enthusiasts are turning to.
Move Over, Girl Dinner. Boy Kibble Has Arrived.
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:50 PM
obviously there are other, more spectacular examples of the crisis of masculinity.
NEVERTHELESS
NEVERTHELESS
nothing more American than our Spectacular Necropolitical CTE Sport bankrolling (for millions of dollars) the concert of the year performed mostly in Spanish featuring a march of colonized people under the biggest tv you've ever seen reading LOVE IS STRONGER THAN HATE targeting our president
February 9, 2026 at 2:20 PM
nothing more American than our Spectacular Necropolitical CTE Sport bankrolling (for millions of dollars) the concert of the year performed mostly in Spanish featuring a march of colonized people under the biggest tv you've ever seen reading LOVE IS STRONGER THAN HATE targeting our president
Wasnt that literally the plot of Sunshine?
February 9, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Wasnt that literally the plot of Sunshine?
Good lord
That Ryan Grim allegedly fired Alex Colston for a critical tweet after he literally faced Israeli abuse for Dropsite on the flotilla is, in my opinion, positively heinous.
Imagine having so little shame that you would then fire someone for pointing out that publicly smearing anti-genocide students for protesting Ezra Klein is wrong.
February 8, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Good lord
That city lineup is weird
February 8, 2026 at 3:37 PM
That city lineup is weird
Reposted by paul johnson
i forget who made it but it cracks me up lol
February 8, 2026 at 10:54 AM
i forget who made it but it cracks me up lol
Reposted by paul johnson
On tonight's Jazzish- the latest from Alexa Tarantino, Amir ElSaffar, the first new Soulive LP in 14(!) years, and much more. 10pm-mid ET on WIUP: 90.1FM / wiupfm.org / TuneIn / Radiogarden #jazzsky
February 7, 2026 at 2:45 PM
On tonight's Jazzish- the latest from Alexa Tarantino, Amir ElSaffar, the first new Soulive LP in 14(!) years, and much more. 10pm-mid ET on WIUP: 90.1FM / wiupfm.org / TuneIn / Radiogarden #jazzsky
"Mr. Hydra, we have your racist and revanchist counter-revolution ready to go. However, there is one thing you must never touch in the Command Center: the big red button labelled "Basically the N-Word"
again: you can openly pursue a policy of ethnic cleansing and be received as engaging in "racially charged rhetoric" so long as you are not sufficiently rude about it. and yet the present administration cannot manage even this
February 6, 2026 at 6:02 PM
"Mr. Hydra, we have your racist and revanchist counter-revolution ready to go. However, there is one thing you must never touch in the Command Center: the big red button labelled "Basically the N-Word"
its like when people took up Hofstader to be like "these right-winger paranoiacs aren't normal, see?" and its like ok I get what you mean there but if a big chunk of a system of built out of the 'pathology' you're rendering yourself incapable of observing reality
Just want to say, I see all the comments saying it’s a sign of his senility or mental decline. You could be right but I have a thing about linking racism to mental acuity. Not sure it needs to be, most of the time, and I don’t like the idea of racism as deviant, for a lot of reasons.
February 6, 2026 at 5:30 PM
its like when people took up Hofstader to be like "these right-winger paranoiacs aren't normal, see?" and its like ok I get what you mean there but if a big chunk of a system of built out of the 'pathology' you're rendering yourself incapable of observing reality
so they're going with "oops, its apes"
February 6, 2026 at 5:19 PM
so they're going with "oops, its apes"
more snow, just what my fair hamlet needed
February 6, 2026 at 4:48 PM
more snow, just what my fair hamlet needed
Reposted by paul johnson
"Is there even a self? Are we not, after all, wave functions in an indifferent universe as we post hate crimes while being president?"
"Donald Trump--not having asked to be born, and who, in that sense, cannot be charged with the credits or demerits of the corporeal existence God has gifted or cursed him with--posted a racist video of Kamala Harris and Barack Obama as monkeys"
"it was far from clear if the mind truly commands the body, or if Trump was, in a distinctly non-cartesian sense, a passenger in the flow of reality and therefore not responsible for the wildly racist thing his physical manifestation posted"
February 6, 2026 at 2:21 PM
"Is there even a self? Are we not, after all, wave functions in an indifferent universe as we post hate crimes while being president?"
rolling
one guy sent me an email that was like, “you’re just mad that vance knows who his father is!” and i replied to him just to say that vance, quite famously, did not have a dad around!
February 6, 2026 at 2:10 PM
rolling
by crash out you mean "nuke chicago"
if obama wants to give a service to the country, he should do regular comedy skits mocking trump. trump will totally crash out.
A screenshot from a video posted on Trump's Truth Social account: truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...
February 6, 2026 at 1:57 PM
by crash out you mean "nuke chicago"
Tough news. Berlet was so ahead on everything
It is with deep sadness that I have to report the passing of Chip Berlet. He was one of the few people to consistently research and organize against the U.S. Far Right from the 1970s through the '00s. His co-authored 2000 book "Right-Wing Populism in America" unfortunately remains all-to-relevant.
Chip Berlet (1949-2026)
When neo-fascists began to be followed and recorded, it was Chip that was the one who made the first moves. He gave us the blueprint that antifascist researchers go by today. Thank you, Chip, we will take it from here.
When neo-fascists began to be followed and recorded, it was Chip that was the one who made the first moves. He gave us the blueprint that antifascist researchers go by today. Thank you, Chip, we will take it from here.
February 6, 2026 at 4:36 AM
Tough news. Berlet was so ahead on everything
this sentiment, if understood broadly, would resolve like 35% of fights on the internet about Politics Strategy
The America we were taught about in school wasn’t real, but I want it to be and so do 200 million of my friends
February 5, 2026 at 6:17 PM
this sentiment, if understood broadly, would resolve like 35% of fights on the internet about Politics Strategy
oh my god
I legit don’t know if I will ever get past this ad I saw walking to an appt this morning in soho. And yes, it’s a company that uses human sounding AI voice bots to take over your customer service calls.
February 5, 2026 at 4:54 PM
oh my god
personally i don't think the idea of a creepy cynical bible-thumping pedo grifter marauding his way through an America that can't see his evil and treats orphans like shit is all that sensi--
Showed THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER to my film students. You could literally see them go from being somewhat bored, thinking it would be an outdated black-and-white film, to getting invested in the story as Robert Mitchum's menacing performance and Charles Laughton's outstanding direction drew them in.
February 5, 2026 at 4:47 PM
personally i don't think the idea of a creepy cynical bible-thumping pedo grifter marauding his way through an America that can't see his evil and treats orphans like shit is all that sensi--
Reposted by paul johnson
or put differently the precaritization that hit academia decades ago is now spreading across to other white-collar sectors
I think it's best for everyone to understand that the unified class project of billionaires right now is to do to white collar workers what globalization and neoliberalism did to blue collar workers.
February 4, 2026 at 7:56 PM
or put differently the precaritization that hit academia decades ago is now spreading across to other white-collar sectors
this remains the funniest fucking thing of all time www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALFp...
Siskel & Ebert & the Protestants
YouTube video by hotmonger
www.youtube.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:49 PM
this remains the funniest fucking thing of all time www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALFp...
Reposted by paul johnson
February 4, 2026 at 5:55 PM
big story of the last 60+ years in US politics is asymmetric disarmament around the concept of "grievance." too many Dems/libs bought pundit line that explicit invocations of injury were unseemly/illiberal. meanwhile the Right was happy to amplify those takes while leaning into victimhood politics
"Successful anti-authoritarian movements do not win by softening their positions. They win by building unlikely coalitions around a broadly resonant grievance."
Like, say, corruption. Or, unchecked corporate power.
Like, say, corruption. Or, unchecked corporate power.
How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism
Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.
www.bostonreview.net
February 4, 2026 at 6:06 PM
big story of the last 60+ years in US politics is asymmetric disarmament around the concept of "grievance." too many Dems/libs bought pundit line that explicit invocations of injury were unseemly/illiberal. meanwhile the Right was happy to amplify those takes while leaning into victimhood politics
Reposted by paul johnson
Life is lifeing at me pretty hard this week, messing up my usual writing schedule. But I did manage to join @nytimes.com's John Guida to discuss Backlash Presidents and what it tells us about Trump's second term. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...
Opinion | ‘It’s All Rooted in a Sense of Victimhood’: On Trump’s Backlash Presidency
www.nytimes.com
February 3, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Life is lifeing at me pretty hard this week, messing up my usual writing schedule. But I did manage to join @nytimes.com's John Guida to discuss Backlash Presidents and what it tells us about Trump's second term. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...