Stephen
@stephenwaldron.bsky.social
Theologian writing a book on the political theology of the New Apostolic Reformation. Websites: https://stephenwaldron.substack.com/
theologyandsociety.com
theologyandsociety.com
One big Holocaust education issue in the US is that people don't know the difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp (though the two were often linked), so they assume that people referring to a "concentration camp" are being unfairly hyperbolic in a case like this.
It remains wild to me that during the first trump administration there was a long debate over terminology after AOC (correctly) called border internment "concentration camps" and now having concentration camps is a core domestic policy.
The purpose of that stupid debate was to normalize the idea.
The purpose of that stupid debate was to normalize the idea.
Camps where tens of thousands of politically disfavored people will be concentrated.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
December 24, 2025 at 3:33 PM
One big Holocaust education issue in the US is that people don't know the difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp (though the two were often linked), so they assume that people referring to a "concentration camp" are being unfairly hyperbolic in a case like this.
I think it's possible that he wouldn't have said this and his audience wouldn't have approved so strongly without the academic/journalistic construction of "Christian nationalism." (For one thing, this is not how US Catholics have traditionally approached things.)
JD Vance gets the biggest applause of his speech so far when he says "by the grace of God we always will be a Christian nation"
December 23, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I think it's possible that he wouldn't have said this and his audience wouldn't have approved so strongly without the academic/journalistic construction of "Christian nationalism." (For one thing, this is not how US Catholics have traditionally approached things.)
Reposted by Stephen
Here we go, friends. www.commonwealmagazine.org/carpenter-an...
Raising the Bastions
Hans Urs von Balthasar can help us understand the ongoing practical and spiritual crisis within the Catholic right.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
December 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Here we go, friends. www.commonwealmagazine.org/carpenter-an...
I'm leaning toward supporting Biss, who has experience and has taken courageous positions on both immigration and housing (both of which have entailed real risks).
Look, I like Kat Abughazaleh's rhetoric, & I largely like how she's running her campaign & want other Dems to take notes.
But as someone who actually lives in the district she wants to represent, I have serious concerns.
Context: This is a liberal/progressive district with an extremely safe seat.
But as someone who actually lives in the district she wants to represent, I have serious concerns.
Context: This is a liberal/progressive district with an extremely safe seat.
December 22, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I'm leaning toward supporting Biss, who has experience and has taken courageous positions on both immigration and housing (both of which have entailed real risks).
Reposted by Stephen
In other words: it came to be believed that the most shameful thing is to be cringe, that moral sincerity is cringe, and thus that the only one who is safe from being cringe is the shameless edgelord, which is incredibly cringe.
The inevitable self-defeat of the logic of the online.
The inevitable self-defeat of the logic of the online.
December 21, 2025 at 12:03 AM
In other words: it came to be believed that the most shameful thing is to be cringe, that moral sincerity is cringe, and thus that the only one who is safe from being cringe is the shameless edgelord, which is incredibly cringe.
The inevitable self-defeat of the logic of the online.
The inevitable self-defeat of the logic of the online.
One of the weirdest and most widespread NIMBY myths is that housing is expensive because "Blackrock" or "Blackstone" bought single family homes to rent them out, but (erroneous facts aside) you don't see anyone blaming the cost of cars on Hertz buying them to rent them out.
December 21, 2025 at 12:06 AM
One of the weirdest and most widespread NIMBY myths is that housing is expensive because "Blackrock" or "Blackstone" bought single family homes to rent them out, but (erroneous facts aside) you don't see anyone blaming the cost of cars on Hertz buying them to rent them out.
The spread of the idea that the ultimate sin wasn't cruelty or selfishness but rather "virtue signaling" has horribly corroded public morality over the last decade. A sizable bloc of the public now openly believes that supporting violent domination is preferable to advocating traditional virtues.
That they want to do and are doing evil things does not surprise me. Other administrations of both parties have done likewise. What is surprising and disturbing is how glib they are about it, not trying to hide it or spin it, but thoroughly reveling in the cruelty.
December 20, 2025 at 11:54 PM
The spread of the idea that the ultimate sin wasn't cruelty or selfishness but rather "virtue signaling" has horribly corroded public morality over the last decade. A sizable bloc of the public now openly believes that supporting violent domination is preferable to advocating traditional virtues.
Reposted by Stephen
vague, un-falsifiable, and asymmetric motion. But the real issue is the lack of Hegelian representation to argue that the state is the march of God in history.
December 20, 2025 at 8:29 PM
vague, un-falsifiable, and asymmetric motion. But the real issue is the lack of Hegelian representation to argue that the state is the march of God in history.
Reposted by Stephen
I personally believe in affirmative action. I especially believe that public universities should have faculty that local students from marginalized communities can see themselves in. But we can have “diversity the field” conversations and should but WHAT FIELD THERE ARE NO JOBS!
December 19, 2025 at 1:32 PM
I personally believe in affirmative action. I especially believe that public universities should have faculty that local students from marginalized communities can see themselves in. But we can have “diversity the field” conversations and should but WHAT FIELD THERE ARE NO JOBS!
Best of all possible zoos
December 19, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Best of all possible zoos
Remembering canvassing for Harris/Walz and the organizer handing out assignments talked about how we just need to "spread joy," which was so wildly inadequate to the moment. I'm sure I made a face.
December 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Remembering canvassing for Harris/Walz and the organizer handing out assignments talked about how we just need to "spread joy," which was so wildly inadequate to the moment. I'm sure I made a face.
Now that I've signed a contract, here's a post about my forthcoming book ("The Head and Not the Tail: The Political Theology of the New Apostolic Reformation"), including some brief chapter descriptions: open.substack.com/pub/stephenw...
December 17, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Now that I've signed a contract, here's a post about my forthcoming book ("The Head and Not the Tail: The Political Theology of the New Apostolic Reformation"), including some brief chapter descriptions: open.substack.com/pub/stephenw...
Reposted by Stephen
Altemeyer’s observation: the one survey question with the strongest power to separate right-wing authoritarians from others was not a political question at all but a question about child-rearing: What is more important, to raise children who are curious or obedient? RWAs choose obedient.
December 17, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Altemeyer’s observation: the one survey question with the strongest power to separate right-wing authoritarians from others was not a political question at all but a question about child-rearing: What is more important, to raise children who are curious or obedient? RWAs choose obedient.
Seeing academic job market discourse, uh oh...
imo, there are two sources of ignorant commentary on the issue: 1) people who have never been on the academic job market and 2) people who were extremely lucky on the academic job market.
imo, there are two sources of ignorant commentary on the issue: 1) people who have never been on the academic job market and 2) people who were extremely lucky on the academic job market.
December 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Seeing academic job market discourse, uh oh...
imo, there are two sources of ignorant commentary on the issue: 1) people who have never been on the academic job market and 2) people who were extremely lucky on the academic job market.
imo, there are two sources of ignorant commentary on the issue: 1) people who have never been on the academic job market and 2) people who were extremely lucky on the academic job market.
There's a depressingly closed-minded short-termism and incuriosity in Vought's idea that the only necessary climate research is about "weather." It's what Mark Noll meant about there being "no evangelical mind," and it just might kill a whole lot of human beings, not to mention other species.
December 17, 2025 at 3:36 AM
There's a depressingly closed-minded short-termism and incuriosity in Vought's idea that the only necessary climate research is about "weather." It's what Mark Noll meant about there being "no evangelical mind," and it just might kill a whole lot of human beings, not to mention other species.
Apparently we're doing a national "no room in the inn."
As a person who has been studying extreme far right ideologies for the last decade (and did a PhD on immigration) I find the entrance of “remigration” into the mainstream American political lexicon so profoundly disturbing
December 16, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Apparently we're doing a national "no room in the inn."
Reposted by Stephen
"As religious leaders began to speak more openly about the goodness of sterilization and euthanasia, lay people responded in kind." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-devils-b...
The Devil's Bargain
Nazism and the moral collapse of German Christendom.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:40 AM
"As religious leaders began to speak more openly about the goodness of sterilization and euthanasia, lay people responded in kind." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-devils-b...
NIMBYism is sometimes seen as an attack on the rights of property owners, but it is more fundamentally an attack on the right of anyone to live where they wish, without begging for permission from persnickety busybodies.
There are also preferred victims in the NIMBY scarcity mindset. Everyone has a specific group or two in mind that deserves some of the limited available housing. Sometimes they are ultraspecific and sometimes they overlap with those others see as villains.
December 16, 2025 at 12:37 AM
NIMBYism is sometimes seen as an attack on the rights of property owners, but it is more fundamentally an attack on the right of anyone to live where they wish, without begging for permission from persnickety busybodies.
Reposted by Stephen
since illinois is joining oregon with "right to die" legislation, here is your reminder that the top reported reasons in oregon for requesting assisted suicide are "loss of autonomy" and "difficulty engaging in enjoyable activities," so: being disabled
thinking about this again, as I often do of a morning. otoh I think most people don’t know that the most deeply sympathetic use-case - someone in untreatable pain - is not the main self-reported reason for the suicides. it’s actually second to last (after “burden on family”)
i’ve wondered for a while why in some places it has expanded so much, while in others it just hasn’t. i’m in OR where we’ve had assisted suicide for 25 years. no expansion to allow euthanasia or beyond time-limited terminal illness (though the actual deaths have gone up quite a lot the past 2 yrs)
December 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
since illinois is joining oregon with "right to die" legislation, here is your reminder that the top reported reasons in oregon for requesting assisted suicide are "loss of autonomy" and "difficulty engaging in enjoyable activities," so: being disabled
There are also preferred victims in the NIMBY scarcity mindset. Everyone has a specific group or two in mind that deserves some of the limited available housing. Sometimes they are ultraspecific and sometimes they overlap with those others see as villains.
December 15, 2025 at 1:23 PM
There are also preferred victims in the NIMBY scarcity mindset. Everyone has a specific group or two in mind that deserves some of the limited available housing. Sometimes they are ultraspecific and sometimes they overlap with those others see as villains.
Reposted by Stephen
this is grim and horrible news for the US
Still always in awe of how many apartments Canada builds compared to the US
In the most recent data, the US permitted 35k multifamily housing units and Canada permitted 24k despite being only 12% of the US population! If California built 5x as many apartments, it still would trail Canada!
In the most recent data, the US permitted 35k multifamily housing units and Canada permitted 24k despite being only 12% of the US population! If California built 5x as many apartments, it still would trail Canada!
December 14, 2025 at 12:00 AM
this is grim and horrible news for the US
I recently saw an insightful comment that the key to addressing the housing crisis is starting from a standpoint of abundance (there should be more) rather than scarcity, which means excluding someone (immigrants, refugees, gentrifiers, non-locals, students, tech workers, poor people, etc.).
December 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
I recently saw an insightful comment that the key to addressing the housing crisis is starting from a standpoint of abundance (there should be more) rather than scarcity, which means excluding someone (immigrants, refugees, gentrifiers, non-locals, students, tech workers, poor people, etc.).
It's weird how MAGA claims to love the history and culture of the US, but when you look for specifics they just have quasi-Nazi nostalgia posters featuring imagined white families and AI chatbots of George Washington. (Not weird given that they don't care about history or culture, but still.)
one thing that doesn’t get enough coverage or comment with regards to this administration is it how much it hates the actually existing united states
Trump Administration Scraps Plan to Mint Quarters Featuring Abolition, Suffrage
The move comes as a controversial $1 Trump coin for the nation’s 250th birthday is also being considered.
www.wsj.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:42 PM
It's weird how MAGA claims to love the history and culture of the US, but when you look for specifics they just have quasi-Nazi nostalgia posters featuring imagined white families and AI chatbots of George Washington. (Not weird given that they don't care about history or culture, but still.)
This is the employment corollary to the NIMBY myth that developers or landlords make money by overpricing apartments or condos and keeping them empty. Markets aren't perfectly rational, but people who own capital or assets generally do want to make money and not lose it.
You would have to believe that none of the companies that currently spend millions of dollars on laptop job employees or their output has considered that possibility that they don't need to and could make way more money by ditching them
December 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM
This is the employment corollary to the NIMBY myth that developers or landlords make money by overpricing apartments or condos and keeping them empty. Markets aren't perfectly rational, but people who own capital or assets generally do want to make money and not lose it.
"Left NIMBYism doesn't exist."
Just look at the comments on any Facebook post about new residential construction in a left-leaning area, and you'll see all the tropes about "developer profits," "luxury apartments," and "not really affordable."
Just look at the comments on any Facebook post about new residential construction in a left-leaning area, and you'll see all the tropes about "developer profits," "luxury apartments," and "not really affordable."
December 10, 2025 at 3:39 AM
"Left NIMBYism doesn't exist."
Just look at the comments on any Facebook post about new residential construction in a left-leaning area, and you'll see all the tropes about "developer profits," "luxury apartments," and "not really affordable."
Just look at the comments on any Facebook post about new residential construction in a left-leaning area, and you'll see all the tropes about "developer profits," "luxury apartments," and "not really affordable."