Unraveling Democracy
@arkanium.bsky.social
Excavating culture with humor, history, and a killer soundtrack.
The Groyper milieu is an internet-native network built around the influencer orbit of Nick Fuentes. It rebranded the alt-right by swapping out tiki torches for crucifixes and polo shirts for suits, and by invoking Christian nationalism and “America First” traditionalism to rehabilitate Jim Crow.
September 14, 2025 at 11:08 AM
The Groyper milieu is an internet-native network built around the influencer orbit of Nick Fuentes. It rebranded the alt-right by swapping out tiki torches for crucifixes and polo shirts for suits, and by invoking Christian nationalism and “America First” traditionalism to rehabilitate Jim Crow.
From 2015 to 2025, far-right extremists, especially white supremacists, were the main perpetrators of ideologically motivated gun violence in the U.S. Despite this, right-wing media and political narratives distort reality by portraying the left as the primary source of violence.
September 11, 2025 at 10:14 AM
From 2015 to 2025, far-right extremists, especially white supremacists, were the main perpetrators of ideologically motivated gun violence in the U.S. Despite this, right-wing media and political narratives distort reality by portraying the left as the primary source of violence.
There is a specific kind of quiet that settles when rulers start rearranging facts. You can hear it in the pause between a question and the non-answer that follows, in the sudden disappearance of a spreadsheet that used to arrive like clockwork, in the tantrum that becomes policy.
Central Planning for Dummies, Written by the Party of “Freedom”
Tariffs, tamed numbers, and the everyday horror of power
open.substack.com
August 9, 2025 at 6:12 PM
There is a specific kind of quiet that settles when rulers start rearranging facts. You can hear it in the pause between a question and the non-answer that follows, in the sudden disappearance of a spreadsheet that used to arrive like clockwork, in the tantrum that becomes policy.
Somewhere between the Gospel of Matthew and the acid-laced sermons of Southern television politics, we arrive at the doorstep of Rep. Nancy Mace. She knocks loud. She brings receipts: rolled-up legislation, cherry-picked Bible verses, and a smile that’s been fine-tuned for Fox News hits.
Pearls Before ICE: Nancy Mace, Bible Theater, and the Gospel According to Cruelty
Hello there, fellow watchers of the unraveling veil.
open.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Somewhere between the Gospel of Matthew and the acid-laced sermons of Southern television politics, we arrive at the doorstep of Rep. Nancy Mace. She knocks loud. She brings receipts: rolled-up legislation, cherry-picked Bible verses, and a smile that’s been fine-tuned for Fox News hits.
What happens when cruelty becomes the policy and silence becomes the law? No Face, No Name is a searing protest anthem set to haunting visuals. This animated video brings to life the true horror of a nation losing its soul. youtube.com/watch?v=fhAl...
No Face, No Name
YouTube video by EchoPulse AI
youtube.com
July 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
What happens when cruelty becomes the policy and silence becomes the law? No Face, No Name is a searing protest anthem set to haunting visuals. This animated video brings to life the true horror of a nation losing its soul. youtube.com/watch?v=fhAl...
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Animal Farm
The Boogeyman Budget and the Birth of the American Police State open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
The Boogeyman Budget and the Birth of the American Police State open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
The Boogeyman Budget and the Birth of the American Police State
How a $3.3‑Trillion Debt Bomb, a $1‑Trillion Medicaid Massacre, and a $175‑Billion ICE Windfall Are Dismantling the Republic, and Why the Fight Begins on Your Block
open.substack.com
July 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Animal Farm
The Boogeyman Budget and the Birth of the American Police State open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
The Boogeyman Budget and the Birth of the American Police State open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
DHS appears to accidentally confirm CNN's reporting in an unhinged reply to MeidasTouch on X, noting that "by Tuesday, FEMA had deployed" staffers.
This aligns with CNN's reporting that Noem didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday.
This aligns with CNN's reporting that Noem didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday.
July 10, 2025 at 4:57 PM
DHS appears to accidentally confirm CNN's reporting in an unhinged reply to MeidasTouch on X, noting that "by Tuesday, FEMA had deployed" staffers.
This aligns with CNN's reporting that Noem didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday.
This aligns with CNN's reporting that Noem didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday.
This story has roots deeper than Smallville’s wheat fields, and it blows in from the direction of a 1930s jazz joint, echoing the fears, hopes, and dreams of two Jewish kids in Cleveland. And, yes, we’re going there. open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
Superman Has Always Been Woke and Right-Wing Manufactured Outrage Is Boring
The Man of Steel Was Born of Immigrants, Raised on Hope, and Has Always Punched Fascists in the Face
open.substack.com
July 10, 2025 at 7:30 PM
This story has roots deeper than Smallville’s wheat fields, and it blows in from the direction of a 1930s jazz joint, echoing the fears, hopes, and dreams of two Jewish kids in Cleveland. And, yes, we’re going there. open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
More than 100 Texans, many of them children at Camp Mystic, never got a chance to wonder whether the storm sounded like “When the Levee Breaks.” They had no warning because the very agencies built to sound the alarm had already been hollowed out for the sake of a billionaire tax bonanza.
Prelude to a Deluge: How Billionaire Tax Cuts Washed Away Texas Warning Sirens
Disaster capitalism drowns Texans while the one percent buy lifeboats.
open.substack.com
July 8, 2025 at 2:41 PM
More than 100 Texans, many of them children at Camp Mystic, never got a chance to wonder whether the storm sounded like “When the Levee Breaks.” They had no warning because the very agencies built to sound the alarm had already been hollowed out for the sake of a billionaire tax bonanza.
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
The builders behind Alligator Alcatraz and other detention sites are top DeSantis donors.
They scored no-bid or “emergency” contracts worth tens of millions—while funneling cash into his political machine.
Pay-to-play isn’t just speculation—it’s backed by the paper trail.
🧵
They scored no-bid or “emergency” contracts worth tens of millions—while funneling cash into his political machine.
Pay-to-play isn’t just speculation—it’s backed by the paper trail.
🧵
July 8, 2025 at 3:49 AM
The builders behind Alligator Alcatraz and other detention sites are top DeSantis donors.
They scored no-bid or “emergency” contracts worth tens of millions—while funneling cash into his political machine.
Pay-to-play isn’t just speculation—it’s backed by the paper trail.
🧵
They scored no-bid or “emergency” contracts worth tens of millions—while funneling cash into his political machine.
Pay-to-play isn’t just speculation—it’s backed by the paper trail.
🧵
Imagine this: a man in a penthouse sipping single malt scotch, staring at three screens lit up with numbers you and I weren’t meant to understand. He leans back, clicks a button, and a thousand people lose their homes.
Money for Nothing, Debt for Free: How the Wealthy Robbed the Working Class and Inflated the Next Economic Collapse
A deep dive into economic injustice, the coming financial implosion, and why the ruling class handed us the bill for their champagne.
open.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Imagine this: a man in a penthouse sipping single malt scotch, staring at three screens lit up with numbers you and I weren’t meant to understand. He leans back, clicks a button, and a thousand people lose their homes.
Pull up a chair or, better, a bar stool, because this one’s going to unspool like an all-night session at your favorite dive. We will riff on how cults fuse anthropology, psychology, and raw political expediency; why we clutch their banners even as reason begs for a timeout.
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Charisma, Control, and the Choirs of Compliance
A long-form meditation on why good people line up behind bad ideas, spun through the howl of a 1971 power chord and the enduring anthropology of cult behavior.
open.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Pull up a chair or, better, a bar stool, because this one’s going to unspool like an all-night session at your favorite dive. We will riff on how cults fuse anthropology, psychology, and raw political expediency; why we clutch their banners even as reason begs for a timeout.
Happy 4th of July. Nothing says freedom more than building Concentration Camps.
July 4, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Happy 4th of July. Nothing says freedom more than building Concentration Camps.
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
If someone doesn’t ask Karoline Leavitt why she posted on social media that this bill includes no taxes on Social Security when she knows it is a lie and she intentionally lied to the American people, everyone in the room should lose their jobs.
July 3, 2025 at 12:33 PM
If someone doesn’t ask Karoline Leavitt why she posted on social media that this bill includes no taxes on Social Security when she knows it is a lie and she intentionally lied to the American people, everyone in the room should lose their jobs.
Hello there, fellow travelers in this uneasy republic we still call home, where the bass drum of history thumps beneath our feet and the feedback of yesterday’s revolutions screeches into the present.
open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Charisma, Control, and the Choirs of Compliance
A long-form meditation on why good people line up behind bad ideas, spun through the howl of a 1971 power chord and the enduring anthropology of cult behavior.
open.substack.com
July 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Hello there, fellow travelers in this uneasy republic we still call home, where the bass drum of history thumps beneath our feet and the feedback of yesterday’s revolutions screeches into the present.
open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
I need more of my fellow anthropologists to start speaking out. In particular, you comfy University types. If you are staying silent now, don't call yourself an anthropologist; you are a career grant scammer.
July 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
I need more of my fellow anthropologists to start speaking out. In particular, you comfy University types. If you are staying silent now, don't call yourself an anthropologist; you are a career grant scammer.
A global study ranked the United States fifth in ignorance worldwide. That's around 77 million people, about the same number of Trump voters. That is how much of our population is ignorant. Ignorance is deadly to democracy and freedom. So when I say MAGA are ignorant MFers, it is based on DATA.
July 1, 2025 at 8:20 PM
A global study ranked the United States fifth in ignorance worldwide. That's around 77 million people, about the same number of Trump voters. That is how much of our population is ignorant. Ignorance is deadly to democracy and freedom. So when I say MAGA are ignorant MFers, it is based on DATA.
Long before the first Spanish fever ship docked, before Andrew Jackson’s cannonades and the modern bulldozers carving “Alligator Alcatraz” from Big Cypress’s marl, this peninsula pulsed with millions of Indigenous heartbeats. open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
Gator Chains and Broken Promises
MAGA has always hated Indians
open.substack.com
July 1, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Long before the first Spanish fever ship docked, before Andrew Jackson’s cannonades and the modern bulldozers carving “Alligator Alcatraz” from Big Cypress’s marl, this peninsula pulsed with millions of Indigenous heartbeats. open.substack.com/pub/richardj...
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
The legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Now it’s up to Congress to decide whether President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy package will become law.
What's in the latest version of Trump's 'big bill' Senate Republicans are trying to pass
At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.
buff.ly
June 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
The legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Now it’s up to Congress to decide whether President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy package will become law.
Pull up a rocking chair, pour yourself a mason jar of theoretical moonshine, and prepare for a front-porch tale that meanders from the red-clay foothills of Appalachia to the marble corridors of the Beltway, and the uncanny spectacle of our most articulate marionette: “JD” Vance.
June 28, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Pull up a rocking chair, pour yourself a mason jar of theoretical moonshine, and prepare for a front-porch tale that meanders from the red-clay foothills of Appalachia to the marble corridors of the Beltway, and the uncanny spectacle of our most articulate marionette: “JD” Vance.
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
This is oligarchy. This is obscene.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
June 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
This is oligarchy. This is obscene.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
Hey, fake ass patriots, man we got ourselves up in a pickle right now. It's kinda embarrassing if you think about it, we've been going around here praising King TACO for NO NEW WARS. Y'all love those three-word sentences, right? We were lied to by Donald Fin' Trump, to drag us into a war in Iran.
June 22, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Hey, fake ass patriots, man we got ourselves up in a pickle right now. It's kinda embarrassing if you think about it, we've been going around here praising King TACO for NO NEW WARS. Y'all love those three-word sentences, right? We were lied to by Donald Fin' Trump, to drag us into a war in Iran.
Reposted by Unraveling Democracy
Members of Congress are being denied access to an ICE facility in Manhattan, because the conditions inside are that bad.
June 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Members of Congress are being denied access to an ICE facility in Manhattan, because the conditions inside are that bad.