alec karakatsanis
@equalityalec.bsky.social
founder, Civil Rights Corps
civil rights lawyer
author of usual cruelty (2019) and
copaganda (2025)
any views expressed here are my own, and not those of civil rights corps
civil rights lawyer
author of usual cruelty (2019) and
copaganda (2025)
any views expressed here are my own, and not those of civil rights corps
That would be fun! And if you order on the new press website with the code BULK40 you can get 40% off on orders of 10 or more.
November 10, 2025 at 9:07 PM
That would be fun! And if you order on the new press website with the code BULK40 you can get 40% off on orders of 10 or more.
Yes, any book club with at least 15 members I'll drop by on a zoom if they want!
November 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Yes, any book club with at least 15 members I'll drop by on a zoom if they want!
My event on Wednesday is at 8am, forgot to include the time!
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
My event on Wednesday is at 8am, forgot to include the time!
As always, all royalties donated to charity, and you can use the code TNP30 to get the book for 30% off here: thenewpress.org/books/copaga.... Contact me if you want free copies for people in prison or students, or bigger discounts for bulk orders.
Copaganda - The New Press
From a prizewinning civil rights lawyer comes a powerful warning about how the media manipulates public perception, fueling fear and inequality, while distracting us from what truly matters “Alec Kar...
thenewpress.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
As always, all royalties donated to charity, and you can use the code TNP30 to get the book for 30% off here: thenewpress.org/books/copaga.... Contact me if you want free copies for people in prison or students, or bigger discounts for bulk orders.
It's not clear whether other criminologists aren't aware of the problems or whether the culture/norms of the discipline are such that it lacks mechanisms of genuine rigor and accountability. Regardless, I'm very happy to continue a conversation with all people of good will.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
It's not clear whether other criminologists aren't aware of the problems or whether the culture/norms of the discipline are such that it lacks mechanisms of genuine rigor and accountability. Regardless, I'm very happy to continue a conversation with all people of good will.
Some of the leading professors--at places like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago--have produced shameful propaganda masquerading as research, and also spoken publicly in ways that have mangled and distorted even their own research.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Some of the leading professors--at places like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago--have produced shameful propaganda masquerading as research, and also spoken publicly in ways that have mangled and distorted even their own research.
My talk will be at the Marriot Marquis in Washington, DC on Wed, November 12 in room Treasury M4. It will be especially interesting because several criminologists will be responding to my Copaganda book. Come by and check it out.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
My talk will be at the Marriot Marquis in Washington, DC on Wed, November 12 in room Treasury M4. It will be especially interesting because several criminologists will be responding to my Copaganda book. Come by and check it out.
It's unclear how showing with good arguments how someone's work is bad is censorship, but that is the state of academic discourse in some corners of Harvard apparently.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
It's unclear how showing with good arguments how someone's work is bad is censorship, but that is the state of academic discourse in some corners of Harvard apparently.
The critique uses two Harvard professors who claim to be socialists as an example. It's actually one of the most interesting chapters because their work is so comical. My takedown was so devastating that they later accused me of trying to censor them.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The critique uses two Harvard professors who claim to be socialists as an example. It's actually one of the most interesting chapters because their work is so comical. My takedown was so devastating that they later accused me of trying to censor them.
This article does describes much of what we know now. I've never seen anything like it. What the California courts do now to investigate and to protect the integrity of our legal institutions will be important. www.sacbee.com/news/local/a...
AI caused errors in a criminal case, Northern California prosecutor says
A Nevada County prosecutor used AI to develop a motion in a criminal case, resulting in false legal citations, the DA says.
www.sacbee.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:07 PM
This article does describes much of what we know now. I've never seen anything like it. What the California courts do now to investigate and to protect the integrity of our legal institutions will be important. www.sacbee.com/news/local/a...
In the coming weeks, I'm going to be talking about our civil rights work more. It's essential that people more fully understand what the punishment bureaucracy is doing and how, without extreme vigilance and care, it can be weaponized for authoritarian ends.
November 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM
In the coming weeks, I'm going to be talking about our civil rights work more. It's essential that people more fully understand what the punishment bureaucracy is doing and how, without extreme vigilance and care, it can be weaponized for authoritarian ends.
We are designing and bringing groundbreaking constitutional cases about pretrial liberty; due process and the evils of government detention without trial; debtors prisons; prosecutor and judicial misconduct; the rights of all families against forced separation, and much more.
November 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM
We are designing and bringing groundbreaking constitutional cases about pretrial liberty; due process and the evils of government detention without trial; debtors prisons; prosecutor and judicial misconduct; the rights of all families against forced separation, and much more.
We @civrightscorps.bsky.social fight constitutional cases to re-sensitize our society to the everyday brutality of the punishment bureaucracy. Support us, we need your help now more than ever because a lot of large donors are abandoning us. civilrightscorpsorg.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/donate
Donate to Civil Rights Corps
Donate: Civil Rights Corps
civilrightscorpsorg.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM
We @civrightscorps.bsky.social fight constitutional cases to re-sensitize our society to the everyday brutality of the punishment bureaucracy. Support us, we need your help now more than ever because a lot of large donors are abandoning us. civilrightscorpsorg.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/donate
In my first book, Usual Cruelty, I talked about how grotesque injustices become normalized in our society. Every time I go into a jail or a prison, no matter how often, I am shocked to my core at the gap between our society's slogans on marble monuments and its daily reality.
November 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM
In my first book, Usual Cruelty, I talked about how grotesque injustices become normalized in our society. Every time I go into a jail or a prison, no matter how often, I am shocked to my core at the gap between our society's slogans on marble monuments and its daily reality.
Authorities are now tolerating massive corruption crimes and horrific brutality inside jails and pollution crimes killing hundreds of thousands and this is why they choose to do as “law enforcement”:
November 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Authorities are now tolerating massive corruption crimes and horrific brutality inside jails and pollution crimes killing hundreds of thousands and this is why they choose to do as “law enforcement”:
The same is true in civil cases, like huge recent verdict by a jury in rural Louisiana against a private jail. Establishment Democrats and Republicans have worked hard for punishment bureaucrats and big corporations to reduce the power of juries. bsky.app/profile/equa...
THREAD: This was an all-white jury in rural Louisiana and a judge appointed by Trump. But when ordinary people hear about the everyday brutality pervasive inside our jails, they are outraged. But something deeper is going on here:
November 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
The same is true in civil cases, like huge recent verdict by a jury in rural Louisiana against a private jail. Establishment Democrats and Republicans have worked hard for punishment bureaucrats and big corporations to reduce the power of juries. bsky.app/profile/equa...
As even some people on the inside have admitted, this is about regime-change, natural resources, profit, politics, etc... The government itself has said virtually no fentanyl comes from Venezuela. It's just lawless murder in service of predatory domination. All whitewashed.
November 3, 2025 at 3:50 AM
As even some people on the inside have admitted, this is about regime-change, natural resources, profit, politics, etc... The government itself has said virtually no fentanyl comes from Venezuela. It's just lawless murder in service of predatory domination. All whitewashed.
All of this normalizes some of the most dangerous, depraved, shocking, and fraudulent conduct that people in power can perpetrate. It's just normalizing the lies, and the very concept that routine drug interdiction could somehow morph into automatic process-free assassination.
November 3, 2025 at 3:47 AM
All of this normalizes some of the most dangerous, depraved, shocking, and fraudulent conduct that people in power can perpetrate. It's just normalizing the lies, and the very concept that routine drug interdiction could somehow morph into automatic process-free assassination.
Deja vu. bsky.app/profile/equa...
This is driving me crazy. The New York Times calling this madness an “anti-drug operation” is one of the worst forms of propaganda: accepting stated motivations of powerful people as the truth.
November 3, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Deja vu. bsky.app/profile/equa...
I will say it again: no one I’ve spoken to thinks drugs are the reason this is happening. What are we doing here? Absolutely pathetic excuse for journalism on the most consequential issues of our time from the same outlets who did this with WMD in Iraq.
November 3, 2025 at 3:28 AM
I will say it again: no one I’ve spoken to thinks drugs are the reason this is happening. What are we doing here? Absolutely pathetic excuse for journalism on the most consequential issues of our time from the same outlets who did this with WMD in Iraq.