The dissident right is more extreme and openly racist than the far-right: “If you mention Nigel Farage or the Reform party here, you get curled-up faces — far too moderate. It’s close to what might have been called the “alt-right”, but that term feels a bit passé.”

The racist factions of X are celebrating the growing popularity of the provocateur Nick Fuentes. Such figures are likely to increase their influence in an illiterate digital age, but due to their lack of proper schooling, will have no impact on the world of ideas.

It is easier to hate people at a distance. As politicians stopped spending time with each other, it became much easier for them to hate each other. This is now a society-wide moral and spiritual problem as people retreat into their closed online circles.

Currently reading… @ztameez.bsky.social

The weekend reads

Look at NC. No wonder senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, criticised the bill. His constituents will suffer: “It is inescapable this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made,” he said.

As @annielowrey.bsky.social points out, a healthcare cut of $1.1tn means 12m Americans will likely lose health coverage, including 1.38m poor Americans, boosting the overall death toll to 50K a year. That looks ugly, rather than beautiful.

In The Sum of Our Dreams, a small but essential survey of American history by historian Louis Masur, readers are able to clearly see and appreciate the fact that American prosperity is sustained by the exertions of those who still dare to dream of a better future for themselves and their communities

See Kevin Schultz’s new book on why people hate liberals. These days a liberal is someone who is seen as too ‘moderate’, ‘centrist’, or even too ‘conservative’, to be useful to a radical cause.