Louis Römer
@lromeranth.bsky.social
🇨🇼🇳🇱🇺🇲 | he/him | PhD | anthropologist @vassar.bsky.social | opinions mine | retweet & like≠endorsements |
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Louis Römer
@lromeranth.bsky.social
· Sep 15
How did "free speech" become a cudgel to silence dissent? My latest in @bostonreview.bsky.social
www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-ri...
www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-ri...
Reposted by Louis Römer
incredibly funny that Joyce Carol Oates owned Musk so hard he's started trying to post like a regular person with normal interests
November 10, 2025 at 5:45 PM
incredibly funny that Joyce Carol Oates owned Musk so hard he's started trying to post like a regular person with normal interests
Reposted by Louis Römer
You know it is honestly remarkable that my former boss did this after I sent her an email I am certain she read that said that providing aid or comfort to insurrectionists is grounds for disqualification from office under the US Constitution.
Legendary honestly.
Legendary honestly.
They did. My god. They are fast tracking the vote.
Every single one of them.
Every single one of them.
November 11, 2025 at 12:52 AM
You know it is honestly remarkable that my former boss did this after I sent her an email I am certain she read that said that providing aid or comfort to insurrectionists is grounds for disqualification from office under the US Constitution.
Legendary honestly.
Legendary honestly.
WTF is an “Ethnic Pakistani”
November 10, 2025 at 10:50 PM
WTF is an “Ethnic Pakistani”
Reposted by Louis Römer
This has been happening for the past TWO YEARS.
Over the last 10 months, the federal government has cracked down on political expression with a persistence and viciousness reminiscent of some of the darkest periods of U.S. history. Welcome to the Third Red Scare.
The First Amendment Won’t Go Quietly
Welcome to the third Red Scare.
www.theatlantic.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
This has been happening for the past TWO YEARS.
Reposted by Louis Römer
Another meta-discursive tendency I dislike: there are many people on here, Twitter, elsewhere who claim to be against litmus testing in general when it comes to Democratic politicians but in reality just oppose a particular kind of litmus test (Palestine, LGBTQ, labor etc). Why the motte and bailey?
November 10, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Another meta-discursive tendency I dislike: there are many people on here, Twitter, elsewhere who claim to be against litmus testing in general when it comes to Democratic politicians but in reality just oppose a particular kind of litmus test (Palestine, LGBTQ, labor etc). Why the motte and bailey?
Reposted by Louis Römer
it's not 'performative' if you're taking pictures of random fucking strangers reading. they're just reading! you're the creepy one!
November 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
it's not 'performative' if you're taking pictures of random fucking strangers reading. they're just reading! you're the creepy one!
Reposted by Louis Römer
This has changed over time and there is more than ever a genuine grappling with Palestinians on the terms of what we have experienced and desire but it is nonetheless an uphill battle still.
November 10, 2025 at 9:47 PM
This has changed over time and there is more than ever a genuine grappling with Palestinians on the terms of what we have experienced and desire but it is nonetheless an uphill battle still.
Reposted by Louis Römer
Darwish said the same in the early 2000s: the majority of the Western obsession with Palestine has very little to do with anything that's on the terms of the Palestinians, it has to do with Western psychodrama regarding Jews.
November 10, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Darwish said the same in the early 2000s: the majority of the Western obsession with Palestine has very little to do with anything that's on the terms of the Palestinians, it has to do with Western psychodrama regarding Jews.
thread 🧵 So it was the Senate Dems who were the accelerationists all along.
November 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
thread 🧵 So it was the Senate Dems who were the accelerationists all along.
Reposted by Louis Römer
Yup, and the damage isn’t so much in the story as in the proof of weakness. Trump now knows he has new torture tools to make Dems do what he wants. It’s why at least one of the 7 capitulators oughta be run out of office now, mid session. Get that number down to 6. www.offmessage.net/p/16-thought...
November 10, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Yup, and the damage isn’t so much in the story as in the proof of weakness. Trump now knows he has new torture tools to make Dems do what he wants. It’s why at least one of the 7 capitulators oughta be run out of office now, mid session. Get that number down to 6. www.offmessage.net/p/16-thought...
Reposted by Louis Römer
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
November 10, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
Reposted by Louis Römer
Schumer and his friends want Trump to have power because they hate you. They are furious Mamdani won in a landslide and are afraid of repeats all over the country. Their solution is open capitulation to the far right.
November 10, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Schumer and his friends want Trump to have power because they hate you. They are furious Mamdani won in a landslide and are afraid of repeats all over the country. Their solution is open capitulation to the far right.
Reposted by Louis Römer
In a nutshell, this is it. They will try to destroy any leftist takeover, like they did with Bernie, even if this means more power to the GOP. *Nothing* that Trump has done (ICE, Cecot, tariffs, USAID, frivolous prosecutions of Trump oponents, even the murder of the Hortmans) matters to them.
Schumer and his friends want Trump to have power because they hate you. They are furious Mamdani won in a landslide and are afraid of repeats all over the country. Their solution is open capitulation to the far right.
November 10, 2025 at 11:53 AM
In a nutshell, this is it. They will try to destroy any leftist takeover, like they did with Bernie, even if this means more power to the GOP. *Nothing* that Trump has done (ICE, Cecot, tariffs, USAID, frivolous prosecutions of Trump oponents, even the murder of the Hortmans) matters to them.
Reposted by Louis Römer
Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...
American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...
Reposted by Louis Römer
To be honest I feel like the lesson from Fetterman is everyone needs to pay a bit more attention when evil interests like crypto hijack a campaign.
i think an especially depressing part of this whole saga is that "we need to win primaries so establishment dems are replaced by true progressives" is a thing we've done before but one of the progressives we worked hard to install over the establishment pick was fetterman
November 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
To be honest I feel like the lesson from Fetterman is everyone needs to pay a bit more attention when evil interests like crypto hijack a campaign.
Reposted by Louis Römer
Reposted by Louis Römer
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
November 10, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit
this should not be controversial 🫠
this should not be controversial 🫠
Reposted by Louis Römer
Lots going on but from outside it seems that at least part of the calculus was that flight disruption for middle class and up travelers matters more than life disruption for untold numbers who’ll be deprived of health care.
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Lots going on but from outside it seems that at least part of the calculus was that flight disruption for middle class and up travelers matters more than life disruption for untold numbers who’ll be deprived of health care.
Reposted by Louis Römer
I think they’ve managed to really thread the needle—not only have they failed to save Republicans from themselves, they’ve also managed to ensure that Dems will take the blame for everything
November 10, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I think they’ve managed to really thread the needle—not only have they failed to save Republicans from themselves, they’ve also managed to ensure that Dems will take the blame for everything
Reposted by Louis Römer
This is why this surrender isn't just about this narrow issue but is rather the whole constitutional ballgame:
Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever
Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever
Not that he didn’t already know, but now Trump knows for sure he can roll the Dems every time and there’s no need to negotiate for anything
November 10, 2025 at 3:10 AM
This is why this surrender isn't just about this narrow issue but is rather the whole constitutional ballgame:
Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever
Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever
Reposted by Louis Römer
the “axios is fake news trying to stir shit, dems aren’t gonna cave” to “the dem deal is actually good and smart and savvy” pipeline is real and best explained not be rational trains of thought but fear and cognitive dissonance
November 10, 2025 at 6:03 AM
the “axios is fake news trying to stir shit, dems aren’t gonna cave” to “the dem deal is actually good and smart and savvy” pipeline is real and best explained not be rational trains of thought but fear and cognitive dissonance
Reposted by Louis Römer
This is really telling! It doesn't work like that anymore, bud. None of it works like that — even if it did on Jan. 19.
Durbin said critics of his vote “need to understand how the Senate works”
November 10, 2025 at 3:34 AM
This is really telling! It doesn't work like that anymore, bud. None of it works like that — even if it did on Jan. 19.