Flux

The liberal legal establishment deluded itself that judging was apolitical, America is stuck with the consequences A conversation with The Nation’s Elie Mystal on how legal formalism stopped the left from restraining judicial power

Judging has always been a political profession. But after the Warren Court, the liberal legal establishment deluded itself into thinking that judges were objective gods in black dresses.

All of the things you hate about SCOTUS go back to this horrible error. @elienyc.bsky.social and I discuss:

Legal formalism distorted liberal politics and handed the Supreme Court to the radical right A conversation with The Nation’s Elie Mystal on how an obscure legal philosophy’s doctrines stopped the left from restraining judicial power

Legal formalism distorted liberal politics and handed the Supreme Court to the radical right

The Nation’s @elienyc.bsky.social joins @matthew.flux.community to discuss how the left misunderstood that jurisprudence is inherently political--and usually conservative

It wasn’t that long ago when the U.S. Congress asserted its rightful authority over foreign wars After the Vietnam War, Congress understood the dangers of a president making war without authorization

It's important to recall that it wasn't that long ago when Congress actually was willing to assert its constitutionally defined war powers, even though today's Republican leaders are refusing to do so

Assenting to Trump's insane Iran war would mean accepting a broken and malevolent vision of America Democrats who are considering funding the illegal attack on Iran risk tossing the opposition into a moral abyss, while betraying the American people in favor of the president

After condemning Trump's unauthorized attacks on Iran, some congressional Democrats are talking about funding it. This would severely undermine their moral credibility with voters, @jtccarroll.flux.community writes plus.flux.community/p/assenting-...

How the sex, drugs, and rock and roll counterculture fell in love with Donald Trump and Jesus Philosopher and podcaster Aaron Rabinowitz discusses ‘high weirdness’ and why so many hippies were always on the political right and didn’t realize it

How the sex, drugs, and rock and roll counterculture fell in love with Donald Trump and Jesus

Aaron Rabinowitz of @etvpod.bsky.social discusses ‘high weirdness’ and why so many of the hippies were actually just conservative anarchists plus.flux.community/p/how-the-se...

How you think about minds influences how you view the world Philosopher and geneticist Johannes Yaeger on how digital computing metaphors cannot capture what biological minds are

How you think about minds influences how you view the world

Philosopher and geneticist Johannes Yaeger on how digital computing metaphors cannot capture what biological minds are

Plunging U.S. into illegal war with Iran, Donald Trump reminds us he's the true menace to our country In his half-hearted attempts to sell war with Iran, Trump sticks to a stale authoritarian script: we are beset by evil enemies that he alone can vanquish via violent retribution

Plunging U.S. into illegal war with Iran, Donald Trump reminds us he's the true menace to our country

In his half-hearted attempts to sell war with Iran, Trump sticks to a stale authoritarian script: we are beset by evil enemies that he alone can vanquish via violent retribution

The Hegsethian jihad against Anthropic Did OpenAI cast aside safety concerns about fully automated weapon systems?

Did OpenAI reject its stated core concerns about AI running fully autonomous robots and conducting mass surveillance of Americans? It sure seems that way.

I parse the language and provide the background here:

Epstein files show a financier obsessed with excluding women from science and tech Thousands of released documents show how infamous sex criminal used his riches to fund misogyny and suppress female researchers

Epstein files show a financier obsessed with excluding women from science and tech

"No really smart women – none"

Why big tech billionaires are trying to make dystopian science fiction into reality The Nation’s Jeet Heer on how Thiel, Musk, and Bezos are animated by Heinlein, Rand, and Campbell

Instead of watching Trump lie and ramble for an hour tonight, you should watch, listen, or read the latest Theory of Change episode in which @jeetheer.bsky.social and I discuss how tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are literally basing their politics on sci-fi novels.

Why big tech billionaires are trying to make dystopian science fiction into reality The Nation’s Jeet Heer on how today’s tech oligarchs draw inspiration from Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand

Why big tech billionaires are trying to make dystopian science fiction into reality

The Nation’s Jeet Heer on how today’s tech oligarchs are trying to enact the authoritarian fantasies of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand

Thinking outside Schrödinger’s cat box: Reality as quantum Oxford University quantum physicist Vlatko Vedral on his new book about how to eliminate many of the quantum paradoxes

People sometimes say that quantum physics is "stuck," with no major discoveries since the Higgs boson. This is inaccurate; but it's worth considering that the dominance of the "Copenhagen interpretation" is holding things back.

I talked about it with Oxford University physicist Vlatko Vedral:

All the king’s masked and anonymous henchmen In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship

My latest at @flux.community: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship. 1/
plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker Psychologist Jonathan Howard on the enormous damage the new anti-science establishment is doing to public health

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Financially struggling Americans have no interest in participating in a political system that’s failed them Sociologist Daniel Laurison discusses new research on low-income non-voters

Financially struggling Americans have no interest in participating in a political system that’s failed them

Sociologist @daniellaurison.bsky.social discusses new research on why many low-income don't vote

AI content is here to stay, laws and norms need to change accordingly Large Language Models are enabling the non-rich to get cognitive assistance, but they’re also enabling junk and manipulation

AI content is here to stay, laws and norms need to change accordingly

Large Language Models are enabling the non-rich to get cognitive assistance, but they’re also enabling junk and manipulation. Political leaders have to step forward. plus.flux.community/p/ai-content...

All the king’s masked and anonymous henchmen In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship

All the king’s masked and anonymous henchmen:

In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

It shows that ultimately the "real food" campaign is a branding stunt for Kennedy and Rollins.

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker Psychologist Jonathan Howard on the enormous damage the new anti-science establishment is doing to public health

Robert Kennedy’s MAHA cult is making America sicker: A new scientific establishment is attacking evidence-based medicine plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality

Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide plus.flux.community/p/christian-...

The START nuclear weapons treaty is expiring this week, but Trump doesn’t seem to care Even Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed extending it for an additional year

The START nuclear weapons treaty is expiring this week, but Trump doesn’t seem to care.

Even Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed extending it for an additional year.

From Maduro to Minneapolis What happens when Americans are treated the way the U.S. treats other countries?

From Maduro to Minneapolis: What happens when Americans are treated the way the U.S. treats other countries plus.flux.community/p/from-madur...

Donald Trump is more unpopular than ever, but congressional Democrats are divided on how to push back The Nation’s Chris Lehmann on the very different dilemmas facing America’s major political parties

On the latest Theory of Change, @chrislehmann.bsky.social and I discussed Trump's historic unpopularity and Democratic leaders' reluctance to fight hard against him.

We also discuss how "reactionary centrism," and centrism generally, are not real things, and why believing they are harms Democrats.

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide

Christian right groups launch new coalition to ban marriage equality

Reactionary religious groups plan to leverage Republican Supreme Court majority to overturn same-sex marriage rights nationwide plus.flux.community/p/christian-...

Don’t trust Trump's fake interest in ‘de-escalating’ ICE tactics Caught red-handed overseeing authoritarian horrors on Minnesota streets, the president is desperate to evade accountability — and preserve maneuvering room to keep escalating his war on blue states

Don’t trust Trump's fake interest in ‘de-escalating’ ICE tactics

Caught red-handed overseeing authoritarian horrors on Minnesota streets, the president is desperate to evade accountability — and preserve maneuvering room to keep escalating his war on blue states

Trump’s threats against Europe are uniting the continent against the U.S. Leaders everywhere in Europe are having to confront the reality that their biggest ally has now become a menace

Trump’s threats against Europe are uniting the continent against the U.S.

The American president has stopped menacing Europe over Greenland, but leaders on the continent are having to retool under the realization that the U.S. is now a rogue state

Censorship proponents have nationalized their earlier library obsessions PEN America free expression activist Jonathan Friedman on the unprecedented scope of censorship, and how to argue against it

Censorship proponents have nationalized their earlier library obsessions

PEN America free expression activist @jonfreadom.bsky.social on the unprecedented scope of censorship, and how to argue against it plus.flux.community/p/censorship...

President Trump owns the state terror on Minneapolis streets Don't believe the president's talk of de-escalation in Minnesota — violence against citizens is the inevitable by-product of a war on blue America conducted under cover of immigration enforcement

Don't believe the president's talk of deescalation in Minnesota — violence against citizens is the inevitable by-product of a war on blue America conducted under cover of immigration enforcement

plus.flux.community/p/president-...

The Liminal States of America The people are fighting back—and winning—but this is far from over

From @matthew.flux.community @flux.community, a great overview of the bigger picture behind MAGA violence on the streets of Minneapolis: the U.S. is in an unsettled transitional period, with the reactionary Trump regime at war with modern America. 1/x
plus.flux.community/p/the-limina...

The Liminal States of America The people are fighting back—and winning—but this is far from over

🧵 The people of Minnesota, especially Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have shown that American democracy still has a lot of strength left within it.

But the battle is far from over. The US is in a liminal moment, a time of transition. We can do this, but there's much to know and to do.