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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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“Don’t make us hit you.”
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Michael Feola@feolski.bsky.social |
369 followers 309 following 264 posts
Dad. Political Theorist. Writes on white nationalism, the far right, critical theory. Author: The Rage of Replacement (2024, UMN Press). Words at The Washington Post, Slate, The Guardian.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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“Don’t make us hit you.”
0 replies 2 reposts 5 likes
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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They say you can know a person/group by its enemies. And the CRA reflects everything the far right rages against: civic equality, multiethnic democracy, restorative justice, and a state that reckons with its histories of racial violence. This is everything they loathe, everything they want to undo.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is why the far right legal machine has set its sights on undoing the CRA's promises/protections, piece by piece. And it's why far right influencers have conducted a longstanding campaign of character assassination against MLK. All to poison the cultural memory of the civil rights movement.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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For far right prophets of white panic, there is perhaps no greater bugbear in the nation's history -- the moment when "anti-white energies" were supposedly written into law. And so the CRA fuels one of their central, lurid fantasies, that of an ongoing "war against white people."
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Their influencers condemn the CRA as the path to national ruin -- a spur to the "browning of America." The moment when "diversity became a religion." But their rage runs deeper. The CRA is meant to provide a "secret, second constitution" that has supposedly poisoned the state itself.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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The Civil Rights Act was signed into law 60 years ago today. For many, it represents a monumental victory (if partial/limited/imperfect) for activist energies, pushing the state to uphold its promises of racial equality. And yet, there is perhaps no greater object of far right rage🧵
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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And, of course, this "new Caesar" can only thrive in the absence of restraint. Today's SCOTUS decision just streamrolled the way toward making this vision a reality. Dangerous times ahead.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is a president with the power to sweep away the perceived corruption of all other branches. An executive unbound by checks, restraints, or decorum. Only the radicalism of the Caesar can uproot the perceived rot of the present, to restore the (true) will of the (true) people.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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And they've argued that the only way to topple the supposedly corrupt elite is by capturing a single office that has both the power and visibility to sweep away the enemies of the nation in one fell swoop: the presidency. This is what they call "the new Caesarism".
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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One thing to know about today's SCOTUS ruling is just how closely it tracks the radical dreams of the new/far right. For decades, they've argued the now-familiar laments about the "deep" state. Argued that the "managerial" or "administrative" state subverts the "will of the (true) people". 🧵
1 replies 7 reposts 20 likes
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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SCOTUS with your daily reminder: originalism means that the constitution says whatever the Heritage Foundation needs it to say on any given day.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Newest stop on the Elon Musk far right radicalization tour: pushing the talking points long used by white supremacists to minimize the deep moral stain of slavery upon the nation.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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As a historic utterance, the formula is messy and ambiguous. As a slogan, crafted for the contemporary needs of firearm fundamentalists, it is uncompromising and absolute. A fount of certainty, a bedrock of faith. The linguistic path to extremism. 4/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is the power of the formula “shall not be infringed”. Like an incantation, it short-circuits thought, evaporates the inconvenient history of the second amendment, and hardens into a seamless equivalence— of freedom and the right to violence. From there, no quarter can be given. 3/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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… what it reveals about far right media politics. Over and over, far right agitators insist that the counterrevolution will only be won by capturing hearts and minds. The path: a politics of language. Words are their arsenal — designed to shape thought, feeling, and imagination. 2/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Xitter today is an amazing illustration of right-wing language politics. All across the right-wing media ecology, one phrase rings out: “shall not be infringed” (in shouty all-caps). As usual, the phrase is pushed by firearm extremists and bad-faith gun apologists. But more interesting is… 🧵 1/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Today in SCOTUS: firearm extremists and gun industry shills, fueled by a deformed reading of the Constitution, take another step toward making the United States the most violent, bullet-riddled nation on earth. You know. For "freedom".
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is the way.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is a politics where the womb is a weapon and children are ultimately units of demographic warfare -- to be produced en masse, and groomed in "the right (reactionary) way". When your political imagination is exhausted by reactionary rage, biology is the last legible path to the future. 2/2
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Daily reminder, from the hate speech impresario behind LOTT. Dreams of "outbreeding the competition" have long been central to the far right. Their demographic panic over "replacement" is rooted in fears over flagging reproduction... and so, too, are their dreams of white resurgence. 1/2
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Sure, it's worth celebrating today's mifestiprone decision. But don't forget: in red state after red state, they're still after reproductive autonomy. Birth control, abortion, etc. It's all on the chopping block. SCOTUS is only one path to their dream of a forced birth nation.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Exactly.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Remember when Elon spent years claiming that all views should be publicly aired/discussed? All for Truth (TM)? Now he makes Xitter likes secret, to immunize the far right from the social consequences of openly avowing their malignant views. But sure. He’s just really into “free speech”.
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Max Kennerly
@maxkennerly.bsky.social
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Conservatives constantly undermine families—criminalizing women's healthcare, defunding schools, slashing support like the child tax credit, flooding the country with guns—but the NYTimes says liberals & progressives who want better are the problem.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This has been the basic principle of Alito's jurisprudence for decades. All dressed up with the spurious veneer of "originalism" (perhaps the greatest intellectual/legal fraud of our time). The only thing surprising is that he got caught on tape admitting it. 3/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Take the following from the far right Patrick Buchanan: "unlike normal politics, where a middle ground can usually be found and a compromise reached, culture war is a zero-sum game. One side's gain is the other's loss." His conclusion? That politics demands "no quarter combat". 2/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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There is nothing less surprising than the Alito news. The most central tenet of the far right for generations has been that the nation is involved in a bitter, intractable war -- in which disagreement is existential, compromise is impossible, and cultural adversaries must be vanquished. 🧵 1/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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The thing about Biden's EO is that it will never be enough for the right. Now that "border chaos" is the GOP article of faith, no resolution can be acknowledged and no spectacle of cruelty can ever be enough. Authoritarianism 101. Only the leader-god can face down the chaos. Only Trump can save us.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Fauci on the Hill. In watching the orchestrated GOP rage spectacle, you see something more than a play act in the COVID culture wars . It's the MAGA fury toward common goods, toward mutual care. The rage toward science, toward any truth authority beyond the word of Trump the Leader.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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The one area where right-wing histrionics over a destructive “lawfare” might actually be correct: the well-funded network of reactionary judicial extremism (cough, Fed Soc) that uses antidemocratic power to undermine the franchise, gut regulatory power, and strip civil rights. Civic scourge.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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... followed by the rage of perceived victimhood... followed by the demand for vengeance. This is the malignant political imaginary of the far right. In the mirror, it can see only a victim. Everywhere it looks, enemies. Its sole response, the rage of reaction, the desire to tear down. 2/2
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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And now the right-wing echo chamber has moved to its next predictable talking point: it is urgent that the r-w legal establishment prosecute as many "from the left" as possible. To even the score. There is no logic more central to the far right political imaginary. The fantasy of persecution... 1/2
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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All across the right-wing echo chamber, a mighty wail of grievance has arisen over the state of the US justice system. Weird. They seemed so interested in adding to the prison population when the issue of the day was *checks notes* poor people and POC in “blue cities”. 🤔
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Just gonna repost this. Seems relevant.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Stages of MAGA grief, Trump trial edition: 1. denial: THERE WUZ NO CRIME!! 2. anger: show trial! Judge is COMMIE BADGUY. 3. bargaining: go ahead, convict him. It will only seal his glorious victory! 4. depression: whatever. I'm still voting for him EVEN FROM PRISON. 5. acceptance: *crickets*
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is why they worship Alito and Thomas (and, of course, Trump). These are the men who promise they will "set things right", through offices that are absolutely unaccountable to the will of the many. They are the last great hope for those who rage against the powers of democracy. 3/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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More important is unfettered power. The power to reshape the world without need for democratic mandate or permission. To tear down the "liberal" order by dismantling decades of public policy and civil rights gains. And to do so beyond the reach of basic democratic accountability. 2/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Absolutely nobody should be surprised by Alito's refusal to recuse himself in the upcoming J6 cases. Nothing could more strongly reflect far right dreams. Their fondest desire: the power to turn back the clock, reshape the world toward reactionary ends. But more important for a minority party? 1/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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A reminder of how much Americans hate bodies. I mean, sure, we love the spectacle of glistening, hard, lithe bodies on our screens and magazines. But real bodies? That sag and hunger and excrete and need and fail? To be despised, with all other reminders of our vulnerability and finitude.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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For those without LA Times access: www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Important research. It's difficult to stress how much the "deaths of despair" coinage has been used to drive narratives of white victimhood and justify politics of white resentment. Bad social science drives bad politics.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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And the list is hardly complete. But the point: the Reich-post isn't moving the needle either way. Trump has long staked his politics on cruelty, malice, perceived victimhood, disdain for law, and hostility toward democracy. This is what he is. This is what he promises. And they love him for it. 4/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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The creation of an alternate fact-universe, where The Leader is always right; the war against an independent media (the Lügenpresse!); the glorification of an imaginary golden age, organized around the powers of whiteness; the effort to eliminate institutional checks on executive power. 3/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Promising to conduct political "retribution" against his perceived enemies; deriding immigrants an "not human" and their blood as a "poison" to the nation; eviscerating civil servants to replace with rank/file loyalists; celebrating/enlisting extrajudicial violence (and doers of such violence) 2/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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People have fastened on Trump's "unified Reich" post, along with the predictable excuses (it was an intern! Trump is innocent!). To fixate on this single moment, though, is to miss the much bigger constellation of fascist-adjacent commitments that have actually come out of Trump's mouth: 🧵 1/4
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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A manly violence of purification -- where the "true" nation is saved from its enemies, the wicked are punished, and the "worthy" are celebrated again. It is why they cleave to their rage and their guns. Once politics is discarded, violence is the sole gateway to their future. 3/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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This is doctrinal across the far right. Along with their hatred of equality and love of hierarchy, one commitment comes to the fore. The nation/race/culture is broken. But the conflict is rooted deeper than politics. There is "no voting your way out". The only path forward? 2/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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From the antisemitic far right figurehead, Stew Peters. A classic rendering of the violence that rests at the heart of the far right imagination. "There is no political solution for the current state of affairs" -- only violence, waged by strong men, can redeem the nation. 🧵 1/3
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Daily reminder that I work at a college: when I pulled into my parking lot today, I drove to the last available spot, only to discover it was already occupied. By a 12-pack of Natty Light and an entire baked ham.
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Michael Feola
@feolski.bsky.social
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Huh. You mean that whole "left-wing public school indoctrination" thing was a right-wing fever dream, ginned up by political operatives for electoral/culture war gain? *insert shocked face here*
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
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