Justin Ling's avatar

Justin Ling

@justinling.bsky.social

5405 followers 844 following 2547 posts

Freelance journalist. In WIRED, Foreign Policy, etc. Writing a book about crowd control. The future is now, unfortunately. justinling@pm.me

bugeyedandshameless.com

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Here: go.bsky.app/KkRR1om

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Thanks! If you go to my profile, I believe there's a 'starter pack' there with a bunch of good and smart people to follow.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Gotta follow more people, and reply more! Some other folks have actually found engagement is higher here than on Twitter (and less miserable.) But you've got to follow a couple hundred people to get the scale.

1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Sometimes things we label as misinformation do this really annoying thing — they end up being less misinformation-y than we first believed. All we can really do is own up to it. www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/joe-biden-...

0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

If it interests you:

I profiled one of Navalny's guys for FP: foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/29/p...
And looked at their propaganda campaign for WIRED: www.wired.com/story/youtub...

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I hear a lot of criticism of the liberals in exile. (I got an ear-full when I was in Kyiv in March.) But I think we've been a tad unfair to them. Even if they're far from perfect, they're still slowly chipping away at Putin's middle class supporters.

1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I generally accept Navalny's turn away from hyper-nationalism as being pretty genuine — but, yeah, Kara-Murza is a way more interesting thinking, by a mile. I had the opportunity to hear him speak, and meet him briefly some years ago.

1 replies 1 reposts 1 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Fuck. Putin on track to kill another liberal dissident.

3 replies 7 reposts 21 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

the brits even turfed Liz Truss

2 replies 0 reposts 20 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

lol

1 replies 1 reposts 12 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

ITV presenter: "There's Mr. Binface walking in front [of the prime minister]— I presume it's Mr. Binface, he rather advertises himself."

4 replies 4 reposts 31 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

goodbye to Penny Mordaunt, a terrible weirdo

1 replies 0 reposts 10 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

what an adorably quaint place this is

1 replies 2 reposts 7 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

It's a women and LGBTQ-focused/led not-for-profit. All the details are on their 'about us' page

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Yeah, Biden is definitely going to get back on track by kicking trans people in the shin for no reason. 19thnews.org/2024/07/whit...

2 replies 6 reposts 16 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

It won't be when I'm through with it

0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

love to watch Sir Lord Fuddlesticks, the Tory candidate, stand quivering next to Bradley Thumb, running for Labour, as they wait to see who will represent the fine people of Northrop Grumman-Upon-Coal

3 replies 5 reposts 49 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I think the UK is a silly little country with lots of quaint traditions but one of their strange customs that I absolutely adore is forcing all the candidates to stand onstage as their vote totals are read out.

4 replies 11 reposts 84 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

new slogan: Take the L

0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes

Reposted by Justin Ling

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

"An appeal not to reason, but to emotions, contributes to the fastest achievement of the goals set before the propaganda machine." Confirms a lot of what we know, but still a fascinating inside look at Russian information operations.

0 replies 5 reposts 8 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

but at some point someone is going to write a story that says "Russia is spending $600 on Facebook ads in favor of the 'dump Biden' narrative" and we'll be off to the races

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

He's likening it to what Russia did in 2016 — the Kremlin pushes down a bunch of anti-Hilary/pro-Trump narratives, and then a ton of people online weave them into their own, genuine, information campaign and it makes everything worse. That's a real enough thing, but it's just so absolutely not this

2 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

Reposted by Justin Ling

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Even if you think Biden should stay and run again — which is entirely defensible! — you've got to concede that they are bungling this response in catastrophic fashion. Criticize the media all you want, but the White House has proved incapable of changing the narrative or instilling confidence.

2 replies 4 reposts 21 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

ok so the Times reporting was right, then.

5 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

because in this week's design challenge, the FLOTUSes were asked design a lewk using only items found in a dead woman's kitchen

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Sure. I still think it's less risky than running a president who has alienated a clear majority of the electorate. And, again, there's no actual reason why Biden can't how out of the race and stay on as president.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I think even if that's the world America lands in, an extra four months of a lame duck administration seems worth it if it improves the odds of stopping Trump.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Right, the audience for the former is voters who are considering Trump. And we know that Biden religiously reads the Times, trusts it, and that the editorial reflects the feeling of a huge number of Democratic and independent voters.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Listen I'm pretty radicalized into "Biden has to go" after the watching the debate, but this is also some absolute crackpot shit.

4 replies 2 reposts 18 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Yeah because calling on Trump to drop out would require believing that Trump has morals and cares about the opinion of the Times editorial board. They call on Biden to withdraw explicitly because the prospect of a Trump victory is so damaging. (It also features a ton of positive language about him)

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Yeah, I suppose that's about it. You can argue about their editorial choices without discrediting the whole paper and all of their reporting. The latter tactic is a very MAGA move.

1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Like you can/should criticize the Times for following the ball too enthusiastically on dumbass process stories — See: Emails, Hilary Clinton — but they still employ some of the best political reporters in the business and do some pretty critical reporting. They're not a GOP psyop.

2 replies 1 reposts 4 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I'm not always a huge fan of all the New York Times' reporting, but the speed at which liberals have started calling it fake news because of these Biden stories is rather bad, I think.

6 replies 0 reposts 10 likes

Reposted by Justin Ling

🤖 AP Breaking News (unofficial)'s avatar 🤖 AP Breaking News (unofficial) @ap-bot.bsky.social
[ View ]

BREAKING: Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, anti-settlement watchdog says.

3 replies 59 reposts 55 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

What would this look like? I'm feeling very allergic to the idea that we should be talking about this as a disinformation problem at this point, but am curious to see what you mean.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Reposted by Justin Ling

s. e. smith 's avatar s. e. smith @sesmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Anyway here’s a read about a civil rights attorney risking her freedom to tackle racist policing.

0 replies 18 reposts 58 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

For sure, taking note of Heritage Foundation plans is a good thing. But letting yourself be cowed by those lawfare freaks strikes me as a bad thing.

0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

I'm sure Heritage will engage in some kind of fuckery, but that last graph makes clear how quixotic of a campaign it would be. Biden is not even the nominee until, at least, late July — he doesn't need to be "replaced" until then. The "deadlines" they refer to are, I assume, on party ballot access.

1 replies 1 reposts 12 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

It wasn't a dig! Just pointing it out.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

Not to be that guy, but this poll was in the field June 26 to 28 — so mostly before the debate took place.

And even then, the poll isn't quite as rosy as "Biden up 2." tippinsights.com/biden-trump-...

3 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

This poll was famously right! Romney led Obama through the first two weeks of October. Obama did much better in the second debate, just as Romney's campaign started floundering. Things picked up in late October. Do we think Biden can get back on the horse and win the next debate? I sure don't.

3 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

People are so terrified by a Trump victory that they think criticism should be reserved for the Republicans. I get the logic! But I think it risks blowing up in an even more spectacular way.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Justin Ling's avatar Justin Ling @justinling.bsky.social
[ View ]

You can't keep telling people that this is a media narrative. It's not. People saw the debate, they watched the president mutter incoherently through most of it.

2 replies 1 reposts 3 likes