I will never forget the experience of seeing LEAVING NEVERLAND at its Sundance premiere. For @avclub.com I wrote about a devastating, definitive documentary about surviving sexual abuse that cannot be erased.
In the early 1960s a number of US right wingers left the John Birch Society in protest precisely because the JBS accepted Jewish members and refused to identify "the communist conspiracy" as "Jewish." These intra-right arguments about competing phantoms go way back. bsky.app/profile/seth...
Bill Cooper's Behold a Pale Horse (1991) was a hugely influential conspiracy theory text on the US far right. It included the entire Protocols of the Elders of Zion. FWIW, Cooper disavowed antisemitism. He thought that text was describing a real cabal, but not "the Jews." bsky.app/profile/seth...
One of the major schisms on the US right in the 1960s was between relative "moderates" like the John Birchers who "knew' that the communist conspiracy was a continuation of the Illuminati conspiracy, and those who "knew," like Hitler did, that it was just "the Jews." jbs.org/video/classi...
Folks have asked about Buckley's use of the term "Judeo-Masonic." The US right has long debated whether "the radical left conspiracy" is ackshually just "the jews" or whether it's "more complicated than that" and includes the Bavarian illuminati. Yes, it's this stupid.
bsky.app/profile/sfom...
The reason the US right wants us talking about "mysterious conspiracy theories" is because they don't want us talking about matters of public policy and how to use political power to improve the lives of ordinary people. Every day we're talking about conspiracies is a day they're winning.
I also want to state clearly that there is no way Donald Trump, a man who can't even string two sentences together coherently, orchestrated a massive conspiracy to fake his own assassination. He's also a chicken shit, so he'd never trust someone to shoot at him but promise to *just barely* miss.
Memory often distorts history, but in this case, the way Buckley is remembered (or not remembered) today is fairly indicative of who he was during the height of his career as the unofficial "gatekeeper" of conservatism, ca. 1955-2000-ish. Buckley, with his posh accent, commodious vocabulary, and familiarity with the classics of literature and philosophy, was the public face of a "conservatism" with which liberals and centrists could respectfully disagree. But the "conservative movement" astride which Buckley stood, yelling "go get 'em boys," was a far more vengeful, illiberal, anti-intellectual, and humorless beast than was evident in Buckley's generally cool, urbane, and clever exterior. Buckley wasn't as much the personification of a robust, "reasonable" conservative tradition as he was an affable distraction from the roiling illiberal waters upon which he sailed, and which now threaten to engulf us.
This is the tl;dr thesis of that piece, a thesis that is not original to me but is a summation of the past decade or so of historical scholarship on the history of the American right.
Some people have commented on the fact that Tucker's brother and son are both named Buckley. Yes, it is an homage to Bill Buckley, the supposed father of "reasonable conservatism" who was kinda that, but also kinda not. An explainer here. rightlandia.ghost.io/william-f-wh...
Trisha Hope - National Delega... • X.com @JustTheTweets17 I was a long time Trump supporter, I became a National Delegate to make certain Trump was seated as the nominee. While en-route to Wisconsin, I learned of the attempt on Trump's life at the Butler rally. I was in the middle of having dinner at a restaurant in Little Rock, AR. We immediately got the check and left, I was very upset. Prior to learning of the "assassination attempt" | was to scheduled to do an interview with The Washington Post, they had a reporter who was going to shadow me at the convention. He reached out to me after the shooting in a way that I found lacked concern for Trump, so l canceled the interview and did not allow them to shadow me. The purpose of allowing them to follow me was to bring awareness to J6ers. One of the hats I wore at the convention dawned the images of 4 Jers, that hat now sits in the Smithsonian. At the convention of course there was massive
At the convention of course there was massive concern for President Trump the consensus was it was divine intervention that saved Trump and we were all incredibly grateful. On the night Trump spoke, he had the ear patch on and many in the crowd did also. As Trump begin to speak, he started with this: "So many people have asked me what happened. Tell us what happened, please. And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you'll never hear it from me a second time, because it's actually too painful to tell." As I stood on the convention floor you could have heard a pin drop as he spoke. My first thought was how odd for him to begin this way. He was nearly assassinated just a few days before and yet he was declaring this would be the only time he spoke of it, that was my first red flag. When people tell a lie, certainly a big one it is tough to keep all the details straight and doing so is an effort. In my opinion Trump made that statement to stop any further conversation about what happened. He gave us his official story, would only do it once and that was the end of it.
Now we all know no one loves Trump more than Trump so this to me felt completely out of character. Fast forward to the questioning of Secret Service on how this was allowed to happen. If you look at the perfectly timed ICONIC photo Trump standing triumphantly screaming FIGHT, FIGHT FIGHT, certainly this was divine intervention....right? Following the inauguration, I found it odd that Trump wasn't going aggressively after those who allowed this to happen. He seemed to behave like it was no big deal. His Secret Service detail failed him massively, allowed him to be shot, and they allowed that perfectly timed photo op to take place Instead of his SS detail being terminated as they should have been, Trump made the gentleman in the white shirt the HEAD of the Secret Service on January 22, 2025. Instead of losing his job Sean Curran was given a massive promotion. Now, I want you to look critically at this photo. They allowed President Trump to stand up,
exposing multiple potential kill shots, as the flag is gently lowered. Interesting that the other SS agents lower their heads as the perfectly time ICONIC photo is taken. Honestly, it couldn't have been scripted better if were to have been done in a studio. Since the attempt on his life, Trump has show no interest in investigating what really happened. He never mentions it, it's as if it never happened, except when he tells us, he took a bullet for us. As for Corey Comperatore, he was used in this plot, someone had to die otherwise, it would have been much easier to claim it was a HOAX. They killed Corey, likely because he was truly a real life hero, one people would rally behind and defend passionately, as they should. Then to top it off, they used Corey to their benefit at the convention. To this day his wife is begging for answers, answers she has repeatedly been denied. Sadly, they have no more use for her, she no longer matters. If you cannot look at this story, and use critical thinking skills and have at least some questions, you are the problem and we need you to snap out
This is the post from a week ago that seems to have super-charged the "debate" on the MAGA right. MTG retweeted this post, which surely played a role in shaping the conversation. FWIW, the woman who posted this is also a 911 truther. Much of MAGA seems to be Alex Jones pilled at this point.
So when "conservatives" say that universities need to have more "viewpoint diversity" that take the worldviews of people like Ali Alexander seriously, what does that mean in terms of leading class discussions. "Today class we will be debating whether Trump was chosen by Christ or is the Antichrist."
Ali Alexander, the far-right activist who organized the Stop the Steal campaign in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, has a slightly different take on the assassination, claiming instead that it was further evidence that Trump is the Antichrist, something many MAGA figures have also been considering this week. "To be clear: if Donald Trump didn't receive a miracle, then it was deception or a dark sign," Alexander wrote in a five-page PDF he posted to his Telegram channel on Tuesday evening. "There is biblical prophecy in Revelation 13:3 apparently about the Antichrist being struck on the head."
Like, it can never just be "Trump is a political actor who I thought I understood, but who is taking actions that I disagree with." It's gotta be, I thought Trump was the second coming of Christ, but now I understand that he's ackshually the Antichrist.
I'm reminded of something Matt Sitman said long ago on the Know Your Enemy podcast...on the US right, nothing ever is just what it is. The layers of absurd fabulism are not a bug, but a feature of US conservative political culture, and it's long been that way. www.wired.com/story/maga-i...
Buckley Carlson • @buckleycarlson X.com Remember when you thought 911 was as presented? (I did, for a long time). Now consider what you endured during Covid, Election 2020, J6 Fedsurrection, Epstein (even just the sickening partial reveal), Charlie, and Iran-for-Israel. NOW, will you say the below is crazy? Doubt it. Thanks, @DavidSmuts David Smuts • @DavidSmuts • 4/24/25 Listen folks, because this is bigger than you think. What happened with Trump's "assassination attempt" on 13th July wasn't just some random event—it was a deliberate Judeo-Masonic blood ritual, staged to deceive the masses ... Show more 6:38 AM • 4/18/26 • 105K Views
Tucker Carlson is very close with his brother Buckley. Buckley seems to believe that 9/11 was an inside job and that Trump’s assassination was faked as “a deliberate Judeo-Masonic blood ritual, staged to deceive the masses.” Okey dokey.
we are not like this bc it is fun. it isn't. we are like this bc we need our understanding of what's happening to be as accurate as possible to inform our actions. it's not our fault the most successful approach to this looks exactly like cynicism; this is just where you wind up when you do the math
what elites say includes laws; the above heuristic is more accurate than laws. it looks too simple to be correct, but that's just bc transphobia is simple. if i knew of a more consistent predictor i'd be using it, but obviously transphobia is nowhere near the first or only thing this axiom works for
it sounds & is bad, but a more accurate heuristic than trusting what elites say about their commitment to trans lives is:
is there a risk that truly defending trans people could inconvenience a cis person or cost anyone money?
if so, they won't do it.
that will be right more often than promises.
parents and trans youth cannot be expected to know they are being lied to. your governor and attorney general and mayor all say they've got your back. your mainstream lgbtq orgs are silent. your cis friends repeat it to reassure you. the truth barely gets coverage, and rarely fully when it does.
"It just felt like the floor had fallen out. Like all the support that I thought we had was gone. Maybe this is naive, but I didn't think that would happen in Massachusetts."
there is functionally a conspiracy to gaslight you into believing that, so it's understandable
www.npr.org/2026/04/17/n...
*Palantir execs trying to explain their glorious vision so we’ll invite them inside*
Israeli forces assaulted a Palestinian shepherd while settlers stole his livestock in Al-Mughayyir, West Bank.
Salute to an all-time tweet
If you doubt me on this, remember what the actual stakes are and think about what it'll take to fight any of that at this point. Just voting for the guys who you think are gonna be closest to being an electable "progressive"/"socialist" party is not even close to enough.
So any possibility of political change absolutely must go beyond that, or it will be powerless.
You can only do so much with electoral politics. You can't keep griping about people not voting for the right people, especially when those people are handpicked for you, maybe by the same people moving around Palantir (remember, these were/are Epstein's friends).
And here in the UK the most "leftist" people most people might vote for are the Greens, and for what it's worth Zack actually did write a letter telling Palantir to fuck off. But keep the "AI" in mind too and even they just want to tax "AI" data centres, maybe regulate them, tax corporations more.
Actually, what did I say earlier? It makes "left-wing politics feel so weak? I retract that because it's already weak. I mean it makes it feel truly impotent, especially in the USA. Because again, you're seeing this and the best you've got is try and do the New Deal again for maybe the 9th time?
And I'm not fucking around. Either these corporations are broken up and dissolved, and maybe their assets spread out, or they'll not only do whatever they want they'll also get to a point where you basically have something like Night City corporatocracy if the corps ran for office instead of people.
If you need any of these people at all, its because you want them to just dissolve Palantir, but they can't just run on that directly in the campaign, or the corporation would go after them immediately before they get to do anything. But then how you do know you can count on them after they win?
All this only makes the major avenues of mainstream "left-wing" politics ("democratic socialism", "progressivism", "social-democracy") feel so weak, because you know the only response to fight them head on, and all they think of is running on more taxes and "regulating AI".
