Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 3hwww.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...theatlantic.comThe Root Cause of the Homelessness CrisisResearchers at UC San Francisco have released the largest representative survey of homeless people in more than 25 years. 010
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 3hEven one of the great failures of lib-coded cities--eg. their astonishing homeless populations--can be attributed to hillbilly bigots. What a world! No policy solutions in sight--except changing hearts and minds!! 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 17hcompare to the smorgasbord of immorality offered by MAGA. every criminal pardoned, every sin forgiven. trump dodges the draft, stiffs contractors, skips on taxes? he's "smart" and anyone else would've done the same. his vices are virtues and the very idea of virtue is a joke. 010
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 17hfar more useful to think of it as an exceedingly rigorous extension of modern concerns over authenticity or various protestant-coded concerns about inner/outer truths and sexual purity. the space is filled to the brim with virtue talk; "depraved" is the last word i'd use to describe it. 110
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 17hfor many (perhaps all) of them, woke/trans issues are mere extensions of the "logic" of the sexual revolution, which is understood as a *relaxation* of traditional moral norms. this is a bad and stupid framing. does this space seem "relaxed" to you?! 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 17hwho does this sound like? does this sound like the woke left--which is if anything hyper-moralized? or does it sound like today's GOP, which is opposed on principle to the *very idea of criminality* every consequence is a "weaponization" of the justice system. nixon himself "rehabilitated." 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 17hi spend a lot of time explaining to boomer conservative colleagues that the "love of equality" that shows up in eg. Book VIII of Republic has less to do with eg. transgenderism and much, much, much more to do pedophile Denny Hastert 110
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Hegseth's presentations are literally nothing like pro sports. The rest of those things is just big crowds 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Huh? Where is the evidence for either argument? This is just vibes 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026ironically there is evidence that *small-scale sporting* i.e. associational sport made some areas of germany more prone to adopt naziism. should we decenter associations as a result? 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026this sounds like the case *for* fascism fascists also emphasize orderliness and wearing uniforms set that aside--not sure what "proxy" establishes here. say it's true that "proxy" relationship exists--does it make fascism more or less likely? 200
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026How would decentering sports serve anti-fascist goals? 200
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 04/10/2026"Debate" clubs and competitions should be banned forever 0212
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 02/10/2026people round here (rural south) are slow to consider it because you have to share the road with southern drivers in trucks, but i get through to them quickly when i mention i go door-to-door in ~10 minutes, which is usually how long it takes just to find a parking spot 010
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 02/10/2026been driving Odysseys for like fifteen years now. they're great. 120
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 02/10/2026my office is about 2.5 miles from my house. i cut my commute in half by buying an electric scooter. 120
Reposted by Brandon TurnerLiberalism.org @liberalism.org · 01/10/2026"It's really easy to think—especially when we [political coalition members] have been working together for a long time—we work together because we agree. And, I don't think that's actually true." — @janetbufton.ca Listen to the full episode: www.liberalism.org/podcast/s/li... 045
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026as recently as 2000s, Reps were marginally more likely than Dems to say the U.S. should have more immigration rather than less. i think it's true that each side has their argument for more immigration--human rights/egalitarianism for left, labor supply for right. imo not a clear left/right issue. 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026On institutions, I'm thinking of new emphasis on associational independence in places like higher ed and Big Law. This might be more a question of salience than changing views, but then again all views are weighted and a change in weight distribution is a change. 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026On specific issues, we have seen liberals move rightward on trade and NATO--presumably we can agree on that. They've moved towards libertarians on immigration. re: institutions--there are several that poll more favorably now than previously (eg. FBI), likely due to negative polarization. 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026do you mean the kind of rightward shift many predicted or claimed to observe after 2024? my own rightward shift was more about the importance and fragility of institutions, mobilization of populist sentiments, etc 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026first time i noticed what an extraordinary vocalist Baldwin was 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I had Trump in mind and I know better than to weigh in on Brexit politics, a subject about which I just don't know a lot. 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026i'm being retweeted by some whale accounts, so-- before you arrive to tell me i'm wrong, consider that i never post anything wrong, especially if there's a chance it will be retweeted by @jacobtlevy.bsky.social 010
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Decisively-solved problems have a way of coming back, yes 120
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I have many times said that 2016 pushed me further to the right, and I submit that it pushed a number of traditional lefties to the right as well--on economics especially, but also on civil society and associations of all stripes 662
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026we've done a lot of dunking on libertarians on here and I have wanted to point out for a long time that while very many *libertarians* revealed themselves to be authoritarians or useful idiots, libertarianism has been *extremely vindicated* in a number of key ways 7144
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026sorry to be that guy, but i cannot fucking believe how much TV a lot of you watch 021
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 24/09/2026for me it's straightforward to the point of stupidity: mitch mcconnell stole a seat in 2016. that's the whole reason. every court reforming effort should refer again and again back to this one fact: they stole a seat in 2016 in plain sight, and they laundered this fact via the 2016 pres election. 020
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 24/09/2026i think expanding the court is a bad idea; altering a court whose legitimacy rests on its perceived stability and neutrality bc you think it unduly or unjustly hinders your preferred political program is, i think, both wrong and bad that said, i hope the dems pack the court (or at least reform it) 210
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026not once have i seen someone run through these arguments in a way that wasn't totally overrun by some combination of bizarre moralism (stop "POLICING" students, less "PUNITIVE" culture!) or just-asking-questions dipshittery (is it much different than google? is it necessarily wrong?) 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026inching ever closer to the view that the anti-Pangram crowd is basically telling on itself 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026sorry to put it bluntly, but what are you talking about? there is no "assessment" at question here. this is a provost whose public work seems to be generated by AI. you need the "harm" of that explained to you? 010
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026i confess i've never gone back to check the original! 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026jowett's translation of aristotle comes pretty darn close 120
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026saw a *lot* of demands for news agencies to suspend white house coverage in light of trump's banning CNN etc from the press pool well, they did it 2244
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 16/09/2026"i don't care if it's garbage--in fact i prefer it's garbage as long as it gets out quickly, counts towards expenditures, and attracts new funding" --deans everywhere 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 16/09/2026it is worth stepping back occasionally and remarking upon the extent to which deans and administrators of all sorts have turned the job of an academic into **finding and spending** money 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026i guess that's not right, no--ideally any grievance board would defer to the processes established by the department. but you would need a university administration that would give considerable weight to the professional evaluations established by the department. 000
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026thereby simply re-establishing the current top-down model of university governance? 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026that last sentence was imprecise and maybe ungrammatical. say a professor includes language on their syllabus that a body of departmental faculty, upon request, deems inappropriate. what to do? my guess is that any punishments meted out will be grieved *immediately* 100
Brandon Turner @bparsonst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026genuine question: let us agree that departments and, if necessary, faculty senate should be in position to evaluate cases re: what is/isn't germane to course material; speech that seems inappropriate within the university. how do they enforce these evaluations on a faculty member? 100
