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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

www.konsyse.com/articles/do-...

Overall, the research suggests that taxation is a weaker motivator of migration than policymakers often fear. Instead, social embeddedness and quality of life considerations are decisive factors. For states, the challenge is not simply to offer competitive tax rates, but to foster communities where wealthy residents are deeply rooted.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I bet they’re concerned, maybe even disappointed.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is probably true, again given the shift I described above. This refers to the *new* center-left, which I agree is ineffective. The author goes on to say that Democrats need to seek out perspectives beyond the NYT.

If the biggest problem is that the Times' approach is ill suited for liberals fighting against a radicalized GOP, a smaller but important problem is the Times' approach to skepticism toward progressives. As progressives gain more influence, the intraparty fissures among Democrats are more important than at any time in decades. **And the Times, in my view, is very much on the side of an ineffective center-left.**

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Now we’re getting at the crux of the article, and I don’t think it’s wrong. Having the “paper of record” which is apparently still perceived by some as “leaning left” act like things are normal and *actually* it’s the liberal left that’s the problem, enables mainstream Dems to act like that too.

In my view, the Times helped lead Democrats to all of those fateful decisions.
The paper's coverage hints that the Republican Party is reasonable and parts of the Democratic Party base are unreasonable. That approach pushes Democrats away from the reality: The MAGA right must be defeated, not negotiated with.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’d call the opinion section center-left at *best* and that’s only because the GOP (with the help of institutions like the NYT) has shifted the discourse to the right. What used to be center or even slightly center-right is now “center-left”.

The paper's opinion section, **while overall left-leaning**, similarly often whitewashes the political conflict in the United States.
The correct treatment for Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist behind all the bans on teaching about racial issues in schools and universities, should be constant columns and editorials blasting him as an authoritarian, not extended interviews that treat him as a normal political actor. Klein's infamous column titled "Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way" encapsulated this approach.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And here we talk about that false equivalence and close on a key point. The strictly factual reporting is missing the point. The Democratic Party is a normal party in a liberal democracy while the GOP is a radical party trying to destroy it.

However we describe this vision, in practice the Times' news coverage (meaning outside of the opinion section) avoids consistently describing the Trump-era Republican Party as antidemocratic, Islamophobic, racist, and plutocratic. The paper seems interested in portraying conservatives and liberals as equally problematic, or at least implying that there are major excesses on the left as well as the right. The paper's coverage of higher education and transgender rights in particular leans into the idea that the left has gone too far, as opposed to centering the right's authoritarian conduct on those issues (e.g., bans on gender-affirming medical care and the study of ideas like critical race theory). The overall product is a factually accurate portrayal of American politics that misses the big story: The Republican Party is a far-right entity at war with democracy; the Democrats are a normal party in a liberal democracy.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Now we’re getting somewhere. The NYT has yet to meet a false equivalence it wouldn’t happily push. Is this in the service of being nonpartisan? 🤔

Times leaders describe their approach as being an "independent" news operation.
They don't explicitly state this, but I suspect those leaders are quite aware the paper's audience is largely Democrats and otherwise left-of-center readers. So the paper is signaling that it's independent from the Democratic Party. But the coverage of the Times is best described by other words and phrases: nonpartisan, bipartisan, centrist, neutral, a "view from nowhere," **and, at its worst, false
equivalence.**

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Is that what they’re doing? Being nonpartisan and non ideological? I’m not so sure.

**The Times believes deeply in the nonpartisan, nonideological form of journalism that has dominated in the United States** for the last eight decades or so. In prior eras, news outlets were more open about their ideology and policy preferences. Even as television networks and newspapers such as the Post and the Times embraced this more neutral approach in the twentieth century, Black-owned newspapers in particular took a different tack, leaning into their concerns about segregation and white supremacy.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Interesting piece worthy of a read. Let’s break it down a bit, shall we? If the NYT is primarily a left/Democrat publication, why does it seem like they spend much of their time pandering to the right?

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Oh hi this was also me in Iceland 😂

Me in a blue coat with hood up, a crater lake in the background.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Nice cutaway to this guy. And Trump thinks he’ll “make a deal right after the election”. Will any reporter ask why it will take so long to “make a deal”?

Photo a man in a suit in the UN behind a placard reading “IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF)”. The has a stoic expression.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I’m sure it will work this time! 🙄

3 panels with Lindsey (Bluth) and Tobias Funke

1) WELL DID IT WORK FOR THOSE PEOPLE?
2) NO, IT NEVER DOES, I MEAN, THESE PEOPLE SOMEHOW DELUDE THEMSELVES INTO THINKING IT MIGHT, BUT…
3) …BUT IT MIGHT WORK FOR US.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This summarizes well how we got here. Decades of failure to enforce antitrust have created the 900 lb gorillas (and probably more than a couple billionaires) that are either too big too fail or big enough to effectively bully and/or bribe their way into getting what they want.

Newsom might believe he "saved jobs in California," but that's simply not going to be the real-world outcome. The real world outcome is going to be mass layoffs, higher prices, shittier film and television, and a mass media apparatus under the
even greater direct control of authoritarian-allied oligarchs. That's the fun thing about antitrust reform: if you actually enforce antitrust law (which the U.S. government doesn't do because it's too corrupt to function), you get markets stocked with a more diverse array of small and mid-sized companies
that lack the scale to threaten government oversight and accountability.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Time to break this out again.

In the style of the New York Times op-ed headline:

OPINION
GUEST ESSAY
You Were In For a Dipshit lake As Soon As You Saw This Font
Feb. 23, 2026

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Two things: he also threw reproductive services providers (e.g. abortion) under the bus. And his purported reasoning is lame. As an outgoing governor he doesn’t want to sign a bill limiting the power of future governors. 🙄

Assembly Bill 2164 authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) would have prohibited California's governor from recognizing a request for extradition of a person related to their providing a legally protected healthcare activity in the Golden State to transgender individuals, or if they provide reproductive services. It provided certain exemptions, such as an extradition required by federal law.

"While I share the author's views on the importance of protecting these important healthcare services, extradition is an exclusively executive function," wrote Newsom. "When discretionary, that discretion is appropriately placed with the Governor. I am troubled by the precedent that would be set if an outgoing administration agreed with the Legislature to erode the executive authority of an incoming Governor based on their shared policy preferences, regardless of how righteous and well-intended those actions may be."

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

They won’t let his wife see him or even tell her anything about his status or whereabouts.

Lincoln-Goldfinch told NPR he is married to a woman who has legal status to be in the U.S. He called his wife to tell her he had been shot inside his car and was yelling in pain, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
"We were told that he was at this hospital, so we came back and they have run us off the property," she said, referring to Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. "We have been informed that if he's in ICE custody, they will decline to confirm that he's here. And no one has updated her about his status."

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

*Technically* those words are in the song “Hind’s Hall 2” but I’m not sure if he even performed that one. He was introducing “Hind’s Hall” (which actually trashes Biden!)

I see God himself in the eye of a refugee
Who rather die a martyr than live a life under siege
So if I'm not allowed to say "From The River to The Sea"
Then from "The Rind to The Seed Palestine Will be Free"

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

So this was his statement. What framing, specifically, do you find concerning about it?

I've been trying to figure out a way to say this all day. One of the reasons I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: 'Free Palestine.' I said, 'Free Palestine!' I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them.

And this next song was inspired by the bravery of Columbia University students who led an encampment
movement that mobilized the entire world. Open up hearts, myself included. So thank you to those students that risked their diplomas, that risked their tuitions that risked their scholarships, that stood up and said 'No'. CUAD students, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peach. Thank you guys.

To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.
So I say free Palestine, I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say free Congo. Free Sudan, free all people in America living in fear over this terrorist organization ICE.
None of us will be free until we are all free. This song is called Hinds Hall.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

These are the venues that balked.

Rolling Stone reported that the venues that allegedly objected included: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis;
Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Sometimes you miss things when you don’t read the article. 😮

This is all to say that I come to pheromone-maxxing with some history. If you missed it: young men are apparently skipping showers before dates, rewearing unwashed shirts, and, in some cases, drinking their own urine because they read somewhere that women can't resist natural musk.
Honestly? I'm for it. Not the pee. I don't understand the pee, or how it contributes to the musk. What are they doing with the pee? Is it a beverage? Is it topical (in which case, the musk makes more sense, I guess)? Nobody in any of these articles will say, and I've decided I don't want to know. But the
unwashed scent part, yes.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Oh look, a Dems in disarray story. How original.

Screen shot of news alert:

AP apnews.com
Today's primaries in Wisconsin and Minnesota showcase Democratic divide

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

And look, they apparently aren’t even good at doing what they’re supposedly beneficial for. #Deflock futurism.com/future-socie...

Atlanta, Georgia has experienced far and away the largest influx of ALRPs in the country, with over 5,000 various Flock cameras now blanketing the city.
Yet as bombshell data released by the
FBI shows, the city's massive web of surveillance has had virtually zero impact on the Atlanta Police Department's ability to solve crime, with some clearance rates for offenses like homicide even experiencing a decline over the past few years as the cameras have proliferated.

For homicide, the numbers are especially embarrassing, with the FBI reporting case closures at just 48 percent in 2025, down from 53.4 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, rape remained flat year over year, holding steady at a pitiful 37.7 percent closure rate from 2021 to 2025, and dipping down to just 21.2 percent at its lowest point in that four-year span.
Though the APD actually did show improvement on some crime categories as Flock's cameras sprouted all over the city, the changes from 2021 to 2025 amount to little more than rounding
errors.

For example, case closures on crimes like aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft ticked up by just 0.2 and 0.3 percent, respectively. One would think motor vehicle theft solve rates would be an easy win for a technology designed to track cars, specifically. Yet in 2025, the APD was solving just one in tencases of auto theft, even with thousands of Flock ALPRs at its disposal.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Hey there Jewel-Osco! Congrats on the remodel but uhh, this should be a Grand Re-Opening, not a “Re-Grand Opening”. (It’s also Attorneys General, not Attorney Generals btw)

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Chicago here. This is ordering à la carte. There is a combo available that adds a crunchy taco and upgrades to a large drink for a couple bucks less. So you could say the OP ordered wrong but the price he quoted seems legit.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I’ll respond. It depends on where you live and possibly which store. This is the price from my closest, which is a Taco Bell Cantina in Chicago. And this is the price before tax. So if the implication is that the OP isn’t being honest, I don’t think that’s the case.

Screenshot of My Bag screen. It shows 2 Chalupa Supremes for $14.78 and 1 medium Pepsi for $2.89 and a subtotal of $17.67.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

No surprise, he’s violating the terms of the Creative Commons license.

CC
SOME RIGHTS RESERVED

• to remix - to
adapt the
work
Under the
following conditions:
• attribution
- You must
give
appropriate
credit,
provide a link
to the buy
license, and indicate if changes were made.
You may do
so in any
reasonable
manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor…

commons.wikimedia.org

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Most CEOs can probably be replaced byAI tbh

WIRED
Mon 6:14 AM
Tech CEOs want to delegate routine responsibilities to Al simulations of themselves

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I can’t wait for this primary to be over!

Screenshot of 4 text messages, all from numbers I don’t have stored, received between 9:03am and 11:51am. Some text snippets are visible; they are all political.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I usually use the call screening feature but occasionally need to shut it off temporarily. I can never find it in Settings (which has become a mess) and the search in Settings is a joke. One small example.

Screenshot of iOS Settings with search term “screen calls” showing no results

Screenshot of iOS Settings with search term “screen callers” showing no results

Screenshot of iOS Settings, the screen to filter unknown callers. The header text “screen unknown callers” is highlighted.

Screenshot of iOS Settings with search term “unknown callers” showing no results

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Aldi, I love ya but we need to have a talk about contrast and legibility.

A hand holding a can of vegetables, showing the nutritional information. The text is white on a yellow background. The Aldi Twice as Nice emblem is visible.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Watching this season 1 X-Files episode from long ago, and the most unbelievable thing is a black Sheriff’s Deputy in rural northern Wisconsin. Source: I grew up in NE Wisconsin at the time this was filmed.

Photo of a TV. On screen is a middle aged Black man’s face close up. He’s wearing a Sheriff’s hat and it’s dark in the background.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

How much Dem money is wasted on these grifts? Trying to use the #SOTU as a critical event. Can’t block them fast enough.

Screenshot of text message:

BEFORE TRUMP'S SPEECH
ENDS: Dems get 700%
MATCHED donation (highest ever!)
$10=$80
$25=$200
Donate to make it
BACKFIRE: hmpdems.com/.
HMP
stop2end

Screenshot of message:

Please! Can you give
ANYTHING during Trump's State of the Union & we'll
200%-MATCH it to help flip the House? t.bluevictory.io
BlueVictory26
Stop2End

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Half packs of buns, must buy in multiples of 2… which will still cost more than just buying one normal pack. Genius pricing there, Jewel!

Photo of packages of buns on grocery store shelves. Several are “1/2 pack” priced at $3.99. Sale price labels say “2 for $6 must buy multiples of 2.”

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

I’m excited to join Center on Halsted at the 2026 Human First Gala: Family Reunion on Saturday, April 11 at The Geraghty. Join me in the celebration! #Chicago #LGBTQ #Equality 🔗 cbo.io/app/public/b...

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

The wording was imprecise, but both organizations are involved in “defining poverty”

USAFacts

What is the federal poverty level?
The federal poverty guidelines - also known as the federal poverty level (FPL) - are used by federal agencies to determine eligibility for programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
These guidelines are issued annually by the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) and are based on the official poverty thresholds calculated by the Census Bureau. They set the income limits for many need-based programs, helping determine who qualifies for assistance. While the thresholds are more detailed and used for statistical measurement of poverty, the FPL is a simplified version designed for administrative purposes. The guidelines are adjusted for inflation each year and vary by household size.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

What can possibly go wrong? Musk is already essentially a real life Bond villain. #TeslaTakedown

iOS notification screen shot:

WIRED
1h ago
Musk is tightening his grip over the tech that shapes national security, social media, and Al

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Can’t verify authenticity but I can believe it’s real.

Screenshot for a Craigslist ad offering free tickets plus $50 to attend a screening of “Melania” in the Boston area. It states “Must remain in seats for entirety of film.”

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

#Melania vanity documentary flops, crew regret involvement. I really don’t care, do u?

Trending
THENEW REPUBLIC
Melania Documentary Flops as Crew Members Regret
Ever Being Involved

Photo of Melania Trump from behind, wearing a green coat with white text “[I] really don’t care, do u?”

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

What a time to be alive. Isn’t America Great?!

WIRED
4m ago
Federal agents are invading
American communities-here's how to stay safe if ICE storms your neighborhood
WIRED
6:35 AM
The Big Story: Trump declared a space race with China-the US is losing

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

How does Fresh Express get away with selling bags of wilted lettuce? “Guaranteed Fresh!” This bag is “best by” December 10th. It’s December 1st and it was 2/3 trash; by the 10th it will be mush barely recognizable as having been lettuce.

Photo of a bag of Fresh Express Crunchy Blends Italian. Some wilted lettuce sits next to the bag on a counter.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

What is this crap? So tired of these fundraising texts. There seems to be an endless supply of these organizations, no matter how many times you STOP or block.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

How articulate people (like Shapiro) get away with making bad arguments. www.samwoolfe.com/2021/11/art-...

I am not focusing only on Shapiro and Peterson here in an effort to peddle an anti-conservative narrative. Rhetoricians exist across the spectrum of ideology and political beliefs. However, because Shapiro and Peterson are, by many people, held up as paragons of rationality, I think it's useful to examine how they both actually heavily rely on rhetoric to cover up their bad ideas and poor argumentation. One rhetorical technique they both use, which attracts so many people to them as the voices of reason in an irrational world, is the way they articulate their ideas. Before looking at the powers of articulation, however, here are some examples of Shapiro and Peterson's dubious ideas and other rhetorical devices used to support
them. Despite Shapiro holding dearly onto his mantra "facts don't care about your feelings", the conservative commentator repeatedly contradicts himself (so what are the facts he holds to be true?) and makes feelings-based arguments, either expressing his own feelings to make a point or stoking emotional
reactions in others through the use of inflammatory language and insults.

Robinson ends the piece by saying that what annoys him about Shapiro is that he "is lying to his audience, by telling them that he is just a person concerned with the Truth, when the only thing he actually cares about is destroying the left." And that the mantra "facts don't care about your feelings" is "worthless if you're going to interpret every last fact in the way most favorable to your own preconceptions, if you're going to ignore evidence contrary to your position, and refuse to try to understand what your opponents actually believe." In other words, Shapiro cares about convincing others he's right but not actually being
right.

goes on to write that "This man's ongoing popularity may be a sad comment on the quality of our public discourse," although I think this also speaks to the perennial influence of rhetoric. There have always been ways to conceal the shoddiness of bad ideas, and wearing and promoting the presentation of the Facts and Logic Guy is just one manifestation of that. In an earlier piece for Current Affairs, Robinson addresses some of Shapiro's other controversial, apparently purely fact-based claims, such as that racism is not a serious problem facing black people and that an issue like the black-white wealth gap "has
nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture", with Robinson highlighting the pertinent facts
Shapiro leaves out, which contradict his positions on racism.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

I don’t think it was the quote, but the references to white men and White America that did. Maybe the quote was the cherry on top. Nothing she says here is wrong, certainly not something she should get fired for.

Karen Attiah •
@karenattiah.bsky.social
Because America, especially white
America is not going to do what it needs to do to get rid of the guns in their country.
It will be thoughts and prayers, "violence has no place" out of a performance of goodness, not out of the resolve to convince their communities to disarm.
September 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM

Karen Attiah •
@karenattiah.bsky.social
For everyone saying political violence has no place in this country...
Remember two Democratic legislators were shot in Minnesota just this year.
And America shrugged and moved on.
September 10, 2025 at 4:53 PM
(Reply post)
Karen Attiah •@karenattiah.bsky.social • 3d
Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.
(Reply post)
Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social • 3d
Again. I don't care for empty rhetoric.

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Josh V @bruiserchgo.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

These are the mayors of cities Trump has sent or threatened to send troops and/or his federal goon squad to. Something seems a bit suspicious here but I can’t quite put my finger on it 🤔

Photo of Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. She is smiling, wearing a pearl necklace and earrings and dark suit in front of an American flag.

Photo of LA mayor Karen Bass. She is smiling, standing behind a podium with a microphone, wearing a blue suit.

Photo of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson. He is smiling, standing at a podium with his name on it, wearing a dark blue suit and tie.

Photo of Memphis mayor Paul Young. He is smiling and wearing a dark blue suit. He is standing in front of a scale model of some sort, likely of part of Memphis but it’s not readily identifiable.

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