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Colten Barnaby

@coltenbarnaby.bsky.social
135 followers 112 following 103 posts

📍Chicago 👨‍👩‍👦 Husband•Father•Entrepreneur 🚀 Not free until we’re all free Writing at coltenbarnaby.substack.com

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Reposted by Colten Barnaby
irizonable.bsky.social @irizonable.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
@coltenbarnaby.bsky.social When I see sincere resistance efforts in the (literal) arenas they permit I feel a tension between supporting it as it comes and reserving all critique for power. This piece sensitively unboxes the moving parts and has helped my thinking. Thank you.
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irizonable.bsky.social @irizonable.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
open.substack.com/pub/coltenba... ‘If artists with real political commitments and actual track records of showing up to struggle can have their work absorbed by capitalist spectacle, then the problem isn’t individual virtue. It’s the system itself.’
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Not Even in Spanish)
Bad Bunny & the Spectacle of Resistance
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Who can teach me to dress like Ryo Takashima?
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Check out my latest post and Subscribe to get my weekly posts for free! “We don’t have to devour to feel whole. We don’t have to dominate to feel safe. We don’t have to rule to be seen.” open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
Love or Yurugu
On Leadership, Healing, and the Fight for Our Collective Soul
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Check out my new post! Here I discuss the lost art of deep thinking, the pervasive nihilism in both secular and religious life and how we might be able to save the world. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
The Death of Thinking and the End of the World
Rediscovering Meaning in the Age of Apocalypse
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Freddie O’Connell @freddieoconnell.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Tonight only, if @neilkornutick.bsky.social and @jspencersharpe.bsky.social are posting about “lanes,” it’s because Game 7.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Check out my most recent article on Substack! “Better to be ruled by the competent than the collective,” they argue. That’s the neoreactionary bargain: Surrender your vote, your agency, and your messy freedom for the clean, cold certainty of rule by the efficient.
open.substack.com
There’s a Moldbug Infestation in the White House
Inside the Elite-Funded Movement to Sideline Democracy and Install a New Digital Aristocracy
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
This week’s post is a little different. I sat down with Brady Goodwin—formerly known as Phanatik, the Christian rapper from the group Cross Movement—to talk about our journeys through faith, doubt, and the hard work of staying committed to love and truth. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
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After Certainty
Rethinking the Bible, God, and Faith – A Talk with Brady Goodwin
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
I want to change your mind about participation tophies. Check out my new article and tell me if I made you think or why I'm dead wrong in the comments. THANK YOU! 👇 Read the full essay: Comment, Like Subscribe. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
In Defense of Participation Trophies
Why Effort Matters
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Is it fascism yet?
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
So good. This is what I was trying to get at in this post open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
Virtue's New Vanguard
With Morality Off the Right’s Agenda, the Left Must Put It Front and Center
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Check out my most recent Substack post: Raising Strong Sons in the Age of Weak Men What kind of men are we raising—and who are we asking them to become? “Men who cannot feel cannot build. Men who cannot grieve cannot change. Men who cannot be vulnerable cannot be trusted with power.”
open.substack.com
Raising Strong Sons in the Age of Weak Men
On Trading Donald Trump for Ward Cleaver
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
In a follow up to last week's post I explore what it mean's to be a good father and where to go when your model of goodness has been found wanting. You can read it here: open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
Creation and Accountability Pt. 2
On Being a Good Father
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
New post today! Short and sweet. I get a little vulnerable in this one and talk about my faith journey. It's part 1 of a 2 part series that I will finish next week. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments of the post. Thank you for taking time to read and engage.
open.substack.com
Creation and Accountability
Doubting the Goodness of God
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Personal growth isn’t politics. Self-expression isn’t justice. I wrote about how liberals traded working-class struggle for elite self-discovery and what Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers can teach us about rebuilding a progressive political movement.
open.substack.com
Priced Out of Progress
Trading Solidarity for Personal Fulfillment
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Y'all christians better start outbreeding the muslims if this is the world ya want because in a generation or two this logic is gunna get you some sharia law at the current rate of growth in your respective religions.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
When I was a kid I fantasized about being a faithful disciple in the crowd before Pontius Pilot, demanding justice for my Lord. That is no longer how that fantasy plays out in my imagination. I wrote a little bit about that here. It's free to read and subscribe.
open.substack.com
Give Us Barabbas
Blood and the Shape of Hope
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Family. Community. Responsibility. These aren't conservative values—they're human ones. My latest essay explores how the left can reclaim the moral high ground that both Republicans and Democrats have surrendered to chaos, celebrity, and consumerism. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
Virtue's New Vanguard
With Morality Off the Right’s Agenda, the Left Must Put It Front and Center
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
New Substack Post: America didn’t collapse. It got converted into passive income. The jobs got gigged. The pensions got privatized. The middle class got converted into passive income for someone else’s portfolio. The Squeeze Out is your guide to how it happened—in five polite, bipartisan steps.
open.substack.com
"The Squeeze Out"
How Radical Centrism Is Destroying America in Five Acts
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
This week’s post is the most personal thing I’ve published. I write about despair, deferred dreams, faith, suicide, capitalism, and Camus. It’s about what happens when hope becomes another form of escape—and how choosing to live, authentically and absurdly, might be the most radical act we have left
open.substack.com
Biting Into Life
The Politics of Existential Freedom
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/03/2025
every person involved in this needs to be in prison
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
1️⃣ Democrats didn’t just lose the working class—they pushed them into MAGA’s arms. And if we don’t challenge the Democratic establishment, the next Trump will be even worse. 1/8 🧵
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/03/2025
oh this is a big mystery
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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Once you establish that people can be punished because the administration doesn't like their speech, expanding the bounds of who can be treated that way becomes inevitable.
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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
For all those people who think “the left got more radical,” this is what the evolution of the GOP has looked like over the past few years.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
New Substack post! We often talk about politics and economics in abstractions. But one simple question—"Who should own it?"—cuts through the noise. Check it out and let me know what you think! open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
Who Owns Tomorrow?
How Our Children's Inheritance Is Being Sold to the Highest Bidder
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Lucas Chancel @lucaschancel.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Our paper "Climate Change and the Global Distribution of Wealth" is out in @natclimchange.bsky.social! We study how climate impacts & policies are transforming wealth inequality 🌍 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Huge thanks to an incredible team: C. Mohren, P. Bothe & @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social
nature.com
Climate change and the global distribution of wealth - Nature Climate Change
Rising wealth inequality is a major challenge for this century, and climate change could further exacerbate it. Based on an overview of existing studies, this Perspective proposes a framework to advan...
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Dave is 100% right about this. Resistance starts with offering an alternative to fascism. Taxing corporations and the ultra wealthy and investing into infrastructure and public services will bring us prosperity. I wrote more about this today. Check it out. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
If the Economy Is So Great, Why Are You Broke?
How the Myth of Shared Prosperity Keeps Failing Ordinary Americans
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
This is the first post on my new newsletter. It would mean the world to me if you gave it a read and considered subscribing—it’s free, and you might just enjoy it. Let me know what you think, and I’d really appreciate any feedback! open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...
open.substack.com
If the Economy Is So Great, Why Are You Broke?
How the Myth of Shared Prosperity Keeps Failing Ordinary Americans
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
I started a newsletter and I'd love for you to check it out. Raised as a pastor’s kid in Philly I learned early that the sacred and profane share the same pew. This is a space for public thought, messy questions, and no easy answers. Subscribe: coltenbarnaby.substack.com?r=5n2k4&utm_... #Newsletter
coltenbarnaby.substack.com
Kensington Koan | Colten Barnaby | Substack
Some thoughts may provoke, others may comfort, but none are meant to be ignored. Like any good kōan, this isn’t about finding easy answers—it’s about confronting reality with honesty. Click to read Ke...
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Spencer Sharpe @jspencersharpe.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
In times of intense political division, it’s more important than ever to learn how to stand up for what we believe in and against what we think is harmful. But how we do it matters just as much as why we do it. Here’s why I believe it’s critically important to advocate from a place of love:
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Army Blackhawk helicopters are crashing into passenger planes at DCA while the Secretary of Defense is on Fox News ranting about DEI
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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Just got this tip from an airline pilot
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
I believe in resisting every act of bad policy from the Trump admin. But we must just as powerfully resist the democratic establishment that ceded the trust of the American people and thereby gave us the Trump administration by putting corporations over people for decades. The DNC must change.
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Linda Holmes @lindaholmes.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Imagine a world where you never learned or tried anything new, you just kept pushing the button for another pellet like a rat.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Republicans want you to believe that there are many middle schoolers who are a national security threat. Wild.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Fixed it: “Our board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in the equal exploitation of all workers regardless of race or sex is appropriate and necessary." The Costco storyline is the perfect illustration for Corporations using DEI as hog lipstick.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Taking offense to a pastor admonishing a leader to be merciful to the weak and vulnerable is an astonishingly clear case of a hit dog hollering. Anyone who thought Budde's sermon was offensive might consider putting down the bible and checking out Nietzsche's The Antichrist. It might resonate more.
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Scott Kennedy @scotttkennedy.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
You are not obligated to ride the roller coaster. If you choose to, please do not bombard us astonished with every up and down.
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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Yes I know Trump initially supported the TikTok ban. Here's the thing: no one cares
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Yea it’s definitely the food dye thats causing inattentiveness and hyperactivity. It definitely has nothing to do with giving your kid their own IPad and turning them over to pure brain rot.
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Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Incredible how thoroughly Democrats got played here. Spent four years following through on a Trump executive order, pissed away any shot at building a real youth coalition for 2024 by alienating literally every teenager in America, lost the election, and now Trump gets to "save" TikTok. Clown shit.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
New Years Rulin’s 1942-2025. “Work more and better.” “Beat fascism.” “Dream good.” “Change socks.” Spending New Years Day in Tulsa Im reminded of some of Woody Guthrie’s handwritten notes on display here at the Woodie Guthrie Center that I saw years ago detailing his resolutions for the new year.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
We watched right wing corporations co-opt left wing language on social issues to distract from their unpopular economic policies. We watched right wing ideologues co-opt left wing language on economic issues to distract from their unpopular social policies. 1/2
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Trigger fingers turned to tort fingers.
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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Curious how the inevitable failure of DOGE's proposed $2.5T budget cuts might reshape public understanding of gov spending's role in the success of private industry. Might it influence folks in Trump's base to see how much innovation & infrastructure depend on public investment? 🤔
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Spencer Sharpe @jspencersharpe.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
911
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 21/11/2024
AOC comes out swinging against a Nancy Mace for targeting Sarah McBride. "They're doing this so that Nancy Mace can ... fundraise off an email. They're not doing this to protect people. They're endangering women, they're endangering girls of all kinds. And everybody should reject it. It's gross."
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