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Colten Barnaby

@coltenbarnaby.bsky.social

136 followers 112 following 103 posts

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

Posts Replies Media

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.

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Thank you. They’re coming for my throat over this on instagram. 😂 You are giving me strength.

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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Who can teach me to dress like Ryo Takashima?

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

On Leadership, Healing, and the Fight for Our Collective Soul

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

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

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.

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

It’s the most personal I’ve ever gotten to a public audience. Check it out—watch the video, read the reflection, and let me know what you think. Likes and comments on the Substack mean a lot. Thank you! open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...

open.substack.com

After Certainty

Rethinking the Bible, God, and Faith – A Talk with Brady Goodwin

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...

open.substack.com

After Certainty

Rethinking the Bible, God, and Faith – A Talk with Brady Goodwin

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Is it fascism yet?

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

So good. I wrote about something along these lines here open.substack.com/pub/coltenba....

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.”

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Raising Strong Sons in the Age of Weak Men

On Trading Donald Trump for Ward Cleaver

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

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

"You can’t build a movement on the language of inclusion while excluding the people who most need it. And when working people look at progressivism and see a club for people with graduate degrees, what they hear isn’t justice—it’s contempt" open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...

open.substack.com

Priced Out of Progress

Trading Solidarity for Personal Fulfillment

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

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.

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Yes! I totally agree. That would be such a fun angle and give us more of Remmick as well. Been singing Will Ye go lassie Go non stop for a week. Need more of those Irish Jigs.

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Thats a good looking bar pie.

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Just imagine if there was a Dicey’s under all those lights.

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

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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

If you've ever found yourself waiting—for the right time, the right version of yourself, or the world to change—this one's for you. open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...

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Biting Into Life

The Politics of Existential Freedom

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

“I can see now that it wasn’t freedom I was chasing—it was another form of escape. I wasn’t confronting absurdity or the material struggle of life; I was trying to outmaneuver them.”

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

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/03/2025

every person involved in this needs to be in prison

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

8️⃣ Read my full breakdown of how Democrats abandoned the working class—and how we take them back. ⬇️ open.substack.com/pub/coltenba...

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How Democrats Lost the Working Class

Why Resistance to Trump Starts Within the Democratic Party

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

7️⃣ The way forward isn’t easy—but it is clear. It starts with replacing corporate Democrats, rejecting culture war distractions, and organizing for real economic justice.

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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

6️⃣ The left can’t just fight MAGA. It has to fight the Democratic establishment that allowed it to rise.

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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

5️⃣ MAGA populism isn’t genuine populism—it’s a reactionary distraction. It promises relief but delivers more pain, directing anger at immigrants instead of the billionaires actually rigging the system.

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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

4️⃣ Trump didn’t win these voters. Democrats lost them.

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

3️⃣ When working people demanded real change, Democrats offered them symbolic victories: representation in boardrooms, rainbow logos during Pride, and historic "firsts"—while avoiding real economic reform.

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Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

2️⃣ For decades, Democrats prioritized corporate donors over workers. They sold globalization and free trade as economic progress—while entire communities were gutted.

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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 🧵

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/03/2025

oh this is a big mystery

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

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.

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

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.

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Too kind

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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...

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Who Owns Tomorrow?

How Our Children's Inheritance Is Being Sold to the Highest Bidder

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

You are 100% right. It's too abstract and the framing is way off. Most people think of concerns about wealth inequality as some vaguely moral opining for fairness. Im trying to help people understand what wealth inequality really is. I wrote about it here 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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Money always trickles up, money is sucked up by those with money. Im doing my best to help people understand that wealth inequality isn't just a vague moral issue. I don't think most people understand what is really going on out there. I wrote about it today here: 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

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

This is incredibly important work. Thank you. I'm doing my best to help people understand what wealth inequality really is, where it's taking us and how its everyone's problem. I wrote about it here today: 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

Reposted by Colten Barnaby

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

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...

Colten Barnaby @coltenbarnaby.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

You are so right. We have to help people understand what wealth inequality actually is and how it will destroy them and their communities if we want a shot at not falling headlong into fascism. 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 · 04/03/2025

We have to help working class people like myself, my friends and my family understand how wealth inequality works and where its leading us. I wrote a little about that today. 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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