John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026You can just take this all the way and thank the innovators and creators of the institution of slavery for doing the most possible to end slavery because they invented the thing that's needed to have something to end. 030
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 13/06/2026The last month or so of the 24 election felt like that. 020
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 03/06/2026This Nick Bilton to Scott Pelley termination letter is a great artifact for anyone who suffers from imposter syndrome to read. 020
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 25/04/2026There's a carelessness and consequence-free presupposition to how we treat Trump's actions and what we let him get away with. Many people comfortable wishing doom and misery on the people of an Israel or Iran because of their country's actions without grappling with where our actions should lead us. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 04/04/2026To give up on this to to fully become the Joker but at the same time, we've had ten years of I'd like to see ol' Donny wriggle out of this one. It's hard to believe in the snap back anymore. 010
Reposted by John RoxtonMark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 15/03/2026Actually, Americans are just like you. ~20-30% of them genuinely support fascism, as in ~every 🇪🇺 country. You are just more fortunate to have political institutions & a multiparty system that prevent that 20-30% from fully capturing the center-right party, becoming 51%, & controlling the government. 18843951023
Reposted by John RoxtonNicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 28/01/2026Tom Homan is Trump's "border czar." He's been working in state violence for years. He was allegedly caught taking cash in a fast casual chains bag recently. He's not a new Trump appointee he's been there from the start. He's a known entity! What are you talking about? 1194
Reposted by John Roxtonderek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 05/01/2026amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders 586269137868
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Say what you will about the decadence and irresponsibility of Rome's elites in the late republic, they didn't continue partying on and pretending like nothing was happening after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. 110
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 06/12/2025It's like when Emperor Nero entered the Olympics and somehow managed to win every contest he participated in, including the chariot race he didn't even finish! Those awards were posthumously stripped from him. So it must be with every Trump award and everything on earth which carries the name Trump. 092
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 14/09/2025The answer is that America now resembles Turkey or Hungary much more closely than it does 2014 America. 091
Reposted by John RoxtonWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 09/09/2025hey my man you forgot to finish out your plan there no big deal though. probably won’t matter 1877
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 07/09/2025Caesar was supposed to have said that the Roman Republic was formless, nothing but a shadow. Yeltsin said of Russia's developing institutions in the 90s that they were titles and offices without substance. Institutions that are either too old or too young seem very brittle. Democracy is fragile. 050
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 05/09/2025The family held a vote on whether to allow the abusive father back into the household. Both sons voted yes after being convinced by texts from him which said "maybe mom deserved it." One of the daughters missed the vote but rumor is she was in her room scrolling TikTok. Popular vote dad's back. 010
Reposted by John RoxtonJohn Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 05/09/2025“I’m a writer who works alone and I need AI so I can brainstorm and come up with ideas.” My brother in christ the news is right there. RIGHT THERE. Free shit falling out of the sky, nonstop. 1633879
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 03/09/2025You would think that what happened to the "after him, us" people would be counsel for all those consciously or subconsciously repeating the strategy and yet history is so sticky it always needs repeating. 151
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 03/09/2025Trump threatening Zuckerberg with prison for life unless he behaved then shipping Andry Romero off to be raped in a Salvadoran gulag played an underrated part in this institutional collapse. Doesn't matter what independent powers you've got if the big guy can disappear you and get away with it. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 03/09/2025Kind of a problem when 99.5% of the folks in Washington are empty suits and skirts. Morally empty. Also "The People" don't give a shit either. Not a good combination. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 03/09/2025Yes and no. Mostly no. Trump's also broken many laws in secret only to be discovered later and got away with those, too. It reminds me of the argument that it turns out we just need to turn all the old norms into laws to fix this. But now he breaks all the laws too and there's still no consequence. 140
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 28/08/2025We have so many institutions and people capitulate who don't technically have to but do anyways. Reasons include that a leader who can ruin your life or disappear you without consequence makes your genuine power to resist still perilous, also most people seemingly just don't want the smoke. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 27/08/2025How the democrats agreed to coalesce around calling LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS a diversion is so strange. 090
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Not sure why when Caesar won so many senators over to his cause just by personal obligation, winning a lot, cutting deals with them, or looking like the better bet to ensure their safety after the war. Not hard to foresee enough defectors from a democratic body to make that body unable to function. 010
Reposted by John RoxtonAdam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 25/08/2025Illinois Gov. Pritzker vows to pursue Trump officials who participate in an illegal National Guard deployment to Chicago: "If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me - not time or political circumstance - from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law." 344173524633
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 25/08/2025One reason why it's too easy to make out antidemocratic actors using democratic systems to destroy them as an inherent flaw. Voters and leaders have choices. Biden, Garland, Schumer, Jeffries make awful decisions. We've had plenty of democratic leaders in history who would have chosen differently. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 19/08/2025The times are going to having to build the men and women ready for this moment because preciously few of them seem to exist right now. It's truly maddening how much of the national conversation around upholding ethics and democracy was just empty lip service inspired by good times. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 19/08/2025The collapse of every single institution (including "the people"!) the very second it all ceases to be perfectly safe performance or cosplay would be funny if it weren't dooming everything. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 11/08/2025It's the same policy that Cicero instituted to handle Octavian. Usually ends the same way, too. It has a rich history of failure and it's never going away. 000
Reposted by John RoxtonMichael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 11/08/2025they overturned roe and had 1 bad midterms and dems didn’t get behind court reform after that. they gave trump immunity and not only did dems STILL ignore court reform, but also trump won the subsequent election and is installing himself as king for life. scotus conservatives are fully leash off now 832330
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 09/08/2025The fact he's doing posts about how so and so is a traitor somebody should look into it thank you for your attention to this matter instead of bringing goons into the Oval and ordering them to go to their houses and put them in chains when he could now totally get away with it is sure something. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 08/08/2025Lots of talk of how elections are state-run so it's safe but what if on election eve Trump announces ICE will be outside polling places in dem states/counties to block "illegal voters." Very next day they harass dem counties, create huge lines and fear, dem turnout way down. Just one example. 030
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 06/08/2025Given the current mood of dem voters the unfilled demand is for the first 28 hopeful to declare "On day 1 I'm transferring Ghislaine Maxwell to the toughest supermax" and then a liberal media that spends hours detailing and exploring which one she might be sent to. Repeat for all Trump associates. 020
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 04/08/2025Optimum path is buy a used EV because the depreciation is real and merciless. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 04/08/2025While the mainstream media busies itself attacking Mamdani this is what Twitter looks like today and the world many leading figures on the right freely and without scrutiny inhabit. 040
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Chris Hayes had Aya Ibrahim on his podcast and the most interesting topic was when they brushed on this issue. Government regulations which stop people from doing good things but we see now don't stop bad actors from doing bad things. You can't keep following rules your opponents have abandoned. 040
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 29/07/2025This one definitely stuck out to me. You have functionally limitless money and supposedly want to do something you're really passionate about. Then you destroy it (for no reason since you still have limitless money), uprooting and destroying everyone's lives in the process. And sleep soundly after. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 28/07/2025Just imagining how if a quote like this appeared from Bill Clinton or Bill Gates or Obama or anyone right now today it would destroy their entire lives. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 22/07/2025Sims is a movie guy. Has a great movies podcast, too. But not a politics guy. The real sin is taking a story about politics, about corruption, authoritarianism, and having the moving pictures are fun guy write a story about it. 1110
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 22/07/2025A big problem is that people who will say this (Matthew Belloni, David Sims, etc.) know the world of entertainment but don't know shit about politics. Easy marks for laundering this crap. 2201
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 21/07/2025That's one of the saddest and/or funniest parts. We're throwing it all away on a piece of garbage like Trump. At least Caesar and Augustus were brilliant and interested in what we might today call "modernizing" Rome. Trump is the cautionary tale and he's already here day 1! 110
Reposted by John RoxtonMax Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 14/07/2025Law is fake, power is real. 221263360
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 13/07/2025At some point we officially crossed over into the world of science fiction because there are dozens of Star Treks and Stargates just like this. 010
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Trump winning in 24 was already this point, unfortunately. No plausible deniability after 1/6. The problem is the American people are bad and they want bad things. 000
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 06/07/2025As opposed to the 26 year old sword fight we desperately didn't need to hear about. 000
Reposted by John RoxtonBetter Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 03/07/2025Big fan of democracy but we'll have to admit it's an L of historic proportions to get subverted and destroyed not by some strategic genius but by possibly the dumbest man on earth 163129582129
Reposted by John RoxtonMichael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 03/07/2025trump should’ve been in handcuffs in jan 2021 and there is no way to quantify just how much human suffering will result from the disastrous decision to slow walk his prosecution or even avoid it altogether 151127773035
John Roxton @johnroxton.bsky.social · 01/07/2025If elected Democrats comported themselves like the party which bravely steps into the breach to destroy fascism instead of the party which gets steamrolled by fascism we wouldn't be in this mess. The history books feel already written. 020914
