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Matt McManus

@mattpolprof.bsky.social
11K followers 705 following 3.3K posts

Assistant Professor at Spelman College. Author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism and other books.

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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 8h
If Carney gets the Nobel peace prize before Trump, 100% he's gonna amp up threatening to invade Canada. www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...
independent.co.uk
Mark Carney set to snatch Nobel Peace Prize from Trump
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you're in Atlanta on Sunday, October 11th Ill be discussing The Blueprint by Mike Beggs and @sunraysunray.bsky.social with co-author @benburgis.bsky.social At Acapella Books. www.acappellabooks.com/pages/events...
acappellabooks.com
Ben Burgis in conversation with Matt McManus – The Blueprint | Sunday, Oct 11, 2026 4:00 PM
“Nothing is more urgently needed in our troubled world than a blueprint for socializing capital, democratizing workplaces, restoring the commons, decommodifying basic goods and harnessing markets to s...
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Ben Burgis @benburgis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is a great review of The Blueprint--sympathetic, clear, gets what we're doing, and really thoughtful where he disagrees.
compactmag.com
What Democratic Socialists Want
The surprising electoral success of avowedly socialist candidates in big-city mayoral campaigns and some congressional races has raised the profile of the Democratic Socialists of America, forcing peo...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Rage of Edmund Burke comes close
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The history of political thought is replete with contempt for these sycophantic power-seekers. Yet I know of no systematic examination of it. I wonder if someone has constructed a tradition of thought about the toady? Their apparent ever-presence in political history is a regularity worth comment.
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Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Trump thinks wind turbines cause some sort of hearing cancer and just learned how to spell the word dumb.
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Walter Mondial @dabenner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is obviously some sort of performative lying / syophancy, but historians who have actually looked into this found some the more intelligent presidents were not very good - Nixon, Hoover, Carter ...
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gabestur.bsky.social @gabestur.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Then give him one. The dementia tests aren't swaying me.
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Ferengi Liaison to New Bordeaux @sovietcola.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"No actually we're not dumb, we're very smart, and have a number to prove it" is so tiresome
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Lee Casebolt @leecasebolt.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
W was dumb as a stump but unless I blocked something out - which is admittedly possible - we didn't have this kind of relentless, shameless attempt to convince us he was actually a genius. Menken was an optimist.
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Diana B. Henriques @dianabhenriques.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You have to be totally ignorant of presidential history to make this claim. Teddy Roosevelt (who read a book a day) and Thomas Jefferson (who designed Monticello and UVa and was fluent in French) were clearly far better educated and more intelligent.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
There is something so vulgar about the kind of conservative who came from a modest background, but strives to climb the same social hierarchies that once disadvantaged him by endlessly and shamelessly flattering those he now insists are our social betters.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My review of a swell new collection on Hegel, Kojev and Fessard marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/2291...
marxandphilosophy.org.uk
‘Authority, History and Political Theology: Collected Works and Correspondence of Alexandre Kojève and Gaston Fessard’ by Isabel Jacobs and Jacob Saliba (eds) reviewed by Matt McManus
Alexandre Kojève is one of the more mercurial figures in the history of continental thought. Born in the Russian empire in 1902, Kojève initially supported the Bolshevik Revolution – but not quite eno...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I discuss the merits and demerits of utopian theorizing on Sublation media youtu.be/rOCTquOEjz8?...
youtu.be
Matt McManus on the Need for Utopia
YouTube video by Sublation Media with Douglas Lain
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Why "The Blueprint" is worth a read!
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Omega Candrad @ocandrad.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is probably my biggest gripe with the more left-wing crowd. They either say we just do a repeat of the Soviet Union but without the bad stuff apparently or they say that the anarchist commune that you stayed on that one time is totally perfect model for large societal governance.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Cheers
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Mr. Chimpanzy @cyanescens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Doubt I’ll read the book this is a review of—it’s described as 400 pages of dense, often pretty technical writing—but it sounds interesting & well thought out. I’m definitely in the group of people mentioned in this review who finds socialism appealing but
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My review of "The Blueprint" on a workable socialism for @liberalcurrents.com
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 26/09/2026
"Many Marxists have had surprisingly little to say about what socialism ought to look like, let alone how it might be viable. And that has…led to frequent accusations that however well-meaning socialists might be, they’re more about big feelings than real ideas."
liberalcurrents.com
Democratic Socialism Gets Serious
"The Blueprint" demonstrates how the new generation of democratic socialists are providing real, practical proposals for economic transformation.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Excited to present on liberal socialism at the Carter Center
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thanks!
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julian @jsmunoz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
i didn’t know this. extremely ironic given baudrillard agreed that history had indeed ended but the result was not arrival at the impassable frontier of (neo)liberal democracy but the simulacrum. also didn’t foucault become a neoliberal as well? (great piece btw)
Early on, he became fascinated with postmodern critical theories of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and other French philosophers. These were all the rage in the 1970s, and Fukuyama recounts that his "fascination with postmodernism led me to graduate from Cornell early and move to Paris so I could study with the masters." Unfortunately, this exposure to unfiltered postmodern theory led him to conclude that these ideas were part of a project that was "essentially nihilistic, built on the assertions of the impossibility of reasoned discourse, inference from empirical evidence, and ultimately of philosophy itself. Truth claims simply masked the assertions of power by a dominant social actor at the expense of groups that were marginalized."
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My piece on Francis Fukuyama for @jacobinmag.bsky.social
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Francis Fukuyama argued that liberal capitalism was inherently unstable because relative equality and peace frustrated the ambitions of the power hungry. Elites, unsatisfied with wealth and hedonism, would seek a return to tragic conflict.
jacobin.com
History Is Back. Fukuyama Is Neither Surprised nor Thrilled.
It is fashionable to mock Francis Fukuyama as an uncritical celebrant of neoliberal capitalism. But The End of History offered a powerful analysis of the origins of right-wing populism that has proved prescient in the Donald Trump era.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My piece reviewing Fukuyama's new memoir for @jacobinmag.bsky.social
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It is fashionable to mock Francis Fukuyama as an uncritical celebrant of neoliberal capitalism. But The End of History offered a powerful analysis of the origins of right-wing populism that has proved prescient in the Donald Trump era.
jacobin.com
Francis Fukuyama Is Welcoming History Back
It is fashionable to mock Francis Fukuyama as an uncritical celebrant of neoliberal capitalism. But The End of History offered a powerful analysis of the origins of right-wing populism that has proved prescient in the Donald Trump era.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My review of Francis Fukuyama's autobiography for @jacobinmag.bsky.social jacobin.com/2026/09/revi...
jacobin.com
Francis Fukuyama Is Welcoming History Back
It is fashionable to mock Francis Fukuyama as an uncritical celebrant of neoliberal capitalism. But The End of History offered a powerful analysis of the origins of right-wing populism that has proved...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My piece on Hugo Drochon's work on dynamic democracy for @theunpopulist.net
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The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net · 24/09/2026
"As a liberal socialist, I find much to admire in Drochon’s retrieval." — @mattpolprof.bsky.social
theunpopulist.net
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Appreciated this
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Socialist @therednotebook.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
youtu.be/bxhLI_C_iD8?...
youtu.be
What is Liberal Socialism? A Critical Dialogue (feat. Matt McManus)
YouTube video by Emancipations with Daniel Tutt
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The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net · 19/09/2026
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy? A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question By Matt McManus www.theunpopulist.net/p/can-elite-r…
theunpopulist.net
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Very good @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social episode on Jager's Hyperpolitics. A book I haven't read yet, but need to pod.link/1544487624/e...
pod.link
142 | Hyperpolitics in the Present
Listen to 142 | Hyperpolitics in the Present from What's Left of Philosophy wherever you get your podcasts!
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Deeply upsetting www.thestar.com/business/uni...
thestar.com
Unions hammer Carney government’s revamp of labour rules: ‘This bill neuters the right to strike’
Unions and labour organizations across the country blasted the federal government’s new legislation overhauling labour law Monday, saying it will make strikes in federally regulated sectors all but im...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'll be talking about liberal socialism at Clark Atlanta University today. Join us!
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Some very sharp points by @lioneltrolling.bsky.social www.unpopularfront.news/p/better-lat...
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Broadbent Institute @broadbent.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Flight attendants forced their employers back to the bargaining table to end unpaid work and negotiate for fair wages.
perspectivesjournal.ca
Unpaid Work Won't Fly: How Air Canada Flight Attendants Organized | Perspectives Journal
Flight attendants forced their employers back to the bargaining table to end unpaid work and negotiate for fair wages.
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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 21/09/2026
Question for the data nerds: has any President done this badly or worse in any poll ever?
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
👏
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Texas is real." Top Dem pollster John Anzalone just did a striking survey with Trump's pollster that finds Talarico +4. On the pod, he explains why he thinks Texas really is gettable this time for Dems. He says the likely path to majority is TX AK ME NC. Listen: newrepublic.com/article/2156...
newrepublic.com
Trump’s Pollster Drops Bomb on GOP as Midterm Panic Grows: “Bloodbath”
As GOP leaks about the elections grow more urgent, a top Democratic strategist explains what the numbers really say about the Trump-GOP collapse—and ponders what could still go wrong.
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Just for once I wish they could care about things before they personally impacted them...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Lol
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Not sure Stephen Miller is the face you want pushing the "trust us, its the other guys who are evil" line...
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Glad to see people are liking the new book
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My review of @hdrochon.bsky.social's deeply researched and intriguing "Elites and Democracy" for @theunpopulist.net www.theunpopulist.net/p/can-elite-...
theunpopulist.net
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Thanks Berny!
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Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is a really good essay by @mattpolprof.bsky.social in @theunpopulist.net discussing @hdrochon.bsky.social's recent book and the broader topic of whether and to what extent having an elite ruling classs compromises or distorts the liberal democratic project.
theunpopulist.net
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
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Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Looking forward to presenting on liberal socialism at the Carter Center's Problems of Democracy workshop next weekend!
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