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Reposted by Paul Crider

Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 2h

What is the point of this stupid country if not that? Pack it up we’ve lost our reason to be

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 6h

I'm cheating wrt the spirit of the prompt, but the answer is obviously the Bible.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

Tiki drink but it looks red? Maybe just the lighting. Jungle bird?

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

A left Objectivist understands that capitalism, for all its productive power, is built on the bones of victims *as well as* on the minds and mettle of inventors and entrepreneurs. She thus only accepts a liberal capitalism that fosters the potential in every human being, leaving none to languish.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

A left Objectivist is thus instinctively suspicious of hierarchy and significant inequality, because reason and an unflinching analysis of history reveals that hierarchy rarely has benign origins consistent with Objectivist values.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

A left Objectivist sees the collectivism in a society that still systematically disadvantages blacks and advantages whites. In the age of MAGA, explicit racism is evident, but a left Objectivist should also be open to correcting the legacy effects of racism in the distribution of wealth and power.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

This instilled in her disciples a reflexive antileftism. A left Objectivism rejects this reflex and flips the script. A left Objectivist sees the collectivism in patriarchy, which is irrational male supremacism and the unearned extraction of value from feminine sex, care, and reproductive labor.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

She saw feminism as an anticapitalist agenda of seeking handouts and government interference in the market and private life. She was also just a misogynist. She wasn't *only* opposed to the left. She genuinely hated the religious right, including Reagan, as yet another kind of collectivism.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

Even though Rand found racism qua racial animus or prejudice to be a kind of collectivism, she *also* viewed racial justice movements as a kind of collectivism for stereotypical "color-blindness" reasons, and such movements tended to be anticapitalist.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

The problem for left-Randianism is that Rand herself was animated against the left because of her greater familiarity with left authoritarianism, especially Soviet communism. She saw the New Deal as America going down the road to socialism. She saw leftist movements as sympathetic to communism.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 8h

Sure. The central ideas of Objectivism are the primacy of reason, individualism, the rightness and goodness of human joy, and a kind of triumphant sense of human creative potential. This much is all compatible with certain strands of leftist thought.

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Lucy Steigerwald @lucystag.bsky.social · 10h

Conservatives are so embarrassing and predictable. All of their issues nakedly displayed, covid mask, fat, woman, blue hair, and fictional levels of violence. They don't have the courage of their convictions. They claim to support the killing of Renée Good, but they have to gussy her up.

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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 12h

Use the pain to tell the truth.

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Angie Nixon @angieforfl.bsky.social · 12h

I don't wanna COUCH my words here: I know JD Vance, his eyeliner, and absent Ashley Moody are used to running away from people when things get tough because they care more about themselves and their billionaire buddies than the people they represent. But this is my home. /1

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Pete is lost in terms of modern war. I use the example of this outgunned Ukrainian army officer who successfully terrorized a Russian unit for weeks because she "did the math." At the time, someone commented, "yeah, in combat, 'I did the math' beats 'I can do 100 pushups' every time."

Ukrainian female soldier: Okay, I said the idea is this: There is enough time to empty one full can of 32 grenades and be gone by the time the return mortar fire reaches us. I did the math.

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Amanda Carpenter @amandacarpenter.bsky.social · 17h

With respect, if you want to be a pro-democracy network you shouldn’t take stolen taxpayer money to air authoritarian propaganda. Give the money back and say no.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026

There are possibilities in Rand's ideas here that I suspect she didn't herself fully grasp. It reminds me how much I wish Objectivism weren't such an epistemically closed cult. There could be a lot of value in a left Objectivist research program that was allowed to explore and develop these ideas.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026

Fwiw I think Sciabarra errs on the side of being too charitable. Rand really doesn't have anything close to a satisfactory sociology. Indeed, the (fascinating!) analysis of her notes and fictionalization of the murderer Hickman suggest she might have *lost* sophistication as she matured.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026

For any Rand freaks or Rand freak-curious, this essay has some really nice rebuttals of some of the laziest attacks on Rand. Essay is quite long, but it will also be a good reference to come back to. Writer is Chris Matthew Sciabarra, who knows his shit.

chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com

The Russian Radical Eludes Ayn Rand’s Critics

Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026

I don't think they need to worry about Idaho, but I do think we're gonna see some weird shit in this election. Not just with pink districts that swing blue, but with purple districts that remain stubbornly purple.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

among other things, musk is the #1 donor to the Republican Party in 2024 and 2026, now appointed to a board where he can steers contracts to his businesses. Bought and sold. Thieves.

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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 01/10/2026

Yo @giladedelman.bsky.social great job getting this guy a big puff piece in The Atlantic

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LadyBusiness @ladybusiness.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On my way to a job interview, smartly leaving the iced coffee at home

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

Longwell moving to the left, or at least softening on the left, is sorta my point though. This is the behavior of someone who is earnest, not a saboteur.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

I recall Longwell arguing with Miller, who was making the case for Democrats to go on Hasan Piker's platform. Link for Longwell repeating Third Way's smears? Maybe I missed it.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

I will be calling my senators and asking them to support new leadership. My senators are mostly useless though, especially Shifty Schiff, so I don't expect much there.

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Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 30/09/2026

Recently, I did a wonderful interview with the indefatigable @emilystjams.bsky.social about trans people's online information environment and why there are very strong incentives to spread panic. It was a wide-ranging discussion that I think is more relevant than ever.

episodes.ghost.io

What's the matter with trans panic media?

Scholar Katherine Alejandra Cross on why it's so profitable to "sell panic to trans people."

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

Most elected Democrats rallied to El-Sayed as soon as the primary was wrapped up, to their immense credit. McMorrow, Harris, etc. The *party* very much wants El-Sayed to win.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

Centrist Dems very much wanted El-Sayed to lose in the primary, and there was more than a little islamophobia deployed to that purpose. The fact that folks like Gaba, on Sept 30 before the election, still need "reassurance" is noteworthy.

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brent 🌹🗽 @therealbrent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I’ve never been in denial about it but I do think today was the first day I truly realized how much antisemitism is spreading and being normalized in online far-left circles. It’s scary and frightening and is only going to get worse if the left insists it’s not a problem.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

I am really hoping to see a challenge to Schumer's leadership. I don't think that will happen to Jeffries, at least not until 2028. But if the Senate leadership changes, maybe Jeffries can be bullied to do something useful.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

I would have guessed Indian cities but I wasn't sure if they used English as official languages or not. I haven't looked that up because the answer is not in India.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

She was born in Bavaria and so can't be mayor of Berlin? Is that actually a thing? Sorry, my German is bad and I don't know the context of the publication.

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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

up next eric schmitt is going to confront billionaire bruce wayne and make him admit that he is secretly superman

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A small but essential improvement on federal impeachment is widely used in the states: if a lower house impeaches you, you are *suspended from office* until & unless the upper house acquits you. That's what happened w Paxton. It's the obvious way to handle credible allegations of official misconduct

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

We should do this now, but if Democrats are not conducting rolling impeachments and congressional investigations—process as punishment—when we hold both houses in a couple months, we will be derelict to democracy.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

My guesses were NYC or London, but I knew they couldn't be right. I did not know that English was the official language of Nigeria!

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

You're doing exactly what my thread was talking about! Rob is a good faith member of the pro-democracy coalition. That's extremely clear from his actions and rhetoric over the last several years.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

By that I mean he's boosting plausible candidates in Democratic primaries, and supporting Democrats in the general election. Like he really has thrown in with Dems. It's not a good use of time to defend him, but it's probably a bad use of time attacking him.

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Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 30/09/2026

I'm honestly mixed on Piker. He has an undeniable soft spot for leftist dictators, but that's no more egregious than your garden variety far leftist. I've found most of the worse claims about him to be non-credible on examination. And he is "doing politics the right way."

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