Sign in

Rick Perlstein

@rickperlstein.bsky.social
31K followers 33 following 4.7K posts

"O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet..."

PostsRepliesMedia
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 10h
A post about a friend. rickperlstein.substack.com/p/make-a-mor...
rickperlstein.substack.com
Make a Moral Wilderness Bloom
...and help out a friend of mine in need.
172
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Is it really possible to translate 2,000 year old poetry like this? Like: how can this not just be considered an original poem, inspired by, and shaped like, another in Latin?
9110
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
After the crap that David Brooks wrote on the cusp of the Iraq War, no one should have published him anywhere again. Instead, it earned him a New York Times column.
19312
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The president admits a mistake.
3234
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Spend 10,000 hours with these, you'll turn you into a me.
8320
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
As a historian, I learn with my fingers, typing the most important words in what I read into notes as a way to literally embody the information. To tell an "AI" to answer a question, then proceed according to what it outputs, is the opposite: the lobotomization of thought.
68018
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The "SI" thing is was intended to provoke this exact sort of sniveling response from the courtiers, to train the oligarchs to humiliate themselves for Trump so they'll do it again later when it really matters.
1203075539
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I'm sorry, this is the sexiest picture I've ever seen. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/o...
nytimes.com
Margaret Hamilton, Whose Software Guided the Apollo Missions, Has Died
Margaret Hamilton, the first female programmer hired to work on the space project at M.I.T., was 90.
2858
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Quite the bolt from the blue, this whole MAGA "takeover" of the Republican Party....
3438
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A classic from the not-so-dearly departed Jim Bakker... www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UUm...
youtube.com
RWW News: Reagan, 1979: We Could See Armageddon
YouTube video by Right Wing Watch
3276
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A Democrat got drunk once. A Republican made his fortune swindling sick people. We report, you decide. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/u...
nytimes.com
The Campaign for Ohio’s Next Governor May Be the Ugliest in the Country
The candidates for Ohio governor have significant policy differences, but the campaign ads have been strikingly personal, with exaggerated portrayals of one candidate as a con artist and the other as ...
829372
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Remembering Denny Hastert. rickperlstein.substack.com/p/politics-i...
rickperlstein.substack.com
Politics is Teaching
... so let's connect some Three Dots.
0205
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A Hasidic Jew, with the sidecurls, hat, and everything, is being deported. For the alleged crime of antisemitism. For peacefully protesting Israel. Where he is a citizen; and to which he is being deported.
611540
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
University of Michigan today. The most tipping-point image I've seen to exemplify our fascist descent. And the surrender was won with the weapon of false antisemitism charges against people protesting genocide--making administrations complicit in genocide. A moral nadir. This is how republics die.
46015
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Very important observations here. Important stuff to mentally assimilate if you think that Democrats getting many more votes than Republicans in November is the whole ballgame.
34716
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can these videos possibly be real? www.facebook.com/share/r/1FCK...
facebook.com
720
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Wrong platform. Subscribe here! www.patreon.com/franklin17/p...
patreon.com
A Year After Operation Midway Blitz | Frank The Turtle
This is 22-year-old Sakariye Abdi Mohamed, an asylum seeker from Somalia. He’s currently being held at Guantanamo Bay by the Trump administr
150
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of my favorite front-line reporters on the fascist assault wants to cover the planned action tomorrow at the Broadview ICE facility but can only afford to do so if she gets ten more Substack subscribers. Hasten thither! substack.com/@noturtlesou...
substack.com
Amanda Moore | Substack
36917
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Hope no one tells him about what's going on in the FBI...
6688
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Some serious Woodward and Bernstein energy... www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/n...
nytimes.com
Mamdani Aides Give City Council Little Insight Into Influencer Effort
At a New York City Council hearing, frustration grew as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s representatives were unable to answer questions about the mayor’s use of influencers.
3152
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
May do.
0444
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I am so there for Kash under the lights at this Senate hearing. You thought the bestiality was a good? www.nbcnews.com/tech/securit...
nbcnews.com
FBI investigating hacking group’s claim of massive breach of agent info
ShinyHunters, a cyber-extortion outfit, said it hacked into the FBI’s jobs portal and used that access to steal a major tranche of sensitive files.
3312
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Spending these days fact-checking and endnoting, I've been Googling at industrial scale, which has given my a brain-melting lesson in how fucked we are as a civilization. In today's installment, a quote from Geo W. Bush's 2nd inaugural in 2005 is depicted—why not?—as one from Obama's in 2013.
920453
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A financial death star was assembled by the "rules based international order" to pin outlaw states, with the U.S. at the controls. Now it is being deployed by the outlaw running the U.S., against the "rules based international order." Aimé Césaire's imperial boomerang. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Trump Ramps Up Bid to Dismantle International Criminal Court
The U.S. administration is preparing sweeping sanctions that would cut the court off from much of the global financial system.
36118
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Good times.
28218
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
We're staking our economy on forcing a technology down people's throats that outputs misinformation as a matter of course. Someone asked me about my interview with Gil Duran. This is happened when I googled our names together. I have not interviewed Gil Duran. This path: civilizational death.
1214156
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If you don't mind, I'm going to do a little political organizing here. If this gets to, say, ten million hearts, the message could have a discernible effect on defeating fascism before it devours us. Pls forward.
49427
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Laboratory evidence: the gender attitudes of the typical Texas third-grade middle-class male in 1964 are identical to those of the people controlling the Republican Party and White House. More at 11. rickperlstein.substack.com/p/greatest-h...
rickperlstein.substack.com
Greatest Hits, Vol. III
Read it for the pictures.
1171
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Disappointingly lawyerly: "Not all of the undisclosed deaths are directly tied to the conflict but have involved U.S. personnel who were in the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities, this person said." What are they trying to say, what can't they say, etc.? www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
washingtonpost.com
More U.S. troops have died amid Iran war than Pentagon has disclosed publicly
Officials who spoke with The Post expressed frustration that the additional loss of life in the Middle East is not reflected in the Defense Department’s casualty database.
6347
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Suspicious. Sheriff shuts down program compensating damages to small businesses from last year's fascist invasion, claiming overwhelming fraud, but... www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...
cbsnews.com
Scammers target Hennepin County fund meant to aid businesses impacted by ICE surge
Data shows small businesses lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during Operation Metro Surge. A Hennepin County program launched to help them ended up shutting down. Nearly half of the app...
2297
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
🇨🇦 thimbles.bsky.social 🇨🇦 @thimbles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
So I jumped into this documentary on Netflix expecting stories of movies from the 70's. www.netflix.com/us/title/819... Got a ton of informative social commentary on US society from folks ranging from Seth Rogen to @jamesrisen.bsky.social to @rickperlstein.bsky.social. Take an hourish and watch.
netflix.com
Watch Breakdown: 1975 | Netflix Official Site
America, 1975. An era of social and political upheaval inspires a wave of groundbreaking movies in this documentary from Oscar winner Morgan Neville.
0112
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Try reading this from @rickperlstein.bsky.social. Nearly did a spit-take when I got to Newt Gingrich complaining that Megan Kelly was "fascinated with sex and [doesn't] care about public policy" because she pointed out Trump's history as a serial predator. rickperlstein.substack.com/p/greatest-h...
rickperlstein.substack.com
Greatest Hits, Vol. II
Rise and Fall of American Civilization edition
0121
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
More fun with "AI." I Googled a famous quote from the guy who, for saying this, Rahm Emanuel sent a dead fish, and got this output back.
2211
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
At a certain point, people are going to look back on garden-variety 2026 right-wing discourse and describe it like we currently describe Holocaust denial. (Excepting the possibility humans become extinct first.)
415025
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Amazing discovery for fans of the cat who made the ARP Odyssey monosynth his Stradivarius, George Duke. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6jk...
youtube.com
FLORA PURIM WITH FRIENDS / LIVE AT TERMINAL ISLAND FEDERAL PRISON 1975
YouTube video by Chiidang's RIM (Rare Live Music)
5266
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So fascinating. Who'da thunk. The WSJ serves the plutocracy what they need to know on the news page, and the proaganda line on the op-ed page. News coverage means: DSA is a real-deal contender for power. A blessed event for the prospects of liberty, no matter the all-too-human flaws of some of DSA.
2399
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Thinking about how a girl at Christian summer camp asked me if my dad was in Al Qaeda and I got in trouble for asking if her dad was a Klansman bc “her question was understandable”
620292424951
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Oops, VICTROLA. Gramps is on the fritz.
0232
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Gramps is doing endnotes. Gather around the Victoria, kids, and I'll tell you a story of a time when, if you typed a string of words at a website called Google and enclosed them inside quotation marks, it obedient coughed up every time those words appeared together on the Internet, without comment.
48314
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Literally happened the first fucking day of his administration. Remember "alternative facts"?
4554
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Almost always, terrorists think their propaganda of the deed will inspire the masses to join their crusade. That fallacy was the theme of a novel a lot of smart people read and discussed after 9/11, Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent."
44714
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For Substack subscribers, I've posted pages from a chapter called "The 9/11 Lobotomy" from my forthcoming book, THE INFERNAL TRIANGLE: HOW AMERICA GOT THIS WAY. rickperlstein.substack.com/p/the-911-lo...
rickperlstein.substack.com
The 9/11 Lobotomy
Twenty-five years later, four pages from my forthcoming book.
1315
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Sheesh. The bots aren't "asking" about anything. They are pattern-repeaters, so output grammatical sentences that repeat what every AI in every science fiction story does, ever. Talk about machines like they are people, and you do the tech bros' propaganda work for them.
1527
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Another Steinem point: the kind of self-esteem promotion she ("Revolution fool Within"), and Oprah, did, is potentially FANTASTIC for the left. Making people non-neurotic makes them ready to entertain values--
4321
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The dumbest part of lefty purity around a figure like Steinem is not grasping that people liberated from authoritarian thinking and families, by liberals like Steinem or liberalism generally, are OPPPRTUNITIES for the left. "You like that? Have you heard about this?" Etc. Not complicated.
1558
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This one holds up.
2171
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Many gifts I have received this Birthday Week, but the best came from the Universe. A new recording of one of my musical heroes, one whom, if you know, you know...has only ever been recorded with his own bands maybe a half dozen times, and never during this period. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jGn...
youtube.com
Lyle Mays Trio/EJ's, Atlanta, GA 1981.8.22.
YouTube video by Chiidang's RIM (Rare Live Music)
1192
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In 1955, only 2% in a Gallop poll strongly disapproved of J. Edgar Hoover. A man who ran quite nearly a fascist enterprise was the most trusted man in America. It's remarkable it took so long to get one in the White House. share.google/m4TNObQqZOWZ...
share.google
Deborah Friedell · Something on Everyone: Hoover’s Secrets
J. Edgar Hoover liked to say he didn’t hire policemen but investigators. Agents were university graduates, only to be...
45515
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Read it. She cracked open everyday oppression in a way none of her critics who fault her for not being a Marxist, or theorizing there world precisely as they do, ever came close. archive.org/details/lett...
archive.org
Letters to Ms., 1972-1987
xix, 264 pages ; 25 cm
1306
Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Yeah, pleeeeeeez tell me more about how Gloria Steinem was a crypto-neoliberal CIA cutout...
2298