tzimmer_history

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

Moralizing Nostalgia Leads to Bad History – and Helps the Anti-Democratic Right

David Brooks’ “How America Got Mean” offers an ahistorical tale that obscures rather than illuminates – and provides fertile ground for a politics of reaction.

A thread, based on my new piece: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/moralizing-nostalgia-leads-to-bad

tzimmer_history, 7 months ago to random

The American Right is fully committed to a fundamentally anti-democratic project, and the Republican Party has a comprehensive strategy to put it into practice.

Some thoughts on the radicalizing threat of authoritarian minority rule: 1/

https://bsky.app/profile/stephenwolf.bsky.social/post/3kch65wc6rc2q

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

“This should be decided at the ballot box” is such an utterly deranged thing to say when the reason why we are in this situation is that Trump and his enablers didn’t respect the decision at the ballot box and instead engaged in a vast conspiracy to end constitutional government.

tzimmer_history, 8 months ago to random

The Triumph of Weaponized Nostalgia

Past eras of stable white Christian patriarchal dominance are widely sanitized and mythologized in our political discourse.

A thread, outlining the key arguments of my new piece: 1/

tzimmer_history, 8 months ago to random

Shamefully silly to publish such utter nonsense even at the best of times - a complete disaster doing it in the current situation in which a paper that has adopted “Democracy dies in darkness” as its official slogan should have other things to alert and inform the public about.

Some thoughts: 1/

tzimmer_history, 10 months ago to random

One Year on From Dobbs: The Dangers of Radicalizing Minority Rule

Reactionaries are pursuing a deeply unpopular political project. But that doesn’t mean they can’t succeed. It means they are likely to embrace ever more authoritarian forms of minoritarianism in order to win.

A thread, outlining some key arguments from my new Democracy Americana newsletter:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/one-year-on-from-dobbs-the-dangers

tzimmer_history, 7 months ago to random

The past few days were a stark reminder of how unbelievably more toxic Twitter/X has become and how it’s lost most of its utility as a political communications platform. I wrote this a while ago - I think it’s still relevant:

On the sabotage of Twitter, and what democracy is losing

(Thread: 1/)

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-sabotage-of-twitter-is-a-disaster

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

This type of militarization and brutalization of the border is the manifestation of a level of cruelty and disregard for the lives of fellow human beings that is simply disgusting, disturbing, and outrageous. No one who is ok with this gets to call themselves “decent” in any way.

https://twitter.com/laikenjordahl/status/1688976652234371072?s=46&t=1xecvNVImNo8TKt3oEvqnA

tzimmer_history, 11 months ago to random

An attempt to weaponize nostalgia around an exclusionary vision of the past in which discriminatory traditional hierarchies of race, gender, and religion were much more strict, imposing a much clearer order on society.

A perfect encapsulation of what the Right is all about.

tzimmer_history, 8 months ago to random

A Manifesto Against the Pervasive “Polarization” Narrative

On the treacherous allure of the #polarization dogma and the limits and pitfalls of a narrative that obscures more than it illuminates.

A short thread, outlining the key arguments of my new piece: 1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-treacherous-allure-of-the-polarization

tzimmer_history, 6 months ago to random

Polls are not objective reflections of public opinion – they help construct that which they ostensibly just measure. But that also means they have a massive impact shaping political behavior.

And this one is really concerning – because “Biden too old” seems to dominate everything else.

🧵1/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/politics/biden-trump-2024-poll.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

tzimmer_history, 10 months ago to random

A major German newspaper asked me to write an opinion piece on the Supreme Court - then refused to publish it because they regard my argument that the rightwing majority stands in direct opposition to multiracial, pluralistic democracy and the modern state as too extreme. 🤷

tzimmer_history, 1 year ago to random

Turning the purely ratings-driven platforming of a spectacle that only helps the far-right demagogue who once before tried to abolish democracy and constitutional government as a necessary civic service to get Libs and Lefties to leave their echo chambers is utterly cynical and insulting. 1/

https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1656813612491501568?s=46&t=1xecvNVImNo8TKt3oEvqnA

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

Take the ability to block away, and Twitter immediately becomes utterly unusable for anyone who doesn’t revel in being overwhelmed by an avalanche of racist, misogynistic, bigoted filth - and that’s intentional, of course. An incitement of abuse.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/elon-musk-x-twitter-block-feature-delete-1235699759/

tzimmer_history, 10 months ago to random

The Rogue Court vs Modern Democracy

America can accept this Supreme Court as legitimate and its rulings as the final word - or it can have true democracy and a functioning state. But not both.

A thread, outlining some key arguments from my latest Democracy Americana newsletter:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rogue-court-vs-modern-democracy

tzimmer_history, 4 months ago to random

On Substack’s Nazi Problem, and Ours

Happy New Year! We are off to a depressing start with a reflection on how to navigate the moral quandaries of social media extremism and tech bro idiocy – and a plea to my readers to stick with me through it all.

New piece:

🧵1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/on-substacks-nazi-problem-and-ours

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

This bizarre #BothSides monstrosity reeks of someone who desperately wants to be “cancelled” by “the Left” so that he can finally fulfill his destiny and start a mega lucrative Bari Weiss-style career of ever more deranged anti-“woke” punditry outside the confines of mainstream media.

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

Rightwing Dreams of American Reconquista

A counter-revolutionary zeal and desire for vengeance is what unites Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Christopher Rufo, Nate Hochman, and the rest of today’s Right.

A thread, based on my new piece: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/rightwing-dreams-of-american-reconquista

tzimmer_history, 9 months ago to random

“The ruling class.”

That’s actually the new consensus enemy on the Right, uniting the rightwing online and pundit sphere with the mainstream of Republican politics. And it’s a chimera entirely detached from the political and socio-economic realities of American life.

tzimmer_history, 1 year ago to random

It’s really hard to overstate how acutely dangerous this is: All strands of the Right - leading Republicans, the media machine, the reactionary intellectual sphere, the conservative base - are openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence.

tzimmer_history, 6 months ago to random

Rightwingers are promoting aggressive anti-bikeism as a key element of the reactionary political identity. Just the most destructive people, reflexively raging against anything coded “left” or “woke.” And so even the most universally beneficial trends and behavior are declared evil and “Un-American” 1/

tzimmer_history, 5 months ago to random

Militant Democracy vs Donald Trump

Democracy is fated to fight those who assault it with one hand tied behind its back, lest it become that which it seeks to defeat. But fight it must – or it will perish.

New piece - On Trump and the historical struggle over how to defend democracy:

🧵1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/militant-democracy-vs-donald-trump

tzimmer_history, 7 months ago to random

Is 2024 really “the most important election” ever?

I’ll say this: For the foreseeable future, the fate of democracy hangs in the balance - and is on the ballot! - in every single election.

And those who seek to subvert and abolish democracy might only have to win once to get what they want.

Thread: 1/

tzimmer_history, 10 months ago to random

This is exactly the kind of society the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court wants: Every business in the country gets to claim they are engaging in expressive behavior and then discriminate against whatever protected group they don’t like - because “free speech.”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article277196783.html

tzimmer_history, 1 year ago to random

On “Cancel Culture”

A deep dive into the narrative that America is experiencing an acute “free speech crisis” – and why it is so misleading.

A thread - based on my new Democracy Americana: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/on-cancel-culture