tzimmer_history

tzimmer_history, 5 days ago to random

The “Originalist” Supreme Court vs Democracy

As the Right is using “originalism” to re-impose a reactionary order on the country, I exchange letters with Madiba Dennie about the dangers of judicial supremacy – and how to get out of this trap

Some thoughts from my new piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-originalist-supreme-court-vs

tzimmer_history, 5 days ago to random

There was a wave of “It’s actually a 3-3-3 Court!” takes in 2021, when the rightwing supermajority decided it was best to wait another term before going full berserk on democracy and the modern state. That was just regular dumb.

Resurrecting them now is next-level bizarre. Remarkable stuff.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/06/02/supreme-court-justice-math-00152188

Screenshot of a graph in the Politico piece, presenting Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh as centrists

tzimmer_history, 8 days ago to random

“I proudly know nothing about the matter, but I will nevertheless weigh in to scold both sides for being so extreme” not only gives you about all you need to know about Friedersdorf - it’s also the pure essence of vacuous, arrogant centrist punditry. A piece of art.

tzimmer_history, 15 days ago to random

Weekend reading: I wrote about the fascism debate

Two essays on the stakes, the scholarship, the key arguments, and the politics of the question of whether or not Trumpism is best understood as fascism that is revealing key fault lines on the Left.

Part I: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america

Part II: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-liberal-left-has-a-fascism

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Screenshot of Part II of my “Democracy Americana” newsletter on the fascism debate: “The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problem: Prominent leftwing intellectuals are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right”

tzimmer_history, 15 days ago to random

The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problem

Prominent leftwing intellectuals are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right.

New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-liberal-left-has-a-fascism

tzimmer_history, 16 days ago to random

Part I of my deep dive into the fascism debate is out:

Over 6,000 words on the stakes, the scholarship, the key arguments, and the politics of the question of whether or not Trumpism is best understood as fascism - and why the Skeptics are so weirdly adamant it must not be.

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america

tzimmer_history, 17 days ago to random

Fascism in America?

The fascism debate rages on: Here is why it matters, what the main contentions are, and why the arguments of the Skeptics are increasingly untethered from what is happening on the Right.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america

tzimmer_history, 17 days ago to random

Fascism in America?

The fascism debate rages on: Here is why it matters, what the main contentions are, and why the arguments of the Skeptics are increasingly untethered from what is happening on the Right.

New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america

tzimmer_history, 18 days ago to random

I joined The Big Picture for a Q&A about “Project 2025”: What it is, the extreme worldview of the reactionaries behind it, what it would do to America, and why it provides such a crucial insight into the state of the Right today.

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/project-2025-thomas-zimmer-trump

tzimmer_history, 23 days ago to random

Vigilante Violence Is Part of the Right’s Plan

I wrote this exactly a year ago, and today – as Texas Gov. Abbott has pardoned convicted killer Daniel Perry – is, sadly, a good day to repost it: The open embrace of violence plays a key role in the broader rightwing mobilization against democracy.

Some thoughts: 1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/vigilante-violence-is-part-of-the

image/jpeg

tzimmer_history, 29 days ago to random

Weekend reading: I wrote about how mainstream commentators constantly raise the specter of 1968 to denounce the student protests - willfully ignoring the long pattern of leftwing student movements acting as an indispensable corrective.

Some thoughts from this week’s piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the

tzimmer_history, 30 days ago to random

The Students Have Never Been the Enemy

Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about.

A thread, based on my new piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the

tzimmer_history, 29 days ago to random

Pundits constantly invoke the upheavals of 1968 as a warning against student radicalism.

But the history of “1968” is better understood as the story of a generation that objected to a vast gulf between democratic promises and discriminatory realities.

New piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the

tzimmer_history, 30 days ago to random

The Students Have Never Been the Enemy

Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about.

New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

What really stands out about this interview with New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn is this pervasive sense among centrist elites that by the summer of 2020, “woke” radicalism had been allowed to advance too far - and people like Kahn see it as their mission to stem the tide. 1/

https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2024/joe-kahn-the-newsroom-is-not-a-safe-space

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

Weekend reading: Why is the “moderate” mainstream propagating rightwing conspiracies about “woke” indoctrination?

A deep dive into what George Packer gets so wrong about the university, critical theory, and the legacy of the 1960s student protests.

This week’s piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/americas-elites-fear-the-ghost-of

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

New piece:

America’s Elites Fear the Ghost of 1968

Mainstream elites are adopting a reactionary tale about the “leftist” indoctrination of America’s youth that verges on the conspiratorial and is destined to give the Right a major boost.

Some key points:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/americas-elites-fear-the-ghost-of

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

America’s Elites Fear the Ghost of 1968

Mainstream elites are adopting a reactionary tale about the “leftist” indoctrination of America’s youth that verges on the conspiratorial and is destined to give the Right a major boost.

New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/americas-elites-fear-the-ghost-of

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

The actual Kristallnacht was a country-wide pogrom in November 1938 in which the Nazis killed hundreds of German Jews, threw tens of thousands in concentration camps, destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses.

Was even a single person hurt at Columbia?

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

So much of the reaction from university leaders and the polite mainstream elite more broadly - many of them self-regarding liberals - seems to be driven by a sense of remorse over supposedly having given the protests in the summer of 2020 too much rope, allowing “woke” radicalism to take root.

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

Some self-regarding “moderate” has been hijacking the comments section of my newsletter for days: Jumping on everyone else who commented, posting thousands (!) of words on why the student protests obviously needed to be suppressed.

This is his reaction when I asked him to stop. Perfect.

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

This is the type of comment I’ve been getting a lot for my latest piece: Always from self-regarding liberals who never want to grapple with the fact that the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 60s – the legacy of which they surely want to claim – clearly violated those principles.

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

I wrote about why the phalanx of elite opinionists who pretended to be all riled up about the “free speech crisis” on college campuses for years has had nary a critical word to offer about the violent suppression of speech happening right now.

This week’s piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/student-revolt-and-the-curtailing

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

Weekend reading: Student Revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech

The violent crackdown on campus protests reveals an alliance between the Right and mainstream elites who are driven by reactionary impulses and status anxieties.

A thread, based on this week’s piece:

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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/student-revolt-and-the-curtailing

tzimmer_history, 1 month ago to random

Student Revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech

The violent crackdown on campus protests reveals an alliance between the Right and mainstream elites who are driven by reactionary impulses and status anxieties.

New piece:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/student-revolt-and-the-curtailing