alec karakatsanis

THREAD. I am so glad to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the publication of Copaganda. It's more relevant than ever. We must understand how people are brought along to support the most monstrous and repressive institutions. (And we should have some fun and make some jokes while doing it!)

THREAD: The assassinations in Minnesota highlight a dirty secret hardly ever mentioned in the news: U.S. has 1.1 million private police officers. There is an unprecedented footprint of privately organized violence that is doing all sorts of things most people have no idea about.

Today’s Executive Order creating a *nationwide* military “quick reaction force” and setting up an online portal to permit random fascist vigilantes to join soldiers is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in U.S. politics in my adult life. Why is it not getting more attention?

THREAD. A lot of attention is rightly going to Medicaid cuts and other very bad things in Trump's bill passed by the House, but there's something else that isn't getting enough attention, that is very difficult to find in any news coverage, but that will fundamentally alter life for all of us.

Another cold blooded execution by ICE today in Maine, just days after the murder in Houston. The only acceptable position for politicians is eliminating the agency. Do not for one minute tolerate any politician calling for "training" or "body cameras." The demand is clear.

Excited to see this article by criminology scholars in the main newsletter of the American Society of Criminology on the value of teaching my book Copaganda. And a good reminder for teachers: we have free copies of the book for your students if you want to teach it! asc41.org/wp-content/u...

If you have not been involved in resisting the unprecedented expansion of ICE—and of all it represents about how our society has lost its way—now is the time to start. www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...

Stunning how dismissive he is of ideas he has clearly not thought much about, like critiques of militarized borders and the modern prison. He sounds like a flat-earther dismissing the idea of a spherical planet out of blind religious devotion to concepts he's never had the curiosity to question.

THREAD. Last year, I explained that the Supreme Court was likely to permit Trump to fire the heads of "independent" federal agencies, but prevent too much direct presidential control over the Federal Reserve. Today, they've basically done that. But why?

THREAD. Stories like today's catastrophic Supreme Court ruling on pesticides go under the radar, but they shape our society and determine our lives.

The sentences handed down today in Texas are a threat to the possibility of a democratic society. The prosecution is rife with constitutional violations, but 30 years in prison (more than anyone for January 6) for moving some magazines? 50 years for those not involved in even planning the protest?

THREAD. I ask a lot of politicians and journalists if they should be detained in a jail cell away from their families if the government merely accuses them of a crime. I've never had one say yes.

Ezra Klein is a serious threat to a world of true equality and justice because he is so effective at masking his service to the ruling class through (often faux) intellectual cooptation of progressive people who otherwise would support much more profound social change.

THREAD. The recent behavior of the District Attorney in San Francisco is shameful. Her new fear-mongering campaign is based on lies, and it's fomenting violence. But the background of how the New York Times SF Bureau Chief assisted in the fraud is a key lesson in propaganda.