John Caruso

Skunk at the party

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Seeing how easily the Republicans co-opt their class enemies makes me suspect that in the Middle Ages half the serfs were throwing cabbages not at the nobles, but at the other serfs

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

The value of the natural environment should never be rendered solely in economic terms, but the fact that the Trump cult's gutting of the Forest Service doesn't even make economic sense shows that it's driven solely by ignorant spite and private profit
https://t.co/QHBhUB3jJY

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

I was entirely certain on January 6th that these people would never fully pay for their crimes, but I admit I didn't anticipate that I'd eventually be paying THEM for their crimes

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Pardoning these traitors was never going to be enough for Trump, who now literally has Americans paying other Americans for trying to overthrow the government

(The bald-faced lie by the DOJ is just icing on the cake)

Taking bets on when they'll erect a January 6th monument

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Genuinely odd to find an NYT editorial that I could have written myself, word for word. Unfortunately it will continue to have zero effect, since the Trump cult is entirely immune to reality when it comes to the object of their adoration.
https://t.co/LWhWvpvv7P

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Second Amendment zealots loved to claim they needed guns to defend themselves from a tyrannical freedom-threatening government, but it was always clear (as reality is now demonstrating) that they'd be 100% in support of that kind of tyranny, not fighting against it

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

No surprise that an administration that's pro-cancer is also pro-pollution

Synergies

https://t.co/5et6yVt1Tj

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Now, to the untrained eye this might look like it contradicts the notion of media bias, but you have to remember that for authoritarian conservatives there are only two possibilities: a) rabid Pravda-like advocacy of right wing talking points, or b) treasonous liberal slander

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Kudos to the Washington Post for making this single most important point about the rise of violent political rhetoric...33 paragraphs into a 43-paragraph story

(They then spent a whopping *two more sentences* on Trump's constant, unhinged, actually-realized calls for violence)

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

By comparison, they mentioned "Grace", a Twitter user with a "few hundred followers", in paragraph 23, and spent 7 more sentences on her. Priorities.

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

This is not so much "burying the lede" as "shooting the lede in the head and burying its body in an unmarked grave in the desert"

[☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ @schwarz]

Part of the Israeli elite believes their violence increases antisemitism around the world & celebrates this. Recall Amoz Oz's 1982 interview with an IDF colonel, who said the "sweetest fruit" of Israel's invasion of Lebanon was it created hate for "all those Feinschmecker Jews"

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

The Associated Press avoiding the obvious and accurate word "abuse" here in favor of a mealy-mouthed "display" is another perfect example of how the media has always carried water for those in power, whether Democrats or Republicans

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Nothing better illustrated the "liberal" mainstream media's minimization and normalization (and therefore effective enabling) of Trump's worst behavior than their allergic avoidance of the plain word "lie" until far too late in his presidency

https://t.co/yGpTdqH10K

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

QED

https://t.co/9EUCAvMpYd

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Because "OPERATION PROXY PENIS" was too obvious

[Department of War 🇺🇸 @DeptofWar]

OPERATION EPIC FURY 🇺🇸

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

I admit I failed to anticipate that the Trump clown show would be hell bent on destroying science and medicine, but nonetheless the real surprise here is that the NSF board somehow survived Elon Musk's mindless purge of the federal government in 2025

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

@jk_rowling @surreykiwi @NickCohen4 @donotwobble @tonymc39 @theglassfish13 You're channeling this perfect quote from Aldous Huxley: "To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

It's not not a worthwhile point, but this is definitely a Popes in glass houses moment

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

I feel like there might be some minuscule irony in the leader of a religion that dogmatically asserts that a wafer literally turns into a god fretting over "our very relationship with truth" and worrying about people in "self-referential circuits" losing "exposure to reality"

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

@schwarz I'd be careful about relegating skepticism of useful images to "people who hate reality". AI has made ALL images suspect -- period, full stop. And given the balance of power, the left is likely to be targeted by AI-manipulated fakes more often than the right.

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

The next 4 years:

https://t.co/TgKmGCJ29Z <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

Given all the red lines Trump has gone screaming past with nothing but cheering from his supporters, anything that actually prompts them to turn on him at this point will necessarily be so niche and/or arbitrary that normal people may not even recognize it as an issue

[John Caruso @DistantOcean]

It's possible a few supporters will turn on Trump for attacking the Pope, but I wouldn't bank on it given that they haven't cared about rape, vote rigging, election fraud, defunding cancer research, aggressively open corruption, pathological lying, felony convictions etc etc