Shikha Dalmia

Opinion | ‘I See Him as a Pretty Thoroughgoing Illiberal at This Stage’

Nice to be quoted extensively by The New York Time's Tom Edsall about Vance's unique brand of odiousness including in the headline :) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

Opinion | ‘I See Him as a Pretty Thoroughgoing Illiberal at This Stage’

"He’s a bundle of contradictions; his biography and his beliefs are in tension with each other." — our EIC, @shikhadalmia.bsky.social, in the NYT this week as featured in @tomedsall.bsky.social column

Actually, I don't think it is all performative. There is authentic, genuine racism is 'People of Color.' They are embracing cartoonish racism not to appear cool, they actually think it is cool!

Perhaps unsurprising for Miami, but I still find it notable that the three students quoted with most sexist, bigoted and antisemitic texts are named Bejerano, Gonzalez, and Valdes.

As someone said recently, America is such a melting pot that these days even our white supremacists are multicultural.

Iran's Youth Broke the Islamic Republic's Spell Before the Airstrikes An Iranian exile on the generation of women and youth who did the real work of dismantling the theocracy

A young Iranian who fled the mullah describes the incredible bravery of his peers in rejecting political Islam and standing up to the Khameini at @theunpopulist.net. Let's celebrate his removal without valorizing the authoritarians who bombed him.
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

True America Firstism would mean getting rid of rising authoritarianism in America first and restoring its liberal democracy before regime changing in other countries.
(PS: For the punctilious, yes, Khameini was a evil man and no need to shed a single tear for him.)

Kettle-pot action going on here.

Maduro, like Khameini, might be evil, but what moral right does a regime that is executing its own protesters on the streets with impunity have to do what it is doing?

This is exciting!

At @theunpopulist.net with panelists Mustafa Akyol, Michael Wear, Gideon Sylvester.

What Do Liberalism and Religion Owe Each Other? When religion becomes an identity it can't play the vital role of cultivating the virtue and morality necessary for a self-governing people

One of the frustrations of being an editor/organizer is that I don't get to do my own thinking and work. One of the joys is that I get to platform absolutely first rate conversations by brilliant minds such as this one at LibCon2025. Moderator @jonrauch.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

My god! This is the rightwing brain after a decade on the Trumpist drug.

The DHS Funding Fight Shows That Trump Thinks Basic Rights Are a Bargaining Tool Democrats are no bold reformers for asking him to uphold the Constitution as he pledged to do

Our basic rights should be off limits to the ICE gestapo. "It is hard to think of a clearer description of authoritarianism," notes @radleybalko.bsky.social, that we have to bargain for them. At @theunpopulist.net
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

What Are Heterodox Free Speech Warriors Doing About Trump's Censorship-Industrial Complex? Nada Trump is issuing subpoenas demanding social media platforms hand over data about ICE protesters but the 'Twitter Files' agitators couldn't care less

In the midst of the most aggressive and alarming federal assault on the First Amendment since the Palmer raids, the Biden-era free speech warriors have focused their outrage on . . . the injustice of releasing the Epstein files.

Yes, some libertarians did warn against Trump. They are not the ones peddling their colleagues' NYT pieces gaslighting us right now.

Well said!

The Far Right Is Rapidly Remaking England's Politics And one big driving force is Elon Musk who is putting his and X's might behind fringe figures touting aggressively reactionary ideas

Deeply informative and disturbing piece of how not just the establishment right, but also the left is succumbing to the reactionary pull of the far right fringe in England by @aselrod.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net:
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Funny thing, how liberal societies work, which is why postliberals can't stand them. Fun piece at @theunpopulist.net open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

You know why what Colbert just did was so brilliant? The Orange Man makes audacious use of his powers to control and repress. Colbert made an equally audacious use of his tools to resist and defy. This is how it ought to be done!

How is it possible that Kristi Noem still has this job. Imagine if you’re a family member or a shipmate of this guardsman.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

I'm assuming Bari Weiss is not involved in cancelling Stephen Colbert's interview with James Talarico because she heads the CBS news operation and not the late night talk show one? Or was she?

The Unbearable Intellectual Lightness of the Postliberal Being Its case that liberalism must turn into its opposite is based on feelings, not theory or real world evidence

Religious postliberals claim that liberalism promises freedom but delivers repression. Like every regime, it turns into its opposite. However their account of how that happens is too weak to be taken seriously, says @andrewkoppelman.bsky.social @theunpopulist.net
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Opinion | Libertarians warned about executive power. Only a few actually warned about Trump. Anthony L. Fisher: A recent New York Times op-ed showed the blind spot many libertarians still have for President Donald Trump.

"Many of the libertarians who loudly decried Trump’s increasingly brazen racism and violent rhetoric ... were dismissed [by movement libertarians] as woke-adjacent TDS-afflicted snowflakes." @anthonylfisher.bsky.social says they don't get to say we told you so, we do: www.ms.now/opinion/libe...

Worry, Don't Panic, Over Trump's Efforts to Subvert the Elections America's system is quite foolproof but he can still try to delegitimize it

At @theunpopulist.net, @andycraig.bsky.social takes a comprehensive look at Trump's efforts at election subversion and shows why he can't succeed. What he can do is delegitimze an adverse outcome and that is dangerous enough: open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Wow!

Trump got impeached for withholding appropriated aid to Ukraine till its president dished out dirt on his opponent. Now the corruption has spread inward and he is holding up appropriated funds till the Dulles airport and Penn Station are named after him. And Congress is merely kvetching.

LOL!

Plato Understood Why Masking Would Turn ICE Agents Into Devils The Republic explained that social scrutiny was necessary for human virtue

Wait, this is about the Ring of Gyges, isn't it?

(Yep, it is.)

"The U.S. now has a big constituency for authoritarianism, for the undermining of institutions. And I think Europeans know that." — @anneapplebaum.bsky.social from her Zooming In conversation with @shikhadalmia.bsky.social (full episode at theunpopulist.net).

This is very good from @bernybelvedere.bsky.social on little-noticed examples of DHS echoing fascist language on the agency's official twitter feed, and how that illuminates Trump/MAGA's broader project of state violence and terror:

www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-vil...

Robust State Constitutionalism Can Protect Rights and Resist Authoritarianism We need a movement to fully unlock the potential for resistance by states

Great piece from Brennan's @kasiawolfkot.bsky.social about the important revival of litigation in state courts and under state constitutions.