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Feb 14 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
#THREAD

A US group tied to the influential anti-abortion activist Leonard Leo gave $3 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association in the fourth quarter, the largest contributor to the organization in 2022.

How does this link to Koch's #i360?

exposedbycmd.org/2023/02/02/gro…
The Concord Fund - a dark money group affiliated with the Trump “judge whisperer” and Federalist Society board co-chair - also made a $1-million contribution to RAGA in the first quarter, bringing its total for the year to $4 million.
In 2020, the opaquely funded Concord Fund was described as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary" & is part of the network of organisations associated with Leonard Leo, an executive in the Federalist Society.

The largest known financial backer of Leonard Leo’s political network is Barre Seid, the Chicago electronics manufacturer who contributed $1.65 BILLION to his Marble Freedom Trust in 2020, which, in turn, passed along $16.5 million to The Concord Fund.
nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/…
Billionaire Charles Koch has not only heavily financed RAGA over the years—both personally and through his companies—he is also a key contractor for the organization. RAGA continues to subscribe to #i360, “Koch’s data mine,” for $4,000 a month, 2022 IRS filings show.
#i360 is a data analytics company that maintains "a database of over 250 million 18+ adults, including the 190 million who are registered to vote" sourced from "multiple consumer data compilers." It was dubbed the "Koch's data mine" by Politico.

politico.com/story/2014/12/…
The for-profit #i360 company was founded by Michael Palmer, former chief technology officer of John McCain's 2008 Presidential campaign. Following the 2008 election, it was merged with the Koch-funded nonprofit #Themis, a right-wing voter database project. desmog.com/i360/
Eerily similar to Cambridge Analytica, in 2018 it was reported that the Koch brothers worked with #i360 developed persuasion models to target voters with tailored messages on certain issues.

Personalised #propaganda on steroids gave us #Brexit.

salon.com/2018/11/05/koc…

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More from @docrussjackson

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Feb 15
#THREAD

A reminder of @Keir_Starmer's Ten Pledges to all @UKLabour members, made during his 2020 leadership bid (the website is still up).

Pledge #10: "Unite our party, promote pluralism, & improve our culture".

Keir Starmer in Rupert Murdoch's Times today: "Back me or leave". ImageImage
"My promise to you is that I will maintain our #radical values & work tirelessly to get Labour in to power – so that we can advance the interests of the people our party was created to serve. Based on the moral case for #socialism, here is where I stand".

keirstarmer.com/plans/10-pledg…
Keir Starmer's numbers 1 - 4 of his 10 "pledges" made to all @UKLabour members during his 2020 leadership bid: ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets
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Feb 14
#THREAD

Max Weber, the founder of modern sociology, once argued that charismatic politicians are seen by their followers as saviours & heroes.

But they are just as likely to be charlatans & swindlers...

theconversation.com/why-populism-h…
Whether you blame social media or inequality, contemporary citizens seem to want political horse races and big personalities — at least that’s the conventional wisdom. Engage your disgruntled followers with big ideas on TikTok!

journalistsresource.org/politics-and-g…
It would be bad enough if culture war clashes were just so much entertainment. But politicians that include Boris Johnson in the UK & US Sen. Josh Hawley appeal to the working classes — the masses of people without much money who turn out to vote.

michaelignatieff.ca/article/2022/d…
Read 31 tweets
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Feb 14
#Threads

The 2021 book, 'The Ideology of Political Reactionaries', will interest anyone concerned about current ideological trends - particularly the disturbing rise in far-right rhetoric, activism, & terrorism in the UK, across Europe, & in America.

routledge.com/The-Ideology-o…
The book offers a new perspective on the beliefs reactionaries share, presenting a theory of reactionary ideology in the process.

Rather than taking self-contradictions in the reactionary imagination as a reason for diminishment, complexity is taken as a challenge.
The book argues that the features that unite reactionaries lie in rhetoric. Reactionaries make three persuasive appeals:

to decadence
to conspiracy
and to indignation.

They also display some recurrent rhetorical styles.
Read 5 tweets
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Feb 13
#THREAD

Conflict is part of life. Difficult conversations may feel uncomfortable but research shows there are things you can do to make talks with people who have directly opposing views more productive & less combative...

theconversation.com/want-to-avoid-…
For example, one study published in 2019 found that reminding people they have more in common than they think with members of groups they dislike can diminish people’s hostility towards those groups.

psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-…
Researchers have argued receptiveness to opposing views and intellectual humility lie at the heart of healthy debates. Intellectual humility is owning or accepting your own shortcomings out of a genuine desire for knowledge and truth.

eprints.gla.ac.uk/136257/
Read 12 tweets
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Feb 13
On Sunday night, 'anti-woke' Andrew Neil asked his guests Ed Balls & David Baddiel: "Who would have thought, that in the last couple of years, antisemitism would become a real issue in the Labour Party?"

The silence about Tory antisemitism was deafening.

Three blokes slag off a lifelong anti-racist. In 2012, then @UKLabour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said he was 'not embarrassed' about wearing a #Nazi uniform while at uni, saying it was ‘a laugh’, just like Baddiel did when he blacked up to take the piss out of a black footballer. Image
Read 4 tweets
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Feb 9
Tonight on #bbcqt:

Descendant of William Gladstone & ex-biomedical venture capitalist, Tory MP George Freeman!

YET ANOTHER #Spiked & GB "News" regular & Brexit Party candidate, Inaya Folarin, a founding director of Toby Young's toxic hard-right Free Speech Union!

Matthew Syed:
AS USUAL, #bbcqt audiences won't know Inaya Folarin is a #Spiked & GB "News" regular, a Brexit Party candidate, & a founding director of Toby Young's toxic Free Speech Union, & a TORY IMPOSED NPG Trustee, she's framed as just a 'journalist & author' & Founder of Equiano Project.
Here's a great explainer about the wider toxic network of authoritarian fringe groups & individuals who are appointed by the Tories to important institutions & bodies, who shape & influence Govt policy, & who are virtually always represented on #bbcqt

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Read 15 tweets

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