Amanda Smithfield

CON laws are dumb. There. I said it.

Nobody has the right to shout someone down, hijack an event, or block others from listening. Protesting outside is protected. So is disagreement. But if you want to challenge a speaker, ask questions or organize your own event.

@CaseyMattox_ Very true, Casey.

I won't even ask people to stop because I know they won't. But if you're claiming "the right" or "conservatives" are defending the ICE agent right now, you're grossly overstating the case and there are about 1000 contrary examples in my timeline alone.

Lunch and Learns are the best!

A very bad sign. Pervasive fear should not be the price of political participation.

This point from @GovCox is so important: over the last 50 years America has been indoctrinated to believe that only presidential politics matters - which has justified a consolidation of power that's destroying checks and balances. The subsequent point from @EzraKlein is also important: thanks to the nationalization of media & destruction of local media, more and more people are obsessed with national politics & aren't interested in what's happening in their own community. Which is extremely bad. Very good interview here: nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opi…

Erika Kirk forgives her husband’s assassin and says: “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know from the Gospel, is love and always love—love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

“Free speech belongs to everyone or it belongs to no one” - @glukianoff Watch his full TED Talk on the importance of free speech — and how protecting it benefits everyone: t.ted.com/fKhlHjt

Obama weighs in on Abundance:

@rpondiscio I definitely hope this is something you’ll follow and write about!

@rpondiscio I’m not sure. It looks like Utah recently passed something similar. Here’s more info: chalkbeat.org/tennessee/2025…

The presence and engagement of a child’s father has a more powerful effect on their academic and emotional well-being than anything we do in school. Can we talk about what that means for education practice and policy? My latest at "The Next 30 Years" Substack. thenext30years.substack.com/p/family-struc…

@edjsandoval @nytimes Hey @mattyglesias checking in on your in-laws and hoping everyone is okay! I know you’ve been to Kerrville many times.

I’m in Kerrville, where I spoke to a man who said he and his wife were swept underwater. He tried to swim toward her voice, he said, but lost her when he was struck in the head by debris. He survived by holding onto a tree. #floods #Texas nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/… via @NYTimes

Yup. Also the birthright citizenship decision isn't a major win for Trump. He has still lost all the birthright injunctions and will almost certainly lose on the merits soon enough. Oh, and there are other options for injunctions as well. There have been lots of overreactions to this decision.

Progressives must be consistently for free speech & not censor books because they disagree with the views of the author. What's next? Will the store no longer sell the Republic because Plato accepted slavery as part of ancient Greek society?

"Free speech makes you safer. Free speech cures violence. Free speech protects the powerless. And even 'bad' people can have good ideas." My talk from April at @TEDTalks 2025 in Vancouver is live!

@mattyglesias Cc @lymanstoneky Glad I follow the two of you and have got many years

@CaseyMattox_ I mean, 4 unanimous decisions came out yesterday! It’s gotta be Fed Society’s fault to deflect attention from the Supreme Court.

I think the question we should all be asking about yesterday's Trump-Elon breakup is why would Fed Soc do this? #BlameFedSoc

Love this @HumeFoggKnights alum and future city planner and grateful to @freddieoconnell for going on his final bus ride with him. 😍😍

@esanzi @karenvaites I have enough to do as it is. Fortunately (at least at the high school level), we don’t have to do this in my district.

@karenvaites We shouldn't but there's big money and ideological commitments involved.

Not the first study to suggest that mental health in schools has questionable returns. So, why should we continue giving precious instructional time to these efforts?