Matthew Sheffield

2 weeks ago | plus.flux.community | Matthew Sheffield

As chaotic and corrupt as his first term was, Donald Trump’s second administration has been far more lawless, beginning with his shocking decision to give full pardons to the violent January 6th rioters. Since then, Trump has been selling pardons to the highest bidder, rolling out cryptocurrency bribery scams, and vowing to accept a $1 billion “gift” of an airliner from the government of Qatar.

3 weeks ago | plus.flux.community | Matthew Sheffield

Many people expected that Donald Trump's fate would be decided by women last year. It was, after all, the first presidential race since the Republican-dominated Supreme Court had decided to roll back a national right to abortion. But Trump upended that possibility by deciding to run a campaign that was focused very heavily on men and trying to attract the votes of men who didn’t commonly participate in voting. That’s why I wanted to bring Juliana Menasce Horowitz onto the show today.

1 month ago | plus.flux.community | Matthew Sheffield

Ever since he came back into office, Donald Trump has messed up a lot of things. The judiciary, the budget, federal employees, foreign policy, you name it. But we can’t forget that America’s economic, political, and religious systems were already failing a lot of people long before he ever came on the scene. That’s especially true for younger Americans who face skyrocketing college tuition, an inscrutable job market, and relationship expectations that are no longer matching reality.

1 month ago | plus.flux.community | Matthew Sheffield

The Trump Administration's wars on federal employees and research science are getting a lot of headlines, but there's a third war that's being conducted by the radical right that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should, and that its efforts to control Americans’ bodily autonomy. Whether it’s trying to outlaw abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, or trying to place restrictions on birth control, the far right is trying to control what you can do with your body.

Mar 29, 2025 | plus.flux.community | Matthew Sheffield

For decades, the American far-right has been screeching constantly that its activists and politicians are being censored by “cancel culture.” It’s nonsense, of course, because almost invariably everyone who supposed canceled ends up with a huge media following and a very profitable victim narrative. But the lies about mass censorship of reactionaries and conservatives aren’t just about manipulating the public into feeling sympathy for completely unsympathetic figures like Donald Trump.