With autocrats and other losers attacking Wikipedia, I have now set up a monthly donation to the Wikimedia foundation, for the price of a latte macchiato in Berlin-Mitte. Wikipedia has flaws, but it remains an exceptional resource worth supporting in our era of rampant bullshittification.

The decimation of American academia continues unabated. Again, Europe, if anyone is paying attention: This is a generational opportunity.

Seeing my friends' countless IG stories from NoKings protests make me miss the US 😢

Do I have someone in my network who works with/knows someone at Emily's List, ideally in the United States, and would be willing to put me in touch for a research project?

Terrible decision. The prospect of rapid naturalization made moving to Germany very attractive. A huge missed opportunity, especially as the US is desperate to kick out skilled people from abroad. www.dw.com/de/deutschla...

"The great excesses that are now projected as a result of the new budget will likely cause a debt-induced heart attack in the relatively near future [...] I'd say three years, give or take a year or two." Just a heads-up to my pension fund managers, if you are paying attention on.ft.com/4mChOzi

Does not surprise me at all that New York City is the place where a new anti-fascist politics that brings people together in real, off-line ways is born. In the best tradition of Fiorello LaGuardia.

Sipping on a glass of Chasselas while reading this fascinating paper: academic.oup.com/ereh/article...

Wild to check in on Bluesky once a day to see the Trump admin set American academia on fire, step by step by step

Excited to host the 4th iteration of the Transformations of Democracy Junior Scholars Workshop at WZB Berlin together with Hanno Hilbig! Amazing talks & exchanges with colleagues from Princeton, Harvard, UC Davis, Toulouse School of Economics, Copenhagen, Humboldt, Chemnitz, EUI, and beyond..

Want to do cutting-edge research in an ambitious and supportive environment *and* live in a diverse, exciting city with outstanding quality of life? Come join us at HU Berlin! If you have questions about the position or the city, do not hesitate to reach out.

Unsure which panel to finish your day with? Come join us in 0.A.02 for an exciting set of historical papers on violence, conflict and democracy. @dnsltr.bsky.social @franvillamil.bsky.social @golafs.bsky.social

Very happy to share the program for the 3rd edition of the Yale-UB Historical Political Economy Workshop. Taking place at the University of Barcelona on June 30th and July 1st. Really looking forward to it! Cc: @didacqueralt.bsky.social

Very excited to be a part of this workshop with a fascinating set of papers. I will be sharing my research on policing, political violence and extremist voting in Weimar Germany. Thank you to @tinepaulsen.bsky.social, @pauvallprat.bsky.social & @franvillamil.bsky.social for bringing us together!

Thank you very much! I am incredibly excited to get started. If you are in Berlin and work on extremism, political violence, democratic backsliding, causal inference, or any related issues, please reach out. I would love to meet for coffee!

Unexpectedly? I cannot imagine to whom this might be unexpected. www.ft.com/content/311a...

Is Europe serious about wanting to close its tech/AI gap with the US? The Trump admin is reviving its policies of harassing, insulting, and making life difficult for workers from abroad contributing to the US economy. This would be a golden opportunity to poach that talent.

My sizzling hot take is that the Scholz chancellorship was not all that bad. Important achievements are clouded by a general sense of malaise that is disconnected from fundamentals. There are several really significant achievements to show for! Off the top of my head: (1/3)

Trying something new: A 🧵 on a topic I find many students struggle with: "why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?" It's *lots* of tiny decisions that aren't the defaults in many libraries, so let's break down 1 simple graph by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social 🔗 www.ft.com/content/73a1...

Tammy Baldwin -- a decidedly progressive, lesbian senator -- wins reelection in Wisconsin, where Harris loses. That would appear to cut against the idea that "woke" is the problem.

#APSA2024 👇

Interested in the role of law enforcement in democratic backsliding? I will be presenting a new paper with evidence from Weimar Germany at 2pm in room 109A at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. We've got a great panel discussing threats to democracy from a historical perspective. Come by!

"Believing that inspiration outweighs everything else is, I suspect, a sign that someone is unfamiliar with the medium." Very true for art, and I think very true for science. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

EPSA folks! Interested in how threats of violence affect who runs for office? I will be presenting new experimental research on this on Saturday at 10am in MP5-Rom, together with a great panel dedicated to violence and political behavior. Polisky

Interesting to contrast Pelosi stepping down as House Dem Caucus leader in 2022 compared to discussions about Biden now. 1) Pelosi clearly had the self awareness to realize she needed to leave -- I guess women just care more about the big picture? 2) Replacing Pelosi with Jeffries was smooth...

Except for some inanities about "campus identity politics", this is a very astute analysis of the situation. The US lets its young people down in so many ways it is difficult to keep track. Adults, not students, are America’s problem - on.ft.com/3wrCHIy via @FT

A thread about a messed up situation in Mississippi. It's on how state officials have voided direct democracy thru an absurd excuse, and how they keep refusing to yield that power back to people.

With stubborn skepticism of surveys and survey experiments being the latest political science fad, I wanted to invite us all to meditate on this nugget of wisdom from Stefanie Stantcheva's "How to Run Surveys", for the weekend and beyond (scholar.harvard.edu/files/stantc...) polisky

A fringe Austrian neo-Nazi visits Switzerland to discuss mass deportation. The equally fringe event was organized under false pretense (as usual), and is ended by police. Guess who is knee deep in those networks and found time to tweet about it? That's right - Elon! www.derbund.ch/rechtsextrem...

It is very nice to live in a country where people get a direct say in how money ought to be spent and politicians comply with expressed policy preferences. 10/10 highly recommend!

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of forms of regulation of recreational sex and birth control would/will be largely broken-taillight-type laws. By which I mean when you create a law you can’t possibly really enforce, it’s just a blanket power to selectively harass people you don’t like.

X banning Yulia Navalnaya's account without any hint of an explanation earlier today -- presumably to undermine sharing of what she posted -- is breathtaking. The silly free speech folklore peddled by Elon was always a distraction. Too bad many haven't realized that quite yet

Phoebe clearly enjoying the presence of this new book in the household! Polisky

Very excited for EPSA in Cologne in July! Hopefully coinciding with Switzerland's EURO 2024 quarterfinal fairytale 😊

First time I've agreed on something with Ron DeSantis: The widespread US news media practice of "calling" races while votes are still being cast is disrespectful and has the potential to confuse people still waiting to vote. Wait until polls are closed before calling a race.

So happy that the collective bargaining agreement between Yale and the grad student union has been ratified. On average, stipends will increase by 20%(!) next semester and by 30-50% over the next four years. There are significant improvements to healthcare provision and dental care. Polisky 1/2

Just saw Zone of Interest. An incredibly important movie.

I've submitted two proposals for EPSA '24, but now the conference submissions system stubbornly refuses to let me add a third. Are we limited to two proposals per person? Is anyone else experiencing this issue? 🙃 Polisky

These are the heroes democracy needs! 👏

I find it hard to understand why the Biden admin is not showing more urgency to respond to shockingly anti-democratic behavior at the state level. I don't believe that this will be mobilizing in the 24 OH senate election. If people get the sense that voting is not effective, they'll stay home

Such a privilege to wake up in Europe to *good* news from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 👏 Hoping it'll be the same a year from now!

Musk-era Twitter has really made me appreciate the value provided by pre-Musk Twitter. In hindsight, it's a product I would have been willing to pay for to consume.

Can anyone recommend a good introduction to fuzzy matching techniques for name matching? I know the basics about levenshtein distance, but I would like to learn about more flexible/sophisticated techniques. Thank you!

Use pre-post designs! Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Deactivated my T****** account finally. Such an excellent feeling.

I am so, so happy we are managing to coordinate away from the bad place. So much cognitive dissonance weight removed

@profmusgrave.bsky.social hi! Would it be possible to add me to the Polisky list? Thank you very much!