Literally the authoritarian playbook: 1. Call your opponents terrorists. 2. Deploy state power against them. There's nothing subtle or confusing or complex about what's happening. The *outcome* is uncertain but the authoritarianism is right out in the open.

Today’s vibe

As current claims about autism in the news seem to target women’s behavior, it’s worth noting that the much more solid evidence is on a link with paternal age. It’s a wonder why a bunch of older men are focusing on the less likely cause that doesn’t implicate them… www.nature.com/articles/mp2...

This may seem wild but it was in fact inevitable. Conspiratorial people animated by grievance and grift invariably land on one of the oldest and most lucrative conspiratorial grifts of all. You can set your clock by it.

Incredible work here, subscribe to Wired www.wired.com/story/silico...

“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy” V-Dem data

Headlines matter. Framing matters. AP: it’s about democracy NYT: it’s about a political fight

I can't imagine a more critical issue for higher education right now than board independence and academic freedom. Register for the AGB webinar featuring @joshpasek.com and David Rabban & a discussion on the relationship between governance and academic freedom. #academicsky agb.org/events/webin...

It's Constitution Day! Good time to review what it says (though there's never a bad time, especially if you have taken an oath to uphold it). Remember: the Constitution exists as a pact between citizens and government and is designed to be publicly understood (if sometimes vague). Key sections 🧵

But here is how his response was covered at the time: thehill.com/homenews/adm...

Research: Believing that the mass public in the opposing party supports undemocratic tactics leads people to be more supportive of undemocratic tactics themselves. Being assured that a majority of your opponents oppose such radical tactics increases support for democratic norms osf.io/my987/download

In my AI class this term, partisanship would barely come up. But bc news quotes about research once landed me on Kirk’s prof. watchlist, today I’m obliged to note what events imply for our class. Ironically, that list invokes a responsibility to render my politics visible, which I’d rather avoid.

Careful polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly reject political violence - see e.g. brightlinewatch.org/tempered-exp..., brightlinewatch.org/accelerated-..., and www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1.... Unfortunately, it only takes one person with a gun to create a tragedy like what've seen today.

Violence does not solve ideological debates. And it is always profoundly sad whenever anyone turns to that as the answer.

Updating my GPT declaration of independence grievances analysis: Of the 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence, only a few don’t compare today. Most have echoes—and 16–18 are similar or more serious in 2025, from deportations to federal overreach. Two-thirds still resonate.

Ironically for these bigots, the thing that would most shift the dynamic they fear is providing education and birth control to less developed countries. USAID anyone?

It's important to note that the administration can want to change the conversation from Epstein and normalize autocratic behavior at the same time. Doing both also has the "benefit" (for them) of making it harder to design a counter-narrative.

Capitalizing “The” for the US has Ohio State vibes. I wonder if OSU is planning a lawsuit. www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/u...

over the last week, several political scientists i trust have declared trump a dictator and that america is not a full functioning democracy anymore. see here: goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/where-we-a... donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author... i think making a list clarifies this:

In 1960, federal law enforcement *helped* a child get to school.

The moment he named his platform “Truth Social” we were headed this way.

Note that success, as defined by the president, could easily include a deal to throw Ukraine under the bus coupled with a Russian offer to back conspiracy theories about collusion with the Obama administration.

No one would have any confusion about what is happening if they saw it in another country.

The White House is taking new steps to undermine every international student at our universities. It has approved a new rule restricting student visas to 4 years max. That's not long enough for PhD students, or about half of undergrads, to finish their degree. Likely to enter force within days.

With zero context, I’d volunteer that this is a rhetorical jewel

If you want to understand why it can’t seem to self correct on how many Bs are in blueberry, and why that is so dangerous:

I think I may have gotten the funniest version. Whoever successfully landed this in the training data was ::chefs kiss::

Muriel read the Commandment for her. It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors …

Even if there were some discernible “nature” benefit they could receive, you have to imagine the detrimental effects of being nurtured by the people who prioritize this stuff would undermine any of it.

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer aapor.org/statements/a...

Michael Wolff says he urged Epstein to release information he had on Trump, but Epstein appeared worried about what Trump would do to him. “He said, ‘I may be a pervert, but I’m not crazy.’ He then said, ‘Trump is a man without any scruples.’”

also, this is very Soviet, except that Stalin then arrested and executed the statisticians

It's difficult to understate the extent to which various aspects of society require the provision of accurate, trustworthy social data. Even private data collections rely heavily on government statistical agencies for calibration. The dangers of politicization here are far-reaching.

The argument that #AnnArbor and #a2council didn't do a damn thing to support the Center of the City completely ignores the investment of city resources in creating and supporting the Council of the Commons. As someone who gave time & energy as a member of that body, it's both baffling and offensive.

It looks like Harvard is not up to the task of leading the defense of academic freedom and democracy in the United States. It was a big ask, to be sure, and sadly, it appears Harvard is not big enough. History will not look kindly on us.

Just a really nice example of explaining things simply

🚨🚨🚨 The Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley is looking for a postdoc on US voting/election policy. Part of a partnership with the Brennan Center running the Voting Laws Roundup. (I have a feeling this work is gonna be important...) Apply here: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04879

This is a really important point about AI. Just like humans it has absolutely no introspective capacity; the only way to understand what it does is the same approaches that we use to make sense of how humans form their opinions. Like humans, it does not “know” why it reaches the conclusions it does.

At this rate, the more people talk about Epstein the more we’re going to learn about every other major purported conspiracy. Even if Epstein’s not your preferred topic, if you’re wondering about long-standing government secrets, keeping Epstein on the front burner seems like the thing to do.

Totally missed a pop culture reference & asked GPT what meme to use. It designed this & later explained: "No, the person in the meme just resembles Leonardo DiCaprio... was likely inspired by his recognizable features, but this is not from any real photo or scene involving him." Disturbing!

On a Tuesday in March, Rümeysa Öztürk writes, “I was thrust into a nightmare.” For VF, the Fulbright scholar details what she witnessed in the six and a half weeks she spent inside a South Louisiana ICE detention center.

And a new 501(c)(3) is going to make sure these lawyers' indefensible behavior is documented and never forgotten. If you are a lawyer/law student looking to help us to do just that, please DM me.

Here's the YouTube clip from it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDK...

It's so weirdly obvious, I wonder if anyone doesn't see it as transparent fascist propaganda? Like, it's almost a parody.

A "Yes" vote would rectify the second dumbest ballot initiative vote I have ever been privy to. The worst was when Monterey Park, CA voted multiple times to raise taxes for new fire stations (the trucks didn't fit), but the majority lost because *only* 60% of voters approved (Thanks CA Prop 13).

So many great replies here, but I have to add the challenge of: navigating the Internet before search engines. And how the whole place felt kind of boring before yahoo set up what was really the first link tree. Human editors found websites for you, not search engines.

This is where a concept like “coup” or “revolution” is actively helpful because it links what might otherwise seem disparate and unrelated events.