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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2m

To be clear: this is not a normative but rather an empirical statement

Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2m

For a respectful constitutional order ever to be reestablished, it will require rebalancing escalation dominance between left & right.

Sadly, such rebalancing can only be achieved if the left imposes the same or greater trauma upon the right as the right has inflicted on the left this year.

ScubaSuzyQ💙🦋 @susanmcgraw88.bsky.social · Feb 20

"Traumatize the workers every day..."

Watch and listen carefully to Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025 describe what is now happening to the American workers in all our federal agencies.

#ProudBlue #DemsUnited #DemVoice1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8G8...

Project 2025 co-author discusses work in hidden-camera video

YouTube video by CNN

www.youtube.com

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15m

Granted that Trump represents what Russ Vought calls “post-Constitutional” regime, I must say that it only this year that I have come to appreciate the 9th Amendment:

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 32m

The naked corruption is unreal

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 1h

1. Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits from the Trump administration.

Quid Pro Presidency

Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits…

popular.info

Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 36m

One reason so many AI engineers think AI is going to eliminate “all jobs” is because they realize it is likely to eliminate THEIR jobs, and they assume that if it can eliminate their job — which demands such exquisite talent & skill — then surely it will also eliminate all other less demanding jobs…

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h

Oh, it devastated me so hard that the guy in the airplane seat next to me touched my arm and asked me if I was alright. Fucking brilliant. But “enjoyable”? NFW.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h

Gravity’s Rainbow, Infinite Jest, and The Sound and the Fury are all essentially unreadable novels

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h

The idea of “enjoying” that book in any way is unhinged! It is brilliant, but hardly enjoyable

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h

“Mainstream news outlets appear uncomfortable wrestling with the degree to which pro-Trump media figures practice propaganda undertaken in bad faith toward expressly instrumental ends. We need them to get past that.” newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Implodes Over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” With Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.com

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 23h

This same point applies to the U.S. (the collapse of the GOP of Bush and Romney paving the way for Trump) and Italy (the collapse of the Christian Democrats making space for Berlusconi) and may soon also apply in Britain (thanks Cameron!) and France (thanks Sarkozy & Macron!).

Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 23h

The Hungarian story is important because it underscores a general point: that the rise of the far right has much more to do with the collapse of the center right than it does with the failures of liberalism. (Which is not to apologize or deny the failures of the latter.)

Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 23h

This is what I pay the New York Times for: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/w...
[Gift link]

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 23h

The Hungarian story is important because it underscores a general point: that the rise of the far right has much more to do with the collapse of the center right than it does with the failures of liberalism. (Which is not to apologize or deny the failures of the latter.)

Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 23h

This is what I pay the New York Times for: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/w...
[Gift link]

Viktor Orban’s ‘Propaganda State’ Is Starting to Show Cracks

www.nytimes.com

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 23h

The most significant economic story of the last half century is how the global manufacturing center of gravity moved from the North Atlantic to China.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats to Michael Sandel!
time.com/7323933/berg...

The 'Rock Star' Philosopher Who Just Won a $1 Million Prize

Michael Sandel on the Berggruen Prize, the Administration's attacks on universities, and the danger of a meritocracy

time.com

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

A systematic tension within consciousness studies concerning priors: those who prioritize computational definitions make the possibility of conscious machines thinkable; whereas those who prioritize “subcomputational biological realizers” do more to appreciate consciousness in simpler animals.

Ned Block @neddo.bsky.social · 6d

Can Only Meat Machines be Conscious? New paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, free download until November 26 with this URL: authors.elsevier.com/a/1luwh4sIRv...

authors.elsevier.com

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

This chaos cannot stand! Time to send the National Guard into Mississippi! www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Shooting at Mississippi homecoming football game leaves 4 dead and others injured

The shootings happened in the downtown area of the small town of Leland

www.independent.co.uk

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

A new order from the MAGA Dept of Education will require that, in order to have an ideologically balanced curriculum, the University of Houston also needs to offer a course on “Celebrating Oppression and Injustice.”

Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 2d

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

I’d like to agree with the philosophical thrust of Kiran’s post — esp. his call for “a mix of rhetorical moderation & political ruthlessness” & his call for re-institutionalization — but he is vague on the key question, namely exactly what form that political ruthlessness should take.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

R.I.P. Diane Keaton, yet another star from the 1970s goes down.

Keaton was great in Manhattan, the Godfathers, Reds, and above all in the title role of Annie Hall, which half a century on remains on the GOAT shortlist for comedies. youtu.be/lyKrCAgki-Y?...

Annie Hall (1977) Best Scenes

YouTube video by RYC

youtu.be

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Reposted by Nils Gilman

Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 2d

I think that what we can infer is that insider trading is rampant, there is an expectation that if you are onside with the administration you will not be prosecuted for it, and there is a belief this admin will not be leaving, so YOLO.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 3d

Imagine that

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

Plus, the immediate grift bsky.app/profile/robe...

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Reposted by Nils Gilman

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 2d

There's no other explanation that makes sense. And the people who think this won't come for them are the biggest bubble of all.

Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 2d

The autocrat's toadies destroy functioning governance and launch crisis after crisis in order to create a nation that runs on patronage in which he's the only one able to do anything for anyone.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

I just spent a week inhabiting a particular dystopian future — a place in which dealing with an unbearable exterior climate has been consigned to a class of rightless helots, while a gilded coterie of artless cosmopolitans glides through chintzy interiors, enjoying expensive but depthless luxuries.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2d

As a financial phenomenon, inflation is simple to explain: there is more money than goods.

But as a social-political matter, it is more complex: it signals a political inability to resolve the distributional conflict between competing social groups who expect more than the market is delivering.

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 3d

The U.S. & China are both internationally arrogant, but differently.

The U.S. believes that all foreigners, if they just try hard enough, can become Americans. (See below.)

China believes that no foreigners, no matter how hard they try, can ever become Chinese.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMEV...

Full Metal Jacket Born to Kill/Peace Button Duality of Man

YouTube video by mark brady

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Nils Gilman

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · Aug 2

The guy Trump picked to lead the office that’s now investigating Jack Smith:

— said Niki Haley is ineligible to be president
— has neo-Nazi ties
— was Andrew Tate’s lawyer
— 2x Claremont fellow
— wrote for Gateway Pundit
— called for Pence to be hanged
— called for secession after 2020 election

Paul Ingrassia (lawyer) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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