Rafe Meager (they/them)
@economeager.bsky.social
Aspiring wastrel, applied econometrician. At http://rachaelmeager.com for bayes, dev econ and meta science. Also at http://rottenandgood.substack.com for writing, art, death and emotions. Gay academic nonbinary weirdo, cursed to be serious in life.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
I suspect @economeager.bsky.social will have more than one use for this sentence from William Petty.
December 1, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I suspect @economeager.bsky.social will have more than one use for this sentence from William Petty.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
who says the humanities are dead
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:46 AM
who says the humanities are dead
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Melians: please do not do a Peloponnesian War to us!
Athenian general implausibly named "Da Baby Stabber": imma do it tho
--- Every political theorist for the next 3000 years: this is genius.
Athenian general implausibly named "Da Baby Stabber": imma do it tho
--- Every political theorist for the next 3000 years: this is genius.
November 30, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Melians: please do not do a Peloponnesian War to us!
Athenian general implausibly named "Da Baby Stabber": imma do it tho
--- Every political theorist for the next 3000 years: this is genius.
Athenian general implausibly named "Da Baby Stabber": imma do it tho
--- Every political theorist for the next 3000 years: this is genius.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
An outrage machine seeking a cause of the day; a media happy to launder it; socials up in arms; administrators rolling over in an instant; all to destroy some random grad student and make them treat every piece-of-shit reaction memo put in front of them as if it were the Federalist Papers. Gross.
November 30, 2025 at 10:58 PM
An outrage machine seeking a cause of the day; a media happy to launder it; socials up in arms; administrators rolling over in an instant; all to destroy some random grad student and make them treat every piece-of-shit reaction memo put in front of them as if it were the Federalist Papers. Gross.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
There are brilliant people who aren't curious and dull knives who thirst for knowledge about the world. I'd much rather talk with a dullard who genuinely wants to know stuff than a genius who can't accept that they might be wrong.
November 30, 2025 at 10:51 PM
There are brilliant people who aren't curious and dull knives who thirst for knowledge about the world. I'd much rather talk with a dullard who genuinely wants to know stuff than a genius who can't accept that they might be wrong.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
You can reason with people who are curious but un- or ill-informed: I gave an A to a student in a medieval history class who asked me on the first day when Game of Thrones took place, because she read the material, worked hard, and produced well-argued essays. You can't work with bull-headed morons.
November 30, 2025 at 10:48 PM
You can reason with people who are curious but un- or ill-informed: I gave an A to a student in a medieval history class who asked me on the first day when Game of Thrones took place, because she read the material, worked hard, and produced well-argued essays. You can't work with bull-headed morons.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
if they get him with milk next it's battery
France’s far-right leader hit by egg, days after flour attack
French far-right leader hit on the head with an egg
Jordan Bardella, leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, was hit on the head with an egg Saturday, just days after another incident in which a protester threw flour at him.
www.ctvnews.ca
November 30, 2025 at 11:11 AM
if they get him with milk next it's battery
it's so sad to read that he was shunned for his name despite his anti-nazi work during the war. statistically speaking this means he was shunned by people who did less to resist the nazis than he did. human beings are so stupid. i'm going to bed.
Also, I recently found out about Herman's much, much more fun and badass younger brother Albert.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_...
Albert Göring - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
it's so sad to read that he was shunned for his name despite his anti-nazi work during the war. statistically speaking this means he was shunned by people who did less to resist the nazis than he did. human beings are so stupid. i'm going to bed.
November 30, 2025 at 7:27 AM
The day the grinch defeated Christmas in the marketplace of ideas
I am challenging The Grinch to a debate
November 30, 2025 at 2:53 AM
The day the grinch defeated Christmas in the marketplace of ideas
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
I am challenging The Grinch to a debate
November 30, 2025 at 2:19 AM
I am challenging The Grinch to a debate
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
7. a gentleman cultivates his tailor, lest he be exposed to ridicule by Derek Guy
8. a gentleman models industriousness, but never sleeps on a factory floor
9. a gentleman is to have correspondence directed to his club, he is never in an E-Girl’s DMs
8. a gentleman models industriousness, but never sleeps on a factory floor
9. a gentleman is to have correspondence directed to his club, he is never in an E-Girl’s DMs
November 29, 2025 at 10:20 PM
7. a gentleman cultivates his tailor, lest he be exposed to ridicule by Derek Guy
8. a gentleman models industriousness, but never sleeps on a factory floor
9. a gentleman is to have correspondence directed to his club, he is never in an E-Girl’s DMs
8. a gentleman models industriousness, but never sleeps on a factory floor
9. a gentleman is to have correspondence directed to his club, he is never in an E-Girl’s DMs
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
And the Lord sayeth, learn to write at a college level.
November 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
And the Lord sayeth, learn to write at a college level.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
a favorite philosophy professor wrote two whole damn paragraphs by hand in red ink about how I would forever remain a dilettante if I didn’t engage more deeply with the material
most devastating comment I’ve ever received on a paper was “you’re not Howard Zinn” in 10th grade and I’m pretty sure even that one was better than this
November 30, 2025 at 1:03 AM
a favorite philosophy professor wrote two whole damn paragraphs by hand in red ink about how I would forever remain a dilettante if I didn’t engage more deeply with the material
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Shout out to the recent upgrades to Crown St, Surry Hills. City of Sydney removed several car parks in favour of landscaped outdoor dining areas. Some were turning temporary ones from COVID permanent, others are new. It's a really great area to walk along and enjoy.
Here's some before and after:
Here's some before and after:
November 25, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Shout out to the recent upgrades to Crown St, Surry Hills. City of Sydney removed several car parks in favour of landscaped outdoor dining areas. Some were turning temporary ones from COVID permanent, others are new. It's a really great area to walk along and enjoy.
Here's some before and after:
Here's some before and after:
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Congratulations Melbourne! 🍻
Happy Metro Tunnel Opening Day for all those who celebrate! 🚇🥳
Better, reliable, accessible, fast, frequent, connected public transport opens up access to opportunity, and gets more people off the roads and out of the traffic. #Melbourne #MetroTunnel
Better, reliable, accessible, fast, frequent, connected public transport opens up access to opportunity, and gets more people off the roads and out of the traffic. #Melbourne #MetroTunnel
November 30, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Congratulations Melbourne! 🍻
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Interesting paper highlight that binning can be misspecified in panel settings - this drives misinterpretation of extreme temperature shocks. #linkoftheday
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1ya6z...
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1ya6z...
November 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Interesting paper highlight that binning can be misspecified in panel settings - this drives misinterpretation of extreme temperature shocks. #linkoftheday
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1ya6z...
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1ya6z...
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
peter_thiel_speech_bubble.jpg
Maybe we're just not being cruel enough to sufficiently many outgroups? Has anyone in politics or the media even considered this??
November 29, 2025 at 7:31 AM
peter_thiel_speech_bubble.jpg
Ah fucking hell
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university
Full statement from NU below:
Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Ah fucking hell
it actually is sometimes still hard to accept how little control i have over what i write in the newsletter. recently i realised it's an art project in the sense that I can't dictate to it or plan it, but i still find it hard to digest that.
November 29, 2025 at 12:42 AM
it actually is sometimes still hard to accept how little control i have over what i write in the newsletter. recently i realised it's an art project in the sense that I can't dictate to it or plan it, but i still find it hard to digest that.
i love liam gallagher and i love oasis. feuding with your brother in a perennial childish way is the most chic thing you can do imo.
November 28, 2025 at 11:57 PM
i love liam gallagher and i love oasis. feuding with your brother in a perennial childish way is the most chic thing you can do imo.
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
Bring it! The draft is coming together!
November 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Bring it! The draft is coming together!
Reposted by Rafe Meager (they/them)
I found out that something doesn't work very well. In the interest of not burying it so that someone else goes down this rabbit hole again, maybe I will try to write a paper.
November 27, 2025 at 10:49 PM
I found out that something doesn't work very well. In the interest of not burying it so that someone else goes down this rabbit hole again, maybe I will try to write a paper.