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Jay Ulfelder

@jayulfelder.bsky.social

6K followers 1.1K following 2K posts

Social scientist by training, currently unemployed, trying to figure out what comes next. Literally but not figuratively inside the Beltway.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · Apr 28

If you're an underfunded org or activist doing (broadly speaking) antifascist work and you've got a data-making or data-analysis idea but not the skills to implement it, let's talk!

I've got those skills but no job, so I've got time as well. Happy to add expertise and labor to the right efforts.

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Reposted by Jay Ulfelder

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13h

My latest is the story of how my community has rallied to protect and defend our neighbors in recent days, as ICE has targeted the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. "This is not a story about a moment of victory, but a moment of being reminded of our power."

They Came for Our Neighbors. We Showed Up.

Before long, there were dozens, and then hundreds of people in the streets, watching and responding.

organizingmythoughts.org

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 4h

The only way to really know those explanations are accurate is to use them to generate hypotheses that we can test or observe in future cases and see that they pan out. And that's exactly what Przeworski is pointing out: we do poorly at that.

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 4h

Thank you for explaining my career to me. (c: Seriously, tho, I'd say we're very good at telling plausible post hoc explanatory stories, but we never really know how accurate they are.

Reposted by Jay Ulfelder

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 18h

People are spontaneously posting up near any laborers or street vendors they spot. Just saw a rapid responder guarding a man working on a building exterior. Many things are terrible today but lord, this stuff matters.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 20h

There are a tremendous number of ICE watchers out in Rogers Park this afternoon after some early morning abductions.

People are guarding churches and patrolling alleyways. Ran into Alderperson Hadden. First timers tell us they're primed and ready to use their whistles.

Know your rights flyer in Spanish on street pole

Alderperson Maria Hadden on street corner

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 1d

This matters outside the discipline because it implies that appeals to academic expertise when offering predictions about where we're headed and, especially, advice on how best to resist or redirect that process should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 1d

As someone whose professional interests have overlapped heavily with Przeworski's, I felt (and concurred with) this bit: "The brutal fact that we find it so difficult to predict what will happen under our current circumstances is evidence that we do not have theories we can rely on."

How Democracies Fall Apart - Dissent Magazine

An interview with Adam Przeworski.

www.dissentmagazine.org

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 2d

““‘We’ve been together for two years, and my partner is very passionate about the protesting,’ the groom told a reporter. ‘... People can be fun loving people and still protest. We wanted to show that this is about love and caring. We’re caring for other human beings.’”

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

The couple in costumes said they wanted to bring joy to the protests and show that demonstrators are "fun loving people."

Unicorn bride marries Kenny from South Park at Portland ICE protest

The couple in costumes said they wanted to bring joy to the protests and show that demonstrators are "fun loving people."

www.oregonlive.com

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The 51st @51st.news · 2d

"Every day I wake up, I feel like I am in a mental obstacle course."

New data shows evictions in D.C. have surged past pre-pandemic levels, fueled by shrinking aid, high rents, and weakened tenant protections.

In partnership with @streetsensedc.bsky.social and the Investigative Reporting Workshop:

Evictions rising in DC as housing costs increase

New data shows evictions have surged past pre-pandemic levels, fueled by shrinking aid, high rents, and weakened tenant protections.

51st.news

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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 2d

Today is World Homeless Day, and after years reporting on this crisis, I'll just say: homelessness is neither inevitable nor intractable. It's the result of choices—political, economic, moral—that can be unmade.

And this: how we treat the unhoused is a bellwether for the violence we will tolerate.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 3d

PS. Worth bearing this observation in mind when you think about what to share or reshare on social media, and how you frame it.

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 3d

"What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we're actually not that afraid."

Willamette Week @wweek.com · 3d

Jack Dickinson, 26, says “we’re winning this.”

An Interview With the Portland Chicken

Rachel Saslow

www.wweek.com

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Jeff Tischauser @jtischauser.bsky.social · 3d

"In my community where I teach, there’s kids not coming to school for a month at a time because they’re scared of what can happen to them,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed with blinding anger and depression for the people who are being affected.”

blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/08/h...

Chicago Protesters Take To The Streets To Denounce National Guard Deployment, ICE

The latest protest against the federal government's militarized presence in Chicago saw hundreds march past Trump Tower.

blockclubchicago.org

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Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 4d

NEW: A report from pro-voting groups warns that if the Supreme Court rules to gut a key safeguard against racial gerrymanders this term, it’ll be “enough to cement one-party control of the U.S. House for at least a generation.”

GOP Could Lock in House Control for a Generation if SCOTUS Ends Key VRA Protection, Report Warns

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 4d

the locals took pity on me, i was not corrected at all. so what's the proper way?

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 4d

heh, we took a trip there in August and while I had the sense to look up the pronunciation of Yachats before we visited that town, I did not think to look into how the name of the state itself is pronounced locally

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Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 5d

Just heard someone say that if you aren't willing to get arrested or die at a protest you aren't serious about the cause and that's a) not true and b) not helpful

You don't need to have a death wish to fight for a better world, and anyone who says you do is throwing up a massive red flag

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 5d

I get the strategic logic of these practices, and I recognize that they can be effective. Still, I think that when we highlight attacks on religion or certain genders as especially bad, we're engaging in our own form of hipocrisy. So I'm arguing that it's a phyrric victory, a shaky foundation.

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 5d

For me, it's like when people call out police or soldiers for attacks on women. You're trying to make the goons look bad, but you're doing it in ways that reinforce existing structures that cast women as less able and men as their protectors. Their violence is bad, period. Leave it at that.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 5d

We're all in this together. How you arrive at your commitment to equality and equity and autonomy isn't really the point. When you elevate certain beliefs and practices as worthy of special protection, you implicitly reinforce status quo hierarchies that also prioritize those ideas and practices.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 5d

I deeply appreciate the many clergy and others whose religious beliefs are playing a role in their active antifascism. At the same time, it also bums me out that we keep talking about religion as a special class of beliefs that deserves special protection.

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 5d

Academic freedom means that a course that teaches students to critique settler colonialism can be taught alongside one that teaches students to maximize shareholder value.

Both are "biased" in their framing.

Only one is currently at risk of being cancelled by state and/or institutional actors.

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Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 5d

Grieving for all the lives taken. I dont know what we look like as a society when this is over

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Patrick Galey @patrickgaley.bsky.social · 6d

Can we stop this pet rock discourse which insists on inserting flat out racism and Fascism as valid contributions to political discourse?

These racist bums arent politicians; they are rabble rousers
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in Birmingham neighbourhood

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visit

www.theguardian.com

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cpuk (trampoline park connoisseur and occasional comic printer) @comicprintinguk.bsky.social · 6d

Can’t believe the Irish tried a version of UBI, found it worked, and decided to keep it rather than commission another study.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 6d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 6d

"Organizers say that the crackdown has created a climate of fear and intimidation that is not only directly harming workers and their families, but is also stifling ongoing worker efforts to improve conditions on the job, and organize to protect themselves from raids."

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor

While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

prospect.org

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