Peter Kropotkin
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peterkropotkin.bsky.social
Peter Kropotkin
@peterkropotkin.bsky.social
420 followers 2.4K following 600 posts
Professional dilettante; Interests include religion, philosophy, science/tech/AI, politics, social criticism, art, etc . RT =/= endorsement
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Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
scottlgreer.bsky.social
“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
When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900
The world is in a “wave of autocratization.” Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces “U-Turn” as ...
www.tandfonline.com
September 20, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
darinself.com
And most of all, pitch in and get to work.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Sep 18
The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years.

Pinochet was ousted with a referendum.

And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists.

Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.
September 18, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
stephanieseul.bsky.social
Little beauty on my lavender 🦋
White butterfly (cabbage butterfly) on lavender flower
August 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
stelhami.bsky.social
As Trump and Putin Are Poised to Meet: For First Time, Most Americans Want to Back Ukraine for ‘as Long as It Takes’
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/for-...
August 14, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
alexeheath.com
GPT-5 is here for all ChatGPT users

It’s “the best model in the world” at coding and writing, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Automatically routes to reasoning mode when needed, hallucinates less, gives “safe completions” for prompts it would have previously refused www.theverge.com/openai/74801...
GPT-5 is being released to all ChatGPT users
Sam Altman says that GPT-5 is “the best model in the world.”
www.theverge.com
August 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
larrish.bsky.social
🙂
I SURVIVED READING BANNED BOOKS ALL I GOT WAS SMARTER AND MORE EMPATHETIC
July 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
nytpitchbot.bsky.social
Opinion | Yes, I voted for Trump’s megabill despite knowing it will harm my constituents. But if I hadn’t, I’d be primaried by someone who’d vote just like me but not give anti-Trump comments on background to The Times.
July 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
danpemstein.com
A few years ago, @danweitzel.net, John Gerring, @skaaning.bsky.social and I were curious how well one could predict subjective democracy measures using easy(ish) to code observables. Turns out, *quite* well, even out of sample. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Measuring electoral democracy with observables Most cross-national indices of democracy rely centrally on coder judgments, which are susceptible to bias and error, and require expensive and time consuming coding by experts. We present an approach to measurement based on observables that aim to preserve the nuanced quality of subjectively coded democracy indices. Our observable-to-subjective score mapping is free of idiosyncratic coder errors arising from misinformation, slack, or biases. It is less susceptible to systematic bias that may arise from coders’ inferences about a country’s regime, for example, from the ideology of the ruler. The data collection procedure and mode of analysis are fully transparent and replicable, and the procedure is based on random forests and is cheap to produce, easy to update, and offers coverage for all polities with sovereign or semisovereign status, surpassing the sample of any existing index. We show that this expansive coverage makes a big difference to our understanding of some causal questions.
April 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Genuine reasons for hope - the constitutional order is under assault, but Trump's incompetence continues to improve the prospects for effective resistance www.vox.com/politics/410...
Trump is losing his war on democracy
Trump’s power grabs are dangerous. But he’s going about them all wrong — and facing effective resistance as a result.
www.vox.com
April 30, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
zingherpolisci.bsky.social
People are quick to make comparisons between US democratic backsliding and places like Hungary and Turkey, but the American South pre VRA is the better comparison. So much US history revolves around racial authoritarianism and the current moment is no exception 1/x
April 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
brendannyhan.bsky.social
1,374 days until January 20, 2029. No one can just wait this out and hope everything will blow over.
April 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
gelliottmorris.com
Despite what you’ve probably heard, Trump’s immigration agenda isn’t actually popular. While Americans sometimes approve of “the way he is handling immigration” in abstract, they are very negative on the details.
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-imm...
Trump's immigration agenda isn't popular, actually
Polling shows most Americans oppose the details of enforcement and the president’s most extreme tactics
www.gelliottmorris.com
April 15, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
zingherpolisci.bsky.social
We're 19 months out from the 2026 Midterms, where the Democrats will either take control of Congress or Trump tries to cancel the elections, which would backfire. Should the Democrats win the Midterms, then you have two years with an unpopular lame duck and divided government. 1/2
nikobowie.bsky.social Niko Bowie @nikobowie.bsky.social · Apr 14
BREAKING: On Friday, the federal government issued new demands of Harvard University. The university's lawyers just responded: back off.
April 14, 2025 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Josh Gruenbaum Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service General Services Administration Sean R. Keveney Acting General Counsel U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Thomas E. Wheeler Acting General Counsel U.S. Department of Education Dear Messrs. Gruenbaum, Keveney, and Wheeler: We represent Harvard University. We are writing in response to your letter dated April 11, 2025, addressed to Dr. Alan Garber, Harvard’s President, and Penny Pritzker, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation. Harvard is committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in its community. Antisemitism and discrimination of any kind not only are abhorrent and antithetical to Harvard’s values but also threaten its academic mission. To that end, Harvard has made, and will continue to make, lasting and robust structural, policy, and programmatic changes to ensure that the university is a welcoming and supportive learning environment for all students and continues to abide in all respects with federal law across its academic programs and operations, while fostering open inquiry in a pluralistic community free from intimidation and open to challenging orthodoxies, whatever their source. Over the past 15 months, Harvard has undertaken substantial policy and programmatic measures. It has made changes to its campus use policies; adopted new accountability procedures; imposed meaningful discipline for those who violate university policies; enhanced programs designed to address bias and promote ideological diversity and civil discourse; hired staff to support these programs and support students; changed partnerships; dedicated resources to combat hate and bias; and enhanced safety and security measures. As a result, Harvard is in a very different place today from where it was a year ago. These efforts, and additional measures the university will be taking against antisemitism, not only are the right thing to do but also are critical to strength… recognized by the Supreme Court. The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law. No less objectionable is the condition, first made explicit in the letter of March 31, 2025, that Harvard accede to these terms or risk the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding critical to vital research and innovation that has saved and improved lives and allowed Harvard to play a central role in making our country’s scientific, medical, and other research communities the standard-bearers for the world. These demands extend not only to Harvard but to separately incorporated and independently operated medical and research hospitals engaging in life-saving work on behalf of their patients. The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle. Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration. William A. Burck Robert K. Hur Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP 1300 I Street NW Suite 900 Suite 900 Washington, DC 20005 King & Spalding LLP 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20006
April 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
daschloz.bsky.social
Happy Passover!
April 12, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
mcopelov.bsky.social
Now we are slaves. Next year (IY”H) we will be free
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Apr 12
"The Family Seder" from Rabbi Alfred Kolatch
The Essence of Passover All are seated around the table, and the lender or one of the participants reade the following introduction: Passover has a message for the conscience and the heart of all mankind. It commemorates the deliverance of a people from degrading slavery, from cruel and inhuman tyranny. Although we, who mouth the words and perform the rit-ual, are reliving an epoch which is pecular to Jewish history, the drama that is Passover is no longer ours alone. Its enactment is not confined to the dining rooms of our homes alone; it has been embraced by the world at large, and is continually being reenacted on the stage of mankind by all who seek avenues to assert their condemnation of oppression and tyranny, by all who labor in the vineyard of the Lord searching for freedom and peace. Although it is the Pharaoh of old who is the tyrant of the Haggadah, it is not he alone of whom we speak tonight. We speak this evening of other tyrants and other tyrannies as well. We speak Of the tyranny of poverty And the tyranny of privation, Of the tyranny of wealth And the tyranny of war, Of the tyranny of power And the tyranny of despair, Of the tyranny of disease And the tyranny of time, Of the tyranny of ignorance And the tyranny of color. To all these tyrannies do we address ourselves this eve ning. Passover brands them all as abominations in the sight of God.
April 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
williamadler78.bsky.social
If only there had been some way of knowing he'd do wildly unpopular things
gelliottmorris.com G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · Apr 10
Here's the historical comparison:
April 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
thomasjwood.bsky.social
While liberals have grown far more supportive of free trade during Trump's presidnecy, conservatives are unmoved.

Data from @prl.bsky.social
April 8, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
apsa.bsky.social
Statement on the Academic Freedom and Independence of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is deeply concerned by recent attacks on the independence of colleges and universities in the United States. Over the past few weeks, there have been…
Statement on the Academic Freedom and Independence of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is deeply concerned by recent attacks on the independence of colleges and universities in the United States. Over the past few weeks, there have been instances of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal grants and contracts for colleges and universities being cancelled or suspended, paired with promises of reinstating funding in return for compliance with a list of demands for institutional overhaul.
politicalsciencenow.com
April 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
mcopelov.bsky.social
👇🎯

🎼 The Finding Out is the Har…dest…Part 🎶
April 7, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
costasamaras.com
It's fun™️ to make jokes on here but these disastrous policy choices will create real hardship for people and businesses in the United States and around the world. For nothing. Shameful.
April 7, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
mcopelov.bsky.social
Performative public lying is a hallmark of far right authoritarian parties
April 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Peter Kropotkin
dziblatt.bsky.social
-How Democracies Die (2018)
April 5, 2025 at 7:32 PM