Alex Kerchner
@akerchner.bsky.social
PhD candidate in comparative/American politics @PUPolitics, alum @nyulaw, @uw. Text analysis, elections, democracy, R, baseball, transit
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
It is hard to describe just how much RFK Jr. and Trump have poisoned the way we talk about autism. It’s gotten so bad that a few months after I published this piece, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Autism Society of America and Autism Speaks denounced the CDC
www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...
www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...
Opinion | RFK Jr.'s latest anti-vaccine move will cause untold harm to autistic Americans
The Trump administration is working toward treating autism as something to be prevented, rather than building a health care system that helps people.
www.ms.now
November 25, 2025 at 3:05 AM
It is hard to describe just how much RFK Jr. and Trump have poisoned the way we talk about autism. It’s gotten so bad that a few months after I published this piece, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Autism Society of America and Autism Speaks denounced the CDC
www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...
www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Don't they test logic on the LSAT?
November 24, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Don't they test logic on the LSAT?
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
November 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
These of course are the sorts of account that get boosted under Musk’s X. If you’re still on the platform for engagement, you are a mug.
X rolled out a new feature overnight showing where accounts are based. This network of “Trump-supporting independent women” that claimed to be “real Americans” are based in Thailand.
The photos were stolen from European models & posts pushed pro-Trump lines while targeting Islam and LGBTQ people.
The photos were stolen from European models & posts pushed pro-Trump lines while targeting Islam and LGBTQ people.
November 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
These of course are the sorts of account that get boosted under Musk’s X. If you’re still on the platform for engagement, you are a mug.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
November 22, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
I lived life as an autistic person for 41 years, and frankly it's wild to see someone who views your existence as a blight elevated to a position of such consequence. I generally see no reason to discuss being on the spectrum publicly, but I'll make an exception for this vile eugenicist. 1/x
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I lived life as an autistic person for 41 years, and frankly it's wild to see someone who views your existence as a blight elevated to a position of such consequence. I generally see no reason to discuss being on the spectrum publicly, but I'll make an exception for this vile eugenicist. 1/x
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
In an interview with Church Times, the Archbishop of York Cottrell talked about his visit to occupied Palestinian territory and for the first time ever publicly calls Israel's system of control over Palestinians an apartheid regime.
Cottrell also says Israel has committed genocidal acts.
Cottrell also says Israel has committed genocidal acts.
Archbishop of York describes Israeli action against Palestinians in Gaza as ‘genocidal acts’
West Bank subject to regime of ‘apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’, he says in interview
www.churchtimes.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM
In an interview with Church Times, the Archbishop of York Cottrell talked about his visit to occupied Palestinian territory and for the first time ever publicly calls Israel's system of control over Palestinians an apartheid regime.
Cottrell also says Israel has committed genocidal acts.
Cottrell also says Israel has committed genocidal acts.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
In normaler times, this is front page, above the fold, all caps behavior by an American president
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 5:57 PM
In normaler times, this is front page, above the fold, all caps behavior by an American president
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Thinking about how Summers and Epstein both frequently manipulated the media into giving or withholding coverage when they wanted and how the same media mysteriously decided to wage a scorched earth jihad against Harvard's President Claudine Gay. It's a strange coincidence to ponder!
Faculty discipline committees should really normalize de-tenuring/dismissal investigations for the sort of behavior described in the Summers case
A senior academic using mentoring as leverage to obtain sex is a contemptible abuser of power.
November 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Thinking about how Summers and Epstein both frequently manipulated the media into giving or withholding coverage when they wanted and how the same media mysteriously decided to wage a scorched earth jihad against Harvard's President Claudine Gay. It's a strange coincidence to ponder!
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
there's a lovely James C. Scott line about how "the same mechanisms can be used to track cholera or round up Jews"
Bureaucracy is essential to freedom, it’s just hard to see this because not only can it enable tyranny, the mechanisms that make freedom possible superficially resemble tyranny as well. Postal services and secret police alike keep standardized registries of the names and homes of the citizenry.
Look it's weird to say "the city is liberation. Bigness is liberation. Bureaucracy is liberation." But it so often is. The village is inherently tyrannical. Sherly Jackson knew this.
November 18, 2025 at 5:33 AM
there's a lovely James C. Scott line about how "the same mechanisms can be used to track cholera or round up Jews"
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
It must be magnificent to be these billionaires and foreign countries, all of whom secretly scorn Trump, giving him lavish but vulgar gifts that he doesn’t understand are elaborate expressions of their contempt for him, his taste, his principles, and his self-awareness.
November 16, 2025 at 1:46 AM
It must be magnificent to be these billionaires and foreign countries, all of whom secretly scorn Trump, giving him lavish but vulgar gifts that he doesn’t understand are elaborate expressions of their contempt for him, his taste, his principles, and his self-awareness.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Not that I believe really anything Nuzzi writes, given her record, but the far bigger scandal here is her claim that RFK Jr. was still actively using psychedelics last year, then became HHS secretary in an admin that is killing people for smuggling recreational drugs.
November 15, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Not that I believe really anything Nuzzi writes, given her record, but the far bigger scandal here is her claim that RFK Jr. was still actively using psychedelics last year, then became HHS secretary in an admin that is killing people for smuggling recreational drugs.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Open bribery by a foreign leader. The exact scenario that the Founders feared.
"no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State"
"no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State"
November 16, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Open bribery by a foreign leader. The exact scenario that the Founders feared.
"no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State"
"no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State"
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Congress’s shutdown deal eliminated key food safety rules, blocking agencies from enforcing measures to prevent contamination and trace outbreaks. This rollback has coincided with a surge in hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses.
Shutdown Deal Kills Rules to Prevent Food Contamination and Foodborne Illnesses
The gutting of these rules coincides with a huge increase in hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses.
truthout.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Congress’s shutdown deal eliminated key food safety rules, blocking agencies from enforcing measures to prevent contamination and trace outbreaks. This rollback has coincided with a surge in hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
The next time the airlines strand you and offer you absolutely nothing, you’ll know who to thank. I wonder whether the airlines offered Trump a gold bar like the Swiss www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/t...
White House Scraps Cash Payments for Delayed or Canceled Flights
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:48 PM
The next time the airlines strand you and offer you absolutely nothing, you’ll know who to thank. I wonder whether the airlines offered Trump a gold bar like the Swiss www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/t...
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
It’s really important that #Vancouver’s Downtown Business Association, who were originally against bike-lanes, are now among their most vigourous supporters, because of ACTUAL EVIDENCE that they’re better for downtown business than any street parking they replaced.
Safe bike-lanes mean business.
Safe bike-lanes mean business.
November 8, 2025 at 3:51 AM
It’s really important that #Vancouver’s Downtown Business Association, who were originally against bike-lanes, are now among their most vigourous supporters, because of ACTUAL EVIDENCE that they’re better for downtown business than any street parking they replaced.
Safe bike-lanes mean business.
Safe bike-lanes mean business.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
I just don’t see how we can pretend even for a moment that anything involving our federal government is remotely normal when the president is covering up his involvement in a child sex trafficking ring. Like, what are we doing here
November 15, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I just don’t see how we can pretend even for a moment that anything involving our federal government is remotely normal when the president is covering up his involvement in a child sex trafficking ring. Like, what are we doing here
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Something the US needs to accept too is that without a large-scale correction imposing consequences on a large number of people, the crisis of governance here will continue indefinitely
November 12, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Something the US needs to accept too is that without a large-scale correction imposing consequences on a large number of people, the crisis of governance here will continue indefinitely
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Whether it's garbage NYT left-bait or right wing flood-the-zone nonsense that we all pile on to, we are letting the wrong people set our overall information agenda in a very deep and fundamental way. And it's a very serious mistake.
November 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Whether it's garbage NYT left-bait or right wing flood-the-zone nonsense that we all pile on to, we are letting the wrong people set our overall information agenda in a very deep and fundamental way. And it's a very serious mistake.
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵
November 14, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
they want to stamp out the entire profession of public health for a generation. same day they announce they’re closing the CDC museum
🚨Dept. of Education proposes to exclude public health degrees from the “professional degree” category.
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.
A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠
aspph.org/department-o...
Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition
Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.
aspph.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:38 AM
they want to stamp out the entire profession of public health for a generation. same day they announce they’re closing the CDC museum
Reposted by Alex Kerchner
This is far worse than anyone expected.
Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps.
All as mass internment camps are being built.
Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps.
All as mass internment camps are being built.
Trump Administration to Drastically Cut Housing Grants
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 AM
This is far worse than anyone expected.
Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps.
All as mass internment camps are being built.
Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps.
All as mass internment camps are being built.