Jacob S. Lewis

Picture of No Option But Sabotage

My book—No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis—comes out today!

It's the result of 3+ years of research and 150+ interviews with 100+ activists and experts.

It must be very hard to publish null results Publication practices in the social sciences act as a filter that favors statistically significant results over null findings. While the problem of selection on significance (SoS) is well-known in theory, it has been difficult to measure its scope empirically, and it has been challenging to determine how selection varies across contexts. In this article, we use large language models to extract granular and validated data on about 100,000 articles published in over 150 political science journals from 2010 to 2024. We show that fewer than 2% of articles that rely on statistical methods report null-only findings in their abstracts, while over 90% of papers highlight significant results. To put these findings in perspective, we develop and calibrate a simple model of publication bias. Across a range of plausible assumptions, we find that statistically significant results are estimated to be one to two orders of magnitude more likely to enter the published record than null results. Leveraging metadata extracted from individual articles, we show that the pattern of strong SoS holds across subfields, journals, methods, and time periods. However, a few factors such as pre-registration and randomized experiments correlate with greater acceptance of null results. We conclude by discussing implications for the field and the potential of our new dataset for investigating other questions about political science.

I have a new paper. We look at ~all stats articles in political science post-2010 & show that 94% have abstracts that claim to reject a null. Only 2% present only null results. This is hard to explain unless the research process has a filter that only lets rejections through.

Our new cat, Tevye, has been biddy biddy bumming all around the house this week.

Screenshot of Thomas Zeitzoff — No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis -with JJ Green — at The Wharf.

No Option But Sabotage Cover

I’m excited to share that I’ll be doing a book talk and launch with @jjgreenjr.bsky.social for my new book:

*No Option But Sabotage*

at Politics and Prose (The Wharf) next Friday, 1/30.

politics-prose.com/thomas-zeitz...

The Silence of the Left on Iran As the Islamic Republic massacres protesters, exiles are dismayed by the lack of sympathy from the American left.

Excellent work by @galbeckerman.bsky.social at @theatlantic.com

www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Synagogue Is Vandalized Days After Anniversary of L.A. Wildfire That Leveled It

It would be great if Jews were even permitted to mourn undisturbed.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/u...

Well, we’re doing commentary on Hannah Arendt in my human rights class. It’s going to be awesome! (Or terrible)

YouTube video by Miriam Anzovin Daf Reactions Zevachim 113: Heated Rivalry 🔥

I think this is my favorite daf'yomi from @miriamanzovin.bsky.social so far.

I think I'm gonna use it as an example to my students on how bonkers we can go with commentary.

youtu.be/jJNf5sdCtvs?...

*Ahem*

A protection racket, IF WE CAN KEEP IT.

You'd have to be crazy not to apply to this!

Hey #Polisky - I'm trying to put together a panel for APSA 2026 that focuses on antisemitism. Is anyone interested in contributing an abstract? If so, let me know!

Conjecturing here, but I suspect it's this type of activism masquerading as [collective bargaining / academic policy / whatever] that contributed to the rather dismal situation that we're currently in.

DS - you're a lawyer. What are the labor laws regarding refusal to simply perform the work one was hired to do? This isn't about labor conditions, right?

Hi #polisky - I am teaching a course this semester that involves student-directed research on issues of human rights, peace, and justice in Israel and Palestine. Are there any scholars here that might be willing to serve as experts, responding to a student-developed survey in March/April?

Hey @timmiller.bsky.social and @samsteindc.bsky.social - the VP is part of the cabinet.

Keep this up and you’ll mysteriously start failing DC checks in our upcoming one-shot.

Well, you also happen to be an excellent scholar.

Mild, polite disagreement?

Not sure they're quibbles, but I'm happy to leave it at: we agree (mostly)!

I always knew you were mishpachah.

Ah, yeah - okay, I do see what you're saying. I'd push back by qualifying: there was a recent moment on the right where fighting *left-wing* antisemitism was the fad.

Elise Stefanik seemed suspiciously quiet with regard to the out-and-out *right-wing* antisemitism.

My recurring guest spot on Game of Thrones was abruptly cancelled after I expressed admiration for @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social .

I suspect that, for many in the Jewish world, the massive overreach of the left over the past decade and its outward hostility to Israel and Zionists combined with a lack of exposure to popular insurgent right-wing media led to a blindspot that is only now being revealed.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

I'd have to disagree with you on this one, PMB. The normalization and pervasion of conspiratorial antisemitism on the right has been raising red flags for a while.

For reference:
- journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Currently watching Clear and Present Danger, which feels like it’s a real @radiofreetom.bsky.social flick. Man, we made great movies back then.

nu?

A new PNAS paper finds that polarization increased immediately after the invention of smartphones and the advent of social media, which both appeared around the same year, 2008.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

In 1931 in Kiel, Germany, Rachel Posner, the wife of a rabbi, took this picture.

On the back of the photograph she wrote:

“‘Death to Judah,’ so the flag says.

‘Judah lives forever,’ so the light answers.”

The light will continue to answer the darkness. Happy Hanukkah.

Live Updates: 11 Killed as Gunmen Target Hanukkah Festival in Sydney

This is just so heartbreaking; shocking, though sadly not entirely surprising anymore.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...