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Dave Levitan

@davelevitan.bsky.social

Science journalist, bylines all over the place. Book: NOT A SCIENTIST: How politicians mistake, misrepresent, and utterly mangle science (WW Norton). www.davelevitan.com Sign up: www.gravityisgone.com

80,408 Followers  |  872 Following  |  12,340 Posts  |  Joined: 22.06.2023
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Posts by Dave Levitan (@davelevitan.bsky.social)

Is this too many nested parentheticals? Yes. Is it completely absurd that left-leaning politicians continue to post about horrifying shit on Twitter? Also yes.

03.03.2026 04:14 β€” πŸ‘ 50    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Low-key intense movie villain the doctor in Fight Club who tells a patient β€œoh you’re in PAIN?? Try a CANCER support group you are WHOLLY UNQUALIFIED to attend! You little bitch.”

03.03.2026 02:33 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It occurs to me that I genuinely have no idea when I first saw this movie, which seems odd given my obsession. Hm.

03.03.2026 02:16 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
He's not wrong. There is the micro of it β€” just like Pete Rose shouldn't be allowed to bet on a baseball game the outcome over which he has significant control, the cavorting satyrs inside Mar-A-Lago whispering sweet war-things in the president's ear should not have access to an essentially unregulated market that lets them cash in on which of those whisperings turns into a fucking Predator drone strike to Tehran β€” and there's the macro of it, the depravity inherent to a country where betting on foreign regime change and "Jeffrey Epstein confirmed to be alive before 2027?" (I am not kidding, and also still not linking) and the influenza hospitalization rate for next week (seriously, these are real) just kind of sitting out there, unregulated, untended, unaddressed, un-nuked-from-orbit.

He's not wrong. There is the micro of it β€” just like Pete Rose shouldn't be allowed to bet on a baseball game the outcome over which he has significant control, the cavorting satyrs inside Mar-A-Lago whispering sweet war-things in the president's ear should not have access to an essentially unregulated market that lets them cash in on which of those whisperings turns into a fucking Predator drone strike to Tehran β€” and there's the macro of it, the depravity inherent to a country where betting on foreign regime change and "Jeffrey Epstein confirmed to be alive before 2027?" (I am not kidding, and also still not linking) and the influenza hospitalization rate for next week (seriously, these are real) just kind of sitting out there, unregulated, untended, unaddressed, un-nuked-from-orbit.

I didn't even get into Giannis or Substack partnerships, there's almost too much depravity here

www.gravityisgone.com/the-rise-of-...

03.03.2026 00:25 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The Rise of the Prediction Markets Is As Grim as It Gets I don't think Dante foresaw "insider trading on the specifics of illegal wars of aggression," but it definitely belongs in one circle or another.

I wrote about the prediction markets. I am not a fan.

02.03.2026 23:50 β€” πŸ‘ 145    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 4

lol imagine a cabinet this competent

02.03.2026 23:04 β€” πŸ‘ 47    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Tesco the golden retriever running in some light snow, happily holding her favorite ball in her mouth

Tesco the golden retriever running in some light snow, happily holding her favorite ball in her mouth

The return of the snow dog

02.03.2026 22:09 β€” πŸ‘ 83    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0

Somewhere in a Mar A Lago bathroom there is a portrait that will finally soon be handsome enough to lure in 1988 Elle Macpherson

02.03.2026 22:01 β€” πŸ‘ 49    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Gotta admit, feels not so great to just keep paying taxes to the "science bad, child murder good" government

02.03.2026 21:32 β€” πŸ‘ 616    πŸ” 171    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 4

Again:

02.03.2026 20:11 β€” πŸ‘ 122    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

man, what

02.03.2026 20:09 β€” πŸ‘ 330    πŸ” 65    πŸ’¬ 21    πŸ“Œ 18
President Says Campaign Could Last 'Four to Five Weeks' or
More

President Says Campaign Could Last 'Four to Five Weeks' or More

Within *three days* of this starting they killed hundreds of kids and saw several US casualties after which the president discussed the drapes he picked out and also had three $90 million planes shot down by friendly fire.

02.03.2026 19:33 β€” πŸ‘ 75    πŸ” 14    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2

[nodding]

02.03.2026 19:10 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

[nodding]

02.03.2026 16:25 β€” πŸ‘ 40    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
This is only one of many examples. There is a style, cadence, and word choice to DoD press releases in this somehow-still-young administration that provide a fascinating, if largely uncomplicated glimpse at the type of limited, childish ghouls currently in charge of the world’s largest military. There are warriors and warfighters everywhere; there is lethality, and force, and strength; there is a sneering dismissiveness of anything else the sprawling military apparatus engages in besides pointing guns at people and shooting them. The releases are the way a Fox News Pentagon talks, what they assume Secretary of Defense John Wayne would sound like.

This is only one of many examples. There is a style, cadence, and word choice to DoD press releases in this somehow-still-young administration that provide a fascinating, if largely uncomplicated glimpse at the type of limited, childish ghouls currently in charge of the world’s largest military. There are warriors and warfighters everywhere; there is lethality, and force, and strength; there is a sneering dismissiveness of anything else the sprawling military apparatus engages in besides pointing guns at people and shooting them. The releases are the way a Fox News Pentagon talks, what they assume Secretary of Defense John Wayne would sound like.

This isn’t, of course, purely an exercise in misdirected machismo in language. Mixed in with the president’s clear imperial and expansionist goals, the fact that the DoD brass talk like someone likely to pull a gun on anyone who knocks on the door is a huge β€œwarfighting” alarm bell. They don’t want the US military to be some big peacekeeping force that builds dams and shakes hands with locals; they want to invade β€” somewhere, anywhere β€” and blow shit up.

This isn’t, of course, purely an exercise in misdirected machismo in language. Mixed in with the president’s clear imperial and expansionist goals, the fact that the DoD brass talk like someone likely to pull a gun on anyone who knocks on the door is a huge β€œwarfighting” alarm bell. They don’t want the US military to be some big peacekeeping force that builds dams and shakes hands with locals; they want to invade β€” somewhere, anywhere β€” and blow shit up.

I wrote this about him and the new DoD almost a year ago

"They want to invade β€” somewhere, anywhere β€” and blow shit up."

www.jezebel.com/pentagon-pre...

02.03.2026 14:42 β€” πŸ‘ 376    πŸ” 113    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 4

Man, Hegseth is just a pure psychopath, huh.

02.03.2026 14:40 β€” πŸ‘ 330    πŸ” 18    πŸ’¬ 17    πŸ“Œ 4

Do you know how easy it is to NOT trip over your own dick into Nazi shit. To not go on Nazi podcasts or retweet Nazis or have Nazi tattoos. It’s the easiest thing most of us have ever done. We all do that every day.

02.03.2026 02:21 β€” πŸ‘ 362    πŸ” 48    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 1
An absurd Somerset village road with the sun setting, with a low wall and stone houses and trees

An absurd Somerset village road with the sun setting, with a low wall and stone houses and trees

Six years ago today we arrived in the UK for a lovely one-month stay that lasted a year and a half, weird stuff

02.03.2026 02:07 β€” πŸ‘ 95    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

Combine a chief executive who lacks object permanence and theory of mind with a cavorting devilry of a cabinet and administration with the ability to make money off the specific timing of their next atrocity and you’ve got enough potential depravity to embarrass Caligula

02.03.2026 01:31 β€” πŸ‘ 72    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The more I think about it the more their existence feels like endtimes shit

02.03.2026 01:19 β€” πŸ‘ 180    πŸ” 21    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 0

Ad for tonight’s Sixers-Celtics game just had narration saying β€œtwo teams that never rebuild” which is RICH about a team that β€œrebuilt” so hard that the Process became a proper noun.

#NBAsky

01.03.2026 19:51 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"American innovation" now refers to making a kind of atrocity cronut by combining insider trading with war crimes.

01.03.2026 15:19 β€” πŸ‘ 2925    πŸ” 781    πŸ’¬ 45    πŸ“Œ 26

I have once again exsanguinated. Had way too much. Donate blood if you can, they give you snacks.

01.03.2026 16:58 β€” πŸ‘ 56    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

Anyway I’m sure the terrifying situation involving some of the dumbest, bloodthirstiest people on the planet will resolve in non-horrifying fashion

01.03.2026 02:41 β€” πŸ‘ 121    πŸ” 14    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

A functional country would yeet polymarket and kalshi into the sun

01.03.2026 01:33 β€” πŸ‘ 276    πŸ” 42    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 3

It is, in fact, in the special.

01.03.2026 00:44 β€” πŸ‘ 41    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

Bari like "we need to restore trust in news" and then 20 minutes later like "hell yeah murdergovs let's DO this"

28.02.2026 22:32 β€” πŸ‘ 54    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

People really struggling with the idea that the Iranian government sucks but we shouldn't be bombing them can both be true, eh?

28.02.2026 21:41 β€” πŸ‘ 7784    πŸ” 1146    πŸ’¬ 150    πŸ“Œ 92
Preview
The least human thing you can do I read a story just now about a man in Chicago who saved a baby after its carriage had been blown into the harbor by heavy gusts of wind. Lio Cundiff – who is a trans man not that it should matter her...

Expecting us – with good reason based on history – to all thank them for their service. Fuck your service and fuck you.

Saving a life is brave. Being instructed to kill and saying no I will not do that is brave. But killing like this? It is the least human thing you can do.

28.02.2026 17:58 β€” πŸ‘ 1409    πŸ” 375    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 25

You know what's weird? The DOJ's Epstein files search function is pretty good?

28.02.2026 22:19 β€” πŸ‘ 50    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0