@nilsgilman.bsky.social
Historian of the intelligentsia. Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. Deputy Editor @NoemaMag.com. Check out "Children of a Modest Star": https://www.sup.org/books/politics/children-modest-star. Posts my own
“The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now,” says Pete Hegseth, “is Iran shooting at shipping.”
Other than THAT, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
"One camp views Life primarily as an information process to expand & enhance, the other conceives of Life as a complex system to maintain & balance; one gazes upward toward Life’s cosmic conquests, the other downward toward Life’s planetary entanglements." www.noemamag.com/a-new-politi...
We can debate whether Bibi’s policies are increasing the safety/security of Israelis, but they are certainly compromising the safety/security of diaspora Jews — which from Bibi’s perspective may indeed be more of a feature than a bug in those policies. www.timesofisrael.com/michigan-shu...
In terms of the geostrategy* of the burgeoning Ecological Cold War, the Iran War can be seen as an effort by the Fossil Fuel hegemon to get a dissenting petrostate to fall in line.
*Unfortunately, it's less geostrategy than geostrategery: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Monotheism may be the single most pernicious idea in human history. The only competitor, IMO, is the biological idea of race. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Behold the Orbanization of U.S. media.
If/when democracy is restored in America, this media empire will need to be broken up with extreme prejudice, even if liberal niceties need to put aside temporarily in order to do so. www.thebulwark.com/p/what-the-p...
The limits of subsidiarity: "[Paris mayor] Hidalgo’s mayoralty illustrates the limits of local responses to national & international problems like housing & climate change. Without wider coordination, even the most successful mayor’s reach can only extend so far." dissentmagazine.org/article/city...
“One vision of a post-Trump Republican future: nationalism, tinged with socialism, if you will.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/o...
A pre-political norm that every liberal democracy requires in order to work is a commitment to good faith in political discourse.
But reporting on current US politics as if that norm still exists is the journalistic equivalent of explaining Christmas shopping patterns by referring to Santa Claus.
Is it "woke" to teach/learn about anticipating adversaries potential retaliations when you are planning to attack? 🤔
bsky.app/profile/rgoo...
“The Constitution vests the power of declaring War with Congress, therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject, and authorised such a measure.”
—George Washington to William Moultrie, 28 August 1793
“Don’t know shit about your enemy. Assume he is a stupid baby.”
—Sun Tzu
It’s a side comment here from Karp, but it’s rare to hear the “security dilemma” expressed so baldly: “These technologies are dangerous societally. The only justification you could possibly have would be that if we don’t do it, our adversaries will do it.”
www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/03/pala...
Can they possibly have been this callow?
Maybe it will force the Pharaoh to set the Israelites free? www.ft.com/content/8236...
"Artificial intelligence represents a fundamental epistemic shift: from variables to patterns, from rules to associations, from surveys to sensors. This transition may transform... the very meanings of concepts such as citizenship, democracy, and population." journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
An amazing opportunity for a young int'l historian or political economist: Eva-Maria Muschik is leading an ERC-funded project (with the great name ShockAge) to write a global history of structural adjustment — which is to say, the backstory to contemporary capitalism. ie.univie.ac.at/aktuelles-un...
Game theoretical models assume (bounded) rationality — so that’s irrelevant
Realist models assume a coherent view of national interests — so that’s also out
Instead, scholarship on the logic of gangsters & thugs is probably the most immediately pertinent literature for understanding what’s going on
$11.3 billion could cover any of the following for a full year:
-1.4 million people on Medicaid
-19 million kids getting free school lunches
-1.4 million people getting affordable housing
-1.1 million hungry seniors fed
-0.8 million children given free child care
The public is being denied information about what is actually happening on the ground in the Middle East.
You should be *very* skeptical of any narratives based on claims/facts that you cannot independently verify using sources not tied to the peddler of the narrative.
Or to put it in verse:
To look unflinchingly at the world as it is
The forces that have produced present realities
While remaining open to the possibility
Of it becoming otherwise.
There are many many jobs that will not be affected. For example: anyone doing live performance, from pro athletes and sex workers to private security professionals and drug dealers.
Nope, they definitely didn't get any orders from any governments to do this. Absolutely not. No sir. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
“Our approach is not ‘AI replaces people’. But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
This could mean any number of things but it’s strategic
Does anyone else find it odd that there is, so far as I can tell, no independent media reporting on what the situation on the ground is in Tel Aviv and Israel more broadly?
(This message will probably get shadow-banned.)
“…just six months ago we supposedly had a victory that would last forever…”
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Other than Ivanka, who do you got? As pols go, JFK and Adlai Stevenson are basically good guys.
Pernicious Andover alumni: George W Bush, Paul Bremer, Lachlan Murdoch
Pernicious Exeter alumni: Franklin Pierce, John Perkins Cushing, Mark Zuckerberg
Pernicious Groton alumni: Dean Acheson, Kermit Roosevelt, McGeorge Bundy, Averill Harriman