𝙰𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚑

US Ambassador threatens to tariff, annex, and bomb Canada if anti-American sentiment doesn't improve OTTAWA - U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has vowed to improve anti-American sentiment he sees in Canada, no matter how many illegal tariffs, forced annexations, or literal bombs it takes to do it.

US Ambassador threatens to tariff, annex, and bomb Canada if anti-American sentiment doesn't improve

Universities should lead on the plant-based dietary transition As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change1 and the EAT–Lancet Commission2 have pointed out in recent reports, substantial reductions in demand for animal-based foods are vital for achieving cli...

Institutional food policy matters. When it comes to addressing food insecurity, school lunches matter most. But I would be remiss not to note mine and my co-authors' article from Lancet Planetary Health arguing that universities should lead on food sustainability.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Montreal Makes People Feel Welcome With Safe Streets, Happy Places & Green Spaces — Streetfilms My standing piece of advice for those who live in North America who pine to see the best-practice streets of dozens of places in Europe or want to educate colleague/friends what’s possible: just go to...

“My standing piece of advice for those who live in North America who pine to see the best-practice streets of dozens of places in Europe or want to educate colleagues/friends what’s possible: just go to Montreal. It’s much closer. They really have it all.”

it serves the purposes of determining how to fulfil our aims; of assigning responsibility and blame; and of critically assessing a society’s normative standing in light of its power structure. /5

Recognizing non-decisive, elicitory and structural, and non-causal categories of power is practically, morally, and evaluatively significant: /4

It defends the idea that one can play a causal role without making a difference; structural power as a species of “elicitory” power, which does not operate by way of one’s intentional actions; and a non-causal category of power, whereby outcomes obtain without one playing a causal role. /3

Abstract: Many theorists assume that social power operates only by way of agents’ intentional actions and their causal influence on outcomes—where causality is understood to imply making a difference. This paper challenges all three assumptions. /2

Article: Elicitory Structural Power and Agential Power Arash Abizadeh. "Elicitory Structural Power and Agential Power: An Outline and Defense." Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, forthcoming.Abstract: Many theorists assume that social power operates...

I’m thrilled that my paper “Elicitory Structural Power and Agential Power” has been accepted for publication at 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. It’s taken over 5y of rejections, so I’m especially pleased.

#poliphil #PolTheory #socialphil

Margaret Atwood releases short story critiquing book bans in Canada Author quipped she wrote ‘suitable’ piece after Alberta school ban included her novel The Handmaid’s Tale

An Albertan Tale: “They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits.”

Opinion: The premiers are using bike lanes as a political scapegoat Safe cycling infrastructure saves lives, but sadly, many politicians are ignoring the facts

"bike lanes are still used as political scapegoats. But to what end? ...To deflect attention from real government failures – or from the inconvenient truth that bike lanes do not increase traffic congestion?"

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Ontario court strikes down Ford government's plan to remove Toronto bike lanes | CBC News An Ontario court has deemed the province's plan to remove three major Toronto bike lanes unconstitutional. In response, the premier told CBC News: "I believe, and the people of Ontario believe, that t...

Ontario premier says he was elected by the people of Ontario to remove bike lanes in Toronto put in by the city council elected by the people of Toronto.

Complaint upheld against Belgian ticket inspector who said ‘bonjour’ in Flanders Ilyass Alba also said ‘goeiedag’ on train in Dutch-speaking region but he breached country’s strict language rules

Shopkeepers in Montreal ordered to greet clients with “Goeiedag, Bonjour” instead of “Bonjour-Hi.”

The truth is in my neighbourhood we actually just say the ambiguous “Allô”

Philosophy Professor Reportedly Assaulted & Abducted During ICE Raid on Farm - Daily Nous Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer in philosophy at California State University Channel Islands, was reportedly "piled on by multiple agents all at once" as "he tried to help a man in a wheelchair" who wa...

"Jonathan Caravello...was reportedly “piled on by multiple agents all at once” as “he tried to help a man in a wheelchair” who was having difficulty moving after...[ICE] agents threw canisters of tear gas"

our colleague is still missing as of the last info I got

dailynous.com/2025/07/12/p...

😮 did not know this one

If you’re dealing with a transactional adversary, you had better game this out—elbows down capitulation at first bark could just be an invitation for more threats

/4

This means A has an incentive to make threats if A thinks B is likely to bend, but make offers if A thinks B likely won’t.

This is why elbows up makes sense:

B has lots of reasons to respond to threats with intransigeance.

/3

But there’s a basic asymmetry b/w these from A’s perspective:

A pays the cost of an offer if and only if B *complies*

whereas

A pays the enforcement cost of a threat (e.g. impose tariffs that hurt A too) if and only if B *doesn’t* comply

/2

The Digital Tax capitulation has longterm consequences. One is to reduce Cdn bargaining power. Reminder to gov about bargaining power:

If A is trying to get B to do X, A can either:

threaten: “if you don’t do X, we impose big tariffs”

Or:

make an offer: "if you do X, we scratch your back”

/1

Not only has the language evolved from “based on” to “based off of,” we now have “spaced off” for “spaced out.”

So ‘out’ and ‘on’ are out, ‘off’ is in.

Or rather: ‘Out’ and ‘on’ are off, ‘off’ is on.

Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: ‘We found too many slaves’ When the extent of the university’s involvement with slavery was unearthed, a scholar tracking descendants of enslaved workers was suddenly fired

“Don’t find too many slaves”

What we train need not be the same as what we assess: AI damage limitation in higher education The introduction of ChatGPT poses significant challenges for higher education by potentially encouraging cheating and hindering the development of essential writing and thinking skills. Studies ind…

Some reflections by @ancagheaus.bsky.social on essay writing in age of AI

Sorry I meant otherwise UNinteresting

Yes! Just posted something to that effect!

As for the “chiefly”: surely it’s true of historians, but I doubt it’s quite true for someone taking a substantive philosophical approach. Causation is complicated: some are influential bc they are such powerful thinkers, which may explain both why they’re influential and why one is interested

I can agree with the 1st statement only because there’s no “only” before your “because.” There may be some otherwise interesting thinkers whom we care about only because of their influence, but many we also care about because of the substance, and some we care about *despite* their meagre influence

Inquiétude au Québec devant la chute marquée du nombre d’étudiants internationaux

Selon l’étude, les demandes d’admission d’étudiants internationaux ont chuté de 45,9% dans les universités québécoises. #immigration #enseignement

GRIPP Annual Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop Award 2025 co-winners:

Jakob Huber: Diachronic Democracy: A Political Philosophy of Hope @jakobhuber.bsky.social
Charles Girard, La liberté d’expression à l’épreuve: Dilemmes démocratiques @charlesgirard.bsky.social

Dates TBA

Co-lauréats 2025 du Prix de l’atelier annuel de théorie politique de Montréal du GRIPP:

Charles Girard, La liberté d’expression à l’épreuve: Dilemmes démocratiques @charlesgirard.bsky.social

Jakob Huber: Diachronic Democracy: A Political Philosophy of Hope @jakobhuber.bsky.social

Dates à venir

“Alchemist Review will use advanced AI capabilities to automatically extract key manuscript insights, including central claims, methodology assessment, reference validation, and research originality… to support OUP's editors in making more informed decisions while reducing administrative burden.”

YouTube video by The Daily Show Carole Cadwalladr - Broligarchs, AI, and a Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State | The Daily Show

Jon Stewart is a legend & the way this show is trying to explain to a mainstream audience the gravity what is happening in the US is amazing. It was both thrilling & terrifying to be part of it. Thank you @TheDailyShow 👏

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG7C...