You read a lot of nasty stuff about higher education and a lot of tragic things about the youth these days, but then there's this dang excellent writing from the youths still in higher education –– @alexbronzini.bsky.social & @tab-delete.bsky.social –– and the world gets a tad brighter.

Washington Monthly@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Investigative journalist Theo Baker's (@tab-delete.bsky.social) debut book from @penguinpress.bsky.social, How to Rule the World, "reads like a memoir crossed with a spy thriller," @alexbronzini.bsky.social writes.

At a quiet conference at Yale, Palantir and its allies sketched a vision for AI, state power, and how to mix the two.

Palantir Comes to Campus

At a quiet conference at Yale, Palantir and its allies sketched a vision for AI, state power, and how to mix the two.

nymag.com

Gavin Newsom is revving up for a presidential run—and bent on repeating the losing strategies of the center-leaning Democrats who came before him.

It’s His Turn | Alex Bronzini-Vender

Gavin Newsom’s memoir will leave you with a nagging suspicion that he isn’t entirely persuaded by his own pitch.

thebaffler.com

As is customary for those eyeing the Oval Office, Gavin Newsom has delivered unto the public a memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.” @alexbronzini.bsky.social writes on this vacuous self-promotion effort—and Newsom’s curious lack of ideas.

It’s His Turn | Alex Bronzini-Vender

Gavin Newsom’s memoir will leave you with a nagging suspicion that he isn’t entirely persuaded by his own pitch.

thebaffler.com

“Under federal pressure, Harvard and other universities around the country now police academic inquiry according to murkier standards of fairness,” writes Alex Bronzini-Vender. “The result is a new orthodoxy even more stifling than the last.”

Opinion | Harvard’s Anti-Woke Era Has Arrived. It’s Even More Stifling.

Wasn’t this supposed to be the golden era of free expression on college campuses?

nyti.ms

ICE should switch to “we’re actually wearing masks to prevent the spread of long COVID” and instantly watch the opposition collapse into vicious factional infighting

No, Harvard hasn’t abandoned the study of “western civilization.” By @alexbronzini.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/06/h...

Reports of Western Civilization’s Death at Harvard Are Greatly Exaggerated

Claims that Harvard no longer teaches Western civilization are wrong. The real threat to the humanities is collapsing student demand.

washingtonmonthly.com

A great response to Hankins: washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/06/h.... Correctly notes that the collapse of faculty hiring and humanities' enrollments as structurally key to all these "debates."

Reports of Western Civilization’s Death at Harvard Are Greatly Exaggerated

Claims that Harvard no longer teaches Western civilization are wrong. The real threat to the humanities is collapsing student demand.

washingtonmonthly.com

I’ll take it

Chris Conzen@chrisconzen.bsky.social · 7mo ago

While it's apparent this 2nd-year student's view of higher education had been greatly informed by the online discourse of "wokeism", it's still an interesting look at how, from a student's perspective, there's a view that the "free inquiry" that was promised is really just conservative ideology.

As some of us have been arguing for a long time: “the idea that speech should be judged by how it feels to protected groups, rather than by its truth or falsehood, is exactly the standard the right spent a decade railing against.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/o...

Opinion | Harvard’s New Campus Orthodoxy Is Even More Stifling Than the Old

nytimes.com

This is not breaking news to most of us, but I appreciated this opinion piece from current Harvard undergrad @alexbronzini.bsky.social making concrete some of what the new regime of campus speech restriction looks like. We need more of this, especially students describing their direct experience.

Opinion | Harvard’s New Campus Orthodoxy Is Even More Stifling Than the Old

nytimes.com

If universities require urgent reform to regain public trust, then so too do the medical system, organized religion, banks, and the Supreme Court—all of which fare worse than universities in Gallup polls measuring public confidence. @alexbronzini.bsky.social www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

No, America Doesn’t Hate Harvard | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

It’s a neat narrative, though it doesn’t fit the facts. Yes, Americans are less confident in institutions like Harvard than they used to be. But the drop isn’t as steep as declinists say — and it’s no...

thecrimson.com

We sent @alexbronzini.bsky.social to WelcomeFest, where everyone from “abundance” advocates to David Shor to Senator Elissa Slotkin have fresh ideas about how to save the Democratic Party, like “appeal to the centrist soccer mom” and “take your base for granted.”

Come One, Come All!* | Alex Bronzini-Vender

All were welcome at WelcomeFest 2025—except for the “groups.”

thebaffler.com

Earlier this month, @thebaffler.com sent me to WelcomeFest, America’s “largest gathering of centrist Democrats” thebaffler.com/latest/come-...

Come One, Come All!* | Alex Bronzini-Vender

All were welcome at WelcomeFest 2025—except for the “groups.”

thebaffler.com

Commencement speakers used to make audiences squirm in their seats. But if you make them squirm at NYU, warns Corey Robin, you might be punished. chroni.cl/3Swt2rX

A Graduation Speaker Gets Canceled

Commencement addresses used to make audiences squirm. Now you get in trouble for doing that.

chroni.cl

Good piece by @alexbronzini.bsky.social about the insufficiency of the “administrative bloat” critique of higher ed. www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025...

Beyond the administrative bloat theory of everything

Many critics of higher education have long seen <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/5108/chapter-abstract/147691963?redirectedFrom=fulltext#:~:text=Hyperventilated%20talk%20about,and%20amenity%20co...

columbiaspectator.com

good argument about why democrats seriously shouldn't embrace crypto from @alexbronzini.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Colorado governor Jared Polis could very well be the future of the Democratic Party. That is not a good thing. @alexbronzini.bsky.social describes his crypto-friendly, Koch-adjacent, deregulatory liberalism.

Abundance Mindset | Alex Bronzini-Vender

Jared Polis could define the future of the Democratic Party. That’s a bad thing.

thebaffler.com

As the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis has declared over one thousand state holidays. He’s also resisted organized labor, cut regulations, and slashed taxes. @alexbronzini.bsky.social writes on the strangest Democrat in America.

Abundance Mindset | Alex Bronzini-Vender

Jared Polis could define the future of the Democratic Party. That’s a bad thing.

thebaffler.com

It’s remarkable how confident people are about the imminent arrival of the bond vigilantes, no matter how many times these predictions have been wrong in the past. on.ft.com/4fji5mn

Via @rajakorman.bsky.social , here is Michael Pettis' critique of China's development strategy boiled down to a sentence. carnegieendowment.org/posts/2009/1...