In a new paper, “The Safety Tether” (Governance), Timothy Hildebrandt and I analyze all ~800k NGO registrations in China. We argue that control of civil society is like a safety tether: the center sets the tether’s length; localities decide how tautly to hold it. doi.org/10.1111/gove...

‘China’s gaokao factories and America’s college-industrial complex are not accidents. They are the logical outcome of a global system that has mistaken education for investment and human life for capital.’ @izading.bsky.social on China’s university entrance exam. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Iza Ding · Studying is harmful: China sits the Gaokao

In a country plagued by corruption, China’s national college entrance exam, the gaokao, is remarkably clean. ‘Open...

lrb.co.uk

there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all

Gonzomancer@samthielman.com · 9mo ago

“whatever club he’s invited to join has been devalued by the invitation”

As described in our piece, this figure shows the spikes in protest activity in Trump-leaning counties (above 0 on the y-axis) vs in Harris-leaning counties (below 0 on the y-axis) over time across his two administrations. Since April, the modal protest county voted for Trump.

Erica Chenoweth@chenoweth.bsky.social · 10mo ago

My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Hammam, & Chris Shay) has a new piece, whose title speaks for itself. A 🧵 with some key descriptive takeaways:

Every accusation is a confession. This is political indoctrination—the exact kind they accuse the left of.

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 11mo ago

1. The Superintendent of Public Schools in Oklahoma announces a partnership to establish a Turning Point USA chapter in every Oklahoma high school.

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics. The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause

By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

vanityfair.com

Four Al Jazeera staff, including reporter Anas Al Sharif, were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside the main gate of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital aje.io/onll19

Anas al-Sharif among five Al Jazeera journalists killed by Israel in Gaza

Al Jazeera staff killed in targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists near al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City.

aje.io

It's incredible that this is real.

Seva@seva.bsky.social · last yr.

putting a fucking Lada in the background means he's doing the soviet collapse without any of the fun bits

On one of the most unbelievable satellite images I've ever seen, showing hundreds of Palestinians surrounding aid trucks north of Rafah. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/w...

A World of Misery, From 200 Miles Up

nytimes.com

Another example of how Chinese information control can be clumsy and prone to popular backlash. The readership of boys love is largely queer-affirming straight women… and the state is revealing its distasteful homophobia and repressive tactics to a demographic unlikely to encounter them otherwise.

Ella Dawson@brosandprose.bsky.social · last yr.

"Across China, authorities have been interrogating dozens of writers -- many of them young women -- who published gay erotic novels online, in what appears to be the largest police roundup of its kind to date."

Quite a strong final statement: "Descriptive research is important and it is a pity that the general obsession with causal estimates disincentivizes researchers from attempting to publish careful and detailed description."

Toni Rodon@tonirodon.bsky.social · last yr.

Local reactions to wolf attacks in Germany are not powerful enough to influence the election decisions of many voters www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

Zohran! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Zohran Mamdani declares historic victory in New York City mayoral primary after Cuomo concedes

‘Tonight is his night,’ says ex-governor as progressive state representative tells supporters ‘we made history’

theguardian.com

I entered the human rights field 15 years ago, I thought I could contribute to make China a little bit more like America, but it has turned out that America is increasingly like China. It's so depressing.

Holy crap. The US-UK trade deal is a blank sheet of paper and only Trump signed it. (Genuine screen grab).

Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social · last yr.

"we have our trade agreement with the European Union." (That's Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, who has no authority over the European Union.)

Remarkable. MSNC: "I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful." Seconds later, LA County sheriffs start firing on the crowd. Yet again, "law enforcement" deliberately escalated.

Any person in uniform wearing a mask and refusing to be properly and reliably identified should be assumed to be the same kind of murderer we’ve seen in Minnesota.

RF@zerodice.bsky.social · last yr.

Shooters were dressed like law enforcement and this is exactly why I’m pissed about ice officers wearing masks, driving unmarked cars and not being identifiable when they terrorize communities

“Trump is using military forces to stop a protest — I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.” Doechii at the #BETAwards

Amazing view from my room in the School of Journalism’s hotel on the Fudan University campus!

Almost every day I read about some new development that just stuns me with its combination of cruelty and short-sightedness. This is one of them.

Dr. Sven-Eric Jordt #TobRegSky@sejordt.bsky.social · last yr.

NIH stops development of HIV vaccine, terminates grants to consortia, including at Duke University. www.science.org/content/arti...

Nature ran a piece finding that 25 million people could die as a result of ending USAID. This puts Trump and Musk in the category of the most brutal leaders of the 20th century in terms of unnecessary lives lost. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · last yr.

If this is even remotely accurate, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have killed more people in several months than the Iraq war killed in a decade

In which I have the sinking feeling of boredom. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/o...

Opinion | Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era

nytimes.com

In anti-authoritarian struggles, criticizing the regime for their blatant corruption is often one of the most important ways to mobilize the public and break through to regime supporters. The Trump regime is the most corrupt in US history—it’s worth repeating ad nauseam

Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · last yr.

More Than a Dozen U.S. Officials Sold Stocks Before Trump’s Tariffs Sent the Market Plunging www.propublica.org/article/us-o...

Imagine the brain rot required to threaten to defund our most populous state, with a GDP larger than all but 3 countries on the planet, over a single teenager participating in long jump.

Hilarious paper tasking LLM agents with running a fictional vending machine business. Spoiler: they are often comically incompetent. One emails the FBI to recover $2 in fees, one gives a vendor a “one second notice” for a refund or face “thermonuclear legal annihilation” arxiv.org/pdf/2502.15840

By this standard, the new york times has tortured trans teenagers

The New York Times@nytimes.com · last yr.

The killings of two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington on Wednesday cast a harsh spotlight on the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S. and the impact even peaceful protests might be having on attitudes against people connected to Israel.