FWIW I wrote about this problem a few places -- in my book Corruptible, and in this essay here: www.forkingpaths.co/p/how-to-red...
Professor of Global Politics @UCL. Author of “Fluke." Writer @TheAtlantic. Host, Power Corrupts podcast. The Garden of Forking Paths Substack.
79,050 followers 459 following 742 posts
view profile on Bluesky
FWIW I wrote about this problem a few places -- in my book Corruptible, and in this essay here: www.forkingpaths.co/p/how-to-red...
GOP responses to mass shootings: Step 1: Blame it on mental health, not guns Step 2: Vote to cut funding for mental health Repeat I live outside the US, and I can assure you: the rest of the world has people with mental health problems. What they don't have is easy access to unlimited guns.
The US has more guns than people. Brian Klaas picks off the arguments against gun control, one by one.
I wrote about Trumpian culture, the Liver King, scams, frauds, corruption—and the new structural economic and political incentives that have caused us to enter a new era of inequality dominated by hucksters, which I call: The Grifted Age. www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-grifte...
This is the ballgame:
Another terrific essay by @brianklaas.bsky.social. I was especially struck-and in the comments, too-by the challenge of being ethical, fair, and honest in a culture that seems not to reward it, and in fact disadvantages it. My answer I guess is: if you're actually ethical, there is no choice.
www.forkingpaths.co/p/we-are-dif...
The Grifted Age is indeed a good moniker for our current period. It happens when the Parasitic Elite see everything as a racket.
This is an excellent piece by @brianklaas.bsky.social although I now have the displeasure of knowing who the Liver King is
I wrote about Trumpian culture, the Liver King, scams, frauds, corruption—and the new structural economic and political incentives that have caused us to enter a new era of inequality dominated by hucksters, which I call: The Grifted Age. www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-grifte...
The Democratic base + decent anti-Trump people are craving someone to lead them in proper resistance NOW, not just cynically positioning themselves for 2028. The CDC walkout is the kind of organic moment that a real leader would run with and use as a springboard for more acts of visible defiance.
Wow how mind-boggling that they give a shit about other people when they could just be watching Fox News
This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Existing research on how to resist authoritarianism has few shining examples of success stories...but all of them that I'm aware of involved big tent, cross-cutting coalitions that understood that the shared existential risk overrode literally every other division they had. "Anti-Trump" is enough.
An excellent if chilling article from @brianklaas.bsky.social
This article is worth reading. Opened my eyes. #resist #goodtrouble
This is a fascinating deep dive into the statistics around America's obsession with guns compared to other countries. It's chilling, honestly.
"Thoughts and prayers." The kids were *literally praying* in the church when they got slaughtered. I have a photo of me getting baptized in that church with a stained glass window in the background--the same window that the gunman sprayed with 50 to 100 bullets this morning.
What people expect fascism to look like versus what it often looks like in real life
Early reports of a school shooting this morning at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis (I was baptized at the church there). As always: it's the guns. The US is the only country in the world that politically tolerates and legally ensures the routine mass slaughter of its own citizens.
Early reports of a school shooting this morning at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis (I was baptized at the church there). As always: it's the guns. The US is the only country in the world that politically tolerates and legally ensures the routine mass slaughter of its own citizens.
A rare opportunity for me to share my favorite palindrome: go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog
"When is everyone going to say we have had enough of Islam once and for all?" asks Loomer. Imagine a top ally of President Biden saying: "When is everyone going to say we have had enough of Judaism once and for all?" Would there be media silence? Wouldn't every Democrat be asked to denounce it?
How much are our lives and our histories determined by tectonic forces of geology and arbitrary features of geography? I answer that question by weaving together seemingly disparate events involving geology, a Philadelphia ad agency, and an ancient inland sea...all culminating in a brutal civil war:
Trump's attempted takeover of the Fed is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. From despots past and present, we know how this ends--and it's very bad news for the US economy and the world. I explain here: www.forkingpaths.co/p/jerome-pow...
Fabulous @brianklaas.bsky.social newsletter episode on promising developments in the fight against Alzheimer, how comb jelly have a completely unique type of nervous system and much more. www.forkingpaths.co/p/brain-food...
As someone who co-wrote "How to Rig an Election" with @fromagehomme.bsky.social, let me just say how insane it is that the US president is peddling talking points on "honest elections" from a dictator who routinely rigs votes, sometimes by hunting down and murdering his political opponents.
As someone who co-wrote "How to Rig an Election" with @fromagehomme.bsky.social, let me just say how insane it is that the US president is peddling talking points on "honest elections" from a dictator who routinely rigs votes, sometimes by hunting down and murdering his political opponents.
I just saw "The Life of Chuck." It's a phenomenal film. Don't look up anything about it, don't watch a trailer, just go watch it. It's beautiful cinema and makes you feel wonderful about being alive.
Good morning #Econsky @brianklaas.bsky.social has written a stellar piece for @theatlantic.com you should read “His only scholarly publication—ever—appears to be his doctoral thesis, which has been cited by other economists a grand total of one time” Gift link🎁
The Despot's Guide to Job Statistics: how Trump's handpicked Nazi warship-admiring, January 6th-attending hack economist was chosen on the sole basis of loyalty and ideology as he seeks to undermine objective economic data, all for his Dear Leader: www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-despot...
Just an honest labor statistician collecting the data, crunching the numbers, and reporting them fairly, and definitely not an extremist ideologue with an axe to grind, unshackled from respect for the law or political norms.
There are political forces right now who seem to present an existential threat to academic and scientific independence and who will falsely accuse researchers of bias when we defend against that threat. They would not threaten us if our work did not matter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgA4...
Excellent quote!
The Despot's Guide to Job Statistics: how Trump's handpicked Nazi warship-admiring, January 6th-attending hack economist was chosen on the sole basis of loyalty and ideology as he seeks to undermine objective economic data, all for his Dear Leader: www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-despot...
Donald Trump’s pick to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics lacks the qualifications of his predecessor, @brianklaas.bsky.social argues. But what he “lacks in credentials and expertise he makes up for in his MAGA worldview”:
Have you ever seen Lee Zeldin and Vincent Adultman in the same room
Indeed it is not subtle. And he's not remotely qualified, either. I wrote about the implications of his nomination in the context of how dictators routinely appoint loyal ideologues to manipulate economic statistics--and then it wrecks economies. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
In @theatlantic.com, I wrote about "Potemkin Statistics" and Trump's unqualified ideological pick to head up the Bureau of Labor Statistics—and how the parallels with authoritarian regimes should make us all worried that the data coming out of the government will no longer be reliable. Gift link:
So glad you enjoyed it!
On the cusp of Israel taking complete control of Gaza (City), here's my latest essay, on just war theory, the philosophers of Gaza, and how key moral principles and rules of warfare are now routinely being violated: www.forkingpaths.co/p/just-war-t...
Thank you! We are indeed tremendously lucky to exist. And the LTEE gets my vote for the most simple but elegant experiment of all time. (And Zack is wonderful - though it was hard to make text about E. coli exciting to the reader!) Thanks for the lovely comment.
Went to a falconry place in the New Forest today and got to see some amazing hawks, falcons, eagles, and several superb owls. What incredible birds! www.forestfalconry.com
I wrote about just war theory and how it applies to the ongoing devastation in the war in Gaza: www.forkingpaths.co/p/just-war-t...
This is a very valuable essay. While there is much more to be said about historical and cultural context, the parameters and balanced reasoning of this piece – focusing on the conditions of the war itself – offer a rock solid framework for structuring and expanding the middle ground.
🆕 The fault, dear POTUS, is not in our stats 📉 @pimlicat.bsky.social & @sturdyalex.bsky.social welcome back sage @brianklaas.bsky.social. 🗡️ Is MAGA beginning to turn on Trump? 😫 Why is the British far right SO WHINEY? 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q... 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/13Gz...
Fantastic book, I highly recommend this one to everyone.
80 years ago, today, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. But that wasn’t always the intended target. It was supposed to destroy Kyoto, but didn’t, partly because of a trip that a US government official took 19 years earlier. I explain here, in the opening chapter of my book, FLUKE.
So, so useful and accessible.
As someone who hasn’t seen “just war ethics” since college, WOW THIS PIECE IS GOOD! a comprehensive overview and lots of evidence for the conclusion 🎉
Best essay on this subject by far!
This is an incredibly good piece. I can only add, the debate is an exercise in “justification”, or not. What philosophically is lacking is the degree of dehumanizing of opponents that plays an enormous role. Once convinced the opponent isn’t “human”, then for many, all evils are justified.
This is a very funny post
From now on there will be a sixth finger on the button.
I wrote about just war theory and how it applies to the ongoing devastation in the war in Gaza: www.forkingpaths.co/p/just-war-t...
Neither here nor there but Hassett looks remarkably like Colin Robinson, the energy vampire from What We Do in the Shadows
P.S. This from @brianklaas.bsky.social was a good read to launch me into the abyss. Bye.
I wrote about how despots who make economic institutions bend to their whims end up destroying prosperity. This is particularly apt today as Trump fired the person who produces employment data because he didn't like the numbers. www.forkingpaths.co/p/jerome-pow...
I wrote about how despots who make economic institutions bend to their whims end up destroying prosperity. This is particularly apt today as Trump fired the person who produces employment data because he didn't like the numbers. www.forkingpaths.co/p/jerome-pow...
Many feel obsessed to control our day-to-day lives, but increasingly anxious about our lack of long-term security. @brianklaas.bsky.social puts forward how we can relinquish control to recover some of the daily joys that humanity can experience. iai.tv/articles/the... #philsky #socsky
Due to unforeseen circumstances, it is with a heavy heart that I, as a native Minnesotan, must announce I have been recalled home to fulfill my statriotic duty and play for the Minnesota Twins since they traded away everyone else
I think this is a different Blackstone (the world's largest private equity group), but was confused, as the CEO of Blackstone is a Magdalen College fellow because of his donations.
What is this from? Is it related to Schwarzman at Magdalen?
"American democracy promotion is effectively dead," Brian Klaas writes. The world's authoritarians have taken note that they no longer need fear Washington's condemnation when they tighten their grip on power:
I wrote about what I call "The Red Queen Fallacy" -- the toxic blend of hustle culture, checklist existences, and under-regulated capitalism that make too many people in modern life feel like they're stuck on a treadmill without an off switch:
this is a realy good piece and I can confirm that the strangest thing to me about living in America was how normalised the idea that gun violence was an intractable problem had become .
The idea that there was no way to stop the mass shooting in New York is insane. A few years ago, I wrote this essay, showing international comparisons and debunking many of the key pro-gun arguments. The US *chooses* to be an international outlier. That's it. It's a choice.
Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.
“American democracy promotion is effectively dead,” Brian Klaas argues. The world's authoritarians have taken note that they no longer need fear Washington's condemnation when they tighten their grip on power: https://theatln.tc/qr8dVtr9
The fact that the EXTREME HEAT POPULATION AT RISK ticker wasn't deliberately placed there for this segment is a particularly funny detail as these idiot zealots speak
Excellent perspective on modern life in this piece by Klaas.
"American democracy promotion is effectively dead," Brian Klaas writes. The world's authoritarians have taken note that they no longer need fear Washington's condemnation when they tighten their grip on power:
Thank you - so thoughtful and reinforcing my desire to refocus how I spend my days.
I wrote about what I call "The Red Queen Fallacy" -- the toxic blend of hustle culture, checklist existences, and under-regulated capitalism that make too many people in modern life feel like they're stuck on a treadmill without an off switch:
Trump has killed American democracy promotion - and Rubio has told diplomats to praise even the most rigged elections: saying statements should be “brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.” I wrote about the fallout here:
@brianklaas.bsky.social: “The world’s worst dictators can rest assured that the next American diplomat to come knocking on their palace doors is more likely to be looking for property rights than human rights.”
I am not convinced that the idea of "let's rush to recess and hope this somehow all goes away" is a viable strategy
More on this subject from the always-excellent @brianklaas.bsky.social www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-value-...
"Another wonderful secret" www.wsj.com/politics/tru...
Great read by @brianklaas.bsky.social: "This isn’t a story of Republicans and Democrats, or even a story of Trump vs. the Fed. This is a story of why functioning democratic institutions aren’t just aspirational ideals that sound good on paper; they provide the very foundation of lasting prosperity."
This from @brianklaas.bsky.social is so important. Be sure to read the whole thing.
This is a very good read, take a few minutes this morning: "...But if Trump crosses the political Rubicon and fires Powell, he will find himself in the disastrous economic terrain most familiar to the world’s megalomaniacal dictators."
If you’re one of the many Americans who don’t really understand what the Federal Reserve Bank does (only partly touched on here) and why Trump’s firing Powell (which he doesn’t have the authority to do!) would be genuinely disastrous—read this very well written, not at all “technical,” essay.
This is why I wrote this piece, about how the press is failing to understand that this isn't about Trump vs. Powell, but about how authoritarian leaders undercut constraints on their power--and destroy everyone's prosperity in the process: www.forkingpaths.co/p/jerome-pow...
Tedious to point this out, but: - When a tongue-tied Biden said "President of Mexico" instead of "Prez of Egypt," it was a several day story. -Hours after Trump says whoever appointed J Powell made a big mistake (it was him), the episode appears not to merit a story on any national-media sites.
“When presidents and prime ministers seek to remove the shackles of good governance that constrain them, it can bring a country past a point of no return” good read
Trump's threats to fire Jerome Powell are being covered by the US press with the wrong lens. It's not Democrats vs. Republicans or Trump vs. the Fed. This is a story about why authoritarian rulers who remove constraints on their power destroy prosperity. I explain why here:
I wrote about space junk: why Musk is making it much worse (and damaging the ozone layer in the process) while Trump is cutting the budget of a crucial tracking capability that helps avoid catastrophic space collisions that could lead to Kessler Syndrome.
I wrote about space junk: why Musk is making it much worse (and damaging the ozone layer in the process) while Trump is cutting the budget of a crucial tracking capability that helps avoid catastrophic space collisions that could lead to Kessler Syndrome.
Decades ago, scientists warned about the cascading risk of space collisions. Now, Musk is making it much worse—and Trump is eliminating the tracking capability that could help avoid those disasters. @brianklaas.bsky.social www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-catast...
A fascinating exploration by @brianklaas.bsky.social of one of life’s perennial questions - why do things happen? It’s the best book I’ve read this year. At the end of my review is a link to the first chapter. Read it, then read the rest of the book. unhackyourbrain.substack.com/p/book-revie...
This is a wonderful piece, and expresses much more eloquently than I could much of what I have also experienced as an American living abroad (except for the baseball comment)!
Here's the link - and good luck! www.forkingpaths.co/p/my-life-in...
What makes America different—washers and dryers, tragically serious social problems, rapidly metastasizing authoritarianism, and cinnamon rolls the size of your head.
This is thought-provoking & insightful but the most immediately significant reason why you should read it is that it is HILARIOUS.
From forecasting and floods to early warning systems, nobody realizes why government exists until you need it. DOGE cuts are going to continually amplify catastrophic risk and nobody will be aware of the perils until it's too late. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Genuinely heartfelt and eye opening piece from Brian Klaas.
This is great - funny and wise.
I'm not feeling particularly patriotic this 4th of July for obvious reasons, but I wrote about the complexities of American culture, what truly makes America great, while wearing my cultural anthropologist hat to observe the US after 14 years of living in the UK.
This is incredibly entertaining and heartening, even. America may return to herself yet.