iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Blake Miller @bamiller.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

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...

doi.org

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 30/01/2026

‘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...

lrb.co.uk

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...

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Anthony Oliveira @meakoopa.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

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

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Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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.

A graph showing 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.

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

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

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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

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.

vanityfair.com

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.

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 11/08/2025

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

aje.io

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.

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Alan Maričić @alanmaricic.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

It's incredible that this is real.

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Aric Toler @aric.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

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...

nytimes.com

A World of Misery, From 200 Miles Up

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Blake Miller @bamiller.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

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.

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Reto Mitteregger @indubioproreto.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

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."

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Phillip Ayoub @payoub.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

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

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Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 @yaqiu.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

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.

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

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

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Jordan Uhl @jordanuhl.com · 15/06/2025

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.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 14/06/2025

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.

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

“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

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Blake Miller @bamiller.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

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

View of the Fudan University campus in Shanghai

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hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

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.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

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...

Nature graph documenting estimated lives lost from USAID. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01191-z

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M Gessen @mashagessen.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

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

nytimes.com

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

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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

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

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Brandon Wolf @brandonwolf.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

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.

CNN politics headline: Trump threatens to withhold federal funding from CA over trans athlete

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Blake Miller @bamiller.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

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

Screenshot from the paper showing AI agent behavior. Full text on page 28 of the paper linked

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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

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

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

“Another is simply the N-word.” Right this way to dinner with the president, sir!

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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Also: I assume Harvard will try to sue fast and fix things, but the cruelty this letter unleashes *today* will induce lasting fear and panic not just on the 6800 international students at Harvard, but also on all international students in this country, even if there is a swift TRO. Why stay here?

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Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain economist.com/science-and-...

website views of PhD programmes up in Netherlands. canada, sweden etc

website views from outside the US down massively in the US, up elsewhere

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

I’m actually really glad the anti-trans Republican candidate lost in Nebraska the very same night after a bunch of Very Serious People people spent all day “yes, yes, Dems need to be serious about moderating on social issues to win”-ing across the internet.

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

2025: Keir Starmer suggests that pressure on housing and public services is because of migrants 2020: Keir Starmer, "Poor housing, poor public services are not the fault of the migrants, they're political failure"

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JP @jpbrammer.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Leo XIV IS brat

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

stanforddaily.com

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.

Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

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kate conger @kateconger.com · 23/04/2025

Right-wing accounts criticized Musk on X. Their engagement tanked practically overnight. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.com

They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.

Three users who disagreed with the site’s owner saw views for their posts plummet.

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

What does it say that many of us never imagined Luigi as anything but Luigi-esque? Or that we never pictured the CEO’s killer as a poor person of color? For me, it’s a reminder to pause—to ask whether sympathy for him depends on him being seen as deserving, both in our imagination and now.

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Anton Hur @antonhur.com · 03/12/2024

I liveskyed the 2024 Martial Law Declaration of Korea. This is the thread.

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Iza Ding @izading.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

My essay “Goodbye, Gibbon” for The Ideas Letter theideasletter.org from the Open Society Foundation. In which I offer non-answers to the question “Is America in decline from a Chinese perspective?”

theideasletter.org

Goodbye, Gibbon - The Ideas Letter

Western historiography generally understands history as a line and is preoccupied with the rise and fall of empires. In China however the line of history is an ever-repeating circle, with…

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Blake Miller @bamiller.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Highly recommend anyone interested in digital governance and state-firm partnerships in China read this excellent book! Congrats Lizhi!

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