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Nick Carnes

@carnes.bsky.social
2K followers 308 following 528 posts

Co-Author of Keeping Workers Off the Ballot (Oct. 2026) Author of White-Collar Government and The Cash Ceiling Co-Editor of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe 1 & 2 Bio/Foster/Adoptive Parent Boycott "a.i." Opinions my own (not my employer's)

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Reposted by Nick Carnes
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 6h
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 7h
The White House has access to all the Flock and equivalent cameras. I genuinely didn't think I'd live to see the US surveillance state become this extreme.
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think about this interview with the distinguished philosopher Conan O'Brien a lot. I actually think this is a healthy way to live your life! www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/a...
Is this how you want to go out, with a show that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone?

Maybe that’s O.K. I think you have more of a problem with that than I do. [Laughs.] At this point in my career, I could go out with a grand, 21-gun salute, and climb into a rocket and the entire Supreme Court walks out and they jointly press a button, I’m shot up into the air and there’s an explosion and it’s orange and it spells, “Good night and God love.” In this culture? Two years later, it’s going to be, who’s Conan? This is going to sound grim, but eventually, all our graves go unattended.

You’re right, that does sound grim.

Sorry. Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think that’s what separates me from the other hosts.

I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 16h
Google and Apple immediately update their maps.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 20h
#1: I increasingly wonder whether people who use the phrase "A.I." actually understand how an LLM chatbot works. #2: This is the second time this week I've heard someone in power praise Chat GPT because it has the potential to provide an alternative narrative that they like better than reality.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How many days until the leader of a major research university starts obediently saying “Super Intelligence”?
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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 29/09/2026
"All of us would like to be good to others, and most of us would be relatively good in a good world. What is difficult is to be good in an evil world, where the egoism of others and the egoism built into the institutions of society attack us and threaten to annihilate us." Pedro Arrupe, S.J., 1973
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Karrie Kaiser Lee @karrielee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Philosophy prof: "What if Writing Isn't Central to Thinking?" Writing prof (me): that's the wrong question. Writing is central to LEARNING, and offloading the writing process to LLMs is demonstrably hurting the learning process.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Once again, it has been incredibly sad, in the last few years, to see laid bare, in ways that were surely always there but are masks off now, just how many of our academic colleagues & university leaders simply aren't interested in the actual project of education. Just go do something else. Please.
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
America.gov launched today--a DOGE initiative to use AI to deliver public services. Child lying facedown on a frozen lake as the image accompanying the question: "How can I invest in my child's future" is just incredible. Way to go AI
Image of a child lying facedown on a froze lake.  above is the portal where you ask AI questions about government services.  the question matching this image is:  "How can I invest in my child's future?"
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Sure seems like “AI” is a political project being pursued by some less than awesome people and now is a very good time for building coalitions of students, teachers, and caregivers to resist and refuse these people’s attempts to further undermine public education.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In this country, stopping people from learning how to write has historically been a form of social control and oppression. But I'm sure these "a.i." companies and their mouthpieces just want what's best for all of us.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Friendly reminder that the heads of big tech companies often don't allow their own children to use the tech they push on everyone else. fortune.com/2026/02/21/p...
fortune.com
Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich | Fortune
As governments race to restrict minors’ social media use, the tech billionaires who built the platforms are imposing strict screen limits at home.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Upton Sinclair remains undefeated
Upton Sinclair man/job quote
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hearing people parrot the marketing phrase "Artificial Intelligence" is as weird to me as it would be if the president of my university consistently and uncritically described the last month of the calendar year as "the Lexus December to Remember Sales Event."
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When I think of the best way to pass down our society's most important wisdom and values to the next generation, I picture a room full of kids "with headsets on, . . . watching their computers."
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is the tech product many leaders at major universities think is more important than teaching reading and writing.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s another great day to boycott this whole mess.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Something something something railroads.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"The race of decarbonization kind of ended when the AI race started."
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This one is bad. Content warning. It's a good day to be boycotting this industry.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“inevitable” tech
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Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Wages were won through people power. We dispel 5 common myths in my new video, Myths Around AI and Productivity, based on the work we’ve been doing at @dairinstitute.bsky.social with The Luddite Lab. Full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BO0...
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Why is it rare for the working class around the globe to hold political office? Check out this @bloomberg.com piece by @carnes.bsky.social and @noamlupu.bsky.social, authors of Keeping Workers Off the Ballot: buff.ly/LD8635D ($)
buff.ly
Why Working-Class Candidates Are Almost Never on the Ballot
Less than 1% of major-party candidates competing for a seat in the US Congress have a background in manual trade of service industries.
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
As someone in a STEM discipline, I really abhor the kind of messaging that Mark describes. The messengers aren’t people who actually care about STEM. It’s really a shorthand for “do something practical, focus on your relation to the labor market”.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's another great day to boycott this mess. Not that I have to tell fans of comics and graphic novels that. (When people try to sell "a.i. art" at comic book conventions, they get called out by patrons and removed pretty fast.)
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Reposted by Nick Carnes
Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 25/09/2026
this is, so we're clear, the kind of stuff unrealistic AI doomsday scenarios are intended to overshadow in the press half-cooked automation layered onto already very broken systems in a country too corrupt to have working regulators
arstechnica.com
UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges
For the largest health insurer in the US, AI's error rate is like a feature, not a bug.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Womp womp.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Just had a meeting with a friend who knows we're foster parents. I asked how his family was, and he said with a smile, "I'll tell you the short update about my kids, and then you can tell me the long update about your kids." :)
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Reposted by Nick Carnes
Barry Yeoman @barryyeoman.com · 25/09/2026
A Stanford law professor reacts to our investigation.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Another beautiful day to boycott this whole gross mess.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's another beautiful day to boycott this whole mess.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"I use it to help me brainstorm, and to show me weaknesses in my arguments." Thinking of new ideas and recognizing the weakness in arguments are skills we should constantly nurture, not outsource, devalue, and kill by atrophy.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Arresting people for trying to take agenda control back from elected officials who are trying to stifle debate on an issue people care about. I feel like this is a moment for @sortitionusa.bsky.social to jump in here.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
WERE YOU AWARE: If you made a list of every major-party candidate in the midterms who last had a working-class job, it would only have 7 names (out of 919 candidates) and you could fit them them all on a post-it note. @noamlupu.bsky.social and I have thoughts. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
WERE YOU AWARE: If you made a list of every major-party candidate in the midterms who last had a working-class job, it would only have 7 names (out of 919 candidates) and you could fit them them all on a post-it note. @noamlupu.bsky.social and I have thoughts. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Top notch satire about absolutely bananas surveillance of MIT faculty, staff, and students.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Soon we're going to enter a period when people will be looking for ways to fortify and improve democracy. One thing that needs to be on the agenda is this: ***Electoral democracy has built-in biases that prevent working-class people from holding office.*** www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
bloomberg.com
Why Working-Class Candidates Are Almost Never on the Ballot
Less than 1% of major-party candidates competing for a seat in the US Congress have a background in manual trades or service industries.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Why are AI companies asking for gov't regulation and saying they're dangerous? This is one reason.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Was just reading the 100% credulous NYT coverage of this a few minutes ago.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It's a big, beautiful day to boycott this whole mess.
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The image is of a four panel comic.
In the first panel we see Sarah, the protagonist, next to a stick figure labeled “AI”. The stick figure says, “my outputs look just like yours now.”
The second panel zooms in on Sarah’s face. Above her we see text reading “I think”.
The third panel zooms in closer on Sarah’s face. Text above her reads “you missed”.
The fourth panel shows Sarah drawing happily in a sunlit room. The text above her reads “the point”.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Soon we're going to enter a period when people will be looking for ways to fortify and improve democracy. One thing that needs to be on the agenda is this: ***Electoral democracy has built-in biases that prevent working-class people from holding office.*** www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
bloomberg.com
Why Working-Class Candidates Are Almost Never on the Ballot
Less than 1% of major-party candidates competing for a seat in the US Congress have a background in manual trades or service industries.
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Noam Lupu @noamlupu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Of the 919 candidates running as major-party nominees for the US House and Senate this November, only seven had a working-class job when they got into politics. That’s less than 1%, despite working-class jobs making up about half of the US labor force.” @carnes.bsky.social and I explain why.
bloomberg.com
Why Working-Class Candidates Are Almost Never on the Ballot
Less than 1% of major-party candidates competing for a seat in the US Congress have a background in manual trades or service industries.
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The 2026 elections are shaping up to be another terrible year for working-class representation in Congress."
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The 2026 elections are shaping up to be another terrible year for working-class representation in Congress."
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A case in point for dispelling doubts about whether entertainment is politically important . . .
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It gets worse: Dem FCC member: “The FCC just let some of the most repressive governments in the world indirectly control nearly all of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros.” An investment of this size “doesn’t just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said & made.” apnews.com/article/para...
apnews.com
FCC grants Paramount's indirect ownership request for Gulf funds in Warner Bros. Discovery buyout
As Paramount looks to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, it’s racked up billions of dollars in financial backing from three Gulf countries.
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 20/09/2026
"I asked everyone I know at the BIG TECH HUMAN CENTIPEDE ROUNDTABLE, and we all agreed that UNCONTROLLABLE SHIT-RAIN IS USEFUL AND GREAT, and that EVERYONE WANTS IT. Also, that it was IN RETROSPECT A GREAT IDEA TO PUT EVERYTHING ON COMPUTERS." buff.ly/K5t1rGh
mcsweeneys.net
We Must Create the Shit Machine
“For as long as humans have created SHIT with our BODIES AND BUTTS, we have been asking this FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION: What if there was a COMPUTER that could AL...
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Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"a.i." is unlike the tech academics are used to. Usually the choice is, like, R vs Stata, but neither entails large-scale harm to people. The normal "Can I use this to make my research better?" approach can't handle "a.i." because it doesn't have room for extending moral consideration to others.
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