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Mollie Gerver

@mgerver.bsky.social
2.3K followers 620 following 323 posts

Associate Professor in International Ethics at King’s College London, focusing on immigration, consent, and experimental philosophy. www.mgerver.com

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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Few articles present Cofnas’s worst statements. He didn’t just abstractly discuss race. He said almost no black professors would exist in a meritocracy. That’s direct racism against his black colleagues. Just like saying “F**k you” to colleagues is grounds for being fired, direct racism is as well.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
@victorkumar.bsky.social
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Everyone faces pressure. Pressure comes from employers to work more hours, from societal expectations to lose weight, from the government to leave the country, and from family to have children. My new book considers when pressure invalidates consent, and how we can make consent more voluntary. 1/3
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 18/08/2026
The difficult truth about Jason Arday ft.trib.al/uhAne6X | opinion
ft.trib.al
The difficult truth about Jason Arday
From the beginning, investigations were accompanied by a cloud of excessive references to his race
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Parents of young kids throughout the UK trying to get their kids to sleep and then BLRAABLRAABLRAA!!! BLRAABLRAABLRAA!!! BLRAABLRAABLRAA!!! BLRAABLRAABLRAA!!!
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The BBC should read this by @ellawhiteley.bsky.social: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
journals.uchicago.edu
“A Woman First and a Philosopher Second”: Relative Attentional Surplus on the Wrong Property* | Ethics: Vol 133, No 4
One theme in complaints from those with marginalized social identities is that they are seen primarily in terms of that identity. Some Black artists, for instance, complain about being seen as Black f...
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Happy eclipse everyone! My daughter added holes through a leaf to see the eclipse through.
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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
"Free-riding off of earnest politics by having others do it and then, as if floating above it all, putting your finger on the median and going "there" can be very psychologically satisfying. But what it really does is turn yourself into a non-factor." mattbruenig.com/2026/07/29/y...
mattbruenig.com
Yglesias, Israel, and Moderation — Matt Bruenig
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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Asking how people can partake in joyful acts during a period of immense suffering leads me to believe this is your first time at the suffering rodeo.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Our department is hiring a two-year fixed-term Lecturer in Public Policy and Ethics. Please spread the word, and happy to answer any questions about our department and political philosophy in London. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSC917/a...
jobs.ac.uk
AEP Lecturer in Public Policy and Ethics at King's College London
Apply now for the AEP Lecturer in Public Policy and Ethics role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
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okay Kelly @kmdoublev.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This paper grew out of a short public piece I wrote for Prindle Post in 2023. We explore the phenomenon of e.g. using an LLM to write an apology or a love letter. What, if anything, has the agent done wrong in outsourcing this kind of communicative work? www.prindleinstitute.org/2023/03/chat...
prindleinstitute.org
ChatGPT and Emotional Outsourcing - The Prindle Institute for Ethics
What's the harm?
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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This is finally out! I fixed multiple typos and added all the literature that came out during the unusually lengthy production process. Very apt that it comes out on the first day of EPPSE! Here’s a free link to the published version: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The EU now allows member states to transfer migrants to third countries, including potentially Libya, where migrants held under a previous EU-Libya agreement faced enslavement and torture. This new policy, like the old, is unconscionable. www.infomigrants.net/en/post/7167...
infomigrants.net
What the new EU migrant 'return hubs' deal means in practice
The European Union has reached a deal to set up "return hubs" in third countries for people whose asylum claims have been denied. The new stricter migration rules could have significant consequences f...
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
AI look down. LOOK DOWN.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
www.ft.com/content/ebb7... The duke said he hosted the dinner, and would also host one with Conservatives, to raise “awareness about the protection of nature” and would support “any party that championed protection of nature.” Hmmm, I wonder what other party cares about nature.
ft.com
Duke of Norfolk to host Reform UK donors as Farage seeks to widen appeal
Luncheon event at 11th-century castle comes after anti-immigration party made gains in local elections
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
I’m looking for literature by philosophers distinguishing between making correct judgments and expressing these judgments. In others, people who claim that sometimes a correct judgment should not/ought not to be expressed. Any ideas?
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Many people have little choice in what they devote half their waking hours to for years. And the assumption that people do have choice, combined with the fact that having less money is predictive of less choice, might be why many feel uncomfortable being asked and saying what they do for a living.
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Omar Wasow @owasow.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
“Writing is hard.” Thrilled to share that this simple idea led to a new paper in Political Analysis! Where most text methods focus on content, I test if expression is also effortful action. I find simple measures like character counts reveal attitudes and predict voting. cup.org/4cUmoXi 1/
Text as Behavior
Text as Behavior published in Political Analysis

by Omar Wasow

Abstract

Text analysis typically focuses on content—such as sentiment or topic—but expression is also a form of effortful action. Building on this insight, I propose using simple features of open-ended tasks to study text as behavior. This approach treats expression, such as writing, as cognitively, emotionally and temporally “costly” for subjects but inexpensive for researchers. I show basic statistics like the number of characters can approximate effort and significantly improve estimation of quantities of interest, including candidate choice, the probability of turning out to vote and psychological states about which a subject may not be fully aware. Further, these methods can convert nonresponse into informative data; validate survey instruments; serve as mechanism checks; be hard for a subject to “game”; work across different languages and analogize well to real-world situations. In sum, text as behavior can help address a range of issues related to quantifying attitudes and actions.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
My review of @alanmanning4.bsky.social’s Why Immigration Policy is Hard, an extremely comprehensive book, covering reasons for migration, the effects of migration on high-income receiving countries, what we know about the effects of various policies, and much more.
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Daniel de Kadt @dandekadt.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Visiting Germany from London and I wonder how a society can be so prosperous with such high water pressure, such vigorously flushing toilets, and such effectively shutting windows.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
“How might an eight-episode Netflix series involving a small business owner unfold as she is selected randomly to be a legislator? What would she do with her business? What team of lobbyists would suddenly descend on her…? Does she meet the…other people selected? Does she get drunk with power?“
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Also if you see they’ve been hanging around for a long time doesn’t that mean *you’ve* been hanging around for a long time?
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Unimprovable opening to Private Eye’s review of Matt Goodwin’s ‘book’
Photo of the opening paragraph of a book review: White trash
Suicide of a nation
Matt Goodwin (Northstar, £12.99)
Matt Goodwin bills Suicide of a Nation as “the book they don't want you to read". Well, it's certainly a book I didn't want me to read. Goodwin, a former centrist academic turned Reform's in-house intellectual (who recently lost the Gordon and Denton by-election), has cultivated a social media presence somewhere between Kevin the Teenager and Roderick Spode. It felt unlikely he'd be more bearable at greater length.
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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Especially intrigued to hear that spending more than 3 weeks on something counts as perfectionism
Last week, in a post viewed over 250k times, Professor Orin Kerr wrote about a "mostly Al-written law review article" an anonymous lawyer is publishing with a Top 50 law school. Law professors were not happy. I'm the lawyer. I graduated from Yale Law in 2016 and founded Showalter PLLC this month in an effort to replicate my productivity gains for client work. The article is "Mere Machines": Why Originalism Requires Robotic Judging, forthcoming in the SMU Law Review Forum. It took me around 15 hours. SMU Law Review Forum previously published a shorter article I wrote in 2022; that one took me something like 150 hours. (Perhaps overkill but I tend toward perfectionism.)
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I wonder how widespread this is? I’m a US citizen and applied for US citizenship for my daughter four years ago, which she has a right to obtain via my parents. I paid over $1,000, got a letter confirming receipt shortly after, and then nothing. I just assumed this is super widespread.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
This same policy was suggested in 2010 by the openly racist BNP, though they offered the equivalent of £78,000. Globally, money can encourage return, but usually for those facing inhumane conditions, or safe conditions at home. I’ve written about this here: repository.essex.ac.uk/23016/
repository.essex.ac.uk
Paying Refugees to Leave - Research Repository
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Helen Dempster @helen-dempster.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Many countries of origin have shifted from concerns about "brain drain" to actively promoting emigration. New @cgdev.org paper by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social outlines how emigration *can* contribute to growth, but only if the right policies are in place. www.cgdev.org/publication/...
cgdev.org
Emigration as a Growth Strategy
The model of manufacturing export-led growth followed by a number of countries in East Asia and beyond is becoming ever more complex to emulate. But new pathways to rapid growth for developing countri...
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SHADOW OF MADNESS out now! @dvbishop.com · 13/03/2026
Screenshots from Notting Hill with Julia Roberts saying "I'm also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her." The final image shows a perplexed Hugh Grant with the following text on it: "As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you'd like to proceed."
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
There is extensive evidence that nationalists who don’t like migration in general like migrants who will contribute to improving health outcomes. Labour needs to start reading far more peer-reviewed studies on attitudes towards immigration, and not rely so heavily on its own polling.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
What does an abusive chef of the world’s top-rated restaurant have to do with immigration? He was accused not only of punching employees, but threatening to get their families deported of they didn’t do what he said. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/d...
nytimes.com
Punching, Slamming, Screaming: A Chef’s Past Abuse Haunts Noma, the World’s Top-Rated Restaurant
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
YAAAAY
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athena (who is really cool) @athenaisreallycool.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
MS paint graph:
Society on the y axis, time on the x
"society up to now" straight diagonal line
"if you give me all your money" makes the line go up
"if you don't" makes the line go down
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
This from @colinyeo.bsky.social is useful, but I’m not sure this includes migrants who are threatened with deportation if they remain, who then return via the voluntary returns service. www.gov.uk/return-home-...
gov.uk
Get help to return home if you’re a migrant in the UK
Make arrangements to return home voluntarily if you're in the UK illegally or have claimed asylum by assisted return, voluntary return, AVR, VRS
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
People who judge the quality of AI based on how much it can write should read this:
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Important analysis by @robfordmancs.bsky.social and others. One thing noted is that “The Brexit referendum appeared to defuse the immigration debate” - a point excellently demonstrated in work by @mirandasimon.bsky.social in this article: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core
A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes - Volume 51 Issue 3
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
“If the policy you are proposing would not have let the president bring his own wife to the country, maybe it is time to revisit the policy.”
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Excellent point by @negsaunders.bsky.social: if you want to decrease the number of immigrants without legal status you shouldn’t increase the number of immigrants without legal status. That’s what Reform would do by arbitrarily cancelling ILR.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
NEW: JD Vance flew to Rome to formally invite Pope Leo XIV to join America’s 250th anniversary celebration. The first American pope has declined — days after rejecting President Trump’s “Board of Peace” invitation. On July 4, he’ll be in Lampedusa, standing with migrants.
thelettersfromleo.com
In Another Break With Trump, Pope Leo Skips U.S. 250th Celebration for Migrant Island
As Trump builds his presidency around America’s 250th anniversary, the pope heads to Europe’s most symbolic migrant crossing — days after rejecting the president’s “Board of Peace.”
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
News agencies often only cite Gaza’s health ministry when stating the number of deaths, and these numbers are then refuted by those who don’t trust the ministry because it’s run by Hamas. Now news agencies can cite the Lancet - I hope they do. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey
This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures whereas the demographic composition of casualties aligns ...
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I’m glad this is written, but we need to also address ethics and morality: a lot of Americans support ending birthright citizenship by ignoring or changing the law, or they don’t care either way. To persuade them, it’s not enough to say what the law says; we need to address what the law should say.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
One aspect that hasn’t been addressed regarding the new settlement plans: it’s genuinely not clear if anyone will actually be effected *if* they jump through horrendous bureaucratic hoops 1/3
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
The BBC World Service, unlike BBC’s national news coverage, is excellent: relatively impartial, rigorous, and covering stories not covered by other outlets. It’s also going to run out of funding in seven months. You can help save it by filling out this questionnaire:
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I have mixed thoughts. On the one hand, I can’t stand STP, so making it less like STP - adding pecans, overly burnt, less sauce - is better in my book, not worse. On the other hand, if you’re going to make STP, maybe make it as intended, and get penalised for pecans, burning, and skimping on sauce.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I’ve never understood, but would want to find out, why in some countries and times the media focuses on the cost of immigration control - as when in the UK the media emphasised the high cost of the Rwandan plan - while other times costs are never mentioned at all (as now in the US).
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 13/02/2026
On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast. The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me. But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.
On Nov. 16, a mental health counselor recorded in Kamilla’s medical records that her mother reported the girl had lost her appetite after being “served food that contained worms.”

A week later, the couple said, children were told to gather in the gym for what they believed would be a Thanksgiving celebration. Excitement spread as families saw tables set with turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, they said. The children waited expectantly. But when a parent asked when the celebration would begin, Oksana said, staff told them the holiday meal was for employees, not detainees.

The children, she said, watched despondently as the feast was packed away.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
There’s something offensive about apologising for offending, rather than apologising for the thing said. If Ratcliffe calls migrants “colonisers” he should absolutely not be sorry about how people reacted - about the offence they took - but for what he said to cause such offence.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
This only takes ten minutes to fill out if you don’t answer the open questions. So if you have a moment, you can have your say on whether, for example, refugees and victims of domestic violence should need to wait longer before obtaining settlement.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Starmer claims the increase in migration during the pandemic - when much-needed health workers were brought in - was a “squalid chapter” in history, causing “incalculable” damage. How offensive to the essential workers who came to this country, risking their lives while helping a nation in need.
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Mollie Gerver @mgerver.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I’m glad for this policy, but don’t understand why Mahmoud is claiming, “the British people will always welcome those in genuine need of sanctuary.” That’s untrue, as the UK doesn’t provide humanitarian visas to most people in need. Why not just be honest? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
theguardian.com
UK expands Hong Kong visa scheme in wake of Jimmy Lai’s prison sentence
Exclusive: Home Office ruling means thousands more Hongkongers will be eligible to come to the UK over next five years
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