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Nils Gilman

@nilsgilman.bsky.social
4.4K followers 769 following 5.7K posts

Historian of the intelligentsia. Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. Deputy Editor @NoemaMag.com. Check out "Children of a Modest Star": www.sup.org/books/politics/children…. Posts my own

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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 5h
“Just as Leo XIII upheld the dignity of the worker in the age of the steam engine, so Leo XIV means to uphold the dignity of the person in the age of the algorithm: the danger is not that machines will become human, but that humans will reduce themselves to machines.” www.equator.org/articles/to-...
equator.org
To Dwell in Possibility • EQUATOR
A Vatican adviser explains how the Pope became the most formidable critic of the algorithmic age
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 5h
Little known fact: the Hardy Harhar is a thorny plant indigenous to the Rann of Kutch, ancestral homeland of the Patels
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 8h
Elon Musk‘s companies have directly milked $21 billion from the US government (between carbon credits and direct contracts, so far) — about $160 from each federal income tax-paying household in America. That’s how he’s made his fortune: off of our tax dollars.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 8h
Political stability requires that neither side feel like they have “escalation dominance” with respect to norm breaking. Tit must at least be met with Tat.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h
Top 10 most *domestically* transformational wars in U.S. history: 1. Civil War 2. World War II 3. World War I 4. Vietnam War 5. War of 1812 6. Mexican-American War 7. Iraq War / GWOT 8. Spanish-American War 9. Korean War 10. Iran War
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h
Ronald Reagan famously remarked that what makes America great is that there’s always somebody getting rich. When I first heard him say this back in the 1980s I thought it was crass, but it is actually a deeper observation than it seems.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 18h
The existence of anyone as rich as Elon is fundamentally antidemocratic. There should be a swingeing wealth tax, not so much to raise revenue, but to ensure that no one holds this kind of outsized political power.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Lol
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
It’s kind of remarkable that in the past half century there’s only been one U.S. presidential race (1996) that didn’t feature either a Biden, a Bush or a Trump on the ballot.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
When we know as a long-established fact that a particular politician is lying scum, then it’s just dumb to continue to offer them the sort of journalistic deference that was developed in an era of relative political sincerity and good faith.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
With respect, I think the standard you’re hewing to perfectly encapsulates the problems Hunter S Thompson described with “objective journalism” in his obituary of Nixon nwhyte.livejournal.com/299685.html
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
The deference to politicians is the problem — assuming that they are telling the truth until proven otherwise, instead of assuming that they are lying unless THEY produce evidence for outrageous claims. Which in the case of Boebert is the only non-credulous position for a reporter to take.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
New Marist poll of Texas finds 61% say undocumented immigrants should stay in US if meet certain requirements. Only 35% say they should leave. A majority of noncollege white men (Trump base) says stay. Supports my case (see piece/thread below) that Trump opened way for new pro-immigrant consensus
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
“Factually unsubstantiated”? What’s wrong with the word “lies”? I’m reminded of Orwell: “Inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines & covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
“Apparently some people think it makes us look like Nazis,” says a close Trump ally.
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 14/10/2026
Israel's foremost natsec think tank says Israel's new doctrine rests on these principles 1. Jewish supremacy over democracy. 2. Peace is illusory 3. No such thing as an independent Arab state 4. War is key to security 5. The US is declining, Israel does not need it 6. Settlement is key to security.
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Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
@nilsgilman.bsky.social among others have made the argument that taxing the super rich is really more of a democracy protection mechanism than a revenue generating one. No one should have oligarchic power over democracy, so we should tax the superrich to the point where that becomes impossible.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Someone ought to write a SF novel about a post-termination shock world — set in 2026, twenty years after the nuclear-war induced termination event, with atmospheric carbon at 550PPM. Here's the backgrounder: www.wired.com/story/they-w...
wired.com
They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think
Solar geoengineering could buy humanity time against climate change—or trigger a dangerous new arms race. A first-of-its-kind simulation offered a glimpse of what happens when geopolitics takes the wh...
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Surgically removing one's own appendix is pretty crazy: www.bbc.com/news/magazin...
bbc.com
The man who cut out his own appendix
Russian surgeon, Leonid Rogozov, got appendicitis while on an Antarctic mission - he had to operate on himself.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I’m in favor of trying to get along with one’s exes, but this seems like going a bit far, no? www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
latimes.com
Tobey Maguire officiates ex-wife Jennifer Meyer's wedding to Geoff Ogunlesi in Hawaii
Tobey Maguire closed off one chapter of his love life by helping ex-wife Jennifer Meyer enter a new one. He officiated her marriage to music executive Geoff Ogunlesi over the weekend.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Trump's approval has been underwater for ~97% of the last decade — the only brief moment of reprieve happening during the moment he somehow managed to get re-elected two years ago, thus saving himself from jail & instead enabling an orgy of graft. The devil has his thumb on the scales for this guy.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
By a lot, even!
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Kathleen Belew @kathleenbelew.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
People need to go to jail for this shit
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The fact that this comically corrupt clown has ANY chance of winning a Senate race is wild. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Ken Paxton Partied in Dubai With Fugitives Ahead of High-Stakes Texas Senate Race
Trump backed the scandal-plagued Paxton in one of the riskiest bets of the midterms
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
True, but she’s still a country mile better than Boebert.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Countries vary by whether women will hold the gaze of an unknown man in the street. My experience: Will hold the gaze: German- & Slavic-speaking lands, Israel, SE Asia, France, & Anglo-American small towns. Will not: Nordics, NE & S Asia, LatAm, Mediterranean, US/UK big cities, & Islamic societies.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“When U.S. labs ingest the world’s writing without permission, it’s hailed as transformative innovation. When Chinese labs do the exact same thing to U.S. models, it’s a ‘malicious and targeted’ campaign ‘to extract proprietary functionality & reasoning capabilities.’” There is no defensible moat….
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
What separates “training” an AI model from “distilling” one? Given that both practices rely on taking someone else's work without consent, why does the USG regard U.S. and Chinese companies so differently? is there any legal or rational basis for that difference? www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
lawfaremedia.org
The AI Model Distillation Paradox
When U.S. labs train models on the world’s writing, Washington calls it fair use. When Chinese labs train on U.S. outputs, it’s a “malicious attack.” It can’t have it both ways.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Whoa www.ft.com/content/5da2...
ft.com
Russia steps up bid to kill European defence chiefs, spy agencies warn
Companies increase personal security for top executives as Kremlin orders expansion of sabotage and ‘hybrid’ operations
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Southern California braces for Tropical Storm Rachel. 'This is not even the worst,' official says
The blistering heat that has baked Southern California for days is coming to an end, with rain on tap for the weekend and early next week, along with a risk of potentially damaging coastal flooding.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Quite the endorsement here from Zizek: "If [this book] fails, it means we are all doomed to extinction." www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
politybooks.com
Concrete Universality: Philosophy for an Age of Fragmentation
Concrete Universality: Philosophy for an Age of Fragmentation, Universalism is collapsing in real time
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
There can be no justice without an appeal to the force of law
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
73% of Americans support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to health care — including 85% of Democrats, 67% of independents & 68% of Republicans. This is not a partisan issue but a case of our elected leaders failing to represent our interests & desires. www.cato.org/sites/cato.o...
cato.org
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
And there does seem to be appetite for it, as described here www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
Buttigieg: Democrats Need to Get Serious About Amending the Constitution
The former transportation secretary spoke with The Atlantic’s editor in chief about what comes next for Democrats should they win big in November.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The US has had four main waves of Amendments to the Constitution: Post-ratification fixes (11-12); Reconstruction (13-15); Progressive Era (16-20); Civil Rights Era (23-26). Each was about 50 years apart— which means we’re more than overdue for another round of fixes to our 18th century architecture
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear calls for amendments to end partisan gerrymandering & enshrine the Voting Rights Act, constrain stock trading among members of Congress, institute term limits for Congress & the Supreme Court, and abolish the Electoral College. Amen! www.instagram.com/reel/DdrKMPJ...
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
My suggestion is even more punishing to the club and even more relieving to the players. Haaland could go sign with Real Madrid tomorrow.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It’s worth recalling that 20 years ago that’s the crisis that everyone was most worried about. We ended up with the subprime mortgage crisis instead. But the US-Asia imbalances are still lurking out there like an evil financial iceberg.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The sustained purchase of US debt is the price that Asian societies, above all China, had paid to acquire the manufacturing jobs that US shareholders, if not US workers, were willing to send abroad. How much longer this arrangement will continue is one of the great questions of the 21st century.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Alan Turing, 75 years ago. One of the best testaments to the value of thought experiments.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I mean, "great grandson of settlers who arrived in the new world from Spain" is quite a creative way to describe "son of immigrants from a place that my boss Donald Trump says is a shithole country"
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Give Lil Marco credit: one of the more artful “non-denial denials”
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
At least that rhymes.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
There’s a reasonable case to be made that if the state is going to execute people, it should be done in public — precisely to expose the barbarism and incompetence of these people.
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The defining figure of the Trumpist state is the gleeful and inept executioner.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word
ALT: Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s almost impossible to exaggerate how degraded the quality of our political discourse is
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If your constituents are dumb-ass low-talent Americans, then this effort to prevent highly talented people from coming to America makes sense. But let’s be clear, this is NOT “America First” — it’s “(stupid) AmericaNS first” (and the resta yall be damned) www.foxbusiness.com/politics/van...
foxbusiness.com
Vance suspends Microsoft, others from foreign workers applying for green cards, alleges visa 'abuse'
The Trump administration is suspending the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program for Microsoft and other companies, Vice President JD Vance said.
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