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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I guess I just don't buy "Aaron Sorkin is stupid and he's in such a bubble, he's making Zuck look smart and reasonable." He's a good writer, who I think is purposely giving Zuck some good lines.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Even though The West Wing was a liberal show, didn't Sorkin often provide good arguments for both sides. In The Social Network, Zuck was portrayed as a complicated Citizen Kane character, not a monster. He was shown to be mean to Saverin, yes, but was depicted better than Winkelvii.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We should give the AAUP credit when they defend academic freedom and focus on their core mission. The AAUP has joined FIRE and the ACLU in defending threats to academic freedom in Texas.

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Reposted by Neil Malhotra

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🚨New Science Advances🚨 Untrustworthy sources on Facebook and Instagram in 2020: Concentrated exposure but no attitudinal effects www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... -Exposure very low but highly concentrated -Reducing exposure by ~70% for months had no measurable effects *even among frequent consumers*

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Yes, the question is about agenda setting. So, the correct counterfactual is: If there were X% more conservatives in academic, what new types of papers would be published. Or, alternatively, what papers never got published due to pipeline imbalances?

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Cool article, but I would note that the rebound is arguably the most overrated statistic in all of the 3 major sports.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Thanks for the correction! That is a bit surprising.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Stanford is not tuition dependent. Yes, this is bad for academic freedom at Denver, but I think it has more to do with "don't speak ill of management." I don't think this is a trend at blue state publics.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I would note that this is a private, tuition-dependent university, so probably is operating more like a business than a public good nonprofit. My perception is that public blue state universities (principals are blue state taxpayers) have done pretty well.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

My understanding is that some core liberal judicial principles are: (1) We should enforce the Commerce Clause; (2) We should trust federal agencies that have high levels of scientific expertise. Both Kagan and Sotomayor trust the EPA to make labeling decisions for products sold across the US

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This case was about whether the EPA, under the Commerce Clause, can say that weed killer should have common warning labels because it has scientific expertise, as opposed to individual states requiring different warning labels in all 50 states.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Wasn't this a 7-2 ruling? The 2 justices that voted against Monsanto were Gorsuch (Trump justice) and Jackson (Biden justice).

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

It looks like due to various financial machinations, the Twitter purchase return is now 3x even ignoring indirect benefits of getting him closer to government power.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I remember when people on social media were claiming that the Twitter purchase was going to "bankrupt" Musk because of all the debt payments he would have to make. LOL. Such an innocent view of how the world actually works.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

In the Phantom Menace, they cut between four narratives at the climax and it's not done well.

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Reposted by Neil Malhotra

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 19/05/2026

#OpenAccess from @jepsjournal.bsky.social - The Policy Feedback Effects of State Assistance: Did Small Business Bailouts Increase Support for Public Aid Programs? - cup.org/4tKsazV - @nmalhotra.bsky.social & Saikun Shi #FirstView

The image features the large text "JEPS" in teal against a dark background, with the hashtag "#OpenAccess" below.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

I wonder if in the future universities should raise these funds as insurance when the interest rate environment is much better. Stanford got a steal on bond issuances (like 1%-2% or something) a few years ago. I bet these are probably 6-7% or something?

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Only about 35% of UAW members work in the auto industry. Only about 25% work for the two US auto manufacturers (GM and Ford).

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

We are hiring a pre-doc at Stanford to work on (among other things) a project called Public Pulse, which will provide reports on public opinion in the US, and potentially fill the void of things like 538. Please share with your undergrads. iriss.stanford.edu/predoc/2025-...

iriss.stanford.edu

2025–26 Faculty Research Projects | Institute for Research in the Social Sciences

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

It is quite a shame. Most of Tesla is owned by schoolteachers, janitors, nurses, government employees, etc. Further, given the poor performance of GM/Ford/Lucid/Rivian (and the disinterest of Toyota), this was a good bet for an electric car future (particularly since current gvnt won't invest)

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Although it is true that if the Dems did not have knife-edge wins in Georgia, Nevada, and Michigan, this would look a lot worse. I agree that if you just look at the presidential vote share, it does have an R bias, but maybe that is just a Trump thing.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Yeah, this is too long for social media, but there are LOTS of flaws with that blog post. The Senate's malapportionment has massive demographic biases, but the partisan biases are probably not as big as people make them out to be, mainly due to recent pop declines in blue states.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

If you look at the last 3 Senate elections that produce the current body (2020, 2022, 2024), it looks like GOP has slight majority of votes, so 53-47 doesn't seem that out of line with a seats-vote curve. Very complex because of general equil, uncontested seats, etc.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

My favorite discontinued products are: (1) Jello 1-2-3; (2) Nestle Alpine White chocolate bar. I would pay a lot of money for those.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

If this is actually true, it is insane. It means that the value of X/Twitter has not dropped one penny since Musk bought it in 2022. It means that market is signaling the monetary value of Musk's relationship to the most powerful person on Earth. techcrunch.com/2025/02/19/x...

techcrunch.com

X in talks to raise money at a $44B valuation | TechCrunch

Elon Musk's X is in talks to raise money from investors at a $44 billion valuation, Bloomberg News reports. Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter,

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Well, the costs also fell, and I think the revenue fall has to do with its moderation policies, not its headcount. Meta stock price skyrocketed after the layoffs and they didn't see advertisers leave. Basically, Elon overpaid for a bad business, but it was bad before Elon bought it.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

It's pretty amazing that this is a fairly extreme Cabinet and there will be only one failure (Gaetz). In comparison, Obama (2008) had three failures of moderate normies: Tom Daschle, Bill Richardson, Judd Gregg

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

This is one of the most electorally skilled politicians in the D Party. Interesting messaging that I think would resonate well outside of Bluesky. People don't care about USAID, impoundment, etc. But Americans wanted a strong leader, who now seems weak because he doesn't have his team under control.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

They are drawing the wrong lessons from X/Twitter. The story of Twitter (which Meta and SV generally copied) is that you can fire 90% of the low interest rate workforce and the product basically works. That doesn't apply to fed gvnt.

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Reposted by Neil Malhotra

Sean Gailmard @sean-gailmard.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

GOP presidents take different (legal) actions to control the executive branch, not because they have stronger will, but because they face a more acute problem of control. The agency loss for a GOP president is larger than for Dem presidents, and the difference is growing.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

In the 1990s, three African American women won Album of the Year: Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, and Lauryn Hill. This is the first since 1999.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

"I hereby pardon Elon Musk for all and any crimes that could have been committed from 2005 to the present" (Dec. 2028)

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

I am asking a literal question of what it means to "cut off federal tax payments." I'm sure there are ways for "states to react" but I have no clue what "cut off federal tax payments" means.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

I have no clue what that means. The state of California doesn't send a check or tax payment to the federal government. Wealthy CA taxpayers individually contribute to federal tax receipts. Are you suggesting that Newsom convince residents to risk prison and not pay their federal taxes?

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I wrote this paper a few years ago on how direct flight availability affects Congressional careers. Potentially relevant today in that Congress has a authority over DCA airport, and it's fairly well known they push for lots of flights in and out of it. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Transaction Costs and Congressional Careers: The Effect of Flight Availability on Retirement Decisions

How do the transaction costs of office holding affect congressional careers? These costs may influence the kinds of people who select into public office and therefore the representativeness of democr...

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I actually think Ds don't have structural problems (but maybe I'm in minority). Counterfactual question: If Trump was killed, who would have won the election? I think the Dem candidate (may have been Biden), because Trump is just such a unique rock star in that party.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

You might also be interested in reading the work of Andrew Noymer. He is a Covid hawk and very pro lockdown. He believes in lab leak, and thinks that Fauci purposely started calling for the end of lockdowns once the "gain of function" emails were released.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

You could also reverse your question on the flipside. Why were the Covid hawks so insistent that Covid did not come from a lab? Somehow criticizing a research program funded by white scientists is "racist" but saying that it came from a market is "not racist"?

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

This is just a conjecture, but I think the main issue is that it called into question the labeling of things as "misinformation" (also see Hunter Biden laptop). Basically, you have a set of elite, powerful institutions that label things as "false" but then it looks really bad when they're not false.

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

I think the main issue is that it called into question the labeling of things as "misinformation" (also see Hunter Biden laptop).

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

It will be interesting if: (1) who will refer to it as the "Gulf of America"; (2) who will say there are 28 amendments to the Constitution (Wikipedia currently holding out). You have way more questions for bright line watch than survey space!

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Sorry meant, "outside of academia/media"

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

I don't think it just the tech billionaires. I am really interested in your thoughts on this, since most center-left people outside of academia/tech aren't buying Trump as a threat to democracy. When I ask them, they say "People of color moved against us. We need to listen."

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Neil Malhotra @nmalhotra.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

This narrative setting could potentially be consequential. If Democrats want to avoid it in the future, they need to find a way to count votes much more quickly. People don't follow politics constantly. They tuned in at 10 pm on election night, saw a big lead, and checked out.

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