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Laughing Kookaburra, I reckon

Is this Marc Novicoff who doesn't want free day care the same Marc Novicoff who wrote, "The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn't as Bad as You've Heard—It's Worse"?

The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn't As Bad As You've Heard-
It's Worse
June 30, 2025
Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, June 30, 2025

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Katie @littlelistmaker.bsky.social · 20h

The idea that we can't build a working child care system without simultaneously paying a stipend to people who opt out of that system that's just enough to promote marriage but not enough to allow equal opportunities for single mothers is fascinating to me.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23h

And they think the word needs to be used less than once or their readers won't click: Genocide

OPINION
M. GESSEN
There Is a Word So Powerful It Need Be Spoken Only Once
Sept. 28, 2026

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is another attack on the so-called "feminization" of higher education, abetted by widespread ideology (also held by far too many uni leaders) that education has no value beyond a taxpayer-subsidized job training program for corporations. Also part of effort to resegregate higher education.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 29/09/2026

This is classic. Straight to my intro lecture. People who say their favorite desert is chocolate ice cream -- while in line at the ice cream truck -- also say they plan to eat chocolate ice cream today.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 29/09/2026

I said that because I just got suckered into exchanging emails with someone claiming to represent a local book club interested in one of my books. Because I'm vain and also an idiot. But not quite dumb enough to fork over the cash they eventually asked for.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 28/09/2026

You know what would be a good "guardrail"? Not letting your chatbot generate text to perpetrate frauds and scams. Seems like these models should be "smart" enough to figure out when they're being used for that purpose.

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Eric Champnella @echamp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Dear Maine Democrats -- Here's your new commercial. You're welcome.

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Julian Go @juliango.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Latest news: 2 of my sociology colleagues, John Levi Martin & Geoff Wodtke & I each wrote separate reviews of the Vanderbilt-Wash U Report on Sociology by A. Rubin. For my brief opinion and links to all 3 reviews, see this blogpost: scatter.wordpress.com/2026/09/19/g...

scatter.wordpress.com

guest post: scholarly malpractice and the vanderbilt-washington university report on sociology

The following is a guest post by Julian Go. By now readers of scatterplot will be aware of the Sociology portion of the Vanderbilt-Washington University Report (VWUR) by Ashley Rubin. Part of the “…

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"the more we dug into Rubin’s claims and data, the more we realized that the assessments should not be kept confidential. The claims were too extreme, the institutions behind it were too prominent, and...media attention to the...project and to sociology’s supposed 'politicization' was too immense"

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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"If Rubin were actually sincere about not having sufficient evidence to make sweeping claims about the discipline, then she would not make such sweeping claims about the discipline. Yet she does. Over and over again." @juliango.bsky.social on the U Chicago responses to the Rubin report on sociology.

scatter.wordpress.com

guest post: scholarly malpractice and the vanderbilt-washington university report on sociology

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 27/09/2026

I'm very glad I had no access to AP courses in high school

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 27/09/2026

"More people working in the United States right now than at any point in the History of our Country!" True. Also true, lowest percentage of the population since the Great Recession. For Monday's sociology class episode of Denominators Matter.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 27/09/2026

Seems like feeding your cows milk

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 27/09/2026

I learned a lot from this book, and recommend. One thing I don't get is, "Thiel owns Vance" or (in the book) that if Vance wins in 2028 Thiel will be "the most powerful man in the world." I don't know that Vance follows Thiel's orders today, or that he has done things for Thiel he didn't want to do

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Dana Hull @danahull.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

october Book 📕 challenge! You can do it. Wrest free of the Attention Barons

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 25/09/2026

Great pronatalist poster from France circa 1930s, showing outcome of a century of "normal fertility" versus "insufficient fertility." At least 3 children per household are needed "for a country to thrive" from Andrew Gelman's visit here: www.carnavalet.paris.fr/expositions/..., on his blog today.

Two population pyramids, with French text. Google translate:

AFTER A CENTURY OF

AFTER A CENTURY OF

NORMAL FERTILITY

INSUFFICIENT FERTILITY

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AMONG
DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS
At least, on average, 3 children per household are needed

JOIN THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR INCREASING THE

for a country to thrive

FRENCH POPULATION 217, Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, PARIS

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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

“the Trump administration has implemented policies more extreme than those of even the AfD, the furthest-right of the European parties discussed, and has done so with the near-unanimous support of US Republicans.” crookedtimber.org/2026/09/25/n...

crookedtimber.org

NY Times should look across the Hudson, not across the Atlantic — Crooked Timber

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Most people have no idea how much international students are the lifeblood of higher education. But they’re about to learn. Sigh.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 25/09/2026

I am in a Black Mirror episode where more and more people around me are casually mentioning that Claude is telling them this or that. One day I'm gonna see everybody walking in the same direction and ask, "where are you going?" and they'll say "Claude said to walk this way!" -- and it's off a cliff

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Mark Andrew Price @pricelaborecon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Asked AI that question and it said drink kerosene.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/09/2026

I just noticed this graphic from the After the Spike book talk shows 24 people in the first generation and 16 in the second, which is a 1/3 drop, not the 1/4 drop the text describes. (wrote about it here: familyinequality.wordpress.com/2026/01/20/i...)

How fast
would
change
come?

Consider a birth
rate of about
1.5, between
the US and
Europe

100 in first gen

75 in second gen

55 in third gen

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Seems like it should be part of the "are phones ruining the kids" debate that every marker of teen mental health has improved since 2021 www.cdc.gov/yrbs/youth-h...

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/09/2026

It's humiliating for Trump to be dealing with a news media he can't control while meeting with strongman Xi and I am ok with that.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/09/2026

Reliable observation: Regions of the country that are doing better vote Democratic. Unhealthy politics, unhealthy country. familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/f...

familyinequality.wordpress.com

Four variables that say a lot about the USA today (name the scale)

It’s birth rates, women’s labor force participation, education levels, and average incomes.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Read this: is is from the chair of outside advisors of the Iowa civics center imposed on campus. He thinks he is describing current faculty but he is perfectly describing himself and his fellow travelers

"I think there's a fundamental tension," Lowery told Inside Higher Ed. "We've had a sort of ideological takeover of the universities where you have ideological administrators hiring ideological faculty and they will do everything they can to prevent other ideas from being represented on campus."

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/09/2026

In Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty, Anna Louis Sussman tells the story of economic insecurity driving down birth rates among young people in rich countries today. If you don't want to read my review, you could read Margaret Talbot's, which is excellent.

newyorker.com

What’s Really Behind the Baby Bust?

Are people having fewer children because modern life makes parenthood too difficult—or because the meaning of a satisfying life has changed?

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 24/09/2026

If we had any embarrassment left

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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 23/09/2026

What happens when economic change feels like a threat to masculinity? In Contexts, Dan Cassino examines how men’s political preferences change when the traditional breadwinner role becomes less secure. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Sociology #Masculinity #Gender #PoliticalSociology

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23/09/2026

I approve this use of my photo of Dr. Oz.

'Stupid and Evil': Severe Outrage After White
House Revokes Health Care Coverage for 750K
Americans

CMS says the cancellations will return about $2.2 billion in advance premium tax credits,
while new verification rules target agents, brokers and applicants

By Robert Gorgonio
Published 23 September 2026, 4:58 PM BST

f in GFO

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz cancels 315,000 unauthorised ACA enrolments covering 760,000 people in a fraud
(PHOTO: PHOTO BY: PHILIP COHEN - HTTPS://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/PHILIPCOHEN/55366660718/, CC BY-

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Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Very strong critique by Martin. For a view from archaeology, which may or may not be useful for sociologists. With outsiders dumping on sociology over Arday and Rubin, I thought maybe a little cheer from a sociology-admirer was in order publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2026/09/is-s...

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Daniel Laurison @daniellaurison.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In my Class Class today we discussed Ranita Ray's book, Making of A Teenage Service Class. It's the story of how kids coming from poverty can make all the "right" choices & still end up in low-wage jobs. Is there an equivalent/inverse book that's an ethnography of well-off kids?

Cover of Ranita Ray's Making of a Teenage Service Class. Subtitle: poverty and mobility in an American City. Cover image: looking down at someone's feet, wearing a pair of scuffed red converse sneakers, the ratty/frayed cuffs of blue jeans visible above them.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23/09/2026

Maybe it's not Malcolm Gladwell's fault, maybe he was just the tipping point, when people got extremely focused on identifying the moment a trend changed. Some were data journalists looking for a true insight, some just seeking a viral moment.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23/09/2026

I reviewed Inconceivable, by Anna Louie Sussman. With theory, history and descriptive data debunking for what I don't agree with, and a little appreciation for her critique of contemporary capitalism. Thread to come.

familyinequality.wordpress.com

Exploring Family Dynamics in an Era of Low Birth Rates

Explore Anna Louise Sussman's book on the complexities of family choices amidst modern insecurity. A deep dive into fertility and societal influences.

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Katie Fallow @katiefallow.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The White House's brief responding to CNN/Ms Now/Politico's TRO motion is a joke - legally, constitutionally, and logically. (1/5) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

storage.courtlistener.com

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 22/09/2026

Or the Friedrich Hayek-Ayn Rand Chair in the History of Free Markets created by right-wingers who hijacked State U explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/54...

explore.jobs.ufl.edu

University of Florida - Details - Open Rank Faculty - American Government, History, Literature, and Law (AGHLL)

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SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

At SocArXiv, our intrepid volunteers screen a few dozen papers per day, using this moderation policy: socopen.org/moderation-p..., supplemented by this AI policy: socopen.org/ai-policy/. If that sounds fun or interesting or important to you, join us! Contact: socarxiv at gmail.

socopen.org

Moderation Policy

This moderation policy is now supplemented by our AI Policy, here. If your paper has been rejected and you would like to appeal the decision, use this form. Policy revision date October 2025, by th…

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

At her 22-week ultrasound, Amanda Jablonski learned their daughter had developed without a skull or a brain. There was no chance for survival, and every day Amanda stayed pregnant was a threat to her health and life. Under TN law, she was denied an abortion. www.wbir.com/article/news...

wbir.com

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 22/09/2026

Margaret Talbot has written most of what I would say about Anna Louie Sussman's book, Inconceivable. Sussman basically ignores the upside of lower fertility because that's not her story. She never asks, if today's lower fertility is bad, was yesterday's lower fertility bad, too? When did it change?

newyorker.com

What’s Really Behind the Baby Bust?

Are people having fewer children because modern life makes parenthood too difficult—or because the meaning of a satisfying life has changed?

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 22/09/2026

Should we, "accept a future in which reproductive opportunities, parental obligations and children’s life chances are increasingly organized around genetic optimization, private purchasing power and corporate profit"?

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 21/09/2026

Hey, I'm giving a talk at Johns Hopkins on Friday: "Depopulation Panic and Doing Demography in Public." Includes zoom option. (Yes, I've used versions of this title as I keep working on the book, but the talk keeps changing!) popcenter.jhu.edu/event/hpc-se...

Hopkins Population Center Seminar
Depopulation Panic and Doing Demography in Public
Guest Speaker:
DR. PHILIP COHEN
Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park
Abstract
Strongman national leaders from Mussolini to MAGA have used falling birth rates to energize their political movements. Their nostalgic images of gender, sexuality, and family life easily summon pronatalist ideology. But today's depopulation panic is driving liberal pronatalism as well. So the "Great Replacement" and anti-immigrant politics exist side-by-side with democratic socialists demanding more generous family support and childcare, to help young families meet their fertility goals. Can demographers, as social scientists, contribute constructively to these debates? To do so, our engagement must be informative as well as trustworthy, even as we rise to meet our obligations as citizens in defense of democratic values. The talk includes preliminary results from a new survey of demographer attitudes on birth rates and population trends.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Every authoritarian who attacks the free press claims to be attacking the “fake news.”

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 20/09/2026

Presumably this is less people changing their minds than it is people sorting differently into party IDs

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