iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sarang Shah

I Nied braaaaiiiiins 🧟 @nied.bsky.social · 19h

If we really are in a national Prop 187-style realignment, in 15 years we'll be getting ads like this for Republican Presidential candidates.

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 15h

Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending

a graph of roadway and mass transit lights

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Gretchen Felker-Martin PRE ORDER CHIMERA 2.16.27 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 17h

do I hate Harold Bloom? yes. do I think he's an awful snob, and that King has some unacknowledged literary merit? absolutely. does he have a point? yeah, man. he has a point.

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 15h

"Superior non recognoscens" 😆

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 15h

What they tell you in Genoa about St George’s Cross.

The true story of the english's flag
In 1190, king Richard and the Court of London requested and obtained authorization to fly the flag of Republic of Genoa on their ships sailing in the mediterranean and Black seas.
In that periodthe English ships were prey to pirates and bandits, fling the Genoeses flag these episodes passed.
Forthis authorisation they undertook to pay an annual tribute to the Republic of Genoa.
Since that moment England has been represented throughout the worlo by the flag of Sansiorgio, the flag of
干
Republica of Genoa
Supertor non recognoscens
+

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 16h

Will need to expand this to a frightening number of desis

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 16h

The idea that NYC is some sort of natural experiment to derive many of the essential qualities of the human and social conditions, rather than a highly contingent, historically and ideologically situated place, is very funny to me. Peak Enlightment-era America-thought.

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 16h

This city (and perhaps life) is a lot more fun once you've accepted that maybe, just maybe, you might not be that important

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 16h

As a Californian I endorse chilling out, even if you're just pretending to be chill

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 16h

I think the general simmering frustration vibe of NYC is that it's a city famously full of "main charactets" who have to live cheek by jowl with other people

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 16h

Cynicism is a dumb person's impression of a smart person.

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Luke Herrine @lookheron.bsky.social · 19h

Some professional news nycpolicyforum.substack.com/p/collective...

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 30/09/2026

‘British politics has long been complacent about the power of big money. The relatively low price of access to politicians here has often been interpreted, wrongly, as a sign of probity.’ Peter Geoghegan on party fundraising: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Peter Geoghegan · Short Cuts: Funding Reform

British politics has long been complacent about the power of big money. The relatively low price of access to...

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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For my new research unit Politics of Democracy at the Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social, we have 3 open research positions. 2 postdocs: 4 + 2 years (100%) 1 doc: 2 years (75%) Starting date: 1 March 2027 (negotiable) Application deadline: 1 November

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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“The current level of political animosity is exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s citizens… and its pathology is not anger—it is the movement to undermine a generation of rights.”

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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My new JOD piece arguing against the “cure polarization” approach to saving democracy.

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Thomas M. Keck @tmksyracuse.bsky.social · 20h

@lilymasonphd.bsky.social is one of our leading scholars of polarization in U.S. politics, and she is very clear-eyed about how the widespread adoption of that frame has led lots of analysts to misdiagnose the problem with contemporary U.S. democracy

From this perspective, the “both sides” frame falls apart. The problem is not that the parties are divided. The problem is the existential threat that a reempowered ethnonationalist strain poses to pluralistic U.S. democracy writ large. The current level of political animosity is exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s citizens. The only way to re-oppress most of a country is to use anti-democratic and authoritarian tactics. And the only way to oppose those tactics is to push back as a population and clearly reject them. This is the argument happening in the United States, and its pathology is not anger—it is the movement to undermine a generation of rights.

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We're all so freaked out about AI crushing students' cognitive skills (and rightly so) so it's nice to be reminded that at least some of them are just out there reading and learning and thinking much as they've ever been.

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Huge props to the student for a) doing scholarly research on a topic they were interested in and wanted to understand further, and b) coming to talk to their professor instead of asking Claude or w/e

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mu @mu.social · 02/10/2026

mu is now available for open testing on Android play.google.com/store/apps/d... We’re already aware of some funky text in a couple of places. Please share your feedback and bugs. Note - this version does not have notifications yet

play.google.com

mu - Apps on Google Play

Real conversation & proper fun. Built in Europe for the world. No tracking ever.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21h

also, this shit is just run-of-the-mill segregationist ideology. the substance of keeperman and rufo's discussion is identical to the infamous line from the trial judge in loving v. virginia

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 21h

The literal argument here is that you're not assimilated if white people are racist against you because of who you are or how you look. bsky.app/profile/jame...

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 21h

I suspect it's in part a blindness to narcissism that develops when everyone in a room is a narcissist, and the other is that Manny had a powerful and influential nationwide fundraising network, and few wanted to dismiss it

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 21h

Despite agreeing with him on several issues, and appreciating some of what he and others have contributed to the city, he was easily one of the most self-regarding people in city politics I've encountered. All politicians are self-regarding to an extent, but he was a whole level above.

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 22h

This is one reason why I breathe a sigh of relief when abroad (in cities): being taken for a foreigner, an American foreigner, for whom the American ethnicity is more apparent and pressing than any other, is more common than in my home country

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 22h

There's a sort of persistent loneliness, a compounding sense of non-belonging this position of being born into a body and appearance that is not archetypal of the only identity one holds. I've wondered often what my life would have been like had I been born otherwise. Would I have felt more free?

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 22h

As someone whose primary ethnicity is American, i.e. someone for whom upbringing, cultural practices, and attitudes largely rooted in the American experience, I've never stopped noticing when others casually "other" me because of my appearance. To know for many I could never be what I am is painful.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22h

Rare you get live visuals of state capture.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 22h

if you've been wondering how thin the commitment to the cultural is as an. 'alternative' to explicit racism of the more clearly segregationist sort, consider the implications of "the mere fact of us being able to notice" that someone is of South Asian heritage as ruling our assimilation

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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 23h

I would prefer not to be ethnically cleansed

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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 23h

It's worth remembering that this upswing in online racism towards Indian-Americans began over a photo of Indian-Americans celebrating at a College Football game i.e. they were actually assimilating just fine, and the racists hated that

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Cli-fugees et fantaisie @cli-fugees.bsky.social · 22h

Moi, à la place, des partis de gauche, je me mettrais très très vite au boulot sur un plan de déradicalisation et de désarmement de la police en cas d'arrivée (surprise) au pouvoir Tout nous montre depuis des années que c'est une des plus grandes menaces pour la démocratie et rien ne semble prévu

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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 23h

Rufo gets to position himself as "respectable." Polite sit-down interview w/ Ezra Klein. Celebrated by Substack as one of platform's "best" writers. Senior fellow at Manhattan Institute. His "Indian Question" podcast is pretty explicitly white nationalist talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing

To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...

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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 23h

New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing

To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...

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Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 01/10/2026

y'all i'm working on this data collection project looking at dissertations & sometimes I get reminders that we are not all playing the same game (1999 edition)

not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents, for buying me a lovely condominium at Harvard Street so that I could concentrate on my research with out worrying about paying rents,

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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is a good policy, and I'm waiting for journals to do the same. Next, for all hiring, promotion and grants you should only be able to submit your 5 best or most relevant works.

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Chance the Lawyer @chancethelawyer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Texas bragging about eliminating the "Delaware-style" implied covenant of *good faith and fair dealing* in contracting is about all you need to know concerning where we are in the race to the bottom.

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 01/10/2026

Less reason for phones to break when dropped!

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

NYT has gained monopoly power in the American liberal economy. With no comparable competition, they can say “fine, good luck elsewhere” to nearly any person, idea, or story they want US liberalism’s ideas became more based in what NYT wants, not which ideas are strongest or best. Monopoly power!

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Sarang Shah @sarangshah.com · 01/10/2026

Why don't they just build the case into the phone?

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Mike Finger @mikefinger.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Just asked Victor Wembanyama if he’d ever consider promoting a sports betting company. “Absolutely not. I will never do that. Honestly, I think it's very sad to see some players promote it. .. Everybody does whatever they want, but without me.”

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ponder @ponder.ooo · 01/10/2026

this is because despite whatever faults you might find in some particular "wave" of feminism or however *annoying* or *cringe* you might find some feminists, the core of feminism is correct and feminist thought provides tools which make one's understanding of the world clearer and more accurate

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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 01/10/2026

The ability to credibly defect and challenge leadership means MLs can better constrain anti-democratic behavior from those close to them in their ideology.

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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 01/10/2026

The key to understand here is that in a two-party (plurality rules) system is that coalitions form prior to elections Multi-party (PR rules) system allow for parties to form coalitions after the election

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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 01/10/2026

Alright class, lets gather around and discuss parties as coalitions as the ability of members of legislature (MLs) to credibly challenge or defect from party leadership.

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"[L]’Empereur était pressé de me montrer une carte de Paris, sur laquelle on voyait tracées par Lui-Même, en bleu, en rouge, en jaune et en vert, suivant leur degré d’urgence, les différentes voies nouvelles qu’il se proposait de faire exécuter..." Is there such a thing as a Caesarist City?

cambridge.org

The Caesarist City | Modern Intellectual History | Cambridge Core

The Caesarist City - Volume 23 Issue 3

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