Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026For all that Silicon Valley invests in the philosophy of AI, they couldn’t predict the literal Pope would be immovable on AI consciousness? Something so obvious it’s a plot point in multiple celebrated sci-fi series? 011
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Kalshi is giving away coffee at Bryant Park from a truck labeled “Markets for Everyone. Freedom to Forecast.” Suggests two things: • They’re really afraid of regulation • “Freedom” remains a pernicious way to launder harmful goods and ideas. 010
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026On the contrary, they got to show their boss as a fighter willing to indulge a crazy conspiracy theory on live TV. Did it backfire? Yes, in circles where merit and statesmanship matter. But Schmitt doesn’t inhabit those circles and doesn’t care about them. 000
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Really resent YouTube for marketing background play and downloadable video as premium features when both are just… basic functions we should expect from a player. 000
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Ugh, FINE, I will be the lieutenant governor of New Jersey. 010
Reposted by TheodericWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Yep, this is why Trump leaping into a war of choice with Iran is so bad: there is just no good way to disentangle from it. Trump himself has discovered this with his endless efforts to TACO. You can waltz out of the region but you'll probably be forced back in sooner or later. 410414
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026John “Torture Memo” Yoo is a law professor at Berkeley — Berkeley!!! — and leads their law and policy faculty www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/...law.berkeley.eduJohn YooJohn Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident 070
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026“The president’s illegal war backfired AND this is why we don’t let presidents declare war without Congress.” Begging Democrats to seize this chance to educate the public about how pocketbook issues and structural issues are inextricably linked. 031
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The Romans had this really helpful concept called damnatio memoriae where the name of a traitor would be stricken from public monuments — literally carved off them — thus symbolically effacing them from public memory 031
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I had a friend group in the early 2010s that got really into Rationalism and then, seemingly inexplicably, polyamory. Never occurred to me that the two were related. 020
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Republicans fundamentally don’t believe government can solve hard problems, which is why they shouldn’t be trusted to lead governments 010
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Scorching take: I really dislike the term “Dog Parent.” With much love for the dogs of the world, all of whom (yes) are good dogs, parenting a human child is so, so much harder that comparing the two feels off-putting. 000
Reposted by TheodericMarisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026New — I wrote about this weird thing where people within the Republican party keep being exposed as Nazis and the party then tries to claim each one is an aberration. The facts, as I lay out here, indicate otherwise:thehandbasket.coRepublicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problemA spate of recent revelations have shown the ideologies and their adherents are one and the same. 10182532701
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Completely agree with you — to nobody’s surprise :). With Jewish kids of my own now, I also do a lot of thinking about how their safety is bound up with the continuance of rule of law **in the country they currently inhabit.** The threat to those values is also pretty one sided. 000
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Only plausible explanation and fits the admin’s general miasma of weird corruption 010
Reposted by TheodericTom Coates @tomcoates.bsky.social · 15/09/2026October 2024 Economist cover: 12411
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026My theory: • Left-wing antisemitism is a betrayal, unexpected, and the left-wing coalition often responds to pressure to push out bad faith actors. • Right-wing antisemitism is par for the course, and in any event they *don’t* respond to pressure. It’s a lost cause. 100
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Perfect encapsulation of the moment. • Macklemore says “free Palestine.” Kicked off a tour, endless coverage. • Kanye praises Hitler, denies the Holocaust. Ah well show must go on. • Vance ally Tucker Carlson casually banters about “goyslaves.” Crickets. Our threat assessment is completely broken. 110
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Broke: Salvation by Faith Woke: Salvation by Works Bespoke: Salvation by Logic and Reason 031
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Tomorrow’s the 25th anniversary of 9/11, but next week is *also* the 18th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the start of the 2008 financial crisis 000
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026AI companies, I’m available to consult on why your GR/PR strategies aren’t working. My intro seminar — “For the love of God just be normal for once” — starts at $9,999.00. 000
Reposted by TheodericTheoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 10/12/2025Big Tech’s PR work around AI has been a masterclass in how not to communicate with the public about technology 8871247
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Maybe they are! We've run the experiment under conditions of high inequality and hyperpartisanship. I guess we'll see! 110
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Regulation is how disruptive technologies win public trust and mass adoption. Unfortunately, AI execs have convinced themselves that they're exempt from both politics and the laws of history. 140
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I solved it years ago while reading one night, unfortunately the book's margin was too narrow to contain it 030
Reposted by TheodericDave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 26/04/2026This is, of course, an oversimplification and an unfair generalization, but... everyone has lost their minds. 1137342
Reposted by Theodericthe relentless onward march of time 💀🎃 @incoherent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I think part of it is the potential for locking out competitors through regulation. "This needs to be handled responsibly, and we are Serious Thinkers about the issue so you should trust us and not some fly-by-night foreign startup." 112
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Basically two possibilities here: • AI labs are consciously ignoring well-founded warnings from their own experts • AI labs see x-risk as a way to hype their own capabilities and so indulge some pontification by eccentric employees Can’t wait to find out which one it is!! (My bet is 75% hype.) 100
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I'm aware of what social networks have **become** but the pre-algorithmic form of the technology was all about streamlining connection around interests, an impulse that favors popular movements. 010
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026This is right, but I would put a finer point on it. The appropriate vocabulary centers power. Social networks democratize power. AI concentrates it. 121
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 02/09/2026By contrast: the best people I know in government have a commitment to public service so deeply-felt and genuine that it would make Leslie Knope blush 020
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Crystal clear in hindsight that 9/11 deranged American politics, allowing reactionaries to run the country into a ditch and then — when the liberal order failed to put things back together in time — profit from the ongoing chaos. 010
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 02/09/2026If the United States won anything, it was a Pyrrhic victory. You don’t get Trumpism without Iraq and the Global War on Terror, and there’s a nontrivial chance Trumpism in turn ends in a constitutional crisis the nation can’t survive as constituted. bsky.app/profile/dipl... 110
Reposted by TheodericWill Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 01/09/2026This is shocking behavior that should be a national scandal 1972090
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I once worked on a case where ICE was trying to deport a small business owner paying for his daughter’s Ivy League tuition over a 30-year-old DUI conviction. In the Obama administration, btw 🙃 021
Reposted by TheodericSam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 30/08/2026If Dems win a trifecta in 2028 and don't push forum-shopping reform (and related judicial reforms) as their first bill, they'll doom everything else they try to do. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/u...nytimes.comHow Trump’s Policy Agenda Runs Through One Federal Court, in Texas (Gift Article)For years, conservative litigants flocked to Judge Reed O’Connor’s district. Now, North Texas has become a favorite destination of the Justice Department. 10918240
Reposted by TheodericJonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 30/08/2026My view is that we should not have a secret police. And any government action against a person under U.S. jurisdiction motivated by the political views of that person is a violation of the First Amendment. Follow the Constitution. Abolish ICE. 310113
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 30/08/2026All this for a deeply unpopular president about to suffer an enormous electoral rebuke. Never cease to be amazed by the spineless of some elites. 010
Reposted by TheodericMark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 30/08/2026There is an enormous list of pro-democracy institutional reforms that can be passed with simple majorities & zero constitutional amendments. Approximately everything we need to become an actual democracy. We just have to do it: bsky.app/profile/mcop... 39222
Theoderic @theoderic.bsky.social · 29/08/2026This is Doomerism. We’re 30 months out from the 2029 inauguration. Lot can change in that time, especially as the Supreme Court continues to prove itself beyond reform. 220