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Sam Crane

@uselesstree.bsky.social
3K followers 1.3K following 1.8K posts

I teach contemporary PRC politics and ancient Chinese philosophy at Williams College. Teaching Fall 2026 at Trinity College Dublin.

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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 5h
Brings to mind the Wang Shuo story 顽主 which foreshadowed just this kind of commodification of every day life. It made for a funny movie back in the day: www.imdb.com/title/tt0276...
imdb.com
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 5h
Good piece by @stephenmcdonell.bsky.social It demonstrates the erosion of Confucian norms and practices in China: filiality has, for a variety of reasons, attenuated so much that the elderly have to hire helpers for assistance and companionship. 1/ www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Paid companionship grows as loneliness rises in China
As loneliness grows in China, a new industry is emerging to provide companionship and support.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
And most Americans are right.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It's staunchly authoritarian in its politics and thus susceptible to all the general problems of authoritarianism.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
There's got to be a whole lot of Philadephians there.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Lord of the Fruit Flies
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
As we approach the midterm elections it's important for all Americans to remember the obvious truth: the President of the United States is mentally ill and should be removed from office as soon as possible.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
40 years ago today I defended my PhD dissertation in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. A happy day.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I agree with Bell on the central point but I doubt current PRC leadership will include Confucian principles in their calculations about attacking Taiwan.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
TIL: while doing research on my family roots in Dublin, I discovered that "vitriol makers" predate contemporary conservative Republicans.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This wins the internet today.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Actually, it's slander against Lucian Pye: chinamediaproject.org/the_ccp_dict...
chinamediaproject.org
Civilizational State - China Media Project
The “civilizational state” is the idea that China is unlike any other ordinary country, but a civilization forced into the restrictive nation-state framework developed in the West. While the notion is...
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
*civilizational discourse (damn autocorrect)
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Daily reminder that civilizations discourse is vapid.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Trump's America, not as bad as Serbia....yet. "Judged by the eleven criteria the authors devised to score 35 regimes in their earlier research, the U.S. case is comparable to Hungary under Viktor Orbán, if far softer than 1990s Russia or Serbia."
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nixon did not get a raw deal. Nixon was a raw deal.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
How 'bout those Yankees!
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Reposted by Sam Crane
Kevin Moorebidity @kevinwmoore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
From this day on 2012: probably the most popular thing I’ve ever drawn.
TinTin discovers Edward Said.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Great reporting by @emilyzfeng.bsky.social The question is: was this a failed attempt by China hawks to purposely troll Xi or simply incompetence?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Artificial Intelligence theatens Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Kennedy Center. Did I miss anything?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Could League titles be retroactively stripped?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And there goes Perdue right under the bus. Always good to keep in mind that the President of the United States is a mentally ill pathological liar.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hi Zach (and thanks @beijingpalmer.bsky.social). Here's one of the first things I wrote about Aidan some time ago: Opinion | Productive in His Own Way - The New York Times share.google/zybYwNbtFJ7H...
share.google
Opinion | Productive in His Own Way (Published 1998)
George T Crane Op-Ed article on programs for disabled says utilitarian approach, aimed at developing productive members of society, could be fatally flawed if crudely applied to medical care of severe...
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” — Sun Tzu
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A brutal conquest (remember the Harrying of the North!) is rebranded a "rebirh." 🤔
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
How about 1 point for every day justice has been delayed?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So, nothing substantial was accomplished. A relatively good outcome given what Trump might have done on a whim. Diplomacy or ‘diplotainment’? Key takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Washington | Donald Trump | The Guardian share.google/DjiMrOHaZPjo...
share.google
Diplomacy or ‘diplotainment’? Key takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Washington
Xi Jinping’s visit heavy on symbolism but no sign closed-door meeting yielded breakthroughs on thorny issues such as AI, trade, Taiwan and Iran
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Groveling, really.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So, have Common Good conservatives gotten behind this? Sure seems like a common good.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"But what these are in the first place signs of – affections of the soul – are the same for all; and what these affections are likenesses of – actual things – are also the same."
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thinking of this passage from Aristotle, On Interpretation, for my class today: "Spoken sounds are symbols of affections in the soul, and written marks symbols of spoken sounds. And just as written marks are not the same for all men, neither are spoken sounds.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Sadly, this almost certainly will not happen.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is the PRC approach to claiming control of islands and reefs in the South China Sea: because we gave it a Chinese name on an ancient map, we own it!
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Yes. The "nominal selectorate" - the public at large - is turning away from Trump and that is endangering the "real selectorate," the influential Republican pols. Hope this runs to form.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Will Trump trade Taiwan for rare earths?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Not clear to me what they think they will accomplish with all this grandiosity. Do they think Xi is as susceptible to flattery as Trump is?
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Reminder of what political repression looks like in Xi's PRC. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘People had naive expectations’: How MeToo has changed in China
On Friday, MeToo journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin was released from prison. She returns to a landscape changed by censorship, and a new generation of feminists
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The President of the United States is obviously mentally ill. This has been evident for a long time. He should be removed from office as soon as possible. But deeply corrupt Republican and conservative elites keep him in power to maintain their own prerogatives and privileges. The Founders weep.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Not that it matters to Trump cultists but inflation in Biden's time was due to two exogenous shocks: post-Covid economic dynamics (increased demand and still obstructed supply) and Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump's inflation is rooted in the policies he has pursued.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Thread
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
George VI
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The fight is real.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
For those with questions, this is a good starting point. China Under Mao — Harvard University Press share.google/eOXjd1cyuj8v...
share.google
China Under Mao — Harvard University Press
China’s Communist Party seized power in 1949 after a long period of guerrilla insurgency followed by full-scale war, but the Chinese revolution was just beginning. China Under Mao narrates the rise an...
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
中南海,中南海
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The political rationalization that this will somehow improve NZ-PRC relations is really pathetic.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The fact that so many people seem unable to see that AI is not human makes the case for teaching and studying Humanities.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
At this point we'll take what we can get.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
But Fulham looked good.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I missed this yesterday. A key turning point in the erosion of Maoist legitimacy.
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trump is bad for men.
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