one strange characteristic of our moment is we’ve developed new forms of a “republic of letters” whose participants view themselves as an intellectual elite, while the actual content of that elite discourse is memes or, at best, several hundred character interjections.

@realcaseyrollins@a.nti.social @realcaseyrollins@noauthority.social it can certainly feel that way too! i wonder if you ever found yourself using your depression, or musings on acting out from your depression in ways that would harm yourself or your relationships or loved ones, in a kind of psychological bargaining? that gets you close to the sense of the tweet.

@eARCwelder i think that was a key moment in his devolution. he was forced to abjectly (insincerely) apologize. i think he might have resigned from some boards. i think he tremendously resented that he could not play with loose historical musings in public, to him that was “censorship”. (i don’t think it’s because at the time he was so attached to the thesis, he felt it out-of-bounds to be told not just “you’re wrong” but “you’re bad” and even face professional consequences.)

@realcaseyrollins it’s kind of like a joke, only the opposite. but like a joke’s not funny if you have to explain it, if i explained this it’d just drain it of its punch. hopefully it’s hard for you to get because you’re not depressed a lot!

sometimes depression is an attempt to hold oneself for ransom before god.

andreeson used to chat widely, then he blocked anyone who might say anything he might find uncomfortable to hear. in retrospect that has proven consequential.

“When there is a need to address a specific weakness (say chip production), subsidies for reshoring are far superior to tariffs. Subsidies for chip making help our industries that use chips, while tariffs on chips hurt those industries.” #ScottSumner https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/nonzero-trade-edition

Chimerica is doing a remake of the pandemic. China will bring back PPP-style business “loans”. The US will reprise shortages of basic goods.

“The group chats that changed America” by @Buzzfeedben https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

was Milton Friedman the first MMTer? https://xcancel.com/jbsteinberg/status/1915783062698217716

the version of capitalist democracy where we tolerate intercessions into deliberation motivated by capitalist ROI (lobbying, campaign contributions, “gratuities”) can’t work. injects noise into democratic deliberation at best, more often worse, supercharges Matthew effects democracy exists to blunt.

“China surely does not have a great record in respecting the rule of law, but it actually is probably a better bet at this point than what we have seen in Donald Trump’s first 100 days.” @DeanBaker13 https://cepr.net/publications/turning-america-into-russia/

war is always unsustainable the question is for whom it’s unsustainable first.

[new draft post] How can taxing foreign investors balance trade? https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/04/27/how-can-taxing-foreign-investors-balance-trade/index.html

[new draft post] Balance as a norm https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/04/24/balance-as-a-norm/index.html

“The atrophy of Congress has left a gaping wound at the heart of our Constitutional order. The net effect has been the breakdown of our system of checks and balances and a combination of institutional gridlock and institutional unpredictability.” @sjshancoxli https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-present-crisis-and-the-end-of-the-long-90s/

@light @ryanlcooper there’s nothing wrong with "people should eat healthy and exercise to fight off disease".

there’s a lot wrong with discouraging effective and defunding promising medical interventions on the pretext that if people eat right and exercise they won’t need them.

RFK jr, in his pre-Trump antivax advocacy and his current destruction of research and public health programs, is clearly, at least in my view, engaged in the latter project.

@light @ryanlcooper No. No one is convicting him of a crime. His approach to disease is just reminiscent of the attitude, you’ll survive if you’re fit, if you deserve to. Medical interference is to be disdained.

If you, viewing the totality of his interventions, have a more flattering view of him, you are welcome to it.

@light @ryanlcooper eugenics is applying Darwinism prescriptively to “improve” the human race.

one way a eugenicist might do that is encourage selection via the stressor of infectious disease — refrain from applying “artificial” remedies, let the fittest, due to natural strength and immunity or behavioral excellence in health maintenance, survive.

“all that will really have happened is a confirmation that you can’t trust anything this administration says, including its threats.” @pkrugman https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cronyism-capitulation-and-chaos