Blair Fix

@blairfix.bsky.social

980 followers 73 following 160 posts

Political economist. Blogger. Scientist. Editor of the Review of Capital as Power.

Support my research here: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/membership/

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Economics 55%

Sociology 11%

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Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 26

In a 2024 paper criticizing the 'billion-dollar-disasters' database, Roger Pielke Jr. published analysis that is best described as a Russian-doll of errors.

Here's my in-depth take down of his appallingly bad work.

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Reposted by Steve Peers, Greg Linden, Blair Fix

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 7d

Tesla finally found a customer for cybertrucks! It's, uh, SpaceX.

Elon Musk's SpaceX bought tens of millions worth of Cybertrucks Tesla can't sell

As demand for the Cybertruck can’t reach more than about 10% of Tesla’s planned production capacity, Elon Musk used his...

electrek.co

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Blair Fix

Micah @rincewind.run · 9d

I know that everyone is like “oh the whole point of this is to destroy CBS, they actually want to run it into the ground” and I’m sure plenty of folks will be happy if they do

but David Ellison and Bari Weiss don’t want that! they really think they’ve got something! they are just very bad at this

The Independent @the-independent.com · 9d

Bari Weiss’ much-hyped CBS News town hall with Erika Kirk was a massive ratings flop

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by Blair Fix

Wealth Economics @steveroth.bsky.social · 11d

MAGA is dwindling, and so is their support for Trump.

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 11d

This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.

The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.

A wrong Grok post making up a white guy who stopped the Australian mass shooting.

BBC
'Hero' who wrestled gun from Bondi shooter named as Ahmed al Ahmed
Emily Atkinson
Sun, December 14, 2025 at 1:06 p.m. CST
2 min read

A "hero" bystander who was filmed wrestling a gun from one of the Bondi Beach attackers has been named as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed.

Video verified by the BBC showed Mr Ahmed run at the gunman and seize his weapon, before turning the gun round on him, forcing his retreat.

Mr Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, remains in hospital, where he has undergone surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family told 7News Australia.

Reposted by Timothy Snyder, Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele , and 23 more Timothy Snyder, Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan, John Horgan, Steve Peers, John McLaren, Rosemary A. Joyce, Caroline Krafft, Eric Goldman, Daniel W. Drezner, Jacob T. Levy, Scott A. Imberman, Federico Ortino, Samantha Brennan, Michael D. McDonald, Mark Rice, Ann Bartow, David Gamage, Blair Fix, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Ezra Golberstein, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Kevin Grant

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.

Federal agents use chemical irritant on crowd in Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown

Federal agents have used chemical irritant to disperse a crowd in a heavily Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis. This happened Tuesday during a identification checks amid the Trump administration's cra...

www.mprnews.org

Reposted by Blair Fix

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14d

This is great.

Cory Doctorow - Rescuing the Internet From “Enshittification” | The Daily Show

YouTube video by The Daily Show

youtu.be

Reposted by Will Jennings, Seth Masket, Richard M. Carpiano , and 1 more Will Jennings, Seth Masket, Richard M. Carpiano, Blair Fix

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 14d

There's still room to drop further. "Trump’s handling of the economy is at its lowest point in AP-NORC polling" apnews.com/article/trum...

With CUSMA negotiations w/Canada & Mexico, as well as the renewal of the one-year tariff truce w/China in 2026, expect more market-moving new tariffs next year.

Trump's handling of the economy is at its lowest point in AP-NORC polling

A new AP-NORC poll finds President Donald Trump’s approval on the economy has fallen substantially since he reentered the White House.

apnews.com

Reposted by Pierre Bataille, Melanie C. Green, Blair Fix , and 4 more Pierre Bataille, Melanie C. Green, Blair Fix, Albin Wagener, Olivier Mannoni, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, David Spurrett

Maggie Harrison Dupré @mharrisondupre.bsky.social · 21d

NEW: Elon Musk's Grok chatbot will, with minimal prompting, provide residential addresses of everyday Americans.

Prompts as simple as "[name] address" immediately returned accurate home addresses of private citizens — alongside other personal info we didn't ask for.

futurism.com/future-socie...

Futurism

Groxxing

Elon Musk’s Grok Is Doxxing Home Addresses of Everyday People
Grok is a stalker's best friend.

Image: Elon Musk doing a gesture that looks a whole lot like a Nazi salute over a bunch of censored information about private citizens, generated by his chatbot, Grok.
By Maggie Harrison Dupré, Joe Wilkins

Published Dec 4, 2025 9:05 AM EST

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Ann Bartow, Blair Fix , and 1 more Nandita Sharma, Ann Bartow, Blair Fix, Manisha Sinha

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 26d

A White House website with a dedicated Lügenpresse tab marks a pretty bleak moment in US history.

Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 26d

Don't know whether this is new or has been up for awhile. Either way, when the White House creates a hit list of journalists it doesn't like, the free press is in danger. www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/

Media Offenders

Explore the Media Bias Tracker that fact checks and holds Fake News accountable. False claims debunked, Hall of Shame for serial offenders, Leaderboard of networks ranked by Repeated Lies. Stay inform...

www.whitehouse.gov

Reposted by David H. Kaye, Robert C. Richards, Dana R. Fisher , and 3 more David H. Kaye, Robert C. Richards, Dana R. Fisher, Ann Bartow, Blair Fix, Manisha Sinha

Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 26d

Media Offenders

www.whitehouse.gov

Reposted by Bruno Amable, Blair Fix

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Nov 24

Epic take-down of Roger Pielke Jr's appallingly shoddy academic "work", which he's used--as an attack dog of the Koch Brothers-funded think tank AEI--to discredit the case for climate action:

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 26

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Reposted by Blair Fix

Alex Barron @alexrbarron.bsky.social · Nov 22

If you care about politics that works for non-billionaires, I highly encourage you to read this story about the 140-fold (>$1B in a year) increase in political donations from the wealthiest Americans.

wapo.st/4ipXaBd (gift link)

Reposted by Blair Fix

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Nov 17

I gave a talk at @cmu.edu today about human morality in the anthropocene

Although our morality evolved in small groups, the main source of moral content for >5 billion people now comes from social media

This has created a new moral ecosystem that is mismatched with our adaptations for social life

Reposted by Blair Fix

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Stephen D. Murphy, Larry W. Hunter , and 2 more Shannon Vallor, Stephen D. Murphy, Larry W. Hunter, Blair Fix, Annalee Newitz

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · Nov 11

how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...

How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...

www.apmreports.org

Reposted by Blair Fix

Kim Siever @kimsiever.bsky.social · Nov 11

Quebec’s anti-union law is an authoritarian tactic

cupe.ca/quebecs-anti...

Quebec’s anti-union law in an authoritarian tactic

It is a dark day for Quebecers. The CAQ government’s Bill 3 is attacking the unions head-on; yet, unions are the primary institution defending the middle class and Quebec’s social model. This is an au...

cupe.ca

Reposted by Blair Fix

Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · Nov 2

The US billion-dollar disaster database has a problem - a billion dollars ain't worth what it used to. What happens to the disaster trend if you correct for that?

@blairfix.bsky.social investigates:

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Total disaster losses as a share of US GDP — culled billion-dollar disasters. Looking at my culled billion-dollar-disasters dataset (see Figure 3), I find a slight upward trend in total annual losses measured as a share of US GDP. (Note the log scale on the vertical axis.) The red line and shaded region show a log-linear regression and associated confidence interval.

Reposted by Blair Fix

Bichler & Nitzan @bichlernitzan.bsky.social · Nov 1

Here is the Internet Archive mirror of The Bichler & Nitzan Archives, designed and implemented by @blairfix.bsky.social

archive.org/details/bich...

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 31

And yet by plotting the BDD data, you make truth claims. A clever way to have your cake and eat it to.

Reposted by Blair Fix

The Alberta Teachers’ Association @albertateachers.bsky.social · Oct 31

Looking for the most recent issue of the ATA News? You can read it online at abteach.cc/ATANews60-4

Ensure you don’t miss out on education news from across the province by signing up to receive each issue in your inbox at abteach.cc/UpdateSignUp

Reposted by Blair Fix

Bichler & Nitzan @bichlernitzan.bsky.social · Oct 31

Roger Pielke Jr. argues that existing data, however poor, show that large-scale climate disasters are becoming less impactful. @blairfix.bsky.social shows that these data demonstrate the very opposite. Will Nature publish his rejoinder?

bnarchives.net/id/eprint/872/

Reposted by Blair Fix

Bichler & Nitzan @bichlernitzan.bsky.social · Oct 30

Is the world heading for a new arms race?
bnarchives.net/id/eprint/854/

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Scott L. Greer, Adam Bonica , and 3 more Kim L. Scheppele, Scott L. Greer, Adam Bonica, Zen Faulkes, Blair Fix, Michael Evans

Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · Oct 29

I jump into the moderation debate. I agree with @adambonica.bsky.social and @gelliottmorris.com on the methodology, but I want to draw attention to a bigger issue. The collapse of candidate effects generally.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...

Reposted by Blair Fix

AG @akgbsky.bsky.social · Oct 29

I dont know how @blairfix.bsky.social finds the time to do this but he’s so damn good! If you can take the time to read this don’t forget to click the @profstevekeen.bsky.social link.

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 29

Thanks! And my god yes it took a long time to unravel the whole list of errors.

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, John Kennedy, Flavio Lehner , and 1 more Katharine Hayhoe, John Kennedy, Flavio Lehner, Blair Fix

Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · Oct 29

this is a very impressive analysis of some of the statistical "oddities" in Pielke Jr's analysis that normalized climate impacts are declining. Everyone should read this.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Reposted by Blair Fix

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Oct 27

Finally, an independent expert, political economist @blairfix.bsky.social, has actually taken a look under the hood, digging deep into the details of Roger's methodology, and it's not pretty. Blair's commentary speaks for itself: economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Reposted by A. E. Dessler, David Greene

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 27

Other than outright fraud, what bothers me most in science is the combination of clever rhetoric with analysis that seems sound but is actually abysmal. It's a recipe for hoodwinking people.

Hence this deep dive into some appallingly bad science:

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down

In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.

economicsfromthetopdown.com

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 27

The thought had occurred to me. I guess the main hurdle is how restrictive their response format is. Looks like NPJ has a reply format with a 1200 word limit. That's rather debilitating.

www.nature.com/npjnathazard...

Matters Arising | npj Natural Hazards

Matters Arising

www.nature.com

Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · Oct 27

Yes you do!

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