Michael Evans
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mevanspolisci.bsky.social
Michael Evans
@mevanspolisci.bsky.social

I teach & conduct political science research, seeking a healthier democracy.

Communication & Media Studies 27%
Education 25%

The lack of a comparable attempt to learn lessons from the most massive gov response to a crisis since at least the New Deal is also interesting info. Everyone who attended this webinar I helped organize agreed the book is far from terrible and worth engaging. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj9r...
The Epistemic Crisis and Attack on Public Health
YouTube video by Scholars Strategy Network
www.youtube.com

This is a foolish and embarrassing take.

You should be embarrassed by this take. I hosted a webinar with Lee and a CDC official, and was skewered for doing it. Everyone who listened said it was incredibly enlightening and productive. Its main thesis is not the caricature you’ve provided but your smug dismissiveness is consistent with it.
Context for Trump withdrawing dozens of ambassadors
*China has invested heavily in expanding diplomacy
*The US has significantly degraded soft power
*The US already has scores of diplomatic vacancies

Have you read the book?

You have zero credibility if you think anything about the book or its authors is “far right”. And it is full of throughly documented “facts”.

The book at most includes errors — perhaps as in this case. It’s thoroughly documented and rightly acclaimed. Nothing about it is intellectually dishonest and the authors certainly are not “far right”. That’s absurd.

Reposted by Michael Evans

I wrote about how X as an online rumor mill that feeds the hard right propaganda machine, destroying lives in the process.

Ben Shapiro and others in the movement have started to realize that it’s dangerous and bad — because it’s negatively impacting them too, now…
“Like Prime, but with human beings.”

Reposted by Michael Evans

I keep hearing that folk who don't use AI will be at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who do

I wonder how long before that flips completely, and there's a big market for people who still have basic creative and research skills

I’m pretty sure the Abundance movement has never claimed otherwise. They point to abuse of legal procedures created by environmentalists for solving 1970s problems — abuse not by environmentalists today, but by various NIMBYs that previous environmentalists unintentionally empowered.
So what does this mean for democracy at present?

I had a really great conversation with @stevelevitsky.bsky.social on this question — one that clarified our disagreements and, more importantly, showed how much we agree on the political fundamentals here
Since 2020, our team has iterated on a model for “rapid research” to help surface, analyze, & resolve rumors about election administration. This work demonstrates an innovative role for researchers to support public sensemaking during rapidly unfolding events.

uw.pressbooks.pub/rapidresearc...
Being Sensemakers: A Framework for University-Based Rapid Research of Elections, Crisis Events, and Beyond – Simple Book Publishing
A framework for university-based rapid research of elections, crisis events, and beyond
uw.pressbooks.pub
Trump's bombings are "murder" and "summary executions," says @tessbridgeman.bsky.social, and Hegeth should watch "where he travels when he’s no longer in office" due to potential prosecution by "international tribunals."

On the pod Tess powerfully lays out this case:
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
Hegseth Defense Collapsing as Fresh Leaks on Strikes Grow More Damning
As new info makes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s illegal killings look even worse, an expert in national security law explains why his case is imploding—and what must happen now to secure accountabi...
newrepublic.com
And here is a supplementary companion piece on my Substack in which I include Matt Taibbi's 1800+ word response to questions in full, in the interests of fairness. (Note: this one is for the nerds)
www.jamesrball.com/p/disinforma...
Disinformation Wars: The Extended Edition
Want to see several people argue over *extremely granular* detail? This is your lucky day!
www.jamesrball.com
i asked chat gpt to fact check an article for me

Reposted by Michael Evans

On "Giving Tuesday," I always encourage people to give to local community organizations, labor unions, local religious congregations, non-profit news organizations, and all similar groups that thicken our civil society. Civil society makes people's lives better and defends against authoritarianism.

I think it’s nearly the opposite. The political attack on them is making clear why they are of objectively true moral worth. They can be used with polemical force because their claim to justice has been made obvious again by the utter lack of any such claim by their attackers.
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”

—FDR, 1944

Reposted by Michael Evans

"Proportional representation is the only true solution because it renders gerrymandering irrelevant."

www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/202...

Reposted by Michael Evans

Three things that would improve trust in the political process across party lines:
1. More than just two parties
2. Campaign finance limits
3. Term limits
Love 1 & 2.
I've long been skeptical of term limits, but I could get behind 24-year limits, or age limits at 76.
snfagora.jhu.edu/wp-content/u...
One explanation for economic populism in the US is the recurring cycle of bubbles and bailouts that happens without any democratic input
As we all wait for Callais to come down, our piece showing that Shelby County increased the racial turnout gap in most of the covered parts of the country has cleared the replication check and is incoming at JOP.

Gutting the VRA was bad, actually.

Reposted by Michael Evans

"America’s 902 billionaires are collectively worth more than $6.7 trillion, the most wealth ever amassed by the nation’s ultra-rich, according to Forbes."
"Trump’s Cabinet is the wealthiest in US history, with a combined net worth of $7.5 billion."
wapo.st/4ipXaBd

The panel (which I'm helping organize) features 2 CDC scientists who will critique the book’s arguments. No serious critic has disputed that it raises credible concerns. The aim is not to endorse it, but to engage seriously and critically with its ideas. I hope you will join.
Where America stands, one year after the election.

A fascistic movement controls the government; they are building an authoritarian state; but they have not been able yet to extend authoritarian rule across society. A democracy no more, but not a consolidated autocratic regime yet.

New piece:
Escalation, Authoritarian “Normalization,” or a Democratic Turnaround?
One year after the election: What we can say with certainty about the state of the Trumpist assault, where uncertainty lies, and where America might go from here
steady.page
America has no idea what's about to hit them. "Young Republicans" are fully steeped in neo-Nazi edge lord talking points. Fuentes is the present and future of the GOP. After Trump, this is the new form of MAGA. The establishment isn't built for this fight.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The Firewall Against Nick Fuentes Is Crumbling
The white-supremacist influencer is entering the MAGA mainstream.
www.theatlantic.com
“We cannot go back to anything approaching the old constitutional order, which already had been in a long, terminal decline.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...
The American Presidency Can Never Be Trusted Again
It’s time for multiparty democracy and a limited executive.
www.liberalcurrents.com