Jan-Werner Mueller
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jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller
@jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
17K followers 900 following 1.9K posts

Political Theory and Intellectual History. Politics of Architecture and Iconography. Some Public Affairs Commentary.

Posting in a personal capacity.

Texts mostly in LRB, Guardian, Foreign Policy, Architectural Review.

Representation: Wylie. .. more

Videos
Computer science 57%
Mathematics 29%
Posts Replies Media Videos

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 18h
When Isaiah Berlin wrote “what is interesting is to read the enemy, because the enemy penetrates the defences,” he meant studying Maistre and Sorel, not that every racist blogger had to be debated in the Sheldonian.

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 3d
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eublogo.bsky.social Katalin Halmai @eublogo.bsky.social · 3d
Marco Rubio just flew to Budapest to deliver a speech in which he provided a full endorsement of Viktor Orbán in the upcoming Hungarian elections.
Here is the letter he signed in 2019 warning about Hungary's "downward democratic trajectory" under Orbán
h/t Carrick Ryan

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Steve Peers, Laurent Pech , and 2 more

eublogo.bsky.social
Katalin Halmai @eublogo.bsky.social · 3d
Marco Rubio just flew to Budapest to deliver a speech in which he provided a full endorsement of Viktor Orbán in the upcoming Hungarian elections.
Here is the letter he signed in 2019 warning about Hungary's "downward democratic trajectory" under Orbán
h/t Carrick Ryan

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 3d
"The fact that the factory owner crumbled without resistance, but also without his downfall having any purpose or meaning, makes his dream a perfect parable for the creation of the submissive totalitarian subject."
Dreams from the Third Reich by Charlotte Beradt
March 14, 2025 – "I dreamed that the milkman, the gas man, the newspaper vendor, the baker, and the plumber were all standing in a circle around me, holding out bills I owed. I was perfectly calm unti...
www.theparisreview.org

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Robin Celikates

dissentmag.bsky.social
Dissent Magazine @dissentmag.bsky.social · 3d
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman died today at age 96. "At a moment when many of the institutions he documented are being decimated and our attention is divided," Natasha Lewis wrote last year, "Wiseman’s films are out of time and completely timely." dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
Close Attention - Dissent Magazine
An interview with Frederick Wiseman.
dissentmagazine.org

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 3d
"Reversing the decline of media freedom will require not only legal reform, but also political will, independent institutions, and the effective enforcement of European standards."

New Report on Suppression of Independent Media in Hungary since 2010.
www.law.nyu.edu

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 6d
The First Amendment "may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger."

Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d
Ron Johnson to Keith Ellison: "Two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm's way! And now you are exploiting those two martyrs. You ought to feel damn guilty about it. Yeah, sit there and smirk. Smirk. It's sick! It's despicable. You disgust me."

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 7d
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chenoweth.bsky.social Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 7d
Overall, we have tallied 4x more protests through Jan 31, 2026 than we had through Jan 31, 2018
Line graph that shows a blue line of # protests since Trump's 2nd inauguration surpassed, showing these to have exceeded 42k by the end of Jan 2026. A green line counts # of protests during the same time period in Trump's first term and just exceeds 10k.

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Steve Peers, Victor Asal , and 3 more

chenoweth.bsky.social
Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 7d
Overall, we have tallied 4x more protests through Jan 31, 2026 than we had through Jan 31, 2018
Line graph that shows a blue line of # protests since Trump's 2nd inauguration surpassed, showing these to have exceeded 42k by the end of Jan 2026. A green line counts # of protests during the same time period in Trump's first term and just exceeds 10k.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Jan W. Mueller, David Rothschild , and 1 more

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d
Ron Johnson to Keith Ellison: "Two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm's way! And now you are exploiting those two martyrs. You ought to feel damn guilty about it. Yeah, sit there and smirk. Smirk. It's sick! It's despicable. You disgust me."

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Will Lowe

jcherniss.bsky.social
Joshua Cherniss @jcherniss.bsky.social · 12d
What WAS "Cold War liberalism," you ask? If you read German -- or have Google translate -- you can read my thoughts here:
www.kas.de/de/web/gesch...
(with references to @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social and @lkatfield.bsky.social, among others)
Was war der Cold War Liberalism?
Zur historischen Eigenart, inneren Spannung und aktuellen Relevanz eines skeptischen Liberalismus
www.kas.de

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 12d
"But to own a property, as Trump knows very well, you have to be able to occupy it."

Or you demonstrate that you own it by destroying it.

With impunity.
Whose Hemisphere? | Fintan O’Toole
The US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro reinforces the Trump administration’s capacity to invent any pretext to justify the use of armed force.
www.nybooks.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

gabrielagreilinger.com
Gabriela Greilinger @gabrielagreilinger.com · 13d
See this interesting blog post by Emilia Belknap and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, presenting evidence that doesn't really support such narratives.

ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 13d
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jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 14d
"No. 6: In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good."
Opinion | An Elegy for My Washington Post
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

tabouchadi.bsky.social
Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 14d
Here's the link: collections.fes.de/publikatione...
The vicious cycle of far-right success in Europe
Publikationen der Stiftung. The vicious cycle of far-right success in Europe / Tarik Abou-Chadi ; Issuing Department Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Democracy of the Future, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Eur...
collections.fes.de

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 14d
"We find that the default feed of X showed more content from far-right AfD than from other political parties."
Political Biases on X before the 2025 German Federal Election – EQUATE & Machine Learning Blog
groups.cs.umass.edu

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 14d
'The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”'
Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today
Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.
mississippitoday.org

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Christian Fisch

davidcorn.bsky.social
David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 14d
A bus stop near Tesla's flagship store in London. Imagine a Super Bowl ad that showed only this.

Reposted by Laurent Pech

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
"It is at the very least inconsistent to warn against rule of law regression and violations while failing to police one’s own membership. We are where we are because too many in senior positions who had and have the power to act have failed to do so."

Important piece by Bodnar and Pech:
Immunising the Venice Commission Against Autocratic Contamination
verfassungsblog.de

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
'...it is naive to think that supporting the Minnesota protests or interfering with ICE arrests is simply and indisputably “the Christian thing to do.”'

The Spectator instructing American bishops on the meaning of Catholicism.
The Catholic Church is getting swept away by ICE outrage
Cardinal Joseph Tobin called for the defunding of ICE by lawmakers during an interfaith prayer livestream on Sunday
spectator.com

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
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jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
"Freedom of assembly has been the liberty most subject to prior restraint: states find it easier to control space than to control speech. In many countries, a jurisprudence of free assembly remains underdeveloped; in the US, there has not been an assembly case in front of the...Court for...decades."
Free Assembly for a Free People
A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.
democracyproject.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Joanna Bryson, Shannon Vallor , and 16 more

nitasha.bsky.social
nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 15d
My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power
cover of The Washington Post on Wednesday Feb 4, 2026. Headline on bottom, right: Musk wanted to hook users; his chatbot got more sexual

Reposted by Federico Finchelstein

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
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Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, David R. Miller

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Jan W. Mueller, Matthew Bunn , and 1 more

gregsargent.bsky.social
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 15d
"We are now in a system of competitive authoritarianism. And it’s just about whether we manage to take our democracy back from that."

On the pod, @ryanenos.bsky.social is so good on Harvard pulling back from surrender to Trump, and on need for institutions to fight:
newrepublic.com/article/2061...
Trump Spirals Into Crazed Fury After Harvard Humiliates Him Very Badly
As Trump rages at Harvard over leaks that he’s backtracking in his fight with the university, a Harvard political scientist explains why the stakes in this battle are far bigger than they seem.
newrepublic.com

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
Thank you!

jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 15d
Thank you -