Karim Merchant
@kmerchant.bsky.social
Helping drive Accessible Design at Dell. Musician and Teaching Artist. Opinions my own. Not a fan of fascism. He/they.
Exactly
The model of holding individual senators responsible is broken here. The retirees clearly agreed to take the fall. Which is why the nos should get no credit for voting no unless they move to oust Schumer
November 10, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Exactly
That face when you’re nodding like a bobblehead on every other sentence…
I am not super optimistic that the Dem gerontocracy will learn the right lessons from Mamdani’s win but here’s my analysis anyway: newrepublic.com/article/1972...
Mamdani Did All the Things the Establishment Hates. He Won Anyway.
There’s a growing appetite for something new and innovative growing among the electorate—and an opportunity for Democrats to grow that electorate, as well.
newrepublic.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:36 AM
That face when you’re nodding like a bobblehead on every other sentence…
Reposted by Karim Merchant
centrists will tell you to your face that we all need to abandon identity issues, and focus on kitchen table issues instead and yet when a leftist candidate runs a generational campaign based on kitchen table issues, it's the centrists weaponizing identity politics to smear the leftist.
October 28, 2025 at 12:08 AM
centrists will tell you to your face that we all need to abandon identity issues, and focus on kitchen table issues instead and yet when a leftist candidate runs a generational campaign based on kitchen table issues, it's the centrists weaponizing identity politics to smear the leftist.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
I realize things have never been great but it does feel especially lately like the main job of many people is to not know things, in an age where every day we're all knowing more things we'd rather not know so that takes genuine effort
Q: What's your message to the 170 US citizens who have been detained by ICE? About 20 of them are children
MIKE JOHNSON: I don't know what you're talking about with the children. I haven't seen that so I'm not going to comment on it.
MIKE JOHNSON: I don't know what you're talking about with the children. I haven't seen that so I'm not going to comment on it.
October 17, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I realize things have never been great but it does feel especially lately like the main job of many people is to not know things, in an age where every day we're all knowing more things we'd rather not know so that takes genuine effort
Reposted by Karim Merchant
attempting to describe the vibes of the moment. have yet to do better than: "imagine watching a documentary reenacting the burning of the Library of Alexandria set to the soundtrack of 'Yakety Sax'"
February 6, 2025 at 3:59 AM
attempting to describe the vibes of the moment. have yet to do better than: "imagine watching a documentary reenacting the burning of the Library of Alexandria set to the soundtrack of 'Yakety Sax'"
This is how it’s done. If you won’t stand up ALL OF US - including specifically helping the most marginalized and powerless of us, you belong with the other side. Take note @gavinnewsom.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera
In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.
As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.
In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.
As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.
October 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
This is how it’s done. If you won’t stand up ALL OF US - including specifically helping the most marginalized and powerless of us, you belong with the other side. Take note @gavinnewsom.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
Reposted by Karim Merchant
This is how it's done, folks
EXCLU: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will announce today he is cancelling a televised town hall with WABC News planned for Sept. 25 in the wake of the network suspending comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show last week.
www.amny.com/news/mamdani...
www.amny.com/news/mamdani...
EXCLUSIVE | Mamdani to pull planned ABC town hall event after network suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show | amNewYork
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani will announce Monday that he is cancelling a televised town hall with WABC News planned for Sept. 25 in the wake of
www.amny.com
September 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This is how it's done, folks
Reposted by Karim Merchant
this exists it is called thinking
September 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this exists it is called thinking
Reposted by Karim Merchant
Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.
September 19, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
― Theodore Roosevelt
September 19, 2025 at 2:12 AM
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
― Theodore Roosevelt
Reposted by Karim Merchant
Just so I'm clear:
TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal
TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft.
TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism.
Free speech, everyone.
TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal
TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft.
TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism.
Free speech, everyone.
September 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Just so I'm clear:
TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal
TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft.
TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism.
Free speech, everyone.
TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal
TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft.
TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism.
Free speech, everyone.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
One thing I wish all Democrats knew is that we don't expect you to be fearless. We expect you to be brave. Bravery is not the absence of fear. It is being afraid and moving ahead anyway.
If you find that you are neither, then it is time to step aside. There are people who can do this job ably.
If you find that you are neither, then it is time to step aside. There are people who can do this job ably.
ive never seen anything like rhetoric coming from the right in the last week, this is absolutely insane and it needs to stop and people in power need to start speaking the fuck up like right the fuck now
September 15, 2025 at 10:50 PM
One thing I wish all Democrats knew is that we don't expect you to be fearless. We expect you to be brave. Bravery is not the absence of fear. It is being afraid and moving ahead anyway.
If you find that you are neither, then it is time to step aside. There are people who can do this job ably.
If you find that you are neither, then it is time to step aside. There are people who can do this job ably.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
the single biggest challenge to integrating systems thinking broadly is that americans are taught from day one to think in terms of "how the world is supposed to work" and that consistently undermines our ability to acknowledge how the world actually works. it's a wild antipattern.
August 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
the single biggest challenge to integrating systems thinking broadly is that americans are taught from day one to think in terms of "how the world is supposed to work" and that consistently undermines our ability to acknowledge how the world actually works. it's a wild antipattern.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.
July 29, 2025 at 4:09 AM
We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.
“If a government proclaims its interest in protecting the environment but allocates little money or effort toward that goal, environment protection is not, in fact, the government’s purpose.
Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”
- Donella H. Meadows
Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”
- Donella H. Meadows
July 27, 2025 at 5:34 PM
“If a government proclaims its interest in protecting the environment but allocates little money or effort toward that goal, environment protection is not, in fact, the government’s purpose.
Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”
- Donella H. Meadows
Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”
- Donella H. Meadows
Feels like every US Democrat should read this article.
An excellent read. At the root of the Reactionary Centrist mindset is a fundamental (possibly deliberate) misunderstanding of how voters, brains, media, and persuasion work. The RCs think strategic capitulation and moving to the center persuades moderate voters. But what actually happens is -
"Because reactionary centrists do not really have values, they struggle to understand the motivations of those who do."
www.thebulwark.com/p/when-moder...
www.thebulwark.com/p/when-moder...
July 15, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Feels like every US Democrat should read this article.
Fun new civic idea: all Supreme Court judgements receive adversarial peer review.
July 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Fun new civic idea: all Supreme Court judgements receive adversarial peer review.
Zoom is the Teams of Word
July 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Zoom is the Teams of Word
They said their aim was to make the U.S. great again.
When the real fallout from this bill finally proves beyond doubt how they achieved the exact opposite—to us, to our economy, to our health—make them all wear it like a traitor’s badge of shame for the rest of their lives.
The new red hat.
When the real fallout from this bill finally proves beyond doubt how they achieved the exact opposite—to us, to our economy, to our health—make them all wear it like a traitor’s badge of shame for the rest of their lives.
The new red hat.
July 3, 2025 at 10:28 PM
They said their aim was to make the U.S. great again.
When the real fallout from this bill finally proves beyond doubt how they achieved the exact opposite—to us, to our economy, to our health—make them all wear it like a traitor’s badge of shame for the rest of their lives.
The new red hat.
When the real fallout from this bill finally proves beyond doubt how they achieved the exact opposite—to us, to our economy, to our health—make them all wear it like a traitor’s badge of shame for the rest of their lives.
The new red hat.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
There’s a thing in wargames and strategic sims where you can tell from the jump where an opponent is going land their first blows, and there’s fuck all you can do to prevent it, and the trick is to stay focused and not let despair become an opposing force multiplier.
July 3, 2025 at 8:59 PM
There’s a thing in wargames and strategic sims where you can tell from the jump where an opponent is going land their first blows, and there’s fuck all you can do to prevent it, and the trick is to stay focused and not let despair become an opposing force multiplier.
Reposted by Karim Merchant
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
June 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
“Roberts’s Skrmetti opinion…reveals something that close observers…already know. The Court’s Republican majority is impatient…often so eager to reach ideological or partisan results that they hand down poorly reasoned opinions and incomprehensible legal standards.”
Yes.
www.vox.com/scotus/41728...
Yes.
www.vox.com/scotus/41728...
The Supreme Court’s incoherent new attack on trans rights, explained
What the hell did the Court just do to equal protection law?
www.vox.com
June 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
“Roberts’s Skrmetti opinion…reveals something that close observers…already know. The Court’s Republican majority is impatient…often so eager to reach ideological or partisan results that they hand down poorly reasoned opinions and incomprehensible legal standards.”
Yes.
www.vox.com/scotus/41728...
Yes.
www.vox.com/scotus/41728...