Tom Pepinsky
@tompepinsky.com
Teacher, researcher, globalist, republican.
tompepinsky.com
tompepinsky.com
the Bethlehem Special: scrapple on an onion bagel
December 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
the Bethlehem Special: scrapple on an onion bagel
‘Tis the reason for the season
December 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
‘Tis the reason for the season
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
I think I need to say that I — a Princeton Univ. Press author that also co-wrote a Covid-19 book on how politics failed us— didn’t review this manuscript. Anyway, if you want to know why over a million people died in a tragedy of choice, see Pandemic Politics: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
December 24, 2025 at 9:40 PM
I think I need to say that I — a Princeton Univ. Press author that also co-wrote a Covid-19 book on how politics failed us— didn’t review this manuscript. Anyway, if you want to know why over a million people died in a tragedy of choice, see Pandemic Politics: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
“The only times I’ve had to defend democracy are in America, not Indonesia.” Um, really?
One thing that I have learned from studying religion in Indonesia: it's an distraction to focus on faith, doctrine, or practice. The politics of religion is about authority.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/o...
One thing that I have learned from studying religion in Indonesia: it's an distraction to focus on faith, doctrine, or practice. The politics of religion is about authority.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/o...
December 23, 2025 at 1:01 PM
“The only times I’ve had to defend democracy are in America, not Indonesia.” Um, really?
One thing that I have learned from studying religion in Indonesia: it's an distraction to focus on faith, doctrine, or practice. The politics of religion is about authority.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/o...
One thing that I have learned from studying religion in Indonesia: it's an distraction to focus on faith, doctrine, or practice. The politics of religion is about authority.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/o...
This thread is worth your time
This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment.
It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process
It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process
December 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM
This thread is worth your time
"It did not advance the ball."
What the ever-loving hell is this? What game is being played where the point of journalism is winning a contest?
What the ever-loving hell is this? What game is being played where the point of journalism is winning a contest?
Bari Weiss this morning on the 60 Minutes segment: "We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera."
Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don't want to speak on camera or on the record.
Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don't want to speak on camera or on the record.
December 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
"It did not advance the ball."
What the ever-loving hell is this? What game is being played where the point of journalism is winning a contest?
What the ever-loving hell is this? What game is being played where the point of journalism is winning a contest?
The Free Press
CBS News chief Bari Weiss pulls 60 Minutes story
Weiss said investigation had to include comments from Trump administration
60M's Sharyn Alfonsi said multiple US agencies refused to comment - and this lets WH veto coverage
My NPR story
www.npr.org/2025/12/22/g...
Weiss said investigation had to include comments from Trump administration
60M's Sharyn Alfonsi said multiple US agencies refused to comment - and this lets WH veto coverage
My NPR story
www.npr.org/2025/12/22/g...
CBS News chief Bari Weiss pulls '60 Minutes' story, sparking outcry
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes segment on allegations of abuses at an El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants.
www.npr.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The Free Press
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
UPDATE: in point of fact there is not an innocent explanation for this.
December 22, 2025 at 2:27 AM
UPDATE: in point of fact there is not an innocent explanation for this.
Journal editors: I suggest manually clicking on DOI links in the references section of submitted manuscripts. You may be surprised by what you see.
Gen AI has lots of uses, and one of them is generating fraudulent citations.
Gen AI has lots of uses, and one of them is generating fraudulent citations.
December 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Journal editors: I suggest manually clicking on DOI links in the references section of submitted manuscripts. You may be surprised by what you see.
Gen AI has lots of uses, and one of them is generating fraudulent citations.
Gen AI has lots of uses, and one of them is generating fraudulent citations.
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
This. We’ve left the sane world behind. Are we going to rebuild structures and processes to reimpose discipline on the discussion of intelligence? Or on [fill in your favorite policy area]?
An underappreciated dimension of our media and politics environment is that every policy principal is now terminally online, arguing basic policy matters in public
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
Hey is it good when the DNI repeats Russian talking points?
December 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
This. We’ve left the sane world behind. Are we going to rebuild structures and processes to reimpose discipline on the discussion of intelligence? Or on [fill in your favorite policy area]?
An underappreciated dimension of our media and politics environment is that every policy principal is now terminally online, arguing basic policy matters in public
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
December 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
An underappreciated dimension of our media and politics environment is that every policy principal is now terminally online, arguing basic policy matters in public
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
In no sane world, prior to 2016, would anyone want the DNI (or any admin official) to set or defend U.S. policy or objectives this way
Shoes are the brown M+Ms, you dummies. It's a perfect test of whether not you've invited a maniac inside your home: will they take off their shoes like a human being who lives in a society of other people, or demand the right to track in the outside dirt to protect their vanity
white people will take off their shoes before stepping on a picnic blanket but start a podcast if asked to remove them inside someone else’s house
December 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Shoes are the brown M+Ms, you dummies. It's a perfect test of whether not you've invited a maniac inside your home: will they take off their shoes like a human being who lives in a society of other people, or demand the right to track in the outside dirt to protect their vanity
My fellow Americans, we need to demand Japanese single serving pour-over technology. It has already spread to Indonesia.
December 20, 2025 at 12:44 PM
My fellow Americans, we need to demand Japanese single serving pour-over technology. It has already spread to Indonesia.
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
the way the first dude says "hell fuckin' nah" just scratches something in my brain.
December 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
the way the first dude says "hell fuckin' nah" just scratches something in my brain.
How about, local citizen who cares about his community steps forward to support criminal investigation
A homeless man living in Brown University basement helped police identify the suspect in the campus shooting.
How homeless man helped catch Brown shooting suspect
www.newsweek.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
How about, local citizen who cares about his community steps forward to support criminal investigation
It is important to understand that these are all lies. Deans don't tell applicants why they don't get a job that they applied for. The job market doesn't react to PhD defenses with phone calls for interviews. This is all false. These people are liars, and they are lying to you to start a race panic.
You’ll never guess who else experienced ‘racism’ on the job market despite their unimpeachable academic credentials.
December 19, 2025 at 12:33 PM
It is important to understand that these are all lies. Deans don't tell applicants why they don't get a job that they applied for. The job market doesn't react to PhD defenses with phone calls for interviews. This is all false. These people are liars, and they are lying to you to start a race panic.
Taking an upskirt photo and posting it on X was very successful in demonstrating declining standards of propriety
December 18, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Taking an upskirt photo and posting it on X was very successful in demonstrating declining standards of propriety
if Pepe put on glasses and a tie
"Men are men. Men can never become women. Women are women. Women can never become men."
December 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM
if Pepe put on glasses and a tie
Bingo. "We are going to have to live here with one another" was the biggest reveal.
Anyone who exists even for a moment in non-coastal elite spaces knows that "We refuse to live here with you, get out or disappear or die" is a commonly-expressed belief. I mean... look around.
Anyone who exists even for a moment in non-coastal elite spaces knows that "We refuse to live here with you, get out or disappear or die" is a commonly-expressed belief. I mean... look around.
i was especially struck by these paragraphs, which rang very true to me. libs who grew up around conservatives aren't embarrassed to be liberals--or confused about what conservatives want. there's a certain kind of elite media man, on the other hand--
December 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Bingo. "We are going to have to live here with one another" was the biggest reveal.
Anyone who exists even for a moment in non-coastal elite spaces knows that "We refuse to live here with you, get out or disappear or die" is a commonly-expressed belief. I mean... look around.
Anyone who exists even for a moment in non-coastal elite spaces knows that "We refuse to live here with you, get out or disappear or die" is a commonly-expressed belief. I mean... look around.
you guys are making me want to watch the Trump speech (derogatory)
December 18, 2025 at 2:16 AM
you guys are making me want to watch the Trump speech (derogatory)
This is truly awful news. The Carolina Asia Center, one of the affected centers, is a wonderful interdisciplinary space supporting some of the most important and interesting work being done on Asia and Asian America.
But hey, still paying milions to a famous football coach to go 13th *in the ACC*
But hey, still paying milions to a famous football coach to go 13th *in the ACC*
December 18, 2025 at 12:57 AM
This is truly awful news. The Carolina Asia Center, one of the affected centers, is a wonderful interdisciplinary space supporting some of the most important and interesting work being done on Asia and Asian America.
But hey, still paying milions to a famous football coach to go 13th *in the ACC*
But hey, still paying milions to a famous football coach to go 13th *in the ACC*
I'll wait for the popularists to tell me why THESE polls don't count
New Quinnipiac poll:
57% favor path to legalization for undocs vs 35% who back deporting them
Trump underwater on immigration (44-54) and on deportations (42-55)
Meanwhile DHS's Twitter feed is a white nationalist sewer pit and Gregory Bovino is swaggering around like an occupying general
57% favor path to legalization for undocs vs 35% who back deporting them
Trump underwater on immigration (44-54) and on deportations (42-55)
Meanwhile DHS's Twitter feed is a white nationalist sewer pit and Gregory Bovino is swaggering around like an occupying general
December 17, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I'll wait for the popularists to tell me why THESE polls don't count
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
here’s a free version:
neat_research_panel <- data.frame(
id = 1:100,
treatment = sample(c(TRUE, FALSE), 100, replace = TRUE),
outcome = rnorm(100, mean = 50, sd = 5)
)
neat_research_panel <- data.frame(
id = 1:100,
treatment = sample(c(TRUE, FALSE), 100, replace = TRUE),
outcome = rnorm(100, mean = 50, sd = 5)
)
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
December 16, 2025 at 6:46 PM
here’s a free version:
neat_research_panel <- data.frame(
id = 1:100,
treatment = sample(c(TRUE, FALSE), 100, replace = TRUE),
outcome = rnorm(100, mean = 50, sd = 5)
)
neat_research_panel <- data.frame(
id = 1:100,
treatment = sample(c(TRUE, FALSE), 100, replace = TRUE),
outcome = rnorm(100, mean = 50, sd = 5)
)
Reposted by Tom Pepinsky
(1) anti-woke politics is largely grift aimed at members of the educated class who feel like cultural outliers in their particular milieux; (2) practitioners of anti-woke grift are so generally incompetent at the adult work of running anything that even sympathetic academics eventually peace out
CBS News staffers might want to check into how things are going at their boss’s anti-woke “university” in Austin.
Via @ngluckman.bsky.social
www.chronicle.com/article/at-t...
Via @ngluckman.bsky.social
www.chronicle.com/article/at-t...
December 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM
(1) anti-woke politics is largely grift aimed at members of the educated class who feel like cultural outliers in their particular milieux; (2) practitioners of anti-woke grift are so generally incompetent at the adult work of running anything that even sympathetic academics eventually peace out