Will Wilkinson
@wlknsn.xyz
Tech policy and government affairs guy. Ex-Block, Niskanen, NYT, Economist, Cato. Los Angeles / Iowa City
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
Rhetorical pleas against infighting are always begging the question about who's actually on the same side as you.
The sooner we get past internal recriminations and back to fighting united, the better off we all are — the likelier our victory next November.
November 11, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Rhetorical pleas against infighting are always begging the question about who's actually on the same side as you.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
While a 50 year mortgage might lower monthly payments, it drastically increases total interest and slows equity growth. Stimulating demand without fixing supply would likely raise prices. The core issue in the housing market isn't financing; it's the lack of supply.
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 PM
While a 50 year mortgage might lower monthly payments, it drastically increases total interest and slows equity growth. Stimulating demand without fixing supply would likely raise prices. The core issue in the housing market isn't financing; it's the lack of supply.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
No matter how hard people try to convince us having empathy is wrong,
it is right.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness,
it is a strength.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited,
it is unlimited.
it is right.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness,
it is a strength.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited,
it is unlimited.
November 4, 2025 at 2:55 AM
No matter how hard people try to convince us having empathy is wrong,
it is right.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness,
it is a strength.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited,
it is unlimited.
it is right.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that diversity is a weakness,
it is a strength.
No matter how hard people try to convince us that love is limited,
it is unlimited.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
parents 8 years from now: yoshinobu yamamoto you go to your room this instant!
November 2, 2025 at 4:29 AM
parents 8 years from now: yoshinobu yamamoto you go to your room this instant!
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
I feel like I say this every year but I really need people to hear it. Halloween is the best American holiday. Just kids outside welcomed into their world, marching around together, showing off their costumes to the elderly, parents meeting parents, neighbors catching up with neighbors.
November 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
I feel like I say this every year but I really need people to hear it. Halloween is the best American holiday. Just kids outside welcomed into their world, marching around together, showing off their costumes to the elderly, parents meeting parents, neighbors catching up with neighbors.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
Husband sent me the Baffler essay on postliteracy and it’s so good. Goddamn, starting with Ong (who remembers him and Luria? Yes!), Eco, a whirlwind class analysis of literacy in history. Haven’t even reached the main part of the essay yet. A must read. thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
We Used to Read Things in This Country | Noah McCormack
Technology changes us—and it is currently changing us for the worse.
thebaffler.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Husband sent me the Baffler essay on postliteracy and it’s so good. Goddamn, starting with Ong (who remembers him and Luria? Yes!), Eco, a whirlwind class analysis of literacy in history. Haven’t even reached the main part of the essay yet. A must read. thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
"Does moderation matter? In our current two-party system? Not really. Presidential vote explains 98% of House outcomes. Candidate quality has collapsed to statistical noise."
open.substack.com/pub/leedrutm...
open.substack.com/pub/leedrutm...
October 29, 2025 at 7:18 PM
"Does moderation matter? In our current two-party system? Not really. Presidential vote explains 98% of House outcomes. Candidate quality has collapsed to statistical noise."
open.substack.com/pub/leedrutm...
open.substack.com/pub/leedrutm...
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
It's also wild considering even college sophomores have figured this out.
yale-herald.com/2025/08/31/h...
yale-herald.com/2025/08/31/h...
Hidden Coalitions: Why the Democrats Self-Sabotage
“Representation is Theft!” is a bi-weekly column critiquing electoral democracy and advocating for lottery-based sortition as a viable alternative. Recently, Democrats enforced their party line wit…
yale-herald.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 AM
It's also wild considering even college sophomores have figured this out.
yale-herald.com/2025/08/31/h...
yale-herald.com/2025/08/31/h...
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
October 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else
2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one
This talking point has never made sense to me. Social benefits are more likely to increase wages by making it easier for workers to say no to low wage offers. Structural risk of mass starvation — THAT’S the subsidy to low-wage employers!
I don't think "SNAP is a subsidy to low wage employers" frame is useful or correct. It implies that, if SNAP did not exist, these companies would be forced to pay workers more when the actual situation is that low wage workers would get the same wages from these employers as now but be poorer
October 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This talking point has never made sense to me. Social benefits are more likely to increase wages by making it easier for workers to say no to low wage offers. Structural risk of mass starvation — THAT’S the subsidy to low-wage employers!
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
October 26, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
makes me weep to think of the gifts robbed from us because unaffordable housing has made it difficult for people to pursue their passions and hobbies
October 26, 2025 at 8:49 PM
makes me weep to think of the gifts robbed from us because unaffordable housing has made it difficult for people to pursue their passions and hobbies
If they razed the thing and built 500 units of public housing, I’d be all for it.
I can’t believe there are not one but two articles, in major papers, with this dumb framing. It is not NIMBY to express dismay when a big part of the White House is suddenly rubbled
October 25, 2025 at 10:45 PM
If they razed the thing and built 500 units of public housing, I’d be all for it.
Hawkeyes looking real!
October 25, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Hawkeyes looking real!
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
Updating my LEGO White House
October 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Updating my LEGO White House
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
the difference between a wonderful audiobook performance by a gifted voice actor and this "digital voice" horseshit masquerading as legit audiobooks makes me steaming mad. good narration is important and deserves to be paid for!!!!!!
October 18, 2025 at 12:37 AM
the difference between a wonderful audiobook performance by a gifted voice actor and this "digital voice" horseshit masquerading as legit audiobooks makes me steaming mad. good narration is important and deserves to be paid for!!!!!!
My position is that you can use it to effectively automate some things, which is cool, useful, and even kinda fun, but you can also waste tons of time trying to make it do things it basically always botches because it’s badly oversold and sorta sucks.
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
October 17, 2025 at 2:21 AM
My position is that you can use it to effectively automate some things, which is cool, useful, and even kinda fun, but you can also waste tons of time trying to make it do things it basically always botches because it’s badly oversold and sorta sucks.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually
October 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually
Really looking forward to this. @radleybalko.bsky.social is a national treasure.
The first episode of Collateral Damage, my reported podcast with The Intercept, went up today.
Hope you’ll check it out and, if you enjoy it, give it a favorable rating or review.
Eternal thanks to my producers @lauraflynn.bsky.social and Andrew Stelzer for making it happen.
Hope you’ll check it out and, if you enjoy it, give it a favorable rating or review.
Eternal thanks to my producers @lauraflynn.bsky.social and Andrew Stelzer for making it happen.
Ep. 1 Dirty Business: The Atlanta Narcotics Unit’s Deadly Raid on 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston.
Podcast Episode · Collateral Damage from The Intercept · 10/08/2025 · 55m
podcasts.apple.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Really looking forward to this. @radleybalko.bsky.social is a national treasure.
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
What policy:
- increases competition,
- lowers prices,
- lowers high-end taxes,
- lowers inequality?
@deanbaker13.bsky.social tells us. Preredistribution?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
- increases competition,
- lowers prices,
- lowers high-end taxes,
- lowers inequality?
@deanbaker13.bsky.social tells us. Preredistribution?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
October 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
What policy:
- increases competition,
- lowers prices,
- lowers high-end taxes,
- lowers inequality?
@deanbaker13.bsky.social tells us. Preredistribution?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
- increases competition,
- lowers prices,
- lowers high-end taxes,
- lowers inequality?
@deanbaker13.bsky.social tells us. Preredistribution?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Can someone who has followed his recent trajectory tell me how Tyler got here?
October 3, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Can someone who has followed his recent trajectory tell me how Tyler got here?
Reposted by Will Wilkinson
*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history
* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system
* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...
* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system
* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...
September 26, 2025 at 1:50 PM
*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history
* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system
* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...
* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system
* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...