Jacob T. Levy

@jacobtlevy.bsky.social

60K followers 1K following 13K posts

Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, Associate member of Philosophy, Coordinator of Research Group on Constitutional Studies, McGill.
Posts here speak only for myself.
Americo-Canadian; liberaltarian; aging geek.
http://jacobtlevy.com .. more

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Jacob T. Levy is an American political theorist and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. Levy is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at McGill, as well as the coordinator of McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies and the founding director of McGill's Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. Levy is also a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Institute for Humane Studies. He is known for his expertise on multiculturalism, liberalism, and pluralism. .. more

Political science 68%

Law 8%

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 7h

Yes— and it was bad enough what Orban was able to do. What the US can do, with many more resources, will be much worse.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 7h

The open support for the AfD and Le Pen— and Farage, though there's been less noise about him so far in Trump 47— ought to be shocking, and ought to be seen as the tip of an ideological iceberg. There's more, and will continue to be more, active US support for the extreme right globally.

Reposted by Mark D. White, Daniel W. Drezner, Robert C. Richards , and 5 more Mark D. White, Daniel W. Drezner, Robert C. Richards, Tom Griffin, Michael Jones‐Correa, Kate Starbird, Simon Lester, Christina Pagel

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 7h

It's not just that the United States has stopped trying to promote liberal democratic ideas internationally. It's that the United States is actively trying to promote the contrary. It's trying to turn more countries into Hungary.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

U.S. to Press Europe and Other Allies on ‘Mass Migration,’ Document Says

www.nytimes.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 7h

Who knew that it was so exhausting to... *not* do your job?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

‘In Triage Every Day’: A Beleaguered Speaker Says He’s Overwhelmed

www.nytimes.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 8h

Yes, yes, yes. Amidst everything else bad happening in higher ed (or maybe because of it?) I've noticed another surge recently in people using "disciplinary" as a bad word and "interdisciplinary" as the solution to all ills. That comes and goes; right now, it's coming. It's a mistake.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 8h

hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/you-say-si...

"Silos preserve quality and integrity. Without silos, grain rots... Its purpose is preservation, not isolation. ... The function of the academic discipline is not unlike an agricultural silo: it is a structure of preservation and quality control."

You say 'silo' as if it were a bad thing...

Information storage in the AI era

hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 9h

“Actually it’s about ethics in journalism”

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 9h

Lizza did it, he did the meme

(It’s true in this case but even so)

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

... I think he's precisely said that it's over and done.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

And McConnell, and Comey— indeed McConnell and Comey ahead of Garland, Biden, or Willis. There have been many failures on the path here. And Willis also had more on the credit side of her ledger than most of those! She tried, which is more than a lot of people can say!

Reposted by David R. Miller, Jacob T. Levy, Ann Bartow

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 10h

"The history books will look back on what the country lost by not having a televised trial before November 2024 and historians will wonder what Fani Willis was thinking. And they'll just scratch their heads," Kreis, a law professor, told The Guardian… www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...

Fani Willis was the only one to seriously go after Trump over Jan 6 — and she blew it

Willis had her eye on the ball early, but a stunning error of judgement ‘stabbed the case right in the heart’, John Bowden writes.

www.the-independent.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

Any prosecutor about whose relationship the defense found out. That's an institutionally different setting from those (nightmare-inducing) intra-White House relationships that no one has legal standing to make anything of. That means a prosecutor has less margin for [even the appearance] of error.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

Sure, that's what having alternatives is like. It's also true that if Willis had been more careful and had been able to get the trial started, Jack Smith's loss at SCOTUS would have been much less relevant.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

The floor is increasingly littered with dead canaries

www.mlive.com/news/grand-r...

Calvin University to reduce 12.5% of faculty positions, eliminate multiple programs

The Christian liberal arts university cited a shifting higher education landscape as reason for restructuring that will phase out French, journalism and other academic offerings.

www.mlive.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

that the *other* students aren't using LLMs.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

They're impossible to implement/ enforce while simultaneously teaching the skills of patient writing, editing, and re-writing of substantive argumentative prose. We substantially have to give up on the take-home essay or the major research paper if we want to provide assurance to all students...

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 10h

Absolutely. We're on Earth-3 and I think worlds as nearby as Earth-2.99 are not in this horror show.

Reposted by David Spurrett

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

Adam Kotsko isn't here anymore, so I'll plug his blogpost in his absence. The "see no problem, hear no problem, speak no problem" brigades, says Adam, slip back and forth among incompatible arguments.

adamkotsko.substack.com/p/kettle-log...

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

Well, it turns out a bunch of people can successfully avoid one or the other of those, and get mad if you acknowledge both.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h

*Such* a pit in my stomach about the Georgia case. Such a wasted possibility. It's hard to avoid simultaneously crediting Willis for a strong, convincing, aggressive, and important set of indictments, and blaming her for the catastrophic misjudgment that made it impossible to have a trial in 2024.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

This was a state case; Garland was irrelevant to it.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

No, the problem with this case was locally specific and had already introduced delays months before the immunity decision. And the indictments could probably have survived the immunity decision; even on Roberts' expansive definition of core executive functions, the Georgia phone call wasn't that.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

No, the issue about Willis had already introduced problems and delays months before the immunity ruling. And this was a state prosecution; Garland had nothing to do with it.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

this is no way to run a railroad

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Trump steps back from Ukraine peace process, sends out envoys

Envoy Steve Witkoff, who in new phone leaks appears to have advised Russia on negotiations, heads to Moscow next week to discuss the peace plan.

www.washingtonpost.com

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12h

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

Aaron Ross Powell ☸️ @aaronrosspowell.com · 12h

We need full-throated defenses of liberalism right now. And, watching the success of the @liberalcurrents.com fundraiser, it's encouraging to see how many people agree. gofund.me/50ba1838d

Donate to The Liberal Currents Startup Fund, organized by Adam Gurri

To fight fascism we need opposition media with a backbone. Liberal Currents is that. Help… Adam Gurri needs your support for The Liberal Currents Startup Fund

gofund.me

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 13h

One way I am quite philosophically conservative is I do basically think that knowledge of logic (like the traditional discipline including in its modern mathematical format) makes one better at following and reconstructing ordinary language arguments, and thus should be mandatory for grad students.

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 14h

Excellent question and it so happens that back in August our editors picked five books each to make a reading list: www.liberalcurrents.com/the-liberal-...

Now, at the time, we did that as a post for patrons only.

But you know what, let's make it public today. 🍾

Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

🦃 Seth Masket 🦃 @smotus.bsky.social · 14h

BRB am becoming Catholic

Vulture @vulture.com · 16h

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’