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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 · 41m

honestly, even Dylan only seemed as cool as Johnny Cash for about eighteen months in the sixties.

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 47m

I think Trump is going to do a Michigan Man of the Year and just invent a fictitious peace prize he won.

"I won the Norbiggle Peace Prize, not a lot of people know that. The Norbiggle, people are saying it's even more prestigious than the Nobel, which nobody wants anymore."

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 55m

In short, read @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/billionaires...

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1h

And the choice is accompanied by a good statement, one that is clear-eyed about the moment.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...

Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair.

In its long history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world. In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people.

When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1h

The other strategy, the one Trump is counting on, is "award the prize to people in political power who have some part in ending wars, regardless of their role in starting or carrying out the war, because we want to reward the turn to peace." That *guarantees* choices like, well, Kissinger.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1h

Yes, a risk of the strategy is "we don't yet know what this opposition politician would be like if they were in power— and if the prize helps them into power, we'll bear some responsibility for it." Do-gooder NGOs are *safer* picks, minimizing to near-zero the risk of long-term embarrassment.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 2h

Machado is a good choice. She'll be controversial because she's in the fight, not above it. That makes this prize continuous with the 2021-3 streak of honoring opposition figures and dissidents rather than do-gooder organizations or already-powerful officials.

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Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Jacob T. Levy, Stuart Shapiro

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 4h

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 8h

Taine on the contrast between the drawing room philosophes and Rousseau! www.gutenberg.org/files/2577/2...

Away with these dikes, the work of tyranny and routine! An emancipated nature will at once resume a direct and healthy course and man, without effort, will find himself not only happy but virtuous as well.3332 On this principle the attack begins: there is none that is pushed further, nor conducted with more bitter hostility. Thus far existing institutions are described simply as oppressive and unreasonable; but now they are now they are accused of being unjust and corrupting as well. Reason and the natural desires were the only insurgents; conscience and pride are now in rebellion. With Voltaire and Montesquieu all I might hope for is that fewer evils might be anticipated. With Diderot and d'Holbach the horizon discloses only a glowing El Dorado or a comfortable Cythera. With Rousseau I behold within reach an Eden where I shall immediately recover a nobility inseparable from my happiness. It is my right; nature and Providence summon me to it; it is my heritage. One arbitrary institution alone keeps me away from it, the creator of my vices as of my misery. With what rage and fury I will overthrow this ancient barrier!—We detect this in the vehement tone, in the embittered style, and in the sombre eloquence of the new doctrine. Fun and games are no longer in vogue, a serious tone is maintained; people become exasperated, while the powerful voice now heard penetrates beyond the drawing-room, to the rude and suffering crowd to which no word had yet been spoken, whose mute resentment for the first time finds an interpreter, and whose destructive instincts are soon to be set in motion at the summons of its herald.—Rousseau is a man of the people, and not a man of high society. He feels awkward in a drawing-room.3333 He is not capable of conversing and of appearing amiable; the nice expressions only come into his head too late, on the staircase as he leaves the house; he keeps silent with a sulky air or utters stupidities, redeeming his awkwardness with the sallies of a cl…

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 8h

... wholly disproportionate to the ordinary ways of society, hitting, wounding and soiling himself against every hindrance on his way;" (Of possible amusement value to @jacobtlevy.bsky.social.)

"VI. The Abolition Of Society. Rousseau.

Rousseau and the spiritualists.—The original goodness of
man.—The mistake committed by civilization.—The injustice
of property and of society.
A return to nature, meaning by this the abolition of society, is the war-cry of the whole encyclopedic battalion. The same shout is heard in another quarter, coming the battalion of Rousseau and the socialists who, in their turn, march up to the assault of the established régime. The mining and the sapping of the walls practiced by the latter seems less extensive, but are nevertheless more effective, and the destructive machinery it employs consists of a new conception of human nature. This Rousseau has drawn exclusively from the spectacle in his own heart: 3328 Rousseau, a strange, original and superior man, who, from his infancy, harbored within him a germ of insanity, and who finally became wholly insane; a wonderful, ill-balanced mind in which sensations, emotions and images are too powerful: at once blind and perspicacious, a veritable poet and a morbid poet, who, instead of things and events beheld reveries, living in a romance and dying in a nightmare of his own creation; incapable of controlling and of behaving himself, confounding resolution with action, vague desire with resolution, and the role he assumed with the character he thought he possessed; wholly disproportionate to the ordinary ways of society, hitting, wounding and soiling himself against every hindrance on his way; at times extravagant, mean and criminal, yet preserving up to the end a delicate and profound sensibility, a humanity, pity, the gift of tears, the faculty of living, the passion for justice, the sentiment of religion and of enthusiasm, like so many vigorous roots in which generous sap is always fermenting, whilst the stem and the branches prove abortive and become deformed or wither under the inclemency of the atmosphere. How explain such a contrast? How did Rousseau himself account fo…

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 8h

Taine on Rousseau. "Incapable of controlling and of behaving himself, confounding resolution with action, vague desire with resolution, and the role he assumed with the character he thought he possessed; ..."

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

In how many states is that state of mind legal?

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

Done

Reposted by Joe R. Feagin, Scott L. Greer, Philip N. Cohen , and 11 more Joe R. Feagin, Scott L. Greer, Philip N. Cohen, Eric Goldman, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, David R. Miller, Jacob T. Levy, Samantha Brennan, James Goodwin, David Bartram, Jens Siegert, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 20h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 21h

I've never encountered the word "chomo" before; I immediately hate it.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 21h

The first generation of smart glasses was search engine powered: Instant doxxing!

The next generation of smart glasses will be AI powered, so as you walk through the day you'll see everyone naked, with six fingers on one hand, with made-up citations next to them.

www.linkedin.com/news/story/e...

Eyewear giant ups ante on Meta tech | LinkedIn

The CEO of the world’s biggest eyewear company thinks demand for smart glasses is about to boom.

www.linkedin.com

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 22h

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

Opinion | Should They Just Go Ahead and Put Up a Gold Trump Sign on the Supreme Court?

www.nytimes.com

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

Which means that the very public "I am altering the deal" strategy... gets noticed by other universities and taken account of. There's no point in making embarrassing placating concessions when the other side isn't going to stick to the agreement.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

I think other countries have adopted Trump-soothing strategies for trade negotiations: placate him when he's mad, make a deal that he's excited to call a deal, then hope he just forgets about you.

But the war on universities isn't being driven by Trump's whims the same way, and Rufo doesn't forget.

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy

McGill PoliSci @mcgillpolisci.bsky.social · 1d

Assistant Professor @amyjanzwood.bsky.social is among the experts featured on this CBC "Ideas with Nahlah Ayed" episode on building pipelines and fighting climate change, and public opinion that seems to want both.

www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

www.cbc.ca

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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

“There is no degree of acquiescence to Trumpism that will satisfy this administration or MAGA at large. All there is is a choice between offering a faint echo of the false reality they’re selling and creating dissonance by speaking the reality of the situation to the public.”

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

hey, @ilyasomin.bsky.social , you're on the enemies list!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I can create peace with tariffs. I'm using them for a lot of different reasons. If that power was taken away, it would be a terrible terrible day for our country. I would say many of the things I've done could be eradicated ... these are enemies of the country that are pursuing that lawsuit"

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

heh.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

and also, of course, the second-most-famous thing @kjhealy.co has ever written.

slate.com/human-intere...

Five Reasons You Didn't Win a MacArthur Genius Grant—Again

It's the time of the year to not to win big prizes. The Nobels are just around the corner, and the MacArthur Foundation Fellows were just announced....

slate.com

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 1d

It's one of my favorite days on my personal social media liturgical calendar: MacArthur Day, the occasion to post this video from "Little Miss Sunshine!"

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Little Miss Sunshine (1/5) Movie CLIP - Frankly Speaking (2006) HD

YouTube video by Movieclips

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Jacob T. Levy

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

If you’d like a more realistic assessment; I wrote about it today. www.pbump.net/o/dethawing-...

Thawing out ‘Arctic Frost’ and the new Biden-was-worse argument

A recent American presidency, you may be alarmed to hear, engaged in an action that was "arguably worse than Watergate" — an event still positioned in some circles as the gold-standard of presidential...

www.pbump.net

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Colin Danby @cdanby.bsky.social · 1d

Tabs are an archive.

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Reposted by Jacob T. Levy, Samantha Brennan, Evan Roberts

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

This was not a sample of academics.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 1d

How many browsing tabs do you typically have open?*

1: 6%
2-5: 54%
6-10: 14%
11-20: 8%
21-30: 2%
More than 30: 3%

*across all windows, on desktop/laptop

yougov.co.uk/topics/techn...

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