Leslie Root
@lesja.bsky.social
reproductive justice for all, solidarity forever. demographer, asst prof of research at CU Boulder, inveterate and not particularly professional poster. на носу очки, а в душе осень
Pinned
Leslie Root
@lesja.bsky.social
· Apr 12
"shouldn't the left be engaging with pronatalism" comes up constantly. yeah I'm engaging with it. engaging by saying it sucks!!
Are there still jobs in software where your manager doesn't include AI use as a performance metric?
February 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Are there still jobs in software where your manager doesn't include AI use as a performance metric?
Reposted by Leslie Root
microsoft teams
February 5, 2026 at 4:29 PM
microsoft teams
It's difficult to express the emotions I felt when going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole recently about how many people in Hitler's inner circle committed suicide at the end
doing some comfort reading (about the nuremberg trials)
February 5, 2026 at 4:02 AM
It's difficult to express the emotions I felt when going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole recently about how many people in Hitler's inner circle committed suicide at the end
Reposted by Leslie Root
As if I would ever voluntarily participate in a right wing activity
February 4, 2026 at 7:30 PM
As if I would ever voluntarily participate in a right wing activity
They're going to keep pushing this narrative that only conservatives have children, and it's very important that we keep saying "what the fuck are you talking about"
February 4, 2026 at 7:22 PM
They're going to keep pushing this narrative that only conservatives have children, and it's very important that we keep saying "what the fuck are you talking about"
Reposted by Leslie Root
Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”
February 4, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”
i want a flight simulator that reproduces the cramped space, deafening white noise and lack of internet because apparently that's my optimal writing environment
February 3, 2026 at 9:21 PM
i want a flight simulator that reproduces the cramped space, deafening white noise and lack of internet because apparently that's my optimal writing environment
our nephew from Long Island applied to a bunch of southern schools and the reason was: SEC football and nice weather
We only want the good immigrants who study hard and don't commit crimes, unless they try to take little Brayleigh's (28 ACT, 1350 SAT) God-given slot at an Ivy away by being smarter, in which case Korematsu didn't go far enough
February 2, 2026 at 6:26 PM
our nephew from Long Island applied to a bunch of southern schools and the reason was: SEC football and nice weather
love it, i'm slough
Presenting year 3 of the highly anticipated niche wetlands meme: Which wetland are you? #WorldWetlandsDay
February 2, 2026 at 6:10 PM
love it, i'm slough
BARS
"The majority of white women consistently vote against securing pathways to citizenship for immigrants, even as their own path to full citizenship was granted to reinforce & multiply white control of the country in the face of Black civil rights progress and early 20th-century immigrant influxes."
February 1, 2026 at 4:00 PM
BARS
Feel absolutely awful about everything today, but Cosmic Crisp apples are really good
January 31, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Feel absolutely awful about everything today, but Cosmic Crisp apples are really good
Five classes you took in college, freak edition:
Wagner's Ring Cycle
Comparative Scandinavian syntax
Old Norse
Sex, evolution, and human nature
The Russian novel
Wagner's Ring Cycle
Comparative Scandinavian syntax
Old Norse
Sex, evolution, and human nature
The Russian novel
January 31, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Five classes you took in college, freak edition:
Wagner's Ring Cycle
Comparative Scandinavian syntax
Old Norse
Sex, evolution, and human nature
The Russian novel
Wagner's Ring Cycle
Comparative Scandinavian syntax
Old Norse
Sex, evolution, and human nature
The Russian novel
Not Catherine O'Hara 😭
January 30, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Not Catherine O'Hara 😭
Reposted by Leslie Root
we have somehow invented a general strike with no demand and only coffee and yarn stores are closing
January 30, 2026 at 10:44 AM
we have somehow invented a general strike with no demand and only coffee and yarn stores are closing
A quarter of our district's teachers are calling out tomorrow!
January 30, 2026 at 6:05 AM
A quarter of our district's teachers are calling out tomorrow!
Reposted by Leslie Root
Normal research into the benefits of marriage identifies a relationship that people enter only if they can find one they think will benefit them, and remain in only if it continues to benefit them. Then it asks whether those people are better off than if they weren't married. Genius.
/1
/1
January 28, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Normal research into the benefits of marriage identifies a relationship that people enter only if they can find one they think will benefit them, and remain in only if it continues to benefit them. Then it asks whether those people are better off than if they weren't married. Genius.
/1
/1
"I hope Americans are inspired by three of the most overtly evil people in the administration having babies!"
January 28, 2026 at 5:25 PM
"I hope Americans are inspired by three of the most overtly evil people in the administration having babies!"
Reposted by Leslie Root
Even if the right's pronatalist policies worked (which they won't), there is no possible way birth rates could rise among native-born Americans sufficiently enough to compensate for population loss due to declining immigration.
The central failure of US immigration policy over my entire adult life is that it has always put xenophobia over facts. This is the result. And if we were talking about facts, this one would be setting off all our alarms. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...
U.S. Population Growth Slows Sharply as Immigration Numbers Plunge
www.nytimes.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Even if the right's pronatalist policies worked (which they won't), there is no possible way birth rates could rise among native-born Americans sufficiently enough to compensate for population loss due to declining immigration.
Reposted by Leslie Root
Just started doing new data analysis and I know I keep saying this, but: I really, really don't think people appreciate how much this moral panic was a deliberate and extremely expensive invention.
January 28, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Just started doing new data analysis and I know I keep saying this, but: I really, really don't think people appreciate how much this moral panic was a deliberate and extremely expensive invention.
Vance: hey did you finish my holocaust tweet
Comms guy: sure did, boss, real implying that you picture yourself in the role of potential nazi just like you asked
Vance: thanks so much bro
Comms guy (sotto voce): not your bro
Comms guy: sure did, boss, real implying that you picture yourself in the role of potential nazi just like you asked
Vance: thanks so much bro
Comms guy (sotto voce): not your bro
Legitimately a feat of carefully calculated writing to issue a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement of this length without mentioning either (1) the people who perpetrated the Holocaust or (2) the people against whom they perpetrated it
January 28, 2026 at 4:14 AM
Vance: hey did you finish my holocaust tweet
Comms guy: sure did, boss, real implying that you picture yourself in the role of potential nazi just like you asked
Vance: thanks so much bro
Comms guy (sotto voce): not your bro
Comms guy: sure did, boss, real implying that you picture yourself in the role of potential nazi just like you asked
Vance: thanks so much bro
Comms guy (sotto voce): not your bro
Reposted by Leslie Root
Reposted by Leslie Root
i'm being flip but when i think about the guys who are gassing preschools and putting children in camps and killing people both on and off camera--complaining about WHISTLES--i understand why dante was like no, we need way more kinds of hell. at least nine
January 28, 2026 at 1:33 AM
i'm being flip but when i think about the guys who are gassing preschools and putting children in camps and killing people both on and off camera--complaining about WHISTLES--i understand why dante was like no, we need way more kinds of hell. at least nine
Reposted by Leslie Root
Reposted by Leslie Root
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
January 26, 2026 at 1:07 PM
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...