Vikram Bath
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vikrambath.bsky.social
Vikram Bath
@vikrambath.bsky.social
2K followers 580 following 6.8K posts
Former business school professor, current software engineer. Writes at ordinary-times.com
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vikrambath.bsky.social
Vikram Bath @vikrambath.bsky.social · Apr 5
Note that these are the years over which America first became the world’s economic superpower
Manufacturing share of employment steadily declined since WWII
Reposted by Vikram Bath
djdunclive.bsky.social
January 18, 2026 at 5:31 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
Reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide books with the 9 year old, and I am ashamed to admit that I actually don’t think they are that great?
January 18, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
annmlipton.bsky.social
this was good, actually

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...
Opinion | An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good
www.nytimes.com
January 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
sianushka.bsky.social
If you read one thing today, it should be this

Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’

www.thetimes.com/article/01ba...
Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’
Witnesses tell of the brutality inflicted on those taking part in anti-regime protests
www.thetimes.com
January 18, 2026 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
rivertam.bsky.social
I mean the joke here is that Trump is a moron who only knows how to tariff and lie
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d
Q: If the credit card companies don't lower interest rates, what's Trump's plan?

LEAVITT: Tariffs? No I'm just kidding
January 18, 2026 at 1:13 AM
vikrambath.bsky.social
"Do you think the ICE agent should face criminal charges for shooting the woman in Minneapolis?"

Men: Yes
Women: Yes
White: Yes
Black: Yes
Hispanic: Yes
Other: Yes
Survey results. Not every demo is above 50%, but every demo has “yes” greater than “no”
January 18, 2026 at 11:51 AM
vikrambath.bsky.social
The derangement of the real-life Trump exceeds the imagination of even the most afflicted TDS sufferer 1/2
rtodkelly.bsky.social Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 1d
I mean, imagine the response you would have got if you'd expressed concern 12 months ago that Trump might very publicly invade a country, kidnap the leader, declare himself the new leader, sell off their assets, and direct the proceeds to offshore accounts in the Middle East.
rtodkelly.bsky.social Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 1d
I think it's also worth looking at everything that's happened so far and asking, if you'd asked a year before they did said things "are these things legitimate concerns or alarmist fan fiction," what might we have said?
January 18, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
rtodkelly.bsky.social
I mean, imagine the response you would have got if you'd expressed concern 12 months ago that Trump might very publicly invade a country, kidnap the leader, declare himself the new leader, sell off their assets, and direct the proceeds to offshore accounts in the Middle East.
rtodkelly.bsky.social Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 1d
I think it's also worth looking at everything that's happened so far and asking, if you'd asked a year before they did said things "are these things legitimate concerns or alarmist fan fiction," what might we have said?
January 17, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
maiamindel.bsky.social
it's insanely on the nose how maria corina machado is the second ever person to gift away their nobel prize and the first was some guy in nazi occupied norway who gave it to joseph goebbels as a bargaining chip and got nothing out of it
January 17, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
whstancil.bsky.social
There’s no real debate. I have witnessed a very small number of ICE activists advocating for carrying firearms or even trying to agitate by physically striking ICE vehicles, etc. Let’s be clear: the incredibly vast majority of people resisting ICE correctly believe these people are fools.
January 17, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
scottjshapiro.bsky.social
DOJ investigating whether Denmark lied on its Greenland mortgage.
January 17, 2026 at 6:23 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
The tariffs aren’t on Denmark. They are un-legislated taxes on Americans who import things from Denmark
January 17, 2026 at 6:53 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
Why 10%? Doesn’t he usually like to shock with bigger numbers and then pare them down later if he wants to?
January 17, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
mikezaccardi.bsky.social
GS: Unemployment Among Young Tech Workers Has Mostly Normalized
January 17, 2026 at 12:16 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
The time requires a different definition of what it means to be a “moderate”. I don’t particularly care at all what flavor of Medicare For All you prefer or if your gun control support is lukewarm.

You are either someone who sees the threat to democracy or you’re a collaborator
faineg.bsky.social Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d
exactly this. do you correctly view MAGA as an evil force that jerks off over murdering women and flash banging babies, which must be crushed and destroyed forever? Or are you still clinging to a dangerously naive delusion that these creatures can be won over with the Power of Debate?
samd.bsky.social Sam @samd.bsky.social · 1d
the dividing line amongst democrats is basically do you view republicans as existential threats to the country or do you view them as sparring partners.

it’s 2026. cuck democrats can either get on board or get primaried
January 17, 2026 at 12:03 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
I miss having brands around
Disney account asking people to share a quote that sums up how you’re feeling right now Reply: screen cap of Pocahontas: These white men are dangerous
January 17, 2026 at 11:42 AM
vikrambath.bsky.social
I’m not particularly mad or offended by this, but big movies can make a billion dollars in theaters? People don’t go to them in the same way they used to, but they do go to them
January 17, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
eleanor.lockhart.contact
this will come true but it’ll be Vivian controlling Woke Grok, ushering in the transitional government to Luxury Woke Space Communism after she defeats him in a giant robot duel for control of the family fortune
January 17, 2026 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
proptermalone.bsky.social
no, that makes sense, you'd want a governing body of at least a couple hundred
January 17, 2026 at 1:36 AM
vikrambath.bsky.social
lol
Sam Altman: I remembered a lot of this, but here is a part I had forgotten: "Elon said he wanted to accumulate $80B for a self-sustaining city on Mars, and that he needed and deserved majority equity. He said that he needed full control since he’d been burned by not having it in the past, and when we discussed succession he surprised us by talking about his children controlling AGI."
January 17, 2026 at 1:26 AM
vikrambath.bsky.social
Remember how asking job candidates for diversity statements was an implicit ideological litmus test?

They then went and founded a “university” that requires all faculty and staff to subscribe specifically to “anti-communism, anti-socialism, identity politics, and anti-Islamism”
“According to Niall, under the constitution of UATX Joe Lonsdale, as chair of the board, had no authority to tell those of us at the meeting: “That all staff and faculty of UATX must subscribe to the four principles of anti-communism, anti-socialism, identity politics, and anti-Islamism (this is the first time I heard of these four principles); “That ‘communists’ have taken over many other universities and that he, Joe Lonsdale, would stay on the board for fifty years to make sure that no ‘communists’ took over UATX (the identity politics crowd and some Islamists are a threat, but the Marxist-Leninist menace in 2025?)” Lind said when he asked for definitions of “communists” and “socialists,” he’d been told they included anybody who didn’t “believe in private property” and “hate the rich.” This, he wrote, struck him “as a libertarian political test excluding anyone to the left of Ayn Rand.” Lonsdale had said that the board would make a case-by-case determination on whether “New Deal liberals” would be allowed to work at UATX. Lind said that he considered himself “an heir to the New Deal liberal tradition of FDR, Truman, JFK and LBJ.” He was “in favor of dynamic capitalism in a mixed economy, moderately social democratic and pro-labor, and anti-progressive, anti-communist, and anti-identity politics.”
January 16, 2026 at 11:39 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
Did BlueSky change lists to show retweets? Is this fixable?
January 16, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
annmlipton.bsky.social
January 16, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Vikram Bath
ositanwanevu.com
Apropos of nothing, let's check in with how things are going at Bari Weiss's free speech university. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Most people didn’t think much of it when the university dean, Ben Crocker, called a student named Dan into his office on Monday, Sept. 9, the first day of classes. But at 7:44 in the evening, they received an email from three administrators saying that Dan had been removed from campus, “transported to his home out of state,” and barred from further access to the university. The nature of the allegations concerned, at their core, a pair of charged statements Dan allegedly made that would be familiar to any Title IX officer. The first was a general statement implying that UATX girls carried themselves physically in a way that invited sexual assault. The second was a suggestion to a specific female student that she had carried herself in a way that invited sexual assault. Dan had already been the subject of some negative attention on campus because of provocative statements he’d made in a UATX-based Discord “introductions” chat. These included a challenge — “If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I’ll kill you” — which was a reference to the 1981 movie “Stripes” and likely misunderstood by fellow students. In another exchange, a discussion of transgender issues, Dan expressed reservations about hormone treatment and said that he couldn’t wait “to play devil’s advocate for legalizing pedophilia.” Between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., Crocker visited the dorms, where he hosted a meeting on the roof to discuss the issue with students. Crocker’s message was that Dan’s conduct had been evaluated to be a “credible threat” — a phrase that would be repeated by the administration many times over the following days. Crocker then faced what one student attendee recalled as a “firing squad” of questions. Some students said that Dan had seemed off, but others saw his hasty removal as an example of the very cancel culture to which UATX was supposed to be the antithesis. Several students noted a lack of diversity. Consistent with its emphasis on “merit-based admissions,” UATX doesn’t publish demographic data. The students with whom I spoke said their classmates — and the college’s leadership — were overwhelmingly white, disproportionately came from wealthy families and had an overrepresentation of apparent neurodivergence. They found ideological diversity to be particularly lacking. “I didn’t realize exactly how conservative it would be,” one current student told me. “You know, when I hear free speech and open debate and all that jazz, I assumed that there was going to be a more equal amount of political views, and there wasn’t.” Classes weren’t as innovative as most students expected. “Year one was exceptionally boring,” the student said. “They did great books, they just didn’t do it in a great way,” said another student, who lamented the amount of memorization required. “I thought we were going to be intensely debating,” he said. Several students shared course syllabi with me. Most are easy enough to imagine being offered on any campus — with the notable exception of math and science. “The math classes go over algebra you learned in ninth grade,” a student told me. “There was just nothing there.” He described the offering as “schizophrenic” and described a class he’d taken at University of Texas at Austin as “exponentially more important.” Indeed, the syllabus I reviewed for a class called “Intellectual Foundations of Science II” covered a range of topics unusual for a science class including “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” A student who’d taken the course shared a slide with me on “ensoulment” — the principally religious question of when a soul enters the human body — and said that the class had been told that IVF but not abortion could be consistent with the Catholic belief about ensoulment. The poor quality of the science offerings had bothered Heying and Pinker. “Others thought I was the token liberal,” Heying told me, “but I came to understand myself as the token scientist.” In an email, Pinker wrote, “They should have hired a widely esteemed scientist and proven program builder to set up their science division.” Another surprising similarity with other colleges stemmed directly from Dan’s expulsion: The students feared cancellation. “At any moment a frivolous Title IX complaint could be filed against you,” a former student told me. “I’ve never felt my speech was so chilled as it was in the classroom at UATX.” During the many conversations I had reporting this story, two questions came up more than any other. The first: Where was Bari Weiss? Many of the people I interviewed told me about internal conversations and shared internal emails. Weiss, who remains on the board of trustees, was almost never present in the conversations as they were related to me, and while I saw many emails on which Kanelos and Ferguson were copied, I never saw any including Weiss. speaks onstage during an event in New York City, on Nov. 19, 2024. | Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press One person I spoke to, who was present during the early planning stages, told me that Weiss was “very elusive” and almost never present in person. This was ironic since UATX was closely associated with Weiss — a bust of whom now resides in the school library. Weiss, meanwhile, has only risen further during the Trump 2.0 era and is now editor-in-chief of CBS News, where she has been criticized as genuflecting to the Trump administration. A spokesperson for CBS News did not respond to a request for comment from Weiss. One former member of the development team told me that they would routinely ask prospective donors how they got to know UATX. “Eighty percent of the time, the answer was Bari Weiss,” they said. “It was very often referred to as Bari Weiss’ University, or Bari Weiss’ University Project, or Bari Weiss’ University of Austin.” For several people, this was a source of resentment. “I don’t care whether she wants to pretend this is all gone now — she is the reason that this place exists. She was huge, she was held in such high regard, she had such an enormous impact,” the former staffer said. “I want her to be held to account,” she added. “I’m pissed.”
January 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM
vikrambath.bsky.social
India too! If you have expensive work that can be planned ahead and isn’t covered by insurance, people go overseas all the time for procedures.

This includes people who have no other connection or business in the providing country
chadstanton.blacksky.app Doghouse Reilly @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 2d
People leave to get healthcare in Mexico all the time, it’s a cliche that you can find throughout film and television...
acyn.bsky.social Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 2d
Oz: People often say does health care stink in America? Would you leave America to get health care elsewhere? Nobody leaves.
January 16, 2026 at 6:51 PM