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Michael Brownstein

@michaelbrownstein.bsky.social

170 followers 180 following 150 posts

professor of philosophy and department chair, John Jay College professor of philosophy, CUNY Grad Center alum, Deep Springs College author, Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · Apr 23

My new book--with Alex Madva and @dryan149.bsky.social--has a cover!

In print 9.16.25, but why not preorder a copy now? mitpress.mit.edu/978026204978...

@mitpress.bsky.social #CoverReveal #Bookstagram

Thanks to Frank Augugliaro for the cover design

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 5h

Friends in Chicago: alert! alert!

Daniel Kelly @dryan149.bsky.social · 6d

Chicagoland Friends! Two weeks from today I'll be in town at The Seminary Coop to talk about social change and my new book. It would be great to see you! It's from 4-5pm Thursday 10/16, and I will probably be thirsty afterwards.

www.semcoop.com/event/daniel...

Reposted by Michael Brownstein

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 8h

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 11h

All the thanks in the world to @casbsstanford.bsky.social

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford @casbsstanford.bsky.social · 11h

A copy of the NEW BOOK @mitpress.bsky.social, "Somebody Should Do Something," has entered the Center's world renowned Ralph W. Tyler Collection! 📖

Two of its authors, @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social (2019-20) & @dryan149.bsky.social (2018-19), worked on the book during their CASBS fellowships 😏 🙌

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 16h

Great essay by @himself.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Michael Brownstein

Alex Madva @madva.bsky.social · 2d

And... we're off! My first stop on the SSDS book tour was tonight and will be tough to top! Westport Library is an amazing venue, couldn't ask for a better moderator than Sharon Suchotliff, and huge thanks to Jennifer Keller and co for making it happen!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5K...

#booksky

Common Ground: 'Somebody Should Do Something' w/ Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, & Daniel Kelly

YouTube video by The Westport Library

www.youtube.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 2d

“Yet if forces like economic collapse and war supply momentum to big social change, they don’t dictate the shape of history. Human beings, their projects and their institutions carve grooves into the future that structure the direction of change.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Michael Brownstein

MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 3d

Censorship has no place in a free society. To mark the start of #BannedBooksWeek, we've curated a list of recent MIT Press books to help you read for your rights: mitpress.mit.edu/reading-free...

Promotional image depicting three 3D covers of MIT Press books. Books featured are "Somebody Should Do Something," "On Liberalism," and "Rewiring Democracy."

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Reposted by Michael Brownstein

Society for Philosophy and Psychology @socphilpsych.bsky.social · 3d

Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change
 📚From Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva & Daniel Kelly

Somebody Should Do Something

Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from o...

mitpress.mit.edu

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Reposted by Michael Brownstein

Alex Zielinski @alexzee.bsky.social · 4d

Federal officers fired tear gas into a crowd of marchers minutes after they arrived outside Portlands ICE building this afternoon:

Federal agents fire tear gas, make multiple arrests during protest outside Portland ICE facility

Hundreds of protesters marched to facility from nearby Elizabeth Carruthers Park in Southwest Portland.

opb.org

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Reposted by Michael Brownstein

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4d

This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 4d

Aside from having to record it in my overheated closet, this was a really fun interview with Andrew Keen. Appreciated the hard questions--like whether there can be a science of social change--and occasional pushback.
@madva.bsky.social @dryan149.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

How to Lose Loudly: What the Left can Learn from the NRA

Episode 2577: Michael Brownstein on how anyone can create social change

keenon.substack.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 5d

Children. Children like my children and your children. If I force myself to imagine masked men breaking into my home at night, zip tying my kids and taking them away, it’s nauseating. Hard to imagine worse.

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 5d

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

YouTube video by MSNBC

www.youtube.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 6d

Seems like that ideal could be something like: kings are in it for themselves; Democrats are in it for everyone else.

Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 6d

"Fusion" coalitions that can defeat autocrats in elections need to stand, uncompromisingly, for something. Overlooking deep differences to make strategic compromises is no doubt crucial, but there needs to be a unifying ideal.

Worth reading:

Opinion | This Is What Autocrats Dread

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 6d

Exactly the point Dem lawmakers should be making.

Guy Grossman @guygrossman.bsky.social · 6d

If the WH won't commit to respecting Congress's power of the purse, why should Democratic lawmakers spend time bargaining on spending priorities?

Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 6d

Just in case you find yourself near Wayne, PA on Fri Oct 10th, stop by Main Point Books to ask @madva.bsky.social all the hard questions about making social change!

@dryan149.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

www.eventbrite.com/e/somebody-s...

Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change

Main Point Books welcomes Alex Madva for a discussion of how communities create social change

www.eventbrite.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

As Beauchamp concludes: “This, then, should be the Democratic objective: not to extract policy concessions or win news cycles, which never works [in shutdown fights], but to begin building a larger social ethos of resistance to authoritarianism.”

Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Put otherwise, Dems might lose, but they might win by “losing loudly.”

Opinion | Why the Texas Democrats’ Walkout Worked

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Dems might lose the shutdown fight even if they do this. But they stand to gain the kind of solidarity at the heart of most successful social and political movements, as Dan and Alex and I write about.

@mitpress.bsky.social #booksky

Somebody Should Do Something

A new book about how individual people, working together, can create systemic social change Where to find it... MIT Press Penguin Bookshop Amazon Porchlight Books Greenlight Books Montclair Book ...

sites.google.com

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

. . . they can show the public that this crisis is serious — and that their rhetoric about a teetering democracy isn’t just cynical partisan slop used to make normal political disputes over health care seem like something bigger.”

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Core to this bigger picture is showing people that Dems mean what they say. As Beauchamp writes, “If Democrats are seen refusing to fund the government because the government no longer operates according to laws . . .

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Splitting the difference as the Dems are trying to do is likely to fail a much more important test too. The big kahuna is whether Dems can find a way to lead the resistance to MAGA authoritarianism, and can present a believable alternative to it. The shutdown is just one battle along the way.

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Of course, Dems have ample authentic justification for a shutdown: Trump won’t honor the deal anyway because he’s in the midst of an authoritarian takeover of the federal government.

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

This is likely to fail because it’s inauthentic. Refusing to fund the government is an extreme move, one which isn’t justifiable because the GOP won’t extend Obamacare subsidies, etc.

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Michael Brownstein @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social · 7d

Dems are trying to serve two masters: they know they need to amp up resistance, but they want the conversation focused where polls tell them they’re strongest. Their rapprochement is to take a stand on the budget bill and to justify it on the basis of pocketbook issues.

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