Scholar

Matt Zwolinski

H-index: 17
Political science 55%
Sociology 11%
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Abundance theorists are right to focus on the importance of building things. But by ignoring public choice theory, they miss the risk that state-driven growth will benefit the elite rather than the masses. My review of _Abundance_ and _Why Nothing Works_, at Econlib.
www.econlib.org/library/colu...
The Cost of Building Progress - Econlib
Book Review of: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress–and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman,1; and Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.2 Vera Coking and the Cost of Progress In 1961, V...
www.econlib.org
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Companion website here with sample quizzes, tests, and writing assignments. Plus extensive study questions for every reading in the book.

routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/_a...
Companion Website - Landing Page
routledgetextbooks.com
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Out today! The new and massively revised third edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy, co-edited with the fantastic @mjuarezgarcia_ . Perfect for courses in political philosophy or PPE.
xlenc.bsky.social
Truly wild photos coming in from Los Angeles right now.
Photo from Carlin Stiehl from the LA Times. Dozens of people holding American flags on the streets of LA are in frame, with a massive cloud of tear gas billowing in front of them. One protester holds a sign that reads Immigrants Make Us Great.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
This is a really great interview, Berny. You did a fantastic job of letting her get her point of view out while still really pushing her where she needed to be pushed. 👏👏

Reposted by: Matt Zwolinski

normative.bsky.social
Careful guys, if you don’t control migration you might turn out like <checks notes> the greatest, wealthiest city in the world.
Ghoul Stephen Miller warns NYC is what happens when a society “fails to control migration”
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Trump channeling his inner Thomas Carlyle for Juneteenth.

“Quashee, if he will not help in bringing out the spices, will get himself made a slave again…and with beneficient whip, since other methods avail not, will be compelled to work.”
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Feels like a good time to repost this.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Homan and Miller are heading into the Trump administration, and people need to read Kukathas.
His point: you can’t limit freedom of immigration without severely limiting the freedom of citizens. Restricting their freedom means restricting our own too.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Immigration and Freedom
A compelling account of the threat immigration control poses to the citizens of free societies
press.princeton.edu
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Oh geez. Just noticed the typo! My head hangeth in shame.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Page proofs are in! Coming your way this July.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Reading @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's excellent, _Autocracy, Inc._. I can’t recommend it enough as a guide to understanding the rising tide of 21st century authoritarianism. And some of what she describes sounds eerily familiar…

Reposted by: Matt Zwolinski

evanbernick.bsky.social
There is no reason to doubt that this man speaks for the administration. Read it and consider where we are.
An insane rant by Stephen Miller about immigration from March 29, 2025, 4:44PM UTC.
Full text at
https://xcancel.com/StephenM/status/1906024686674133371
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
I find the second and third of those reasons more compelling than the first.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
But we don’t generally get to control our creations in that way. If someone gets an idea from my writing and then uses it in a novel way to create something new, they’re entitled to make money from that creation. They don’t need my consent for that, nor do they owe me any compensation.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Not all differences are relevant differences. So the question is whether it should matter that it’s a machine rather than a human, and why. That’s what I haven’t seen articulated yet.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Well, they *are* learning. Whether they count as “minds” or not seems at least unclear to me, philosophically speaking. But functionally, they certainly behave more and more like minds.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
But is consent necessary in such cases? If art is placed in the public sphere, and a human beings observe it, learn from it, and use what they have learned in their own creative work, that's not theft. That's just how culture works. I'm not clear on why it's different in the case of AI.
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
This is an original image, isn’t it? I’m not sure I see how it qualifies as “stolen.”
mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Ouch. I’ll grant that it’s not a great image. And I was being lazy about it. I put my work into the content. The image was an afterthought.
But I’m curious why you’re reacting so strongly to it. Is it the particular image? Or is it the use of AI image generators in general?

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