A minor whine: In the face of bona fide authoritarian tactics from politicians sworn to uphold liberal democracy, journalists waste a lot of time interrogating straightforward comparisons to the tactics of other authoritarian governments.
Besides accommodationism; besides value compromise; when other communicators threaten to outshine them, many seem to lose track of their own celebrated tradition of sensationalism and position themselves instead as middling moderators.
I don't use SQL except when i absolutely have to, but this makes me wish i were proficient enough to get excited about using it.
Reading as a professional in a different domain but with relatable stakes, this translates clearly to the crisis of public education–research–health institutions.
https://www.butlernature.com/2026/03/22/the-cost-of-caring-for-a-dying-world/
Earlier this month, Jeremy Hance’s “‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?” and the follow-up commentary “Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals” by Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao gave fresh urgency—and language—to a crisis many in conservation have been naming quietly for years. This piece builds on their reporting and reflections, and [Continue reading]
I've done nothing at this scale of cruelty, but i have had and still have a noxious habit of blithely inviting people to join me in activities they might not be prepared for—physically, socially, culturally, emotionally. I don't pressure people to change their minds, but i could do more to ensure that their decisions are informed—and i find it valuable to learn about extreme cases like this that stir up discomfort in me with those patterns.
The open question here is not whether reactionaries want meritocratic advancement (they don't); it's whether they want a weak military.
The case that they don't is easy: They want to expand and conquer, and they keep acting in ways that weaken it because they're delusional. But i lean toward a case that they do: Fragmentation of our (comparatively) legitimate military would make it easier for their loyalists (both military and militia) to seize power domestically.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/27/nx-s1-5763863/hegseth-soldiers-promotions
Near the top of my reading list for the last few years (i have a long list) is Lyall's "Divided Armies", in large part because of the innovative procedure he used to select his comparison case studies.
The thesis of the book—as i understand it, one of the few on the subject grounded in evidence—is that ethnic inequality in a military, through several mechanisms, lessens its effectiveness.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691192444/divided-armies
I very much appreciate what the genre has accomplished, from the social critiques of early entries to recent geopolitical thrillers and introspective parodies, but i've never really enjoyed zombie movies. So it's a surprise to be able to say that i have a favorite.
I want to add praise for the supporting cast: Often subtly desperate performances by Joely Richardson, Douglas M. Griffin, and Bryce Romero in particular made the story almost oppressively intimate.
VideoIt is not often that a film comes along which not only subverts genre expectations, but in fact uses that subversion of expectations to create a disconnect between how we traditionally perceive the themes and moral imperatives inherent in the genre and what we are experiencing in the film itself. [...]
Those selected as being 'excellent research teams' receive generous financial support, enabling them to increase both human capital and equipment. These 'privileged' groups publish their achievements in 'top' journals, which involves high publication costs (a threshold of between $5,000 and $12,000)."
It may be that new institutional forms are needed to either respond to our current fascist moment or to meaningfully advance beyond the neoliberal order that brought us to it; but there is no shortage of reminders that unions still and will play an essential role.
I wrote about how we talk about political "issues" and how that connects to political disconnection, and a chart I tell people about all the time - now I can just link to this post.
on both substack & my own blog:
https://daniellaurison.com/class-language-and-political-issues/
https://daniellaurison.substack.com/p/class-language-and-political-issues
Leibniz Open Science
Daniel Laurison