Share this page!

Maybe Scrolly?
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
Twitter logo
22 Apr, 13 tweets, 4 min read
Why do all the young dictators look like grad students to me
The cute EE guy who spends all night in the cleanroom and yet somehow has time to date a different girl each month Image
The econ guy who's going to get a top job even though his research is totally average Image
The physics guy who shows up to all the house parties, gets loudly drunk, and says various sexist things Image
The Comp Lit guy who doesn't really care about Comp Lit but who is sleeping with pretty much the entire department Image
The interdisciplinary humanities guy who's really into Mao and won't stop talking about it Image
The guy who is definitely never graduating but won't admit it Image
We don't know what this guy actually does or who he is, but he's always in the building at 2 AM Image
The 2L who can and will tell you every detail of environmental law Image
The guy who was in the military and now studies military history Image
The poli sci guy who will tell you exactly why Democrats are going to win every election from now until forever Image
The guy who's just killing time in grad school til his podcast takes off Image
The econ guy who will get right up in your face and yell that fiscal stimulus can't possibly work, coating your glasses with small flecks of saliva Image

β€’ β€’ β€’

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
γ€€

Keep Current with Noah Smith πŸ‡

Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Noahpinion

Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
21 Apr
This post seems to just be saying that liberals are much more fired-up than conservatives these days. Which seems true! But why?

My hypothesis: Conservative ideology has drifted toward things that it's difficult for most people to get fired up about.

richardhanania.substack.com/p/why-is-every…
I mean, what is the conservative plan for the future of our country? Moar tax cuts? Anti-trans legislation? Border wall and deportation sweeps?

Who gets up in the morning and is excited to fight for that?
Conservatism has a total lack of ideas and vision right now. In 1980 you knew the kind of country conservatives wanted to build -- Christianity, family values, tax cuts and deregulation, etc etc. Now what do they want to build? I don't even know.
Read 9 tweets
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
17 Apr
1/One thing I think the coup attempt of 1/6 did, besides galvanize institutional awareness of a rightist threat, was to expose how militarily weak the rightists are.
2/In the 90s we envisioned the far right as a vast network of well-trained militias. In the 00s we envisioned Blackwater mercenaries being used as rightist paramilitaries in a civil conflict.

In reality, we got a rabble of out of shape 50-year-old boat dealers.
3/They managed to get past the police by doing the old "toe the line between goofy and serious" trick that online Nazis perfected in web forums. But that trick won't work twice.
Read 11 tweets
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
16 Apr
Friday open question: What are the 1 to 3 most underrated movies ever made?
My own three picks might be:
1. Shimotsuma Monogatari
2. Drop Dead Fred
3. A Scanner Darkly

But there would also be a strong case for Batteries Not Included, Cube, Picnic, Millennium Actress, and Return of the Jedi.
Also, there are my favorite movies, Groundhog Day, Battle Royale, and Slacker, which people do generally like but which are underrated because they are not recognized as the best movies of all time
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
14 Apr
In retrospect, this tweet was very right.
We could all kind of feel 1/6 coming from a long way out. In both its syncretic, opportunistic rightist ideology and its shambolic, chaotic methods, it was presaged by Charlottesville, by the Proud Boys violence of 2017, and by Trump's 2016 campaign rallies.
Strangely, as the date approached, I became *less* worried about the kind of attack that eventually happened. I thought Trump didn't have the manpower at his command, and I thought by that point they knew they were beaten.

Oops.
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
13 Apr
1/Let's talk about why the debate over what constitutes "infrastructure" is pointless.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
2/Opponents of Biden's bill are criticizing it for not being purely about roads and bridges. This is silly.

3/The reason the government spends money on infrastructure is a positive externality. Roads, bridges, etc. are things that the private sector won't build enough of if left to its own devices.
Read 8 tweets
Noah Smith πŸ‡ Profile picture
12 Apr
1/Let's talk about the two-track economy that I think Bidenomics is trying to create.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
2/Basically the idea is that Biden wants to have super-competitive export industries to raise productivity, and then have domestic-focused service industries provide mass employment.

It's actually a smart plan.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/bidenomics-e…
3/The cutting-edge industries just don't generate a ton of employment anymore.

This is partly because of technology, and partly because Asia has become the workshop of the world, which requires the U.S. to become the world's research park.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Noahpinion has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Noahpinion!

Read all threads by @Noahpinion