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Self in Society Roundup 60
Trump, immigration, the economy, vaccinations, classical liberalism, and more.
Copyright © 2025 by Ari Armstrong
May 31, 2025
Trump and Immigrants
El Salvador Prison: Quentin Young: "Immigration advocates in Colorado say they have identified about 12 immigrants in Colorado whom they believe federal authorities have removed to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador." C.J. Ciaramella: "Report: 50 Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Entered the U.S. Legally, Contrary to White House Claims." Again: Constitutionally, to imprison someone, government must follow due process, which entails a criminal conviction, and avoid cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. government's actions in this matter are blatantly anti-Constitutional and morally horrific. And if you voted for Trump or otherwise endorsed him, you now have a moral obligation to publicly speak out against the Trump administration's atrocities.
Detaining a Father: Nick Judin: "ICE Arrests Mississippi Father at His Citizenship Hearing, Threatening Deportation." Horrific. As I've said many times, the cruelty is the point.
Government Assaults: 10Boston: "'Harrowing': Video shows Worcester police hold girl's face on ground during ICE operation."
If Only Someone Could Have Predicted: Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "They voted for Trump and now their green card holding son is in ICE detention."
Betrayal of the Afghans: Ilya Somin: "Trump Seeks to Deport Afghans Who Fled the Taliban." See also the Washington Post article.
Due Process Failures: Mattathias Schwartz: "A federal judge expressed frustration . . . with the government's failure to give due process to a group of deportees the administration is trying to send to South Sudan but is now holding in Djibouti, as he had mandated last week."
Lawlessness: Jacob Sullum: "Trump's Mass Cancellation of Student Visas Illustrates the Lawlessness of His Immigration Crackdown."
We Need Amnesty: Allison Sherry: "Federal agents . . . spent three days . . . in Colorado Springs and Denver trying to track down eight immigrants who crossed the Mexican border as minors." Those children now are in foster care. And the federal government should leave them alone.
Fines: ICE fined Colorado companies more than $8 million for . . . hiring the "wrong" janitors. We wouldn't want people working hard or earning a living here in the "land of the free."
Trump and the Economy
Court Blocks Tariffs: Here's some good news (May 28): "US court blocks Trump from imposing the bulk of his tariffs." See also Ilya Somin's comments.
MAGA Maoism: Emily Peck: "President Trump may paint China as the enemy, but lately he's been awfully fond of their command-economy playbook." Trump is threatening major corporations including Apple and Walmart.
Vance vs. Markets: Axios: "Vice President Vance's allies and former aides are set to have a key role in pushing the Trump administration to move aggressively to break up big corporations, including tech companies." At this point it should come as no surprise that the Trump administration is hostile to free markets. The Trumpists want markets centrally controlled by Washington.
Tariff Troubles: Molson Hart fears the tariffs will lead in a matter of months to "shortages of transformers, pumps, air conditioners, and other complex goods which are made (or their critical components) in China." Via Cowen.
Rand vs. Musk: "Ayn Rand would've hated Elon Musk," Aaron Ross Powell points out, based on a discussion with Paul Crider, who wrote an essay on the topic.
TACO Trade: Various traders have taken to referring to Trump's tariff "policy" as "TACO trade"—Trump Always Chickens Out.
AI Regs: Jack Nicastro: "Trump has scrapped Biden's crippling AI regulations."
More Trump
Corrupt Pardon: New York Times: "Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner." This is just straight-up pay-to-play and the rewarding of political allies.
Corrupt Pardon II: Billy Binion: "Trump's pardon for former Virginia sheriff who exchanged badges for cash makes a mockery of 'law and order.'"
Corrupt Dealings: David Frum: "In his second term, [Trump] is reaching for billions." $2 billion from UAI for "stablecoin," billions from Qatar for real estate and the jet, "200 purchasers of his meme coin, many of them apparently foreign nationals, for a private dinner." Frum summarizes, "The brazenness of the self-enrichment resembles nothing seen in any earlier White House."
Trump on Peters: Trump wants Tina Peters freed. Phil Weiser is not amused. See also Mario Nicolais's remarks. Remember: Trump doesn't care at all about "law and order"; he wants to corrupt the law to reward his allies and punish his enemies.
Subsidized Journalism: Yes, that should stop.
Musk vs. Trump: Musk said, "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit."
RFK vs. Science
Covid Vaccines: Matthew Herper: "With Covid vaccine decisions, RFK Jr. unleashes an unfettered assault on public health." Amesh Adalja said of RFK's directive, "These are bad recommendations that no one should follow. This decision should be viewed exclusively as the actions of a nihilistic anti-vaccine advocacy who unfortunately has the ability to wield government power." He also said, "Pregnancy is a high-risk condition for COVID. . . . Healthy children—at least for their initial vaccine series—benefit, as hospitalization rates for COVID in those under 2 is unacceptably high." That said, obviously Covid poses much higher risks for older adults and people with various health ailments. And generally I think people should be able to buy (or not) whatever medical treatments they want that others are willing to sell, with the usual caveats.
Government Science: Jeffrey Singer replied to a Washington Post article, "Government-funded research published exclusively in government-funded journals. What could possibly go wrong?"
Quick Takes
Cowen on Classical Liberalism: He writes: "If your fundamental beliefs are in individual liberty, responsibility, and toleration, the escalation of state power, across competing administrations, is unlikely to prove your friend over time." See also Cowen's conversation with Marian Tupy on the topic. See also Dan Klein and Erik Matson's history of the term "liberal."
Car Seats and Fertility: Steve Stewart-Williams: "Car-seat laws may function as contraception. Most cars can't fit three car seats, so having a third child means buying a much larger, more expensive car. As a result, fewer people have more than two kids. According to one analysis, U.S. car-seat laws saved 57 lives in 2017, but resulted in 8,000 fewer births." See also a ChatGPT summary. One possible solution is to get three-butt carseats that fit kids more compactly while keeping them relatively safer, but I'm not sure if there's regulatory space for that. Anyway, incentives matter, and trade-offs are real.
Europe Flailing: 3Takeaways podcast episode with Tyler Cowen: "The poorest U.S. state [Mississippi] now has a higher GDP per person than France, the U.K., Italy, and Spain."
AI Coming: It's really hard to predict how AI will change our economy and our world. But change is coming! Axios lays out some possible scenarios. The Wall Street Journal had some fun with AI video services.
Transgender Care: Stuart Ritchie and Tom Chivers discuss the Cass Review and related work. They discuss the poor quality of surrounding evidence. Chivers is skeptical of puberty blockers, but he also doesn't find big obvious harms from their use. Ritchie closes by pointing out that medicine generally is plagued by low-quality evidence. S. Baum discusses a report highly critical of the Cass Review.
Women-Only Naked Spa: A court held that a spa has no speech right to exclude transgender women with penises. This is obviously a case where a business should be able to restrict clientele based on genitalia. The right at issue is freedom of association.
Dishonesty: New York Post: "Star Harvard business professor [Francesca Gino] stripped of tenure, fired for manipulating data in studies on dishonesty."
Evil: The root of evil is not love of money, Michael Huemer argues, but love of status and power.
Religious Charters: The Supreme Court deadlocked, leaving in place the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision barring religious schools from receiving tax dollars as public charters. Here is the problem: It is wrong to force nonsectarian and secular people to help finance religious schools, but it is also wrong to force religious people to help finance schools they don't want to use. The only fundamental solution is the one few want to hear: stop spending tax dollars on education.
Cowen on Culture: Tyler Cowen argues that a series of negative events—9/11, the mortgage meltdown, and Covid—led to "negative emotional contagion." He points out that people often respond badly to bad events. He describes Trump's tariffs as "one of the worst policy decisions I've ever seen by a major government." Cowen also discusses the ongoing AI revolution, the judicial rebellion toward Trump, and the potential benefits of Trump's deregulation efforts.
AI Astronomy: Eighteen-year-old Matteo Paz won the $250,000 Regeneron prize for using AI to sift through NASA telescope data for new space-object leads. Also read about the other winners.
Potter: HBO is remaking the series.