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Self in Society Roundup 65
Trump's authoritarianism, immigration cruelty, Gaza, trade wars, antifa, Mounk and Rufo, literacy, crime, Vance sees demons, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2025
Trump's Authoritarianism
Trump Is a Mass-Murderer: The U.S. military under Donald Trump now has murdered at least 61 people for allegedly smuggling drugs in boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The term "murder" applies even if those killed really were smuggling drugs into the U.S., although there's some argument that the killings were justifiable if those killed were drug smugglers connected to such violent organizations as Tren de Aragua. One problem is that evidence that those killed really were drug smugglers is scant at best. See articles by Jacob Sullum and Ilya Somin. Somin writes, "These attacks are both illegal and unjust. . . . Drug smuggling is, at most, a criminal law issue, not an act of war. And, in many cases, the people targeted either were not actually smuggling drugs or were not on their way to the US." See also commentary by Walter Olson.
Wehner on Trump's Authoritarianism: Peter Wehner: "Trump . . . has never tried to hide his malice, his lawlessness, or his desire to inflict pain on others. . . . It's getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots. Trump is in the process of building his own paramilitary force. He is invoking wartime powers to deport people without due process, even suggesting that American citizens may be sent to foreign prisons. He has deployed National Guard troops to cities over the objections of local officials. . . . Trump has signaled that he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military in the United States. And he has claimed, without legal justification, that he has the right to order the military to summarily kill people suspected of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America."
Trump's Anti-Constitutionalism: Trump again teased a third term, and he continues to conspiracy-monger about the 2020 elections, which functions among the weak-minded as some sort of pretext for another run. This is extremely dangerous, and Trump supporters who fail to speak out against it are openly courting dictatorship.
Partridge on Trump's Authoritarianism: Roger Partridge: "Trump's systematic capture of law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and emergency powers achieves tyranny in all but duration—authoritarian control operating through constitutional forms. . . . Across multiple domains—law enforcement, regulation, press freedom, and emergency powers—Trump has systematically converted democratic institutions into instruments of personal will. The result weaponizes federal powers to punish opponents and reward loyalty. The methods may be legal in form. But the function remains authoritarian."
Bauer and Goldsmith on the Insurrection Act: Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith write, "The Insurrection Act is a dangerous law that gives the president broad powers to authorize far-reaching uses of the military in the domestic sphere. It is based on highly permissive standards for action and provides neither a role for Congress nor a basis for serious judicial review. . . . Now, in the second Trump administration, the president is threatening to invoke it for sweeping domestic military deployments in big cities across the country." Trump's abuses have been made possible by decades of governmental negligence and irresponsibility.
Tracinski on NSPM-7: "Everyone's a terrorist," potentially, if Trump gets his way, as Robert Tracinski explains. According to this "National Security Presidential Memorandum," expressing "anti-Christianity" is considered a marker of terrorism. That's all atheists.
Self-Enrichment: Tracinski: "Trump Is Using His Office to Enrich Himself and His Family."
Swartz on the Federal Police Force: Jacob Swartz: "Trump's National Guard Plan Edges the U.S. Closer to a Permanent Federal Police Force."
An Immigration Policy of Cruelty
ICE Locks Up Father and Children on Way to School: Allison Sherry: "ICE officers picked up a father and his two children as they were going to school" in Durango, Colorado. At a protest an ICE agent reportedly threw "an elderly woman to the ground." "Durango Police said they asked if they could help unite the children with the mother and were told by federal authorities that it was no longer an option. . . . Police say they received a call that one of the children was in distress and tried to do a welfare check at the ICE facility in Durango. They were not allowed inside. . . . The family is from Colombia and seeking asylum and has a pending asylum claim. . . . ICE has transferred the two children to an undisclosed location separate from their father." This is horrifying. This is not "Making America Great Again." This is state-sponsored terror. Denver7: "A Colombian man and his two children endured '36 hours in a dungeon' during their detainment at the ICE field office in Durango. . . . The Denver Post reported . . . the agency had mistaken the father for somebody else." ICE had no warrant. See more from Colorado Newsline, CPR and again, the Denver Post, and the Colorado Sun and again.
ICE Locks Up Teacher and Children: Ann Schimke: "A fifth grade teacher from a metro Denver charter school was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. . . . The teacher is now being held with family members, including minor children, in a Texas detention center. . . . The teacher was arrested with her family . . . during a routine immigration appointment at a Centennial ICE office." Denver Post: "Douglas County teacher arrested by ICE had legal authorization to work, school says." Locking teachers and children in cages is not "Making America Great Again."
Warrantless Arrests: Allison Sherry: "Federal judge to hear lawsuit on ICE carrying out 'warrantless' arrests in Colorado."
ICE Breaks Man's Ribs: Daily Beast: Immigration agents raided a Halloween party in Chicago. "A 67-year-old U.S. citizen allegedly suffered six broken ribs and internal bleeding when he was dragged from his car and pinned to the street by federal agents in an immigration sweep carried out in front of terrified children." This is state-sponsored terror.
ICE as Retribution: CNN: "A DACA recipient objected to ICE's detention of a community member. He's now facing deportation."
Nicolais on ICE Leadership: Mario Nicolais: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership in five major cities, including Denver, have been pushed aside to make way for more hardline Border Patrol agents. . . . For many the jackboot tactics are a feature, not a bug."
ICE Arrests Citizen Twice: Reason: "An Alabama construction worker [Leo Garcia Venegas] is challenging the Trump administration's warrantless construction site raids after he says he was arrested and detained by federal immigration agents–twice–despite being a U.S. citizen with a valid ID in his pocket." ProPublica: "We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They've Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days."
ICE Violence: Reason: "Federal Immigration Agents Accused of Tear-Gassing Peaceful Protestors, Pointing Gun at Veterans in Chicago." Also: "ICE Spent Over $71 Million on Guns, Armor, and Chemical Munitions in 2025 So Far." Also: "ICE Is Mounting a Mass Surveillance Campaign on American Citizens." NPR: "It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse."
ICE Harassment: Nick Gillespie, posting a video of a woman harassed by ICE, writes, "Masked agents harassing people in Walmart parking lots about where they were born. If you've got a legitimate suspicion of criminal activity, detain someone and follow due process. Otherwise, stop."
Destroying Families: A man from Kenya, "an immigrant living in the US without permanent residency," self-deported to Kenya, leaving his wife and three children behind, CNN reports. This is your "pro-family" conservative movement at work.
Salt Lake Airport Raid: Unidentified ICE agents dragged a women screaming through the Salt Lake airport.
Many Adopted Children Lack Citizenship: This is crazy: Upwards of 75,000 children adopted by U.S. parents lack citizenship.
The New Dred Scott: Frank Robinson: "In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the infamous Dred Scott decision, ruled (actual quote) that Black people 'had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' On September 8, 2025, in Noem v. Vazquez Perdomo, the court went one better: nobody has any rights. . . . The . . . ruling allows ICE officers to seize people even absent any such notional offense. Just on vague suspicion, how they look or talk, etc. Mainly racial profiling."
The Gaza Deal
We celebrate the release of the remaining living Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. Donald Trump deserves substantial credit for helping secure the release (see his speech). But I worry that Trump was too quick to take a victory lap. I'm optimistic, but cautiously so.
Hamas did not immediately release the bodies of murdered hostages as promised. Hamas immediately started murdering political rivals, declaring "death to collaborators," killings Trump rationalized as anti-crime measures.
As of October 16, Trump was discussing the possibility of renewed strikes. On October 19, Axios reported, "U.S. scrambles to save Gaza peace deal amid new clashes."
In exchange for the hostages, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including "250 Palestinians sentenced to prison terms, most of them convicted for deadly attacks on Israelis," NPR reports. Beyond the fact that those people are highly dangerous, I worry that the "deal" sends a strong signal to Hamas and other nefarious actors that, if they want to get U.S.-backed concessions, the way to do that is to capture a bunch of hostages. There's a reason why "don't negotiate with terrorists" is standard wisdom.
Another problem: Trump promised to next apply his "art of the deal" to the Russia conflict. But, even conceding negotiations worked relatively well in the case of Israel-Palestine, I doubt they work as well with Russia. The basic problem with such "dealing" is that it tends to concede ground to the aggressor, in this case Putin. Insofar as that's the case, the long-term message is, if you want to seize an inch, threaten a seize a mile, and you might get two or three inches out of the "deal." Thus can "dealing" create incentives for periodic aggression.
More Trump and GOP Updates
Trump Goes Nuclear: Trump is threatening to resume nuclear testing. Unsurprisingly, Russia is threatening to do likewise. But as of November 2 it seems like Trump may be backing down.
Trump and Venezuela: Trump and MAGA are strictly nationalists and anti-war except for when they're not. Atlantic: "The U.S. Is Preparing for War in Venezuela."
Kaminski Versus Heritage: Ross Kaminsky calls out the Heritage Foundation for excusing the racist evil of Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. See also David Bernstein and Ali Breland.
Trump's Price Controls: CNBC: "Trump administration will set price floors across range of industries to combat China, [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent says." Because we can't defeat socialism without central planning and price controls.
Trump's Trade Wars: Noah Smith writes of the "hapless Americans" trying to win a trade war with China. Smith describes the "common caricature of Trump as a cowardly bully who acts with extreme aggression toward weak opponents, but who retreats from any rival who stands up and hits back." This is ominous: "The obvious next set of demands is geopolitical—control of Taiwan, dominion over the South China Sea, U.S. troops and ships out of Asia, and so on." To me (and I think to Smith) the answer on rare-earths is obvious: We have to free up our own mining of rare-earth metals. Consider this headline from last year: "Rare earth minerals found in Utah, Colorado, are critical for cleaner energy sources." See also Tabarrok's post. Meanwhile, Trump's general tariff policy is doing plenty of damage domestically. Trump's idea of "Making America Great Again" is to punish businesses with higher taxes and deprive businesses of workers.
Young Republicans: Politico: "'I love Hitler': Leaked messages expose Young Republicans' racist chat: Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape." Vance isn't too worried about it. No, we're not talking about "kids."
Unhealthy RFK: Washington Post: "As former U.S. surgeons general appointed by every Republican and Democratic president since George H.W. Bush . . . we took two sacred oaths in our lifetimes: first, as physicians who swore to care for our patients and, second, as public servants who committed to protecting the health of all Americans. Today [October 7], in keeping with those oaths, we are compelled to speak with one voice to say that the actions of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are endangering the health of the nation. . . . Science and expertise have taken a back seat to ideology and misinformation."
Racist MAGA: David Brooks: "MAGA is identity politics for white people."
Free Speech? New York Times: The U.S. government has revoked the visa of Sami Hamdi, apparently because of his criticism of Israel. MAGA is all for free speech unless it's speech they disagree with.
Breast Cancer Crossover: ProPublica: "Citing Trump Order on 'Biological Truth,' VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage."
More Tylenol: Stat: "Texas lawsuit against companies behind Tylenol asserts unproven claims of autism risk." Remember when conservatives used to be against politically motivated attacks on businesses?
Quick Takes
A Note on Antifa: Obviously the Trump administration is wrong to declare "Antifa" a terrorist organization; it's not an organization at all, and most people who claim to be antifa are not violent. At the same time, it is wrong simply to say that "antifa" means anti-fascist, end of story. For the most part, the people who call themselves "antifa" mean by that term that they are hard-left protesters, often who employ or at least tolerate violence during protests, when "punching Nazis," and so on. Here is Wikipedia: "Antifa political activism includes nonviolent methods of direct action such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, violence, and property damage. Supporters of the movement aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists." So certainly I'm anti-fascist, certainly I'm against white supremacists, but that doesn't mean I line up with the antifa movement.
ARI vs. Mounk and Rufo: Team Ayn Rand Institute takes on Yascha Mounk and Chris Rufo in a recent discussion featuring Sam Weaver, Ben Bayer, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, and Ibis Slade. I'm very glad to see these intellectuals take on such important ideas. Team ARI overall agrees with the criticisms of "woke," identity-based politics. Bayer prefers the terms egalitarian collectivism or tribalism to describe the ideas in question. Slade points out that conservatism has its own strains of egalitarian collectivism. Bayer says Mounk does a better job than Rufo of tracking the ideas behind the movement both writers criticize. Bayer also points out that the same Christian doctrines that influence conservatives also influence leftist egalitarian collectivists. The ARI speakers also point out that Rufo self-consciously embraces many of the tactics for which he criticizes the left. And Mounk, argues Slade, has his own tribalist or collectivist commitments. Still, Sotirakopoulos argues, Mounk's book at least at some level well-explains the ideas it criticizes, and, Slade argues, Mounk overall tries to promote America's best founding ideals.
Declining Literacy: Idrees Kahloon chalks up the decline in student literacy to "a pervasive refusal to hold children to high standards." He writes, "Schools have demanded less and less from students—who have responded, predictably, by giving less and less." A key line: "When I computed the correlation between . . . demographically adjusted scores and state spending, I found that there was none. If you're an underprivileged kid in America, you will, on average, get the best education not in rich Massachusetts but in poor Mississippi, where per-pupil spending is half as high." Mississippi emphasized a literacy exam, screening, phonics-based training, and literacy coaches. Other points: Some charter networks have done very well, merit-based pay probably works. See also NPR on the latest poor test results.
Solow Growth: Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok discuss (among other things) the Solow model of capital formation. The basic idea is that the first capital you build is relatively easy to build and relatively productive, and, as you build more capital, you have to spend more resources maintaining it. Tabarrok also has a talk and a short video on the topic.
MR on Crime: Cowen and Tabarrok also address the 1970s crime wave. They discuss several possible likely contributors: a younger population, relatively high lead levels, urbanization, social contagion, and overwhelm of the criminal justice system. Cowen also discusses local losses of industrial jobs, which can lead to decline. And Cowen discusses the violence of the black market drug trade; this lines up with Jeffrey Miron's 2004 book Drug War Crimes. Both economists are very worried about potential problems of contagion and overwhelm, which could plunge us into a new crime wave. (Mass shootings already seem driven largely by contagion.) Tabarrok's sensible solution is to double the number of police in the U.S.
MR on Commercial Culture: But wait there's more! Cowen and Tabarrok discuss Cowen's 1998 In Praise of Commercial Culture. Cowen's main thesis is that, contra popular views, the arts are not inherently tainted by capitalism or financial concerns. Instead, as the summary says, "commerce disciplines and amplifies creativity." Great discussion.
Cowen on AIs: Cowen discusses all sorts of things with Rick Rubin; I especially liked the commentary about AI models. Cowen asks ChatGPT some things on the fly. Cowen also points out that the Gulf states (particularly UAE) likely will start building nuclear plants and solar farms to power AI data centers. The United States should be on the forefront of such developments but we'll probably screw ourselves. Sigh.
Tsoungui Drums "Limelight": Philo Tsoungui, drummer for Mars Volta (example one, example two), created a new drum part for Rush's "Limelight," having never heard the song before, and without hearing Neil Peart's part. This was for a video by Drumeo. She did an amazing job creating a very passable all new part in a very short time, and I had a fun time hearing a new take on the song.
Florida Schools Phone Ban: Chalkbeat reports results from an NBER working paper claiming that Florida's bans on phones in schools improved test scores, although mostly by improving attendance (odd). But (via Cowen), Chris Ferguson is skeptical, saying "the effect size is near zero," "it conflicts with NAEP data which shows a Florida state-wide decline in standardized scores after implementing cellphone bans," and "there's no control group."
Inflation Coming? John Cochrane is worried about the teriffs (via Cowen).
Rao on Progress: Arun Rao has a lot of thoughts flowing from the recent Roots of Progress conference (again via Cowen). The world is moving fast!
Microplastics: Maybe they're overhyped? Via Cowen. I think it's something to worry about, but how much? Also: Are microplastics really that much worse that small particles of other substances? And what are the alternatives to plastics? Tradeoffs matter.
NIMBY Is Anti-Human: NPR: "Families say cost of housing means they'll have fewer or no children."
Tabarrok on Canada's Private Air Traffic Control: Semi-private, anyway. Alex Tabarrok: "It's absurd that a mission‑critical service is financed by annual appropriations subject to political failure. We need to remove the politics. Canada fixed this in 1996 by spinning off air navigation services to NAV CANADA, a private, non‑profit utility funded by user fees, not taxes. Safety regulation stayed with the government; operations moved to a professionally governed, bond‑financed utility with multi‑year budgets. NAV Canada has been instrumental in moving Canada to more accurate and safer satellite-based navigation, rather than relying on ground-based radar as in the US."
Vance Channels Douthat: J. D. Vance sounds exactly like Ross Douthat: "I'm a big believer that there are things out there we can't explain. If another person sees an alien, maybe I see an angel or a demon. I'm a big believer that there are like spiritual forces working on the physical world that a lot of us don't see and a lot of us don't understand.” Although I can't rule out alien visitations, I think that if aliens really were visiting Earth the evidence would be profound and unmistakable. So I tend to interpret such "evidence" as a combination of ambiguous observations, wishful thinking, and psychosis. But to stretch such "evidence" to "explain" a demon-haunted world is absurd. See my essay on Douthat.
Mass Carnage: Mass murders in Darfur and Sudan. Will the human species ever get its act together?
Covid and Autism: There appears to be some association between severe Covid (SARS-CoV-2) infection and increased incidence of autism. This does not prove a causal link! It suggests there might be one. The more pressing question is whether vaccination mitigates the risk (if indeed it's a risk).
Wage Gap: Via Cowen: Women unable to have children did "as well as men in the labor market in the long run," suggesting that "'child penalties' on the labor market trajectories of women are large and persistent and that they explain the bulk of the remaining gender gap."
Youth Like Socialism: Axios: "67% of survey respondents say they hold a positive or neutral association with the word 'socialism,' compared with 40% with the word 'capitalism.'" Socialists slaughtered scores of millions of people in the Twentieth Century, and the two worst mass-murderers in terms of numbers of victims were socialists Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile, capitalism has radically improved living standards and lifted much of the world from extreme poverty. Part of the problem is branding. "Socialism" is the appropriate term for capitalism, as capitalism rests on voluntary social transactions that promote social harmony. The better term for socialism is something like "coercionism."
Nanotyrannus: I'd assumed that "nanotyrannus" was just a phantom classification for fossils of young T. Rex. But a new paper claims to "conclusively" show that Nanotyrannus is real, and indeed two distinct species. See also Live Science, NPR, and the New York Times. I'll wait a while to see if the experts agree this is the new consensus.
Profit-Driven Health Care: Writers for Stat say "The U.S. experiment with profit-driven health care has failed." No. The experiment with government-controlled health care has failed.
Peanuts: Telling parents not to expose their babies to peanuts turned out to be horrible advice. Now that advice has changed, peanut allergies have declined, reports NPR. This is a good example of the self-correcting tendencies of science.