Andrew Bennett @irgetsreal.bsky.social

PhD students: apply until Dec.1 for June 2026 IQMR. Those accepted will get lodging and meals stipend but have to pay own expenses to get to Syracuse NY. Those from Africa, Lat. America. And MENA get air fare paid Application and details here: docs.google.com/document/u/1/d…

I have 427 followers on Bluesky and 2700 on Twitter(which I barely use now). I recently did a thread critiquing tariffs on both sites. 190 reposts, 433 likes on Bluesky. One like on Twitter. Come see me on Bluesky. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

This is the essence of Donald Trump, the origins of the sad menagerie of fear, greed, selfishness, petty revenge, and lust for power and domination that drives everything he does. He is an idiot of historic proportions and we will all suffer for it.

This brings us back to the term I used deliberately at the outset: idiotic. The term goes back to the Greek word idiotes, where it had the meaning not only of an unskilled person but also a person acting only for themselves, separate from society.

It is difficult to convey how monumentally idiotic Trump’s tariffs are. Allow me to try. Let’s begin with Adam Smith. In the 200 years prior to Smith’s 1776 “Wealth of Nations” Mercantilism was the dominant view of trade.