Rutger Bregman

Historian. Books: 'Utopia for Realists' (2014), 'Humankind' (2020) and 'Moral Ambition' (2025). Co-founder of The School for Moral Ambition.

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

So this is Rupert Murdoch reading my book on universal basic income, the 15-hour workweek, and open borders around the globe. I'm sure he'll love it. https://t.co/OPxTBXHO5D

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

@KelseyTuoc @RJCamp3 @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Thank you so much for everything you do Kelsey 🙏

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

Would you have joined the resistance in Europe during World War II? It's easy to say yes. But the uncomfortable truth is: most people didn't. So what separated the ones who acted from the ones who stood by?

I made this video to try and answer that question. Curious what you all think!

https://t.co/vx1W6y79t7

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

.@elonmusk says that no one can name a person who died from his aid cuts. In fact, I've met the kids who are dying, and I've talked to the families who lost children. In my columns, I've cited many, many names of people who have died because of Musk's aid cuts. A few examples:
*Yamah Freeman was a 23-year-old woman who died in childbirth because Musk cut funding for the diesel for ambulances in her part of Liberia. She couldn't get to a hospital and died as people were carrying her there. I talked to her parents and sister in their village.
*Gbessey Kiadu, age 1, died of malaria because of his cuts to malaria medication in Liberia. I talked to his mom in her village.
*Ibrahim Koroma, an infant, died of AIDS in Sierra Leone after he interrupted HIV supplies. I talked to health workers who cared for him.
*Achol Deng was an 8-year-old girl with HIV in South Sudan who died when Musk cut funding for the health care worker who provided her medicines. I talked to the healthcare workers.
I could go on and on. In almost every village you go to in South Sudan, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone or other countries I reported in, you find people dying because of aid cuts. I challenge Musk: Come with me on a reporting trip, and we'll talk to these moms and dads, and you'll see the dying children themselves. I think if you see the kids whose lives are at stake, maybe you'll change your mind.

[Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ @besttrousers]

"In other words, the toll from USAID cuts by 2030 seems to be *at best* around two-thirds of a million people; that’s about as many people as were killed during the Civil War. At worst, Musk is tied to the deaths of millions."

https://t.co/Vdmf3OkGC8

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

There are some center-to-right wing accounts I follow that are more offended by the possibility that some public health sources are over-estimating the death count from Musk carelessly destroying US global health programs than by the core fact that Musk really did carelessly destroy US global health (and bragged about it relentlessly) in a way that clearly killed people.

These people know who they are, and they're wrong.

[Gabriel Zucman @gabriel_zucman]

I have some tremendous news to share: we've just won a decisive victory against Mark Zuckerberg and the Silicon Valley billionaires 🧵

[charlos @loscharlos]

“ARPA-H… is spending $150 million to create what it calls ‘an immune system for every building.’”

“I believe that a provision of pure air for children (and adults) to breathe should be looked upon as of equal importance to the provision of pure water”

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

Prediction: the pork industry will come to regret pushing the Save Our Bacon Act.

Gestation crates have survived this long for one reason: most people don't know about them.

The Save Our Bacon Act fight is changing that. It's exposing millions of people — including some very influential ones — to what gestation crates actually are.

The pork industry can keep saying they're a "science-based" solution for "animal care." It will never win this debate. Anyone with common sense knows the crates are cruel.

Every additional day of public debate about the Save Our Bacon Act is a day closer to a world without gestation crates.

[Helen Toner @hlntnr]

Even before Mythos I was getting asked more and more what Anthropic's deal is, and why tf they're acting the way they're acting if they believe what they say they believe.

The best answer I can give is that their basic worldview is something like:

1. There are giant, dangerous monsters in the forest

2. We see others going out and making loud noises that will rouse the monsters, and they're not going to stop because of all the treasure and magical artifacts that can be found in the forest

3. We believe the best way we can help is to send out our own vanguard to go faster and farther into the forest than everyone else, because we'll spend a ton on monster containment and taming and we'll also send back detailed reports of what monsters we're finding so that the townspeople can ready themselves, which those other guys won't do

On the one hand I understand how they got there, and I think it's possible they're basically right. On the other hand it's not hard to see why this approach makes people wonder if you're crazy or lying or both.

[Michiel Bakker @bakkermichiel]

Populair YT channel "Hoog" made a shorter (still 42 min!) and very dramatic video version of Europe 2031. If the full scenario felt like a lot to read or listen to, start here: https://t.co/BqlBAvn1lF

[etn. @etnshow]

Senior Researcher @GoogleDeepMind and Co-Author of Europe 2031 @bakkermichiel on Europe's next steps in the AI Race:

"Ursula von der Leyen should be on the phone with the ASML CEO every week and just ask, "What can we do for you? Like, how can we help you?".

"We should do the basics... making sure we have more energy and compute available."

"We have, for example, a very strong semiconductor ecosystem in Europe. How can we build that out?".

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

3/ That's the model we need. A new elite — not of birth or credentials, but of massive positive impact. Make future historians proud. Full 2025 Reith Lectures: https://t.co/DjpG6sdzsw

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

1/ The biggest problem in today's world? It's not climate change, pandemics, or democratic collapse. It's that too many brilliant minds are stuck in boring corporate jobs, instead of working on those problems.

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

2/ History offers a different model. Ten out of the twelve British abolitionists who ended the slave trade were entrepreneurs first. They built companies, made money, gained influence - then used it to change the course of history.

[Josh Balk @joshbalk]

In my 25+ years advocating for better treatment of farm animals, I’ve never seen so many thought leaders and elected officials from both right and left unite to defeat an anti-animal bill. Some things are bigger than political tribalism, and basic decency toward animals is one of them. Here's a small sample of those speaking out against including SOB in the farm bill. 🧵

[Shakeel @ShakeelHashim]

Note the massive difference between how Zitron and the FT (who he shared the figures with) are reporting on this. I’ll leave it to you to decide who to trust…

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

The dog torture facility known as Ridglan Farms is shutting down.

Congratulations to everyone who made this happen — especially @waynehhsiung, whose vision drove this campaign from the start.

I'll admit I started skeptical. I didn't think a group of grassroots activists could shut down the nation's second-largest supplier of dogs for animal testing.

They proved me wrong. Their courage and persistence generated a flood of media and political pressure — from @ggreenwald to @LaraLeaTrump — that made Ridglan impossible to defend.

The next challenge: converting this popular uprising over dog abuse into one about the abuse of all animals — in cruel tests and on factory farms.

[Simon Grimm @Simon__Grimm]

I frequently hear people say that European governments should procure European AI systems.

But Mistral’s Medium 3.5 performs worse than GPT-5.4 nano, while costing fourteen times as much. Hence, going through with these proposals would see European governments opt for bad, expensive models instead of better, cheaper alternatives.

And the revenue thus generated will not be enough to allow European companies to become competitive:

- Large European governments spend around $5 billion per year on IT.
- Three such governments might pay Mistral $3 billion a year for model access.
- The resulting revenue would represent only six (!) percent of Anthropic’s annual revenues.

A far better path to nurturing European AI labs is supply side policy. E.g., the financial returns to IP law reform are incredibly high. Non-EU countries could probably move fast here. Same with labor law—you can't hire $600k engineers, if you're unsure about the ability to let them go on a moment's notice.