Currently listening to the brilliant Aesop Rock on the subway as I read more and more about the dangers and abuses of AI in the service of extremism and violence. youtu.be/T7jH-5YQLcE?...

The SPLC’s Rachel Carroll Rivas joined Cynthia Miller-Idriss, of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), and Mark Greene, Walking Talking Men co-founder, at a UN event to highlight solutions to prevent the spread of white supremacy. bit.ly/4gj7sSB

Like clockwork, social media has been absolutely inundated with speculation on the #charliekirk shooter, including motivations based on sketchy evidence from the first 24 hours after the attack. These posters are going to find out really quickly why being fast isn't as important as being correct.

CDC shooter was "...very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people...He emphatically believed that." www.npr.org/2025/08/09/n...

Fifty free copies of my TPV article "Using Deep Learning Neural Networks to Predict Violent Versus Nonviolent Extremist Behaviors." In it, my deep-learning model correctly predicted violent vs. non-violent offending among extremists in 94 percent of cases. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8966I...

📢 New research! 📢 In 2024, MAGA Republicans were much more likely than non-MAGA non-Republicans to view political violence as justified and to endorse beliefs associated with violence, but they were generally not more willing to commit such violence themselves. cvp.ucdavis.edu/research/pre...

PhD Students in security and communication! Excellent opportunity to work with the brilliant Stephane Beale at UCLouvain. Professor Beale is working on a project related to the digital narratives of the far right. Get more info or apply at: academicpositions.com/ad/universit...

If you are so inclined (or let's be honest, bored), and want to hear me jabber on about political violence, I'll be on NPR/WHYY Philly's Studio 2 at 12pm. One step closer to that Sesame Street cameo. whyy.org/programs/stu...

New fucked up strategy frame that further trivializes American diplomacy just dropped.

Of course.

Rich people got richer on all this. Go figure.

We are witnessing the moral moment: Americans: #HandsOff Canadians: #ElbowsUp Standing up for democracy, intellectual freedom, integrity of law, research, science, health care, education, the arts, social security, media. And on guard for Canadian sovereignty. 🇨🇦 Hope on both sides of the border

I guess at least they didn't accidentally include their calculation in a Signal chat. Wait. In my heart, I don't know if that's true.

"I don't want a Disney vacation of our history! I don't a whitewashed history, I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness" -- 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥

That's my Senator. Hell yeah, f*** yeah. Thank you, @booker.senate.gov.

Pete: "We are clean on OPSEC." Mrs. Hegseth: "Hello, Joyce?" Pete: "MOM I'M ON THE PHONE"

It's been said but bears repeating: Yes, the Yemen idiocy would be dumb enough on its own, but it also indicates that the administration is using an app that deletes chat histories to coordinate events that should be preserved. They're avoiding maintaining records that by law, should be maintained.

This Yemen debacle. I've seen better security on folded notes I passed in 6th grade. 1. Do you like me? YES [ ] NO [ ] 2. Wanna bomb the Houthis? YES [ ] NO [ ]

💪

Primary them when possible. Boot them where possible.

Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Evil.

The long-anticipated #openaccess book from the FBI's BAU-1 has been released. I've already read it and can attest that it is a brilliant, comprehensive, and compelling resource that policymakers, practitioners and researchers alike will draw on for decades to come. www.fbi.gov/file-reposit...

Honored to appear aside rock stars like @azelin.bsky.social to discuss online radicalization with the House Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee. It got a little spicy at the end, but an excellent bipartisan discussion nonetheless. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMnp...

Times Square 🇺🇸🇺🇦✊

New by @azelin.bsky.social & myself: we argue current US posture is a barricade to a successful Syrian roadmap as the clock is ticking on the post-Assad honeymoon & Washington needs to engage on the international aid, recovery, & counterterrorism mission. www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analy...

This will be interpreted in one of two ways, both of which are not good. 1. He's preparing his crowd to accept (more) laws he intends to break. 2. He's preparing his crowd to help "save America" by breaking laws and thinking they're legally immune. This is dangerous.

American chaos: standing up for health and medicine - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

NEW: Kash Patel was paid $25,000 by a Kremlin-linked filmmaker to promote anti-western propaganda. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Communication science and terrorism studies unite! ::Voltron sounds::

As usually the case with @fpwellman.bsky.social...

Is any senator, member of Congress, or really anyone in a position of any actual power or authority, going to step up and express outrage with an actual plan to DO SOMETHING? These dipshit social media posts being like “Things are bad and illegal! 🥴” are about to make my head explode

This is a national emergency:

Watching this on repeat how is your day going?

Resist. Keep digging. Keep learning. Keep your candle in the dark to navigate the new demon-haunted world. www.nationalacademies.org/chr/resource...

The other day, I spoke with the @apnews.com about Elon Musk's Nazi salute, my impression of its motivations, and its implications. Here are my more-complete comments in relation to those topics.

A while back I asked folks why they’re joining Bluesky and the most common response I saw was, “I just want a good place to get my news” and, yall, no. Bad. GET YOUR NEWS FROM THE NEWS PBS Newshour is FREE FOR EVERYONE. youtu.be/PMOYN8JWdUk?...

Alt-text: A football stadium crowd holds up an image of a fist breaking a swastika, along with letters reading "kein vergeben, kein vergessen" (no forgiveness, no forgetting)

Europe has a message for Elmo.

This @wired.com interview with @marklemley.bsky.social is a great short read for folks interested in #copyright, #fairuse, #GAI, #AI, and the hideousness of the fascist turn in #bigtech. www.wired.com/story/lawmak...

How long until he asks "will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" apnews.com/article/trum...

I’ll be on @cnn international & @cnn max at 3:20 eastern today, chatting with @jimsciutto.bsky.social about political violence, the pardons and more

I'm confident this is Musk's biggest fear, given his combination of sympathy to fascism and attempts to seem like he's a master, four-dimension-chess-playing troll.

“…Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalization and terrorism, said the gesture was a fascist salute and “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw.” “I know what I saw….”, Braddock said.” apnews.com/article/musk...

Why yes, I have written a book on such things. It's called Terrorist Minds, and you can get it for 20% off using CUP20 cup.columbia.edu/book/terrori...

I spoke with the AP about the Nazi salute. In short, ignore those that try to get you to doubt the evidence of your eyes and ears (now and for the foreseeable future). Ignore their most essential command.