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Joost

@almodozo.bsky.social

1.4K followers 810 following 4.4K posts

Holland > Hungary > Spain Same @almodozo as on Twitter, just without the Országház. Worked at OSF and CEU, but that's a long while ago. Studied East-European History, but that's even longer ago. Now, somehow, I ended up in Extremadura.

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · Sep 21

Not going to update my ancient Twitter bio, but I mostly post about:
— Elections and polls
— Central/East-European politics
— The war in Ukraine
— Maps and charts
— Dutch and Spanish politics
— Budapest memories, life in Extremadura
— The left, a love/hate relationship
— Media, archiving, minorities

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 15h

It's the speed of it all which is sobering too. When was ChatGPT launched, less than three years ago? And we're already putting it on charge of our love life. That's a pretty stunning trajectory

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 18h

This is the closest, in the whole article, to a rationalisation that makes any of it seem *halfway* excusable, but it also just underlines how dystopian dating must have become (and it's still an insane thing to do)

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 19h

Honestly, wtf is wrong with people

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 19h

“And I was like, you know what, that’s fine – why not outsource my love life to ChatGPT?”

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder

Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely...

www.theguardian.com

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 1d

Haha, so true!

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 1d

I was making a couple of charts about this just the other day!

bsky.app/profile/almo...

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

Babiš and his allies were hounded from office in an epochal defeat 4 years ago. He came roaring back to victory now.

Right?

But... did all that much really change in the vote?

Arguably, he consolidated rather than grew the populist pie, and the main change has been how the threshold cut across.

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 1d

The Guardian editorial's claims that the SNP is "doing well in the polls" and even enjoying "a remarkable comeback" are somewhat called into question by the charts on the Wikipedia polling page it links to. Yellow line still at, or very close to, its lowest point

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 1d

Gonna try this next time I'm doing a job and they ask for a status report

www.politico.com/live-updates...

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

Ah, in that sense, I get you now

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

It's the older people who said they'd refuse to eat it, though

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly the opposite of what I expected!

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

OK, in the case of the MEP from SMER it only makes sense: Ľuboš Blaha is an "anti-globalist neo-Marxist" who actually worked for the KSS. Big fan of Putin too, and apparently a raging misogynist.

Also, who plays keyboards in a metal band?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%BDu...

Ľuboš Blaha - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

I didn't realise that MEPs from both SMER and HLAS, the major parties in neighbouring Slovakia's national-populist government, had endorsed the communist-turned-red/brown Stačilo! alliance. Another minor reason to cheer its failure, I guess

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Cz...

2025 Czech parliamentary election - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

Majorities of Americans think Trump is going too far, "but it’s notable that these numbers haven’t really moved" since April. "Those who view him as a threat to democracy [largely] came to that conclusion early, and their side hasn’t won many (if any) converts"

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/p...

Analysis: A GOP-appointed judge fears Americans are complacent about Trump. Polling backs him up | CNN Politics

In the most extraordinary judicial rebuke of President Donald Trump’s second term, a Ronald Reagan-appointed judge on Tuesday cast him as a lawless president who endorsed a “truly scandalous and uncon...

edition.cnn.com

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

I dunno, man. I see the logic of wanting to hear it from the horse's mouth. But just giving him the floor unchallenged seems a cop-out when, say, a critical interview would've fit the journalistic mission better. And if the billionaire refuses one, well, it's a bit of an ethical conundrum, isn't it?

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 2d

So the NY Times reported on "The Billionaire Behind Trump's Deal for Universities," chronicling his conservative crusade's success in getting its plans converted verbatim into Trump policy, and thought: hey, let's give this guy a guest essay

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah. Disapproval has bounced up and down since April, but remained pretty consistently in the same area, in some cases inching down just a bit more still. That sounds about right — and a long way from "skyrocketing without ceasing".

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

Lots of nuance missing, of course, don't @ me. The ČSSD was long very much in the mainstream middle, and its progressive and populist wings alternated at the top. Vice versa, the ODS could be plenty conservative-populist, esp in Václav Klaus's later years. I'm just making some charts, man

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

To expand the picture, here's what you get when you add in the populist & radical right

In between? What you might call, very broadly, the liberal-conservative middle. Which experienced three stages:

73-79% in 1990-1992
50-57% in 1996-2010, after the ČSSD grew
43-46% in 2017-2025, after ANO's rise

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

Did Babiš really just rob the classical left of its electorate in Czechia? Ignoring 2013, when ANO was still role-playing as some kind of liberals, this chart waggles its eyebrow suggestively. Turns out the ČSSD's pork and cabbage voters weren't especially wedded to social-democratic principles.

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Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

The KSČM always retained the old regime's dour social conservatism, and eventually slid into red-brown national populism. The desperate Soc-Dems, having watched Babiš nick their voters, joined them on that wretched path. The one good thing about this election was seeing it bury them both. Enough!

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

The Czech Communists always stood apart among their Central European peers as the only one to refuse changing its name — or renouncing its past. It kept them from an MSzP '94/SLD '93 type breakthrough, opening the door to a rare Soc-Dem success story, but did secure a loyal 10-15%. Until it didn't.

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

The balance between those blocks... didn't really change. It's literally mostly just that the electoral threshold didn't keep out a bunch of potential Babiš allies this time

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

Like neighboring Slovakia, Czechia is polarized not by left vs right but between camps that each span, roughly, from left to right.

For lack of more nuanced phrasing, Babis's side are the populists (bit unfair to the SDs of 2021, maybe, but at least their electorate fits). These are the other guys.

Joost @almodozo.bsky.social · 3d

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