Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
@allisonbetus.bsky.social
4K followers 670 following 1.4K posts
Quantitative social scientist. PhD in Communication. media effects | intergroup dynamics | white supremacist extremism Pubs: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=l-41bdcAAAAJ&hl=en Rgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allison-Betus
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Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
bunkerpod.bsky.social
🚨OUT NOW🚨
The men who hate women – How sexism powers the far right. @milleridriss.bsky.social talks to @emmakennedy.bsky.social about how toxic masculinity, digital radicalisation, and white supremacist ideas became so entangled and what we can do to combat them 👉 linktr.ee/bunker_pod
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
sarahwieten.bsky.social
I have some research leave in the spring and would like to work on my history and philosophy of technology book somewhere in the UK or Europe. Any suggestions of fellowships or good libraries?
allisonbetus.bsky.social
Painting flames on the side of my ankle brace so it looks like I'm healing faster
allisonbetus.bsky.social
I am not currently employed studying media. I don't need to be glued to certain topics anymore.

Must internalize.
allisonbetus.bsky.social
Unfollowing many media-focused accounts has made it much more pleasant in here.

Nice to see folks again. Many of you were buried under horrifying reposts.
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
sometimespdx.bsky.social
Remember kids, don't flash lasers at helicopters, airplanes, or people. They'll get you for shit like that.
Portland police say four arrests were made overnight near the ICE building, including a 28-year-old man from Vancouver who is accused of flashing an air support unit with a laser.
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
drewmckevitt.bsky.social
Years ago I was teaching my gun history class and at the end of the quarter one of the students said that he was in the campus TPUSA chapter and they put him up to taking the class to spy on me but he felt bad about that because he loved the class and learned a lot and had a great time
allisonbetus.bsky.social
Have you tended to your playlist of sad music lately?
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
jessicacalarco.com
Trump, RFK, and their cronies likely want to create the (false) perception that autism is preventable and curable, because that allows them to: 1) cut accommodations, services, and support for autistic kids and their families, and 2) blame mothers for autism in ways that make (1) seem justified. 1/
theferocity.bsky.social
I don’t exactly how to phrase this, but like… is autism that bad???? Like, why is it such a source of fear??? Of course there are challenges but you can be autistic and have a rich, fulfilling life! Many people do! I don’t understand the preoccupation.
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
Isaac Stanley-Becker traveled to Portland and spent time at the demonstration that Donald Trump wants to crush. What he found is an atmosphere that is more like a carnival than combat. Fox substitutes images from 2020 for what is happening, because actual images can't be reconciled with their claims
Portland’s ‘War Zone’ Is Like Burning Man for the Terminally Online
There’s more absurdity than menace on the city’s streets—at least for now.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
enirenberg.bsky.social
This is called policy-based evidence making (the antipode of evidence-based policymaking, a thing we should all want)
ajbauer.bsky.social
This perfectly encapsulates how right-wing politics works and why it is so dangerous.

Rather than observing the world as it is and proposing changes, right-wing politics start with an idealized conception of the world and go about reshaping reality to confirm to that vision.
atrupar.com
RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
jessicacalarco.com
The Biblical beliefs here aren't fringe. As I talk about in Holding It Together, many conservative White Evangelical moms believe God calls them to physically discipline their kids, and that if kids don't "act right", it's because their parents didn't do that.

It's an easy jump from there to here.
jessicacalarco.com
A White Christian nationalist pastor argued recently on a right-wing podcast that the Bible--specifically Deuteronomy 21, about how a father must bring his rebellious son to the town square to be stoned--justifies state violence against Black boys and young men.

www.theroot.com/why-this-whi...
Article from "The Root" by Asheea Smith. Published October 8, 2025
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
unlawfulentries.bsky.social
Book authors: You can't and shouldn't try to present the whole book in one talk. You'll lose people. I've gotten better at narrowing it to a *slice* of the book. Writing a talk for another college in which I slice into the book argument from a different angle.
Powerpoint slide of a 19th century map of states with title "Citizenship. What is it good for?" by Anna O. Law, Herb Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights, CUNY Brooklyn College
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
qjurecic.bsky.social
he's going to come after you either way, so you might as well act with integrity
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
allisonbetus.bsky.social
"No more beardos" sounds like the political agenda of a Rainbow Brite villain
allisonbetus.bsky.social
Yes
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
allisonbetus.bsky.social
Folks, if ICE shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball on camera, what do you think they do to people behind closed doors?
flglchicago.bsky.social
Here’s video of the incident
allisonbetus.bsky.social
I'm glad I got a PhD

The skills & knowledge & growth & experience I acquired along the way made it worth it in the end

As my fascination with prison documentaries has taught me, there are much worse ways to spend 9 years
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
He was always going to do this. Chicagoans have not rioted, so the administration just lied and said we have. We have not attacked ICE agents, so they just lied and said we did. There was no chaos here, so they created chaotic scenes by attacking people and filmed that shit.
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
nbedera.bsky.social
More often than not, the things people say victims should never do in the name of appeasing a perpetrator are *exactly* the things that will get a victim free.

Because those are the things that subvert the power dynamic. They chip away at a perpetrator’s power.
Reposted by Dr. Allison Betus (she/her) 🌈
nbedera.bsky.social
One of the things that brings me the greatest despair in authoritarianism is watching people react to state violence the way they react to domestic violence.

By justifying anything and everything the perpetrators does through blaming a victim for failing to be submissive enough.