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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 1d

“specialist National Security Investigations (NSI) teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra to deal with the blurring lines between extremism, political violence, organised crime and foreign interference.” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

New AFP boss warns hate crime laws may need to be strengthened further

In a wide-ranging interview as she begins as AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett announces a new sub-terror strike force, and flags that newly written hate crime laws may need to be strengthened further.

www.abc.net.au

Reposted by Andrew Zammit

Andy @fossilbeds.ami.social · 2d

We’re living through the rep era all over again

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Reposted by Andrew Zammit

I Nied to drink your blood! 🧛 @nied.bsky.social · 5d

Tom Clancy posting Fukuyama & NAFO memes in between QTing his trans daughter is the good timeline.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 5d

Same! There can be a bit of a BlueSky consensus against liking things but I’m finding the album perfectly enjoyable. Not amazing, but fun.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 6d

The Age - IS-affiliated women and children return to Australia after smuggling themselves out of Syria: www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

Women and children return to Australia after smuggling themselves out of Syria

Relatives of Islamic State fighters who spent years stranded in Syria have smuggled themselves out of the Middle East without government support.

www.theage.com.au

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Reposted by Andrew Zammit

Dr. Marc-André Argentino @maargentino.com · 8d

It is Book Launch day for @amaramarasingam.bsky.social and My edited volume "Contemporary Far-Right Culture The Art, Music, and Everyday Practices of Violent Extremism"

www.routledge.com/Contemporary...

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 11d

This is great:

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 14d

www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-villag... Blueskyism and Sewerism as alternatives.

The Village and the Sewer

Behind the "Blueskyism" debate

www.programmablemutter.com

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 12d

Thanks to generative AI, "the only foolproof thing that works right now is to slow down and ask questions before sharing: If a piece of content seems shocking, divisive, or too good to be true, pause before spreading it."

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 11d

… or certainly not to the extent that it rebuts their conclusion which is simply: that left-wing non-state terrorism was up in the first half of 2025 that right-wing non-state terrorism was down during that time, and that this is unusual and can partly be explained by Trump’s election.

Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 11d

Mostly inclined to agree. I’ve been trying to find the strongest critiques of it and so far haven‘t found any that undermine their core argument. I’ve found some reasonable disagreements about coding (and have a few myself) but nothing that shows their coding was skewed in a specific direction…

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

The study itself (possibly not the Atlantic article, I can’t open it) does mention that wider context for right-wing violence (in a cautious way, it doesn’t say “some of them probably just joined ICE rather than carry out their own attacks”, but kind of alludes to that logic).

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

Sorry, I was trying to reply to John Horgan and that thread and it looks like I was somehow replying to you too. I was trying to leave you out of it after our earlier chat!

Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

The only time I’ve seen the field engage in a detailed critique of CSIS data is in this article: pt.icct.nl/sites/defaul... But it doesn’t really support the effort to dispute CSIS conclusions in their recent report, as the article accuses them of having a tendency to over-count right-wing cases.

pt.icct.nl

Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

… we risk acting in a way that suggests our problem is being uncomfortable with their conclusion rather than their methods.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

And given that our field has repeatedly used CSIS data to support our arguments that far-right terrorism has consistently posed the greatest domestic threat in the US for decades, if we start denouncing their data as unreliable the one time they say there’s been an increase in left-wing terrorism…

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

But all the critiques I’ve found on BlueSky so far don’t actually undermine the core point of left-wing up (remembering that they did exclude some left-wing cases too) and right-wing down compared to earlier years.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

However, I’m not necessarily convinced that this was to such an extent that left-wing cases outnumbered right-wing cases, which is why I’m interested in what right-wing cases they may have missed (this could be one: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Fl...).

2025 Florida State University shooting - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

To make my own position clear, I do think the first half of 2025 saw an increase in left-wing terrorist incidents in the US and a decrease in (non-state) right-wing ones, and is something new, interesting, and worthy of inquiry for our field.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

… would actually *strengthen* their claim that the first half of 2025 saw an unusual rise in left-wing cases. So i‘m seeing a lot of people seize on the Mangione coding as if an error there undermines their core argument when it would actually do the opposite.

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

No, in that I think it would only be a significant point of contention if it undermines their core argument (that the first half of 2025 saw a sharp rise in left-wing terrorism and decline in right-wing terrorism). And because Mangione was in 2024, removing it from their list of left-wing cases…

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

Yes and no. Yes, I’m inclined to agree that Mangione should not be included as left-wing (theres an interesting “appropriated martyrdom” element to the way parts of the far-left adopted him afterwards, possibly like how the far-right adopted the Branch Davidians).

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

I‘m extremely interested in the debates on this so thanks for making this edition free!

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Reposted by Andrew Zammit

Jess Davis @jessmarindavis.bsky.social · 12d

🚨Today we have a special edition of Insight monitor, where on a Friday morning I woke up and chose data.

I take a close look at claims of rising left wing terrorism in the US:

open.substack.com/pub/insighti...

Is left-wing terrorism on the rise in the US?

And how does this compare to trends in Canada?

open.substack.com

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

Oh that’s how I interpreted “The authors have chosen to exclude contemporary school shootings” but I’ve no intention to strawman if i misinterpreted. Are there particular school shootings that should have be included as right-wing terrorist attacks in the first half of 2025?

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 12d

4. They don’t say they exclude all school shootings, they say they include those with clear political objectives. Is there a right-wing school shooting in that time frame they missed? You would probably be best to judge.

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