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Larry Hamilton

@ichiloe.bsky.social

3.6K followers 2.2K following 980 posts

Survey research on public views of science & environment; climate change; human/environment interactions; society in the Arctic. Also: walking with my dog through the woods, and gazing at the night sky.

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Larry Hamilton @ichiloe.bsky.social · Aug 6

Can the government control hurricanes? New survey results on conspiracies and science. 🧪 #sociology #survey carsey.unh.edu/publication/...

Abstract

In this brief, author Lawrence Hamilton explores the results of a nationwide 2025 survey that asked over 1,000 people whether they agreed with conspiratorial claims such as government control of hurricanes, flat Earth, or faked Moon landings. Mixed in with the conspiracy questions were others asking about agreement with basic scientific facts such as Earth orbiting the Sun. Nine to 38 percent agreed with the conspiracies whereas 40 to 75 percent agreed with the science; many others were unsure.

Generation and political identity both correlate with conspiracism. Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z respondents more often agreed with conspiratorial statements; Harris voters were significantly less conspiratorial than Trump, third-party, or nonvoters. Information sources also make a difference: people who seek science information through social media or artificial intelligence (AI) programs hold more conspiratorial views than those consulting search engines, Wikipedia, or science articles.

Comparison of these 2025 results with an earlier 2021 survey that asked some of the same questions found minor shifts, leaning toward greater support for conspiracies or less for science. This two-survey comparison along with generational, political, and social-media/AI patterns all suggest a growing role for conspiracism and weakening regard for science in U.S. public life. Individuals can counter these trends by actively learning to spot differences between science-based information and other claims that are wrong or intentionally misleading, and by sharing their insights in interpersonal or public discussions. Broader progress against conspiracism calls for enacting public policy measures that encourage robust media fact-checking, and laws against presenting AI fabrications as real.

Bar graph showing percent agree, unsure, or disagree with 14 science or conspiracy statements. Agreement ranges from 9% for "rabies vaccine causes dog autism" and 10% for Earth is flat, to 69% for vaccines have mostly been beneficial" and 75% for Earth makes yearly orbit of Sun.

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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 8h

Honest to god the biggest scam in America right now is whatever Dem consultants are being paid

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 10h

Durbin on whether Democrats can use reining in ICE in Chicago as a precondition to rein in the government says “can’t do that. It’s gotta be health care all the way.”

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 11h

no they're LITERALLY exaggerating this issue. there is absolutely no data backing up their claims. ffs just say that!!

NBC news: The discussions come as Trump has sought to deploy National Guard troops in several major cities — including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon — saying they’re needed to reduce crime and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from protesters. Critics have said that the Trump administration is exaggerating issues in those cities.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Pritzker: "He said he was going after the worst of the worst. It's not going after the worst of the worst when you're just literally stopping children who happen to be brown & asking them for papers as if they're gonna have proof they're a citizen. Pull out your phones and film everything you see"

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

Everything they are doing & saying right now is very obviously meant to clear the way for mass repressive violence.

Fact checking is not going to do shit.

Talking about kitchen table issues is not going to do shit.

We need open, unapologetic defiance & conflict.

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Larry Hamilton @ichiloe.bsky.social · 1d

@grahamformaine.bsky.social is a refreshing & hopeful note in dark times. If he can win the nomination he should easily beat Collins.

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1d

bluesky desperately needs a competent comms team

having random devs fling off the cuff retorts at pissed off trans folk ain't it

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

All these suspensions are... a really bad omen, to put it lightly

Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 2d

The all-knowing bsky mods gave Erin Biba a 24 hour suspension for a months-old skeet about Christian Zionism, and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this happened when she’s been vocally criticizing Jay

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Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 1d

I think Greta Thunberg deserves a @NobelPrize and more.
But what she really wants is an end to the starvation, maiming and killing of Gaza’s entrapped and helpless civilians, - and of course the respect and care our Earth requires

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 2d

Just dug this up as a clear example of fitting a complex nuanced narrative into a single social media post for my masterclass in public science engagement using online tools

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Nov 19

Climate Change:

It's real.

It's us.

It's serious - and already dangerous.

But there are solutions.

The science is clear: the faster we cut emissions, the less suffering we will cause, and the better off we'll all be.

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 2d

its funny how not a single actual journalist has been like, “actually she’s good at journalism”

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The Frito Bandito @thefritobanditoo.bsky.social · 2d

Guys, every person you see on Fox News in a mask is just Robert O'Neill, retired Navy Seal and occasional Fox News contributor. He's the former Antifa, former Gazan, former gang member. His eyes are very unique.

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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 2d

There’s just not enough attention being paid to how unqualified, psychologically unfit, and dangerous so many of these new ICE hires potentially are.

If we had a Congress, there’d be investigations & oversight into this.

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Larry Hamilton @ichiloe.bsky.social · 1d

Nice video! Irresistibly photogenic last night.

Full harvest Moon, small telescope view.

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 1d

This is encouraging. Californians understood the assignment. We got loud and spread the word on Prop 50. This is a fight against Republican anti-democratic tactics, but we still have to vote.

Get those ballots in, early voting has started. We’re going to pass Prop 50.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 2d

Hopefully the whole Bari Weiss thing and Ezra Klein thing starts waking people up to the fact that corporate media is mostly populated with mediocre people who have made millions and gained unbelievable influence because they threaten nothing and tell wealthy people exactly what they want to hear.

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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, very weird. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 2d

Kat Abughazaleh is taking on ICE—and running for Congress www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

Kat Abughazaleh is taking on ICE—and running for Congress

Kat Abughazaleh has a clear goal: Get into Congress, do some good, “get some fascists out,” and then go back home to hang out with her cat. And the road to next year’s Democratic primary election for ...

www.dailykos.com

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 3d

"There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day ... Soon, McDowell told us, there will be up to 5 satellite reentries per day." 😳

1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day

earthsky.org

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 3d

I have so much respect for Greta Thunberg because she easily could have coasted on speaking gigs and Davos appearances for the rest of her life

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Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 3d

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

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jenn m. jackson @jennmjacksonphd.bsky.social · 4d

The Vice President of the United States used his social media page to tell Joy Reid, a private citizen with no connection to the government, that she should express "gratitude" for how this country has treated her.

Black women remain the most consistent targets in all of this.

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Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 5d

Lately I've been doing sequence edits of pelicans diving, but for the marine life feed hitting 2k likes, how about a NEARLY FULL BODY HUMPBACK BREACH sequence? 🦑

a humpback whale jumping out of the water, 6 images stacked as it goes from nearly straight up, through to the right where you can see the bottom of the whale, until it slaps down onto the water with a great splash

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 5d

Abughazaleh: I think Kristi Noem should be tried at The Hague. And if the response from ICE to people exercising their first amendment right is to drive vehicles through them, they should not be an agency in the US.

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse @whitehouse.senate.gov · 5d

Reopening the government isn’t a Republican priority.

Protecting Trump from the release of the Epstein files is.

Screenshot of a tweet from the House Press Gallery: "The Chair announced the Speaker's designation of Tuesday, Oct. 7 through Monday, Oct. 13 as a district work period."

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Simon ⚒️⛩️🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴‍☠️🇪🇺 @sulaco68.bsky.social · 4d

The view from an ANTIFA landing craft June 6th 1944

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