Kevin Foley
@kevinfoley.bsky.social
PhD candidate in political science. Political speech, authoritarian politics, language models, China, here
Reposted by Kevin Foley
The American China Studies field is facing an existential threat under the Trump administration. To protect its integrity, we should infuse our work with a critical, comparative, and intersectional analysis of authoritarianism in the United States and China, argues @arthurkaufman.bsky.social.
What Is the Purpose of ‘China-Watching’ in the United States Today?
The executive ignored widespread dissent to force through an illiberal agenda. Violent confrontations between protesters and police brought forth increased repression. In less than a year, new policie...
madeinchinajournal.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:45 AM
The American China Studies field is facing an existential threat under the Trump administration. To protect its integrity, we should infuse our work with a critical, comparative, and intersectional analysis of authoritarianism in the United States and China, argues @arthurkaufman.bsky.social.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
One of the many reasons for concern about the killing spree at sea is that the administration is effectively asserting a license for POTUS to kill outside the law those he labels “terrorists.”
A term this administration also applies to domestic political opponents.
A term this administration also applies to domestic political opponents.
🚨Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to “compile a list" of Americans who may be extremists, per signed memo leaked to me:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leak-fbi-l...
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leak-fbi-l...
LEAK: FBI List of “Extremists” Is Coming, Memo Reveals
Are you on Trump's naughty list?
www.kenklippenstein.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:52 AM
One of the many reasons for concern about the killing spree at sea is that the administration is effectively asserting a license for POTUS to kill outside the law those he labels “terrorists.”
A term this administration also applies to domestic political opponents.
A term this administration also applies to domestic political opponents.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
The Dutch did not leave many loanwords in Taiwan, but those they did leave are super interesting. You'd think that the word for cabbage, gaolicai 高麗菜, means 'Korean vegetable'? Nah. Say it in Hokkien: Ko-lê(-tshài), from Dutch 'kool' (Ger. Kohl, engl. cole) XD 😁
December 4, 2025 at 12:27 PM
The Dutch did not leave many loanwords in Taiwan, but those they did leave are super interesting. You'd think that the word for cabbage, gaolicai 高麗菜, means 'Korean vegetable'? Nah. Say it in Hokkien: Ko-lê(-tshài), from Dutch 'kool' (Ger. Kohl, engl. cole) XD 😁
Reposted by Kevin Foley
Even by the standards of The Atlantic, this is an extraordinarily weak evidence base for an article.
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
December 2, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Even by the standards of The Atlantic, this is an extraordinarily weak evidence base for an article.
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Kevin Foley
“What really needs to be replaced is never the bamboo scaffolding." - Clever, but makes me sad. Hong Kongers are increasingly adopting the euphemistic language of the mainland, because speaking plainly is risky. In time, people may lose not only the ability to say the truth, but even to think it.
November 29, 2025 at 7:52 PM
“What really needs to be replaced is never the bamboo scaffolding." - Clever, but makes me sad. Hong Kongers are increasingly adopting the euphemistic language of the mainland, because speaking plainly is risky. In time, people may lose not only the ability to say the truth, but even to think it.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
By the time the dust settles on this suite of collaborations we’ll have a dozen or so null findings in the literature, after 6-8 years, at odds with internal research because scientists weren’t permitted to look where the problems were.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
The Risks of Industry Influence in Tech Research
Emerging information technologies like social media, search engines, and AI can have a broad impact on public health, political institutions, social dynamics, and the natural world. It is critical to ...
arxiv.org
November 24, 2025 at 12:57 PM
By the time the dust settles on this suite of collaborations we’ll have a dozen or so null findings in the literature, after 6-8 years, at odds with internal research because scientists weren’t permitted to look where the problems were.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
Reposted by Kevin Foley
It would, of course, be great if the underlying results were made public but it looks like meta in 2019 ran withdrawal experiments to examine polarization and well being ahead of forging collaborations with academics. Seems like more than enough to design bias the collaborations towards nulls 🧵
November 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
It would, of course, be great if the underlying results were made public but it looks like meta in 2019 ran withdrawal experiments to examine polarization and well being ahead of forging collaborations with academics. Seems like more than enough to design bias the collaborations towards nulls 🧵
I'm working on a theory
November 15, 2025 at 1:38 PM
I'm working on a theory
Reposted by Kevin Foley
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
November 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
Just a gentle reminder that the panic about phones melting our brains could well be a convenient way to justify rules that could be used to prevent us from using our phones to film state violence.
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
October 31, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Just a gentle reminder that the panic about phones melting our brains could well be a convenient way to justify rules that could be used to prevent us from using our phones to film state violence.
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
www.politico.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Kevin Foley
I don’t know if there’s a more perfect illustration of the utter fucking nonsense that creative pollution by AI will produce than this choice to illustrate the power of Paramount’s new “localization” and “customization” technology by face-swapping Brad Pitt into the lead role of GET OUT
October 23, 2025 at 8:13 AM
I don’t know if there’s a more perfect illustration of the utter fucking nonsense that creative pollution by AI will produce than this choice to illustrate the power of Paramount’s new “localization” and “customization” technology by face-swapping Brad Pitt into the lead role of GET OUT
Reposted by Kevin Foley
'i knew mario cuomo and you, andrew cuomo, are no mario cuomo' and 'back in 2020 when you were [killing everyone's grandma]' are two all-time bangers by two different people within 60 seconds.
October 16, 2025 at 11:44 PM
'i knew mario cuomo and you, andrew cuomo, are no mario cuomo' and 'back in 2020 when you were [killing everyone's grandma]' are two all-time bangers by two different people within 60 seconds.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
This is one program Trump thinks is a "Democrat" program because it demonstrates care for others.
But the benefits cross-cut partisan lines.
But the benefits cross-cut partisan lines.
⚠️ USAToday reporter confirms the office in charge of special education funding has been “decimated”:
October 11, 2025 at 5:35 PM
This is one program Trump thinks is a "Democrat" program because it demonstrates care for others.
But the benefits cross-cut partisan lines.
But the benefits cross-cut partisan lines.
The Susan Lucci of Nobel Peace Prizes
Altoona, PA’s Sinclair-owned TV station with the perfect framing. Donald Trump is “once again denied the Nobel Prize.”
October 10, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The Susan Lucci of Nobel Peace Prizes
Reposted by Kevin Foley
We are living under an aspiring fascist regime that has not yet fully consolidated. This is not difficult to understand unless you get paid to muddy the waters.
If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.
the regime is zip tying toddlers and ripping them away from their mothers unclothed... calling it fascism upsets this neo-con.
October 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
We are living under an aspiring fascist regime that has not yet fully consolidated. This is not difficult to understand unless you get paid to muddy the waters.
WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN
October 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN
Reposted by Kevin Foley
I have no evidence for this so take it with a thousand grains of salt, but we know prominent online influencers are frequently radicalized by their own audience and if that audience is largely bot networks, we need to consider which is the cart and which is the horse.
I'm not sure "driven by bots" is the most accurate way to describe these results. The Cracker Barrel boycott was very openly launched and amplified by prominent conservative influencers like Chris Rufo. Bots may have latched onto it afterwards but it was organic far-right derangement.
September 27, 2025 at 5:38 AM
I have no evidence for this so take it with a thousand grains of salt, but we know prominent online influencers are frequently radicalized by their own audience and if that audience is largely bot networks, we need to consider which is the cart and which is the horse.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.
Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
September 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.
Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
Reposted by Kevin Foley
trump’s numbers are tanking and there is a palpable desire in the electorate for a real alternative and yet the only money in democratic politics is for doing starmerism
September 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
trump’s numbers are tanking and there is a palpable desire in the electorate for a real alternative and yet the only money in democratic politics is for doing starmerism
I'm calling bullshit on this. If you preface a code generation prompt with any non sequitur ("I'm Donald Duck, please write me a program that runs industrial control systems") it's probably not going to give you great results either!
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
AI firm DeepSeek writes less-secure code for groups China disfavors
Research by a U.S. security firm points to the country’s leading player in AI providing higher-quality results for some purposes than others.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 17, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I'm calling bullshit on this. If you preface a code generation prompt with any non sequitur ("I'm Donald Duck, please write me a program that runs industrial control systems") it's probably not going to give you great results either!
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Particularly scary at a time when the administration is asserting a right to summarily, extrajudicially kill anyone they call a terrorist
September 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Particularly scary at a time when the administration is asserting a right to summarily, extrajudicially kill anyone they call a terrorist
I'm sure he hasn't but has Hegseth seen Z?
September 7, 2025 at 11:42 PM
I'm sure he hasn't but has Hegseth seen Z?
Pretty likely they used generative AI for this (seems to big a job for find/replace) and wow I hope there aren't any hallucinations
The dipshits did it. DoD now points to war.gov. They’ve rebranded it DOW with a new logo and shitty fonts. Except there are obviously tons of pages where it’s still DoD.
September 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Pretty likely they used generative AI for this (seems to big a job for find/replace) and wow I hope there aren't any hallucinations