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Reposted by Jeff Lees

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 1d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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D. J. Hicks @danhicks.bsky.social · 8d

Finally officially published! "Race science in mainstream psychology, 1960–2010" with @rhacodactylus.bsky.social (who needs a job btw) direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... 🧵

#histsci #sts #philsci #metascience

Race science in mainstream psychology, 1960–2010

Abstract. Anthropologists and human geneticists have long rejected efforts to purportedly scientifically justify racial inequality and colonialism. But race science has persisted, at least on the marg...

direct.mit.edu

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 8d

“research suggests that this approach to vaccines is entirely logical in a culture that insists that health is the result of hard work and informed consumer decisions and too often sees illness as a personal failure.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

Opinion | What 20 Years of Listening to Vaccine-Hesitant Parents Has Taught Me

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 19d

I'm sure that if we scientists remain "apolitical" that this campaign of scientific censorship will stop, right...right?

Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 19d

EPA has ordered scientists in its Office of Water to immediately pause almost all research & stop publishing studies. Researchers were told that, unless scientific journals had already returned proofs, studies will be subject to an additional EPA review.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

EPA tells scientists to stop publishing studies, employees say

Staff from the EPA’s Office of Water were summoned to a town hall meeting this week and told to pause the publication of most research, pending a review.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 20d

And to me this is another instance of incredibly credulous actors within the legacy media ecosystem regurgitating insincere conservative propaganda as a "serious concern by serious people" until the moral panic has a life of its own

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 20d

I'm generally averse to left-wing hypocracy-porn

But in this instance, I don't think the takeaway is that radical centrists are hypocrites on free speech

The lesson is instead that the moral panic over "left-wing cancel culture" is and always was a reactionary propaganda campaign

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 20d

What is happening at public universities in Red states will not stop at public universities in Red states. The Authoritarians want speech codes, blacklists, and loyalty oaths for all in academia.

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 20d

So, a university president fired a professor because they taught a course that discussed there being more than two genders, and now the university president is being fired for not having fired the professor quickly enough, is where we're at. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...

Texas A&M President to Step Down After Controversy Over ‘Gender Ideology’

www.nytimes.com

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 20d

So, a university president fired a professor because they taught a course that discussed there being more than two genders, and now the university president is being fired for not having fired the professor quickly enough, is where we're at. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...

Texas A&M President to Step Down After Controversy Over ‘Gender Ideology’

www.nytimes.com

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 20d

Living in Europe, the one thing I find difficult to convey to Europeans is just how completely incompetent and feckless the Democratic Party Leadership is at doing politics.

Eric Blair @protecttruth.bsky.social · 20d

Now there's a Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance resolution in the House.

The question is whether House Dems will vote for it. Many are arguing they should all vote NO.

But @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social is reportedly voting YES, to honor Kirk.

Why?

@andrewsolender.bsky.social:

House Democrats fume about vote to honor Charlie Kirk: "We're being totally set up"

The vote has been the topic of frenzied discussions in Democrats' closed-door meeting this week.

www.axios.com

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Fernando Blanco 🦋 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @fernandoblancopsy.com · 22d

We are offering a 2-year postdoctoral position at CIMCyC (Granada, Spain) to work on the psychology of dis(mis)information.

Apply before 26th September. Nice city, great environment ☺️

Please share! 🔃

cimcyc.ugr.es/en/informati...

#socialpsychology
#cogpsyc
#PsychSciSky
#PsychJob
#PhDJob

Job Offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Disinformation

As part of the strategic plan linked to the María de Maeztu Seal of Excellence award, the CIMCYC is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher with experience in the field of the psychology of disinformatio...

cimcyc.ugr.es

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 20d

*nodding and pointing upward sagely*

Individual instances like that have relatively small impacts, but when so much of the media does it, in so many ways, for years on end, i creates a process of normalization. The US right gets more fascist, mainstream figures pretend they didn't, presenting a fictional version that liberal elites find reasonable. That creates a new baseline, which fascists use to go further, which mainstream media pretends didn't happen, and eventually it's like the metaphor of a frog in slowly heating water, failing to notice that things have fundamentally changed until it's already boiling.

In this specific instance, the impact is giving people who didn't know of Charlie Kirk the false impression he was a supporter of free speech gunned down because others can't tolerate open dialogue. That in turn provides some cover for crackaowns on free speech in Kirk's
name.

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 23d

Maybe it's time the media put to rest the decade-long moral panic over "left-wing cancel culture" and start seeing f*cking reality for what it is?

Aggy @aggykins.bsky.social · 23d

JD Vance backs mass ‘doxing’ campaign to find and harass Charlie Kirk critics

The free speech advocates are going after free speech…

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

JD Vance backs mass ‘doxing’ campaign to find and harass Charlie Kirk critics

US vice-president encourages ‘calling out’ anyone who celebrates Kirk’s murder, including notifying employers

www.theguardian.com

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Derek Bruff @derekbruff.bsky.social · 24d

From the @aaup.org:

www.aaup.org/news/academi...

The AAUP notes with great alarm the rash of recent administrative actions to discipline faculty, staff, and student speech in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk. We write to remind leaders of colleges and universities of their fundamental duty to protect academic freedom and the absolute necessity to ensure that the freedom to discuss topics of public import without constraint is not curtailed under political pressure. As established in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, faculty are entitled to hearings under longstanding principles before they may be subject to discipline. At a moment when higher education is threatened by forces that seek to destroy it and its role in a democratic society, the anticipatory obedience shown by this rush to judgment must be avoided.
Publication date
September 15, 2025

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · 29d

Is this the "left-wing cancel culture" we've heard so much about?

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · Sep 9

Student, to professor: "I'm not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching, because according to our president there's only two genders... and I don't want to promote something that is against our president's laws as well as against my religious beliefs" www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...

A&M Dean removed following student complaints over curriculum

The Department of Justice has also acknowledged the situation and said it would be investigating.

www.kbtx.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29d

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

Houston Chronicle @houstonchronicle.com · 29d

Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral

Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · Sep 8

It's *almost* as if Kennedy personally profits from people who don't trust real medicine and science and instead get sucked into the scam-filled world of "alternative" medicines

The man is a professional con-artists in an administration run by professional con-artists

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Sep 8

that’s a lot of fancy words to call him a dumb bitch

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · Sep 8

Looking for help from #psychology and #survey folks who study #politics and use Prolific to collect data

What is the maximum for # of GOP participants one can plausibly get? According to the prescreen there's 10-12k GOP/leaners, but of course what's realistic for uptake is much lower.

Thank you!

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Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · Sep 4

We are about a month away from releasing a complete refresh of the OSF user interface. The team has been working on this for a very long time, and we are very excited to be able to share it soon. A preview picture:

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Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · Sep 5

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · Sep 3

More state-backed speech codes from the "DEI is destroying academic freedom" crowd 🖕

David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · Sep 3

Ohio State Bans Land Acknowledgments
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Ohio State Bans Land Acknowledgments

The new policy is one of several in response to a state law that aims to eliminate any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion at public universities.

www.insidehighered.com

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Flavio Azevedo @flavioazevedo.bsky.social · Sep 3

Extremely proud of this very thorough and informative Handbook for conducting both Replications and Reproductions!

What an amazing team of experts and so much insight into one place!

Go @forrt.bsky.social , go 🚀

Lukas Röseler @aufdroeseler.bsky.social · Sep 3

At the FORRT Replication Hub, our mission is to support researchers who want to replicate previous findings. We have now published a big new component with which we want to fulfill this mission: An open access handbook for reproduction and replication studies: forrt.org/replication_...

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · Aug 31

Umberto Eco's 8th property of fascism: the enemy is at the same time too strong and too weak.

Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · Aug 31

The truly weird thing about MAGA propagandists is how they toggle between “Under Trump America is the strongest it’s ever been!!” and “If this one thing changes America is ruined!!” www.axios.com/2025/08/31/t...

Blocking tariffs would be "end of the United States," top Trump adviser says

The administration is trying to frame the coming Supreme Court case in existential terms for the country.

www.axios.com

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Klaus Pforr @klauspforr.bsky.social · Aug 15

Paper on the problems of using LLMs as replacements for human participants
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Six Fallacies in Substituting Large Language Models for Human Participants - Zhicheng Lin, 2025

Can artificial-intelligence (AI) systems, such as large language models (LLMs), replace human participants in behavioral and psychological research? Here, I cri...

journals.sagepub.com

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Jeff Lees @leesplez.bsky.social · Aug 14

Maybe some in the "hard" sciences should read a little more "soft" science and history to learn that trying to appease authoritarians will not save them

Also, f*ck you if you'd so easily throw your colleagues to the wolves just to protect your little academic fiefdom 🖕🖕🖕

#solidarity

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 14

Oh good. We've reached the "I don't have to be faster than the bear, I only have to be less woke than you" stage of faculty solidarity. archive.is/wGNDr

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Will Marble @wpmarble.bsky.social · Jul 17

Universities often serve as "anchor institutions" that deeply affect the character of their communities. In a new paper, we estimate how (and when) the establishment of a college influences local political and civic life. 🧵

osf.io/preprints/so...

Screenshot of title page.

"The Long-Run Effects of Colleges on Civic and Political Life" by Michael J. Andrews, William Marble, and Lauren Russell.

Abstract: Social theorists and education advocates have long argued for the civic benefits of education. As large, durable institutions, universities are especially likely to affect the civic life of their communities. We investigate how the establishment of a university alters the civic and political trajectory of the surrounding area. For identification, we leverage historical site selection processes in which multiple locations were considered for new colleges. We bring together data on social capital, political preferences, and elections to assess the long-run impacts of college establishment. Communities with colleges exhibit higher levels of civic engagement and greater social trust today, relative to “runner-up” locations without colleges. These counties are also more politically liberal — a gap that has grown substantially since 2000. Our findings suggest understanding universities as place-based policies that shape the long-run civic and political development of their communities. They also shed light on current political battles over higher education policy.

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