Cynthia Miller-Idriss
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milleridriss.bsky.social
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
@milleridriss.bsky.social

Founding Director @perilresearch.bsky.social, testing ideas to prevent violence & build social cohesion. Author, Man Up, Hate in the Homeland, The Extreme Gone Mainstream. MSNow columnist. New book on Gen Z & gender divides coming 2028. .. more

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an American sociologist. She is a professor in the Schools of Public Affairs and Education at American University. She is the founding director of the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL). .. more

Political science 54%
Sociology 25%
Pinned
New followers! I’m an academic & scholar who writes for the public about upstream prevention of violence & analysis of misogyny, white supremacist extremism & more. But my favorite essays are this trio I wrote about my mom & what it means to be forgotten. 1/

www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenti...
Perspective | My mother forgot who I was, and it made me a better daughter
Watching my mother’s erasure has been vicious. But I have also come to realize that despite all I’ve lost, I’ve gained something, too.
www.washingtonpost.com
LA friends, see extremism expert @milleridriss.bsky.social at @msmagazine.com on Feb 18 at 6:00pm PST! This urgent conversation with Kathy Spillar will focus on her book, Man Up, and the explosion of misogyny driving a surge of mass and far-right violence

This is hybrid event: hubs.ly/Q040KTTm0
The list of those associated with pedophile and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein from the released files reads like a who’s who of the MAGA/oligarch class.
Who is Hurting Kids?
MAGA is the menace
contrarian.substack.com

thank you!

🙏🙏🙏
On this point, I urge everyone to listen to this recent interview with @milleridriss.bsky.social - just ordered her book.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Author @milleridriss.bsky.social and Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar unpack the gendered roots of mass violence in a live conversation at the Ms. HQ.

Join us:
msmagazine.com/2026/01/24/c...
The New Misogyny, Violent Extremism and What It Will Take to Stop It: RSVP for a Live Conversation (Online or in L.A.; Wednesday, Feb. 18)
Across ideologies, the clearest and most consistent predictor of mass shootings is not political extremism alone—it is rising gendered grievances, patriarchal backlash, and perpetrators’ histories of ...
msmagazine.com
On Lawfare Daily, Dan Byman sat down with @milleridriss.bsky.social to discuss her new book, "Man Up: The New Misogyny & the Rise of Violence Extremism," how different forms of misogyny lead to political and social violence, and more. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawf...
It’s hard to focus on one thing to be appalled about, but these stories out of Minnesota are awful. (And, of course, on the other hand, very encouraging.) I cannot believe you can wrongly grab somebody, transport them, and then leave them where YOU took them.
From FB regarding Pizza Luce in Minnesota.

I like it when I can do something to help people displaced by ICE and then after I do that thing I get to eat a pizza.

💯

also the fantasy he is revealing here- protest *must* be their sexual fantasy, because he is seeing them/depicting them in sexualized ways, objectified ways, its own way of asserting power and diminishing their autonomy, decision making power, rational thought- they are just hormone-horny bodies …
Over the past decade, toxic, violent, hyper-masculinity has skyrocketed within our culture, especially online.

@milleridriss.bsky.social explains
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/ice-the-epitome-of-toxic-masculinity
ICE: The Epitome of Toxic Masculinity
Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss on harmful masculinities, violent extremism, and prevention tactics
contrarian.substack.com
A leading expert on extremism and radicalization, SPA Prof. @milleridriss.bsky.social continues shaping the conversation on violent extremism, including how gender influences mass violence. SPA also welcomes William Braniff as PERIL’s new Exec. Director, co‑leading the lab with her.
Make no mistake: The thousands of new recruits to ICE, driven by a $100 million “wartime recruitment” push, were selected with violence in mind. From @milleridriss.bsky.social:
How Misogyny and White Nationalism Converge in ICE Enforcement
In Minnesota, poorly trained, heavily armed and trigger-happy men ICE agents target anyone non-white. It's misogyny, racism and state terror.
msmagazine.com
Join author @milleridriss.bsky.social to uncover the misogyny at the heart of mass violence in a timely conversation at the Ms. HQ next month. RSVP here:
secure.ngpvan.com/sDNdQm88_U2Y...

Thank you!
See @milleridriss.bsky.social at @msmagazine.com next month, Feb 18 at 6:00 pm PST, for a hybrid discussion of her book Man Up! With Kathy Spillar, she'll explore the epidemic of misogyny driving a surge of mass and far-right violence and offer strategies to fight this rising tide: buff.ly/fzC3h9d
Powerful essay from @milleridriss.bsky.social on how misogyny and white nationalism fuel the violence by ICE and Trump's deportation forces www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
ICE violence is fueled by misogyny and white nationalism
How the Trump administration has mobilized state-sponsored terror in Minneapolis and beyond.
www.motherjones.com
I don't know, Heritage Foundation-tied publication, maybe white liberal women are mad because a federal immigration official shot and killed one of them. And then called her a "bitch"? You know, on camera? www.dailysignal.com/2026/01/27/w...
The Unhinged Rage of White Liberal Women, Explained
Why are white liberal women lashing out against ICE? Is there an underlying rage that we fellas have missed?
www.dailysignal.com

The violence is not a bug- it’s a feature. My latest op ed is now live:

msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/i...
How Misogyny and White Nationalism Converge in ICE Enforcement
In Minnesota, poorly trained, heavily armed and trigger-happy men ICE agents target anyone non-white. It's misogyny, racism and state terror.
msmagazine.com
Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.
Video from this morning shows ICE agents deploying tear gas outside a Minneapolis preschool as parents shout, “This is a preschool! There’s kids here!”

🔥: “In the 1940’s, Norwegians made & wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal & punishable by law to wear, make, or distribute…we felt it appropriate to revisit this design.”
The pattern was designed by a Minneapolis yarn store. All sales are going to local immigrant aid organizations. They've raised over $125,000 (!!!) since the knitting pattern was posted a few days ago.

👏That's👏community👏action👏
Melt the ICE Hat pattern by YarnCultMN
In the 1940’s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal...
www.ravelry.com
One human rights observer in Maine said agents followed her home, blocked off her street, and came to her door to say they know where she lives. Her children are now staying elsewhere, to keep them safe.
Now in Maine: ICE watchers say federal agents are coming to their house to threaten and intimidate them.

www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...
ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents
Community members have been monitoring the activity of immigration agents in Greater Portland.
www.pressherald.com
The pattern was designed by a Minneapolis yarn store. All sales are going to local immigrant aid organizations. They've raised over $125,000 (!!!) since the knitting pattern was posted a few days ago.

👏That's👏community👏action👏
Melt the ICE Hat pattern by YarnCultMN
In the 1940’s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal...
www.ravelry.com

Hard to distill in 300 characters but I’m talking about the failed movements here, the 74% of violent resistant protests that don’t succeed (in Stephan’s data) compared to the more than half of nonviolent ones that do succeed

Stop worrying about the affordability crisis, people. All you need to do is find yourself a babymaker (or quit work to become a babymaker) and you will find great meaning. The best meaning. Even if you can’t feed or support that human life, even if there is no housing to keep them safe & warm.
JD Vance: "To our fellow Americans we say, you're never gonna find great meaning in a cubicle or in front of a computer screen. But you will find great meaning if you dedicate yourself to the creation and sustenance of human life."
Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE

Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Shoveling break, just seeing this now. It’s not forever but you are right, it’s almost unendurably long- three years on average. But I can only trust the data and the alternative is imo worse.