Eric Van Rythoven
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Eric Van Rythoven
@ericvanr.bsky.social
520 followers 930 following 180 posts
Writing and teaching on security, diplomacy, and emotion in global politics.
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This is the way
alexpanetta.bsky.social Alex Panetta @alexpanetta.bsky.social · 5d
My initial take here: Canada, don’t take the bait. Trump would get torn apart at home in a midterm year over this and would be seeking an off-ramp.
taniel.bsky.social Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 6d
A billionaire family that owns a bridge crossing between Michigan and Canada has wanted Trump to stop a new bridge — and Trump is now threatening to block its opening (with authority he doesn’t have). www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...
February 10, 2026 at 11:12 AM
This is a *really* good take on Trump supporters, Goffman's classic account of the con man, and the problem of 'cooling out' Trump supporters.

I have two quick thoughts. One is that I think the reason there is no one to 'cool out' Trump supporters is that this requires emotional labour... /1
February 4, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
nestruck.bsky.social
Tonight I watched Prime Minister Mark Carney take the actual Heated Rivalry Canada fleece from Hudson Williams, slip it on and say: “This is true soft power.”
January 30, 2026 at 12:41 AM
So...not close at all?
politico.eu POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 17d
Speaking in Davos earlier this month, Donald Trump told reporters he believed a deal on Ukraine was “reasonably close.”

And yet, Moscow and Kyiv remain stalled over three issues at the heart of the conflict.

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/peac...
January 29, 2026 at 3:38 PM
This is a really good essay.
adamserwer.bsky.social Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 19d
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.
January 27, 2026 at 3:31 PM
I did some radio with CBC on the international politics of the Grok controversy and Canada's response.

Come for the incisive analysis, stay to hear my kids yelling at the dog for peeing on the carpet.

www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
© CBC/Radio-Canada 2026. All rights reserved.
www.cbc.ca
January 26, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
emma-briant.co.uk
Oh my god this is so horrifying... this is the most despicable gaslighting imaginable - tech executives must be held responsible for what they create.
jessasatomp.bsky.social Jess Asato MP @jessasatomp.bsky.social · 23d
This week, an X user created an AI video of me being chloroformed and prepared for rape.

Victims are told it's not real and they're getting offended for no reason.

But nudification tools are weapons of sexual assault, and the harm they cause is real 👇

jessasato.substack.com/p/ai-nudific...
AI nudification: the latest weapon of violence against women and girls
In Julie Burchill’s recent article in the Spectator, Does it really matter if Grok undresses us all?, she makes the argument that those who, like me, have repeatedly had their clothes removed by socia...
jessasato.substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
kateconger.com
I would also note: X has deleted a handful of these images. But the vast majority of them remain live on X today.
kateconger.com kate conger @kateconger.com · 24d
In our conservative estimate, 41 percent of Grok’s images — or 1.8 million — were sexualized depictions of women. Separately, CCDH analyzed how many were sexualized images across genders and ages. Their findings: an estimated 3 million images, including more than 23,000 of children.
January 22, 2026 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
January 21, 2026 at 8:35 PM
I wrote about the collapse of Trump's plan to annex Greenland 1/
Trump’s annexation of Greenland seemed imminent. Now it’s on much shakier ground.
The stain of Donald Trump’s constant bullying of American allies will linger long after his administration is gone.
theconversation.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Mark Carney: The Great Powers are becoming more aggressive.

*five minutes later*

Donald Trump: WE COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
'Canada lives because of the U.S.,' Trump says while jabbing Carney | CBC News
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday Canada owes its continued existence to the United States while calling out Prime Minister Mark Carney for delivering a speech that condemned coercion by g...
www.cbc.ca
January 21, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
robsonfletcher.com
Globe & Mail reporting on Canadian military's modelling of how an extended insurgency against a US invasion would play out:

In short, we'd take cues from the mujahideen.

"The aim of such tactics would be to impose mass casualties on U.S. occupying forces..."
Military models Canadian response to hypothetical American invasion By Robert Fife, Gavin John Canada does not have the number of military personnel or the sophisticated equipment needed to fend off a conventional American attack, they said. So, the military envisions unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military or armed civilians would resort to ambushes, sabotage, drone warfare or hit-and-run tactics. One of the officials said the model includes tactics used by the Afghan mujahedeen in their hit-and-run attacks on Russian soldiers during the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War. These were the same tactics employed by the Taliban in their 20-year war against the U.S. and allied forces that included Canada. Many of the 158 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 were struck by improvised explosive devices or IEDs. The aim of such tactics would be to impose mass casualties on U.S. occupying forces, the official said. The aim of such tactics would be to impose mass casualties on U.S. occupying forces, the official said. Conscription has been ruled out for now, but the level of sacrifice that would be asked of Canadians remains a central topic, the officials said. General Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defence Staff, has already announced her intention to create a 400,000-plus-strong reserve force of volunteers. The officials said they could be armed or asked to provide disruptions if the U.S. becomes an occupying power. A senior Defence Department official said Canada would have a maximum of three months to prepare for a land and sea invasion. The first indications that invasion orders had been sent would be expected to come from U.S. military warnings that Canada no longer has a shared skies policy with the United States, the source said. This rupture in the joint defence agreement would likely see France or Britain, nuclear-weapon states, being called on to provide support and defence for Canada against the U.S.
January 20, 2026 at 2:14 PM
For Canadians this should sink any hope for a deal with the US.

The EU relented and accepted a brutally one-sided deal, and before the ink is even dry Trump has already reneged on the agreement.
twseal.bsky.social Thomas Seal @twseal.bsky.social · 29d
Trump says he'll impose a 10% tariff (rising to 25% in June) on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland, because they've sent people to Greenland, until the US can buy Greenland.
January 17, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Trying to write a piece on the US annexation of Greenland, and everything feels so monumentally stupid I don't even think I can finish.
January 16, 2026 at 3:12 PM
This is pretty good.
January 15, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Re-upping for the morning crowd
January 15, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
bhaggart.bsky.social
“There are compelling reasons, then, for why Canada has been slow to act amid the global backlash to Grok. But are these good reasons? No.”
@ericvanr.bsky.social nails it.
January 14, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote on why Canada's reaction to the Grok controversy X is so weak compared to other countries. 1/

theconversation.com/why-canadas-...
Why Canada’s reaction to the Grok scandal is so muted in the midst of a global outcry
Governments around the world are clamping down on Grok’s production of nonconsensual sexual images. Why does Canada seem to be missing in action?
theconversation.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Eric Van Rythoven
wgreaves.bsky.social
Statement from MP Will Greaves on X/Twitter (I know, I know, not popular on here)
Statement from MP Will Greaves on X/Twitter
January 13, 2026 at 3:39 AM
I know everyone is laughing at how quickly Trump turned on ExxonMobil, but it's also a powerful illustration of why the Trump admin is so bad for business.

You can never say or do anything that appears to challenge the leader. You are walking eggshells the entire time...
gloefflmann.bsky.social Georg ‘Maverick’ Löfflmann @gloefflmann.bsky.social · Jan 12
‘What kind of oil executive are you?’
January 12, 2026 at 12:04 PM
Once again, now would be a good time for Canadian officials to issue a full-throated condemnation of their most favoured social media platform.
clarajeffery.bsky.social Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · Jan 8
In one of the most appalling developments of past day, Elon Musk's AI chatbot desecrated Renee Nicole Good's body. That's in addition to harassing women and sexually exploiting minors. By @katieherchenroeder.bsky.social

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Grok deepfaked Renee Nicole Good's body into a bikini
Hours after an ICE agent killed the mother of three, Elon Musk’s chatbot was undressing her.
www.motherjones.com
January 9, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Not a big fan of 'history repeats itself' trope, but the convergence between Poilievre cheering on Trump in 2025 and Harper cheering on Bush in 2023 (both while serving as Conservative opposition leaders) is a bit jarring.
January 8, 2026 at 2:23 PM
It is a bit problematic that the Canadian government's #1 communications tool is a cesspool of AI deepfake porn and Nazi imagery.
decoherence.media Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · Jan 7
BREAKING: X’s chatbot Grok isn’t just making AI porn deepfakes, it’s now making Nazi AI porn deepfakes, undressing women and showing them wearing “swastika bikinis”. Many of these women are Jewish, including a recently deceased Holocaust survivor.
Elon Musk’s “Grok” is undressing women and showing them in swastika bikinis
One woman targeted is a Jewish Holocaust survivor
decoherence.media
January 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM
I actually have a pet theory that most countries have tended to look past America's transgressive behaviour because it provided important public goods (e.g. trade and security).

Take away those things and people are probably far more open to seeing America as having a stigmatized identity.
January 6, 2026 at 4:09 PM
I get this, it's a colossal mistake, the status quo is cheaper, etc.

But that would make the United States a 'partner', and in no uncertain terms does the Trump administration want to be a 'partner' because that implies a relationship among equals.

Dominant parties do not have, or need, partners.
profsaunders.bsky.social Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · Jan 6
What is just crazy about this, aside from the need for this statement at all, is that Greenland already IS in the US sphere of influence. It's far cheaper for the US, in material, security, and reputational terms, to have Denmark continue administering Greenland and work within NATO on security.
nvondarza.bsky.social Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · Jan 6
Joint Statement of major EU/NATO countries on Greenland, together with Denmark:
January 6, 2026 at 2:27 PM