C. Henry
@henryhenryhenry.com
political scientist @ University of Zürich
platforms, political violence, social media, computing
research & writing:
henryhenryhenry.com
sometimes land of enchantment, sometimes land of Helvetia
platforms, political violence, social media, computing
research & writing:
henryhenryhenry.com
sometimes land of enchantment, sometimes land of Helvetia
Reposted by C. Henry
Good article, but I think we could add that many of the current government officials & influencers spreading political point-scoring falsehoods during crisis events HAVE BECOME gov officials & influencers BECAUSE of their bullshit-spreading talents. System effects of rotten attention dynamics.
Government Officials Once Stopped False Accusations After Violence. Now, Some Join In.
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Good article, but I think we could add that many of the current government officials & influencers spreading political point-scoring falsehoods during crisis events HAVE BECOME gov officials & influencers BECAUSE of their bullshit-spreading talents. System effects of rotten attention dynamics.
Reposted by C. Henry
What is "oligarchic sovereignty" and can it explain the tech bro seizure of the US government and its effects on the world? I discuss with some very thoughtful colleagues here: cup.org/3KZzRly
Free to read as a Christmas gift to you all:
Free to read as a Christmas gift to you all:
Oligarchic sovereignty: Technology and the future of global order | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core
Oligarchic sovereignty: Technology and the future of global order
cup.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:32 PM
What is "oligarchic sovereignty" and can it explain the tech bro seizure of the US government and its effects on the world? I discuss with some very thoughtful colleagues here: cup.org/3KZzRly
Free to read as a Christmas gift to you all:
Free to read as a Christmas gift to you all:
Reposted by C. Henry
Autonomous computation effectively moves the problem of spam (and scams) up the social stack to render more of our social world and shared experiences into a surface for nonconsensual manipulation and exploitation (if you search for “AI village” on here, a lot of people seem to think this is great).
Yeah, I'd be pretty furious if I got spam email from some "AI agent" thanking me for my contributions too
I dug into what happened here, turns out it's an experiment called "AI Village" which unleashes all sorts of other junk emails on the world: simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/26/...
I dug into what happened here, turns out it's an experiment called "AI Village" which unleashes all sorts of other junk emails on the world: simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/26/...
December 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Autonomous computation effectively moves the problem of spam (and scams) up the social stack to render more of our social world and shared experiences into a surface for nonconsensual manipulation and exploitation (if you search for “AI village” on here, a lot of people seem to think this is great).
Reposted by C. Henry
Tonight is the night for niche Albuquerque / Santa Fe beef
December 25, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Tonight is the night for niche Albuquerque / Santa Fe beef
Reposted by C. Henry
The CBS investigation portrays a modern concentration camp, similar to the Soviet GULAG (like CECOT, an acronym): sadistic guards, 24 hour lighting, isolation cells.
Americans once opposed this inhumane system.
The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.
Americans once opposed this inhumane system.
The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.
December 23, 2025 at 9:49 AM
The CBS investigation portrays a modern concentration camp, similar to the Soviet GULAG (like CECOT, an acronym): sadistic guards, 24 hour lighting, isolation cells.
Americans once opposed this inhumane system.
The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.
Americans once opposed this inhumane system.
The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.
Reposted by C. Henry
These are concentration camps. No other way to describe them. Truly horrific, and none of it surprising in the least.
30 minutes. Some deportees described sexual assault. Detainee describes the guard sexually assaulting most detainees. Lights left on all day. Prisoners not given clean water.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
Now the DHS tour. Nobody spoke to the detainees. Noem's video was in a different area of the prison.
December 22, 2025 at 11:56 PM
These are concentration camps. No other way to describe them. Truly horrific, and none of it surprising in the least.
gonna slap some ominous music & a distracting vignette on it, call it Plandemic 4, and upload it to Rumble
And now someone has uploaded a version that wasn't filmed off a TV.
There's also the torrent link there, which is probably the fastest way to download the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT if you want to save the file locally to your computer.
There's also the torrent link there, which is probably the fastest way to download the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT if you want to save the file locally to your computer.
Pulled 60 Minutes segment on CECOT : CBS : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is a screen recording of a 60 Minutes segment about the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador, which was intended to be...
archive.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:57 AM
gonna slap some ominous music & a distracting vignette on it, call it Plandemic 4, and upload it to Rumble
occasionally I wonder where the AI craze would be if these guys just shipped models with a couple of boring tech demos and just shut the hell up instead of constantly revealing the kind of weird anti-human freaks they are
These rebranding attempts are getting more ridiculous.
The CEO of Microsoft AI says AI chatbots are a powerful way for humans to offload emotions and 'detoxify ourselves'
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI's CEO, has described using AI for guidance on life decisions as "something that the world needs."
www.businessinsider.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:14 PM
occasionally I wonder where the AI craze would be if these guys just shipped models with a couple of boring tech demos and just shut the hell up instead of constantly revealing the kind of weird anti-human freaks they are
Reposted by C. Henry
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino says that the whistles and honking actually help the feds make apprehensions. I witnessed the complete opposite in New Orleans.
The horns and whistles work
What it's like to watch community activists stand up to a Border Patrol raid.
www.motherjones.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino says that the whistles and honking actually help the feds make apprehensions. I witnessed the complete opposite in New Orleans.
Reposted by C. Henry
Thanks, @niemanlab.org, for asking me to join some of the smartest people in the business in looking ahead to the future of journalism in 2026. www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...
The year journalism fights back in the courts
"Think of it as the Dominion Voting System strategy for journalism."
www.niemanlab.org
December 21, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Thanks, @niemanlab.org, for asking me to join some of the smartest people in the business in looking ahead to the future of journalism in 2026. www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...
Reposted by C. Henry
there are lots of people doing great public quantitative social science, and basically none of them receive the attention or accolades of the Jain/Split Ticket types bc they possess a modicum of epistemic humility and refuse to promise practitioners the electoral equivalent of a med bed
December 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
there are lots of people doing great public quantitative social science, and basically none of them receive the attention or accolades of the Jain/Split Ticket types bc they possess a modicum of epistemic humility and refuse to promise practitioners the electoral equivalent of a med bed
my spiciest take as a guy who studies the discourse: post-Silver data journalism/wonkism has done damage to the information ecosystem on a similar scale to Qanon and conspiracism
personally getting very irritated by the unbelievable arrogance of the data boys
when we said “defer electoral strategy to the actual politicians running for actual offices” we meant “after calculating wins above replacement somehow”
December 21, 2025 at 5:31 PM
my spiciest take as a guy who studies the discourse: post-Silver data journalism/wonkism has done damage to the information ecosystem on a similar scale to Qanon and conspiracism
Reposted by C. Henry
The United Nations has taken notice of domestic protest repression on U.S. campuses.
U.N. Experts Blast U.S. Universities for Human Rights Violations Against Gaza Protesters
The U.N. experts wrote blistering letters to the leaders of five American universities about their crackdowns on Gaza protests.
interc.pt
December 21, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The United Nations has taken notice of domestic protest repression on U.S. campuses.
Reposted by C. Henry
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/21/020235/bell-labs-unix-tape-from-1974-successfully-dumped-to-a-tarball?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball
Archive.org now has a page with "the raw analog waveform and the reconstructed digital tape image (analog.tap), read at the Computer History Museum's Shustek Research Archives on 19 December 2025 by Al Kossow using a modified tape reader and analyzed with Len Shustek's readtape tool." A Berlin-based...
tech.slashdot.org
December 21, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/21/020235/bell-labs-unix-tape-from-1974-successfully-dumped-to-a-tarball?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
Reposted by C. Henry
Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers.
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
December 20, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers.
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."
basically every parking spot in downtown Nashville is run by the ghouls at Metropolis, and every Nashvillian has a horror story about them. a pox on everyone who works there.
“Parking in the garage means agreeing to the company’s terms and conditions, which includes collecting license plate data and, its privacy policy states, possibly biometric data, from its users.”
Two of the city's largest parking garages are now using artificial intelligence to recognize your car
The city and the new operator, Metropolis, promise a smooth experience from the technology, but customers in other cities have filed class-action lawsuits over the system.
www.cvilletomorrow.org
December 19, 2025 at 11:41 PM
basically every parking spot in downtown Nashville is run by the ghouls at Metropolis, and every Nashvillian has a horror story about them. a pox on everyone who works there.
Reposted by C. Henry
Looking for a postdoc in American politics? Come work with us in Ann Arbor! No obligations other than research. Preference for institutions-focused work, but we’re open to a wide range of substantive interests (including local politics!). Happy to answer any questions: apply.interfolio.com/178829
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Looking for a postdoc in American politics? Come work with us in Ann Arbor! No obligations other than research. Preference for institutions-focused work, but we’re open to a wide range of substantive interests (including local politics!). Happy to answer any questions: apply.interfolio.com/178829
Reposted by C. Henry
Got some figures from the @lachlanmcnamee.bsky.social Salma Mousa & @kylepeyton.bsky.social DEI analysis from 4.67 million employment records at US public universities (1993-2024)
Compact article gets it backwards. Unis diversified *leadership* not faculty.
Compact article gets it backwards. Unis diversified *leadership* not faculty.
December 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Got some figures from the @lachlanmcnamee.bsky.social Salma Mousa & @kylepeyton.bsky.social DEI analysis from 4.67 million employment records at US public universities (1993-2024)
Compact article gets it backwards. Unis diversified *leadership* not faculty.
Compact article gets it backwards. Unis diversified *leadership* not faculty.
Reposted by C. Henry
Great piece from Paul Musgrave on how Trump is, in essence, taking America private:
Taking America Private
The political-economic consequences of Mr. Trump
musgrave.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Great piece from Paul Musgrave on how Trump is, in essence, taking America private:
a technique that famously gets conspiracy communities to quiet down and disperse
December 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
a technique that famously gets conspiracy communities to quiet down and disperse
a very interesting case study in what happens when an extremely low-trust social movement enjoys a bit of success
December 19, 2025 at 8:43 PM
a very interesting case study in what happens when an extremely low-trust social movement enjoys a bit of success
Reposted by C. Henry
I had some *thoughts* about @durbin.senate.gov ridiculous plan to sunset Section 230 unless Mark Zuckerberg tells him how else to kill the open internet.
Senators Want To Hold The Open Internet Hostage, Demand Zuckerberg Write The Ransom Note
Not this shit again. A bipartisan group of the most anti-internet Senators around have released their latest version of a plan to “sunset Section 230.” We went over this last year when they floated the same…
Not this shit again. A bipartisan group of the most anti-internet Senators around have released their latest version of a plan to “sunset Section 230.” We went over this last year when they floated the same…
Senators Want To Hold The Open Internet Hostage, Demand Zuckerberg Write The Ransom Note
Not this shit again. A bipartisan group of the most anti-internet Senators around have released their latest version of a plan to “sunset Section 230.” We went over this last year when they floated the same idea: they have no actual plan for how to make sure the open internet can continue. Instead, their “plan” is to put a gun to the head of the open internet and say they’re going to shoot it… unless Meta gives them a different alternative.
www.techdirt.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:12 PM
I had some *thoughts* about @durbin.senate.gov ridiculous plan to sunset Section 230 unless Mark Zuckerberg tells him how else to kill the open internet.
Reposted by C. Henry
This also happens because “everything is QAnon, everything is the Inquisition” *is* the fun, is the play, is game of the dominant culture, both online and in our mainstream culture and political life. Hunting people for sport in public is the dominant American pastime and form of civic engagement.
The internet sucks now because everything needs to result in the maximal outcome so instead of seeing the Coldplay couple and going “lol pretty funny” we end up with this, everything is Qanon, everything is the Inquisition, when the fun of it should be “well, never have to think about this again!”
It was a perfect viral moment, a 5 second video snippet that appeared to tell an entire story. Then the country got way, way, way too invested.
December 19, 2025 at 7:44 PM
This also happens because “everything is QAnon, everything is the Inquisition” *is* the fun, is the play, is game of the dominant culture, both online and in our mainstream culture and political life. Hunting people for sport in public is the dominant American pastime and form of civic engagement.
great conversation here:
Today on Volts: I've got a nerdy one for you! I talk with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social about the epistemic crisis & its roots in social identity. He explains why factchecking & media literacy classes will never solve misinformation -- why something deeper & stronger is required.
The cure for misinformation is not more information or smarter news consumers
Political scientist Samuel Bagg explains why social identity is at the root of the misinformation crisis -- which calls for something deeper than factchecking.
www.volts.wtf
December 19, 2025 at 8:03 PM
great conversation here:
I tell PhD students that one way to hedge against this is to develop a set of idiosyncratic preferences & goals that aren't on the typical academic career path. too many smart first years get incepted into traditional (riskiest!) success criteria; you need to develop the ability to want Other Things
I've been talking about both doctoral study (with academic jobs as the goal) AND tenure for YEARS in terms of RISK MANAGEMENT. It is a very calculated, and increasingly speculative, risk. You have to treat it that way.
Faculty hate it when I do this. Especially about tenure.
Faculty hate it when I do this. Especially about tenure.
I keep telling brilliant students not to get PhDs not because they aren't capable, but because if I show them the job boards for the last couple of years and the graphs, not even the fabled hubris of an undergrad who wants to be a professor can get through. There are no jobs.
December 19, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I tell PhD students that one way to hedge against this is to develop a set of idiosyncratic preferences & goals that aren't on the typical academic career path. too many smart first years get incepted into traditional (riskiest!) success criteria; you need to develop the ability to want Other Things