Lmst

The science barometer 2025 is now available! The science barometer 2025 focuses on the topic of polarisation and the role that science can play in a society that is perceived as polarised.

‘We don't talk enough about what we have in common when conflicts arise’, says our managing director Benedikt Fecher.

All results and a background paper on polarisation can be found on our website:
https://wissenschaft-im-dialog.de/ressourcen/#science-barometer15

#SciComm #Science #Research #Trust #Polarisation

New from me: I participated in a roundtable for the #CORIT project at the University of Urbino, led by the great @gba, a few weeks ago, and offered some thoughts about #polarisation and its configurations. I've now published that opening statement on my blog, too:

https://snurb.info/node/3533

Polarisation, polarization. #Polarisation, #polarization.
A professor has abandoned his privileged job at Yale University, left the United States and moved himself and his family to Canada. His take: If you think “the country is simply polarized”, you're getting it completely wrong. This is not about two sides that disagree. There is the embrace of authoritarianism on one side, and others being told “you gotta calm down”.

This comes from a youtube short and this is most of the transcript:

Jason Stanley is one of the world’s leading experts on fascism. He wrote the book “How fascism works”. And he has left the United States because of Donald Trump.

Stanley was a professor at Yale University. Tenured, prestigious… kind of as protected as it gets in American academia. And even he decided it wasn't safe or honest to stay.
And so he has moved his family to Canada, and is now teaching at the University of Toronto. Why? Because in his words, the Trump administration has carried out a coup […]

Stanley says the Trump regime believes it has enough control over the levers of power that it doesn’t need public support anymore. That is a chilling sentence. And according to Stanley, universities are being targeted first, funding threats and political pressure and demands for compliance. And he believed that if he stayed at Yale, the institution would feel pressure to tone him down […] , that the message would have been very clear: “do not do anything to provoke retaliation from Donald Trump, don't bring heat, normalize what is happening”, and he refused, and so he left. And from outside the Country, he is now saying what many institutions in the United States are too afraid to say, which is that Trump is using classic fascist tactics: a cult of the leader, scapegoating immigrants, LGBTQ people, political opponents, they all get scapegoated, delegitimizing your opposition, criminalizing protests, turning law enforcement and the military inward.

Stanley says that when people frame this as “Oh, the country is simply polarized”, that they're getting it completely wrong. He says this is not about two sides that disagree. There is the embrace of authoritarianism on one side, and others being told: “you gotta calm down”. He makes the point very bluntly: “History will not remember this as polarization”. History, if you look at other examples, remembers who normalized fascism while it was happening. And the part that really should land is that he doesn't believe the fight is over. He thinks Trump may have moved too fast, that the cruelty and the corruption and the illegality are becoming obvious to too many Americans, because he moved too quickly. And he is really making me think, you know, when a global scholar of fascism looks at the US under Trump and says, I must leave the country and doesn't just say: “Oh, I might move to Canada”. He did it. He moved to Canada. That is not something that Americans should be shrugging off.

Seen on https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p3n22ZvFpe0

🧵5/7: ...#Home. As far as I am aware, nobody is expecting me to open my door to #nazis, genocidal #zionists, #antivaxxers, nor invite #obscurantism champions for dinner to ensure they can share "their side of the story". So why should I invite them in the palm of my hand in every room in my home?
The reason why #polarisation has exploded isn't because we don't engage on #socialmedia, it's BECAUSE we engage with #algorithms that favour conflict ("it bleeds, it leads" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01538-4)

For those who see promoting mistrust & polarisation as serving their political or commercial interests, any process that seeks to understand & address the causes of domestic terrorism is seized as an opportunity to do further damage.

How do we counter this?

Maybe recognising cynical misrepresentation when we see it is a start.

#polarisation #mistrust #profit #colonialism #exploitation #PeopleAreNotOurEnemy

https://theconversation.com/the-antisemitism-debate-is-already-a-political-minefield-the-royal-commission-must-rise-above-it-273018?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2012%202026%20-%203639437167&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2012%202026%20-%203639437167+CID_02aded219c93f5a022173898d1759dcf&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=The%20antisemitism%20debate%20is%20already%20a%20political%20minefield%20The%20royal%20commission%20must%20rise%20above%20it

Sindh keeps democratic values alive amid polarisation

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://dailytimes.com.pk/1432628/sindh-keeps-democratic-values-alive-amid-polarisation/

"The effects [of economic shocks] may also vary significantly across males and females, as they differ in terms of career and life choices, the timing [and impacts of] such choices." (But you can't research that in the USA since 2025 TrumpB.) #polarisation 2/2

✨Sparkable 🗳️MyPolis✊Build Up ^

🇵🇹 wonderful to welcome Vardon Hamdiu of to LIsbon for the latest Tech+Democracy MeetUp

💎 tremendous energy and commitment to build and advocate for tech that #strengthens and #protects our communities and democracy, not one that drives #polarisation and #inequality

I do think the staggering failures of governance that have allowed #inequality and with it #polarisation to return to then exceed pre WWI era levels, and also are failing to reel in the climate crisis, quite reasonably have nihilistic consequences. People need to see something worth investing in.

“Repeated exposure to posts expressing antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity ‘significantly influences’ users’ feelings of polarisation and boosts sadness and anger” study published in Science finds.
Also: “while there was a slight reduction in overall engagement in terms of time spent on the platform and numbers of posts viewed when divisive content was down-ranked, those users tended to ‘like’ or repost more often.”

#SocialMedia #polarisation #algorithms

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/27/partisan-x-posts-increase-political-polarisation-among-users-social-media-research

@phanecak incidentally, that scale of #inequality is concomitant with #polarisation #polarization

Some good advice here.

Big TLDR for me: Getting the big feels about something I’m reading / hearing? Stop & breathe.

#Misinformation #Polarisation #algorithm #CultivatingMistrust #StopAndBreathe #CultivateKindness #PeopleAreNotOurEnemy

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/nov/15/dont-argue-with-strangers-and-11-more-rules-to-survive-the-information-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Watching a governance school try to self govern has really impressed on me that the two things I most need to communicate when called on to talk about (A)I are quorum sensing and heuristics. Well, and also the limits of computation but I already do that, but those limits are what force us to use quorum sensing to switch between heuristics.

#AIEthics, plus explains #polarisation #polarization among other things

Teaching on economic crises builds immunity to populism.

By learning how societies navigated past downturns, students build empathy, critical thinking and resistance to simplistic blame games that fuel the far right and populism — according to a Council of Europe body.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20251026-teaching-on-economic-crises-builds-immunity-to-populism?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#Education #Politics #History #Research #Downturns #Polarisation #RisingInequality #Populism #CouncilOfEurope #ObservatoryOnHistoryTeachingInEurope

Corrected version by @nonviolence.bsky.social (I like the cartoon it even better) #sentientism #antispeciesism #nonviolence #understanding #science #polarisation #right #farright

#America
#usa
#MAGA
#trump
#polarisation
#woke

J'en ai plin, plain, (voyons cristi) plein le trou d'entendre les tas désunis.....
Je me polarise!
Bon!!! Je me suis polarisé alors ne me faites pas scier....
Oui! Je me suis collé la langue sur une batterie 9 volts.
Bzzzt!

Chus Québécois, laïc pis fière en maudit!
Pis j'porte ma quiche à gauche alors on me dit gauchiste LOL!

#Québécois #Laïc #Fière #Bzzzt #Gauchiste #Francis Sans flafla #Polarisation #9 Volts #Pas de chicane dans cabane pas de cochon dans mon salon #Direct pis crue

“Trump is a defecating fly on a camel’s back,” #Palestinian artist Samia #Halaby on being banned, exiled – and now celebrated

At 88, she has won a #Munch award for #artistic #freedom – despite her pioneering work being #cancelled by the #US #university she studied at.

She talks #protest, #polarisation and #propaganda

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/sep/16/palestinian-artist-samia-halaby-on-being-cancelled-by-her-own-us-alma-mater-munch-award-artistic-freedom-7-october-attacks

#art #FarRight #FreeSpeech #trump #fascism #dictatorship #dictators #DictatorTrump #QuestionAuthority #US #ComradeKrasnov

Plusieurs personnes ont perdu leur emploi après un simple message sur les réseaux sociaux.#extrêmedroite #polarisation #CharlieKirk
Des Américains sanctionnés pour avoir critiqué Charlie Kirk après sa mort

🕸glané sur le net🕸 Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump et le « terrorisme intérieur »: Après l'assassinat de Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump alimente une rhétorique victimaire qui accentue la polarisation américaine et sert son… #CharlieKirk #DonaldTrump #TerrorismeIntérieur #Polarisation #PolitiqueAmericane

Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump et ...

#Polarisation

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