iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I once more had the pleasure of chatting with Phil Williams, this time, about warning signs and other information parents need to know about nihilistic violent extremism (NVE).

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

www.ducoexperts.com/reports/enga... This paper explores the relationship between the True Crime Community (TCC) and Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE), and why that relationship matters for anyone working in online safety.

Image of a police response outside of Covenant School whose perpetrator was heavily influenced by Columbine who whose legacy is promoted in NVE spaces

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Kristofer Goldsmith @krisgoldsmith85.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

When my editor sent me the proof for the book we’re releasing in September, I assumed the NYT blurb on the back was just filler text. It turns out I was wrong. “A short, blunt, and extremely vigorous blast.” —The New York Times WAR IS A RACKET for preorder: steerforth.com/product/war-...

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

This is one narrative we can do something about.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Part 2 in Phil's investigation of myelistic violent extremism and Solomon Henderson.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Part 2 in Phil's investigation of myelistic violent extremism and Solomon Henderson.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Phil always does a great job with hard topics, and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this story. Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow night

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Boosting this again because I posted during the server difficulties yesterday

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Institute for Countering Digital Extremism @icde.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

The April 20, 1999 Columbine High School attack remains a critical reference point for understanding school shootings and their evolution, including connections to Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).

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Holly McCall @jhollymc.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

"After being held in isolation for about five days. Rodríguez was forced to strip naked in a shower while an officer "poured some kind of chemical liquid on her head, which seemed to be something used to clean floors and burned her eyes,” the filing read."

tennesseelookout.com

Nashville journalist arrested by ICE granted bond, remains detained while feds considers appeal • Tennessee Lookout

Estefany Rodríguez, the Nashville reporter arrested by ICE, was granted a $10,000 bond Monday but remains detained in Louisiana.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

As someone who studies online radicalization, this is 100% what parents must do, unfortunately, though it's not easy. Some of this content is obvious, some of it is substantially more subtle, especially in the early stages, yet radicalizes all the same.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Once upon a time, I worked for a place that helped Roblox with these issues. It is my understanding that they have since abandoned all such support, and not just externally.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I don't think I ever told her this, but one of the most valuable things I came across when working on my book was an almost in passing observation from @mirya.bsky.social talking about how there's research showing how motivation follows action.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I’ve spoken to a few journalists in the last week who have been thrown into reporting on nihilistic violent extremism (NVE). Even for people who have extensive experience covering other kinds of extremism, getting your head around this space can be a real challenge.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Today is my book's second birthday! It's relevant for understanding how militias both function think about themselves, including why many have a disjoint between their complacency about ICE alongside longstanding concerns about govt tyranny. share.google/g5peK0KVaZRM...

share.google

Nostalgia, Nationalism, and the US Militia Movement

NPR's Andrew Limbong talks to Amy Cooter of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies about how realistic an idea of a second civil war is Nostalgia, Nationalism, and the US Militia Movement i...

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

True. And also why @icde.bsky.social doesn't mimic the clout chasing approach of these entities in an effort to be the first to report after a tragedy. We want to make sure we have all the facts to best support our law enforcement and other stakeholders' needs for accurate, actionable information.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

If anyone I'm connected to here is a historian of trans identity and experience and is willing to answer some specifc questions about non-US cultural experiences, I'd very much appreciate a DM!

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

One (very small) piece of added analysis about Bad Bunny's show: There was a niche but loud far-right fantasy that ICE would storm the field during halftime and make very public arrests of him and anyone else performing with him.

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Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

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da da™️ drew @adrew.dadguy.pro · 20/01/2026

friendly neighborhood barred attorney telling you to never put your ID on your phone

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awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

"It's a surprise to people when I don't go at them. But I think if you want to learn about people, if you want to understand where they're coming from, you have to approach it with curiosity and you have to be willing to listen." - @noellecook.com

youtu.be

GLOBAL WARNING: Noelle Cook (Ep 10)

YouTube video by AWKWORD

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

764 and other sadistic extortion networks are everywhere. Parents, school admin, and others *must* start learning the signals that kids are being exploited by these networks.

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Dr Yannick Veilleux-Lepage @yveilleuxlepage.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

On the killing of Renee Nicole Good, I just published a piece in @foreignpolicy.com arguing the Trump administration is weaponizing the narrative of “vehicular terrorism” as a shortcut to justify an unlawful killing: “death squad logic, adapted to American streets” foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/13/v...

foreignpolicy.com

Claims of Vehicular Terrorism in Minnesota Don’t Hold Up

The U.S. government is adopting dangerous language to justify unlawful killing.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

If you haven't read @milleridriss.bsky.social's analysis of how misogyny undergirds so much of our present moment, this Fox op-ed on "deluded wine moms" being a threat to society can be your incentive!

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

According to my sources, the FBI was initially open to a concurrent investigation with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (the state agency that would do this investigation). Trumpy U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen heard about this and intervened, barring the FBI from cooperating with local police.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Lots of folks are struggling right now. Phil has been fighting the good fight for a long time and would appreciate any help people can give.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I didn't watch, but my understanding is this is all I missed

"old man yells" crop of Abe Simpson, who, as an entirely fictional character, is nonetheless more human and relatable than that other guy

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Kids are awesome. One second they'll be talking about seeing a squirrel through the window. The next, they will deadpan, "Humans have so much blood in them."

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I don't want to link to it, but the USA today article sanitizing 3 siblings who work for ICE along with their returned-from-retirement father is a lot. The family that raids together stays together, I guess, but the media continually carrying water for this admin in unforced capitulations is a lot

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Had a blast talking (about terrible things with a shred of optimism!) today with @awkword.bsky.social

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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

🚨Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to “compile a list" of Americans who may be extremists, per signed memo leaked to me: www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leak-fbi-l...

kenklippenstein.com

LEAK: FBI List of “Extremists” Is Coming, Memo Reveals

Are you on Trump's naughty list?

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

So nice to have @noellecook.com's book out in the world! It's a helpful contribution to understanding white women's involvement not just in Jan 6th but also in radicalization more broadly. I was lucky to see this project as it was first coalescing, and I'm excited for other people to see it now, too

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Utterly fascinating and disturbingly hopeful just how much traction the race on my backyard is getting

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awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

“The extreme right... The amount of resources behind them and the amount of power that they hold within the political establishment of their party is absolutely asymmetrical." - @melissaryan.bsky.social

youtu.be

GLOBAL WARNING: Melissa Ryan (Ep 6)

YouTube video by AWKWORD

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Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 21/11/2025

BIG: FBI spied on Signal group chat of immigration activists CourtWatch, classifying them as violent terrorist extremists for quietly sitting in on court cases, as revealed in intel bulletin we obtained & shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal

Exclusive: Agency accessed private conversations of New York ‘courtwatch’ group that was observing public hearings

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Re-upping this today. If you don't know enough to adequately anticipate how bad actors are likely to misuse your work, you're probably not ready to be investigating those questions. If you do know and fail to adequately guard against it, you are not just complicit: you are a collaborator.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

I specifically logged on to share this story, and as usual, @victorerikray.bsky.social already has it summed up perfectly (If you can't read the whole article, try archive, but all you really need is this headline)

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Laurasaurus @laurasaurus.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

I’m howling.

Recently, Clifford "Buzz" Grambo decided to upgrade his electric scooter. The old one he had purchased online only reached 16 mph and wasn't cutting it anymore. He needed to go faster to keep up with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement cars he chases around Baltimore. So, Grambo bought a Segway MAX G3, which features a 2,000-watt motor and can get up to 28 mph.
"The first time I caught up to them, I could tell that they already knew who I was," he told me when we first spoke on the phone in late October. "They had seen me before, so they thought they were just going to speed away. I was like, ha-ha bitches, I got a new scooter!"

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

This is an excellent explainer, and my friend and @icde.bsky.social's executive director, @mattkriner.bsky.social contributed insights for it.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university. You’re working at a state propaganda factory.

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Honestly, it reminds me of how profs I knew at both UM and Vandy would try to brag that they never watched TV (or in one case movies either). If you don't enjoy those things, fine, but if you're performatively opting out of cultural expressions to pretend moral superiority, whom does that serve?

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Not to be too dark, but this has been something that's irked me about discussions of recent extremism: claims that it's happening purely because internet culture rots the brain. We know online technologies are bad for us in a variety of ways, but -

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

It's always nice when a physical book copy hits your hands, especially when your work is alongside so many great scholars' contributions. www.routledge.com/Contemporary... (Given the date, I was tempted to wear my vampire teeth, but that, uh, seemed like a mixed message)

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Amy Cooter, Ph.D. @amycooter.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

One of the first things taught in (good) social science research methods courses is how to frame your data accurately. This isn't just about choosing and understanding the correct method for your data and question, though that is part of it. It's also about correctly presenting data to your readers.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

This and the Chicago indictments make it abundantly clear that the rule of law is dead at DOJ. The agency has been fully weaponized to smite Trump’s enemies and shield his friends.

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