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Catherine Baker

@cat-baker.bsky.social
176 followers 185 following 1 posts

IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow @ResearchIreland @DCU. Fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Researching misogyny, the manosphere, gender disinfo & digital media

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Catherine Baker @cat-baker.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
My first solo-author article, Is the Far-Right Anti-Science?, is now published in Social Epistemology. It explores the far-right’s epistemic struggle to claim scientific authority, attacking and co-opting science to legitimise white supremacy & misogyny—an issue academia must increasingly attend to
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Patrik Hermansson @patrikhermansson.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
For more details on Aporia and its place the race science network around the Pioneer Fund read our investigation for @hopenothate.org.uk last year: investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/race-science...
investigations.hopenothate.org.uk
Race Science Inc. | HOPE not hate
Undercover in The Human Diversity Foundation, the million-dollar race science company
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Patrik Hermansson @patrikhermansson.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Aporia's status as a race science outlets is well established by now. By lending his Harvard credentials to it, Pinker contributes to widening its audience.
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Anthony Kelly @anthonypkelly.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
@cat-baker.bsky.social’s paper examined how science and academia are simultaneously attacked and co-opted in reactionary and far-right rhetoric. She situated assertions of “basic biology” in terms of a broader cultural milieu that reifies biological-essentialist narratives of gender and race.
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Anthony Kelly @anthonypkelly.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Scheduled speakers include: @cat-baker.bsky.social, @joncollins.bsky.social, Eileen Culloty, @simoned.bsky.social, @profafinlayson.bsky.social, Marina Frid, @debbieging.bsky.social, @craighaslop.bsky.social, @kat-hig.bsky.social… (+ even more in the next post)
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Anthony Kelly @anthonypkelly.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Hi folks! I’m very excited to announce details of a one-day international symposium I’m hosting on Thursday 29 May 2025 (09:00–17:30) at @ucddublin.bsky.social. You can find more information on @ucdischool.bsky.social’s website: www.ucd.ie/ics/events/r... 🧵
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Reactionary Politics Research Network @reacpolrn.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
📢Webinar announcement📢 Our ethics of researching the far right webinar with @crexuio.bsky.social and CASEI returns on Thursday 17th April with a session on activism, knowledge production and dissemination in the study of reactionary politics. Sign up below! reacpol.net/webinar-7/
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Maja Brandt Andreasen @majabandreasen.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Article on the manosphere in the New York Times in relation to #Adolescence features great coverage of our report on recommender algorithms and manfluencers (with @debbieging.bsky.social and @cat-baker.bsky.social): www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | We Underestimate the Manosphere at Our Peril
We underestimate the manosphere at our peril.
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Jilly Boyce Kay @jillybkay.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
New short article with Sarah Banet-Weiser, about the digital mirror-world, and how it is populated by strange doppelgangers of feminism 'Through the looking glass: feminism and reactionary politics in the digital hall of mirrors' journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 27/01/2025
"As with the resurgence of the far-right, the rise of tech oligarchs is the result of a long series of mainstream failures" A few thoughts on reactionary tech oligarchy by @jfarkas.bsky.social and I for @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/01/26/t...
Reactionary Tech is Reactionary Politics

The alliance between tech billionaires and far-right authoritarians should be a cause for grave democratic concern. Crucially, it being on full display since Trump’s inauguration should be a wakeup call for journalists, politicians, and scholars who have gone along with the portrayal of tech CEOs as mere ‘innovators’ and ‘entrepreneurs’ whose aims and actions are beyond or outside politics.

As with the resurgence of the far-right, the rise of tech oligarchs is the result of a long series of mainstream failures: from sycophantic media coverage of the endless stream of unfulfilled promises to tax policies (or a lack thereof) that have allowed tech CEOs to become so rich they can literally spend hundreds of millions influencing politics domestically and abroad. From antitrust policies (or a lack thereof) that have allowed tech giants to obtain near-monopoly status to media policies that for too long have ignored the internet and failed to fund public service alternatives to the tech giants that now threaten democracy. 

The liberal rhetoric of saving democracy through fact-checking and media literacy was always a pipe dream. No amount of literacy training can counter the resurgence of oligarchic and authoritarian rule.
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Jo(sephine) Lukito @jolukito.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
🚨New Publication in New Media & Society🚨 Co-First-Authored w/ @m-dot-brown.bsky.social @meredithpruden.bsky.social & @markriedl.bsky.social Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a feminist ethics of care. jlukito.com/s/brown-et-a...
Cover for Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a
feminist ethics of care
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Sophie Lewis @reproutopia.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
In this @rachaelhealy.bsky.social piece, @jillybkay.bsky.social: “Liberal feminism has been rejected for good reason .. it makes sense you’d want to find an alternative. But just because something is the enemy of liberal feminism does not mean it’s good for women” www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
theguardian.com
Welcome to the femosphere, the latest dark, toxic corner of the internet… for women
‘Femcel’ influencers urge their followers to give up on gender equality and use men for financial gain – in the name of feminism
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Andrew Chadwick @andrewchadwick.com · 10/12/2024
A thoughtful and extremely useful guide. It follows this equally excellent public report from April: "Recommending Toxicity: The role of algorithmic recommender functions on YouTube Shorts and TikTok in promoting male supremacist influencers" antibullyingcentre.ie/wp-content/u...
Recommending Toxicity: The role of algorithmic recommender functions on YouTube Shorts and TikTok in promoting male supremacist influencers
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