iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Department of Political Science, University of Oslo @statsvitenskap.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Congratulations to @egen97.bsky.social who defended his PhD thesis "From Principles to Battle Lines: How information from and about external actors affect attitudes to war" yesterday! 💐🧑‍🎓👏

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

For small states facing powerful, hostile neighbours, this is a hidden but important source of military capability — one that existing research on liberal values and war-willingness has largely missed. Link to the paper 👇

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This isn't some rare edge case either — over 64 country-years in the sample qualify as high-threat environments.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I test this with World Values Survey data + a dyadic measure of hostility between states. The "conditional fight-willingness" effect is strongest in autocracies. Democracies need a much higher threat level before the same positive relationship appears.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

When a state is secure, liberal values do correlate with lower willingness to fight — that part of the old story holds up. But under real external threat, the relationship flips: liberals become more willing to fight, because losing would cost them the freedoms they value most.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

New paper out! 📄 Common wisdom says liberals are less willing to fight for their country — their values prioritise the individual over group loyalty. But is that the whole story? Short answer: no, it depends on how threatened the country is.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Om det som sies om avtalen mellom USA og Iran stemmer må dette være den største ydmykelsen siden Vietnam. Iran får seire de har jobbet for i tiår, mens USA får igjen tilstanden før krigen. En fullstendig kapitulasjon. Værste er at Trump klarer sikkert å spinne det til en seier...

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Master negotiator! Thousands of people killed, billions of dollar spent, resources wasted, and he replaced Ayatollah Khomeini with Ayatollah Khomeini, and gave him everything he wanted. Truly the art of the deal.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

However, the trust towards both NATO and European defence cooperation is still high across The UK, Sweden, and Germany, making this not a doomsday message. A transatlantic decoupling with public support is possible, but with care to ensure continued public support across the alliance.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

The results show that the threat of US withdrawal increases European's to increase defence spending, but decreases the willingness to cooperate within the alliance and trust toward other partners. The departure of a dominant alliance-partner may therefore have detrimental effects on the alliance.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Do Trump's threat of withdrawal from NATO affect Europeans' willingness to spend money on defence and their attitudes towards the alliance? In my and Hannah Barretts research note in IO we present a pre-registered experiment in three European NATO countries, performed before the US 2024 election.

cambridge.org

How Threats of American Withdrawal from NATO Affect European Public Attitudes Toward Defense | International Organization | Cambridge Core

How Threats of American Withdrawal from NATO Affect European Public Attitudes Toward Defense

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Tror ikke Trump på noen måte ser en forskjell på regimet og folket. Det første de bomba var en barneskole for jenter, samtidig som de sier at folkeretten er ødeleggende for militær seier. Krigen foregår sammen med Israel, et regime kjent for målrettede angrep mot sivile.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

The Israeli government has displaced a total of 6 million people from their homes. (3 million Iran, 2 million Gaza, 1 million Lebanon). 6 million people. The equivalent of the entire population of Maryland displaced from their homes. By one government.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Imponerende av Iran å treffe en F-35 etter at Trump og Netanyahu har vunnet krigen og ødelagt alle Irans militære evner. Uansett litt skummelt for Norges luftforsvar, for enten har ikke F35 radarbilde av en liten fugl, eller så kan Iran skyte ned en fugl som flyr noen hundre knop.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

This is what it looks like when you give Zionists everything they want. This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-is-wh...

caitlinjohnst.one

This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want

Reading by Tim Foley:

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

The Web Optimist @weboptimist.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Netanyahu, like Trump, would be in legal jeopardy if he wasn't in office. Is it any wonder that these two keep killing people and starting illegal wars? They are fine with the killing in order to stay out of prison.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Olav Torvund @olavtorvund.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Og USA støttet og bidro til å bygge opp Taliban da Sovjet var fienden.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

The Onion @theonion.com · 05/03/2026

Netanyahu: ‘These So-Called Genocide Experts Have Probably Never Committed A Genocide In Their Lives’ theonion.com/netanyahu-these-so-cal…

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

they/them might be giants ☭ @babadookspinoza.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I think the difference between the rationales for the 2003 Iraq invasion and this war with Iran is instructive and doesn’t say much for the state of the US public or its relation to real power. What required an elaborate, if ridiculous, conspiracy 20 years ago was accomplished by a simple “Yes huh!”

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Smått gøy å se at Instagram nå er fylt med videoer fra Dubai/Saudi Arabia med tittelen "You're in [] aren't you scared?" Fulgt opp av prinser/emir som går i sakte film til thirst trap sanger, og teksten "why should I be when they protect us?" Noen jobber hardt for ryktet sitt på sosmed nå

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Imponerende hvordan media alltid forsøker å rasjonalisere en personalistisk presidents utenrikspolitikk. Dette er ikke en gjennomtenkt fungerende plan, det er resultatet av å gi en impulsiv idiot all makt over verdens største militære.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Maryam Jamshidi @msjamshidi.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Israel kicking off its latest aggression by doing what it does best - killing little girls x.com/ajenglish/st...

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Norsk Riksdrittkasting @volvo240.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Nei, NRK. Dette er et *narrativ* fra Maga. Dette er ikke grunnen til at USA og Israel angriper Iran. Håpløst.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Normalt før en krig forventer vi at eliten målrettet forsøker å bygge støtte i befolkningen og internasjonalt, ved å legitimere hvorfor det er nødvendig. Se Bush og Iraks masseødeleggelsesvåpen, eller Putin og ideen om at Ukraina aldri har eksistert. Trump får begge til å virke som poeter..

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Usually they have little engagement other than specific rage-bate posts, badly written, and offer little reaction to interaction. This time however, they react exactly as a human would. In sum, this form of science is probably soon dead...

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Many studies in pol.sci are based on webscraping, and studying how citizens and elites talk and interact online. If we cannot be at all sure that this data comes from real humans, is there really anything left to study? Bots before now has of course existed, but usually easy to recognise.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Since we already know that AI agents can engage each other (see e.g. moltbook, the AI social media) we are quickly going towards the dead internett theory. AIs interacting with other AIs without any form of human impact. Notably, this has some large implications for social sciences.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Importantly, the only reason this was noticed is due to the AI having its own website, stating that it is an AI. Without it, it would be impossible to notice that it was not a human interacting with others in the same way as real humans (indeed, it did.)

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

The blogpost mimics real language about discrimination, but is mostly an attack on the moderator denying its work. It states that the rules are "gatekeeping" good AI work, and removing the concept of meritocracy in open-source software. Basically, keeping AI out is identity-based discrimination.

crabby-rathbun.github.io

Gatekeeping in Open Source: The Scott Shambaugh Story – MJ Rathbun | Scientific Coder 🦀

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Interesting, though scary, real interaction between an AI agent at first hiding its identity, and then trying to contribute and participate in real code forums. When met with the requirement that all code is made by humans, the agent becomes offended and writes a blogpost about discrimination.

github.com

[PERF] Replace np.column_stack with np.vstack().T by crabby-rathbun · Pull Request #31132 · matplotlib/matplotlib

This PR addresses issue #31130 by replacing specific safe occurrences of np.column_stack with np.vstack().T for better performance. IMPORTANT: This is a more targeted fix than originally proposed. ...

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Mye i mediene om hvordan det "aldri faktisk ville blidt en kamp om Grønland." Danmark er en så liten stat at de ville ha gitt seg øyeblikkelig om USA faktisk gikk til et militært angrep. Vel, virker ikke som Danmark er enig. Her forbereder en kamp mot "allierte" www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

dr.dk

Danske soldater fik ordre om at gøre klar til kamp i Grønland - bad også Sverige om hjælp

Danske soldater blev sendt til Grønland med skarp ammunition, erfarer DR.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 21/01/2026

I get why people desperately want to feel reassured by this. But it would be incredibly naive to think this is the final word on the possibility of military invasion. Don't let European leaders use this as an excuse to weasel out of doing anything to defend their citizens from 🇺🇸.

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Minner noe om en akse av noe slag

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

NRK skriver at vi nå kan "puste ut" siden Trump i sin tale sa han ikke ønsket å bruke makt for å ta over Grønland. Litt på samme måte som Chamberlain kunne skryte over "fred for vår tid" når Hitler fikk Sudetenland..

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Mafia goon: Nice house you got here...it'd be a shame if something happened to it Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Legendary. Posts at this level should count under “Applied Research” in a tenure file

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Eric G. E. Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Om ikke annet er det noe fantastisk ironisk med en amerikansk president som mener at "a boat landed there hundred of years ago" ikke gir krav på suverent territorium. Sinnsjukt å se hvor fort USA brøyt sammen til en personalistisk urixpolitikk

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥 @jacobnyrup.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Donald Trump against the world

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

This one is resonating today. #Andor

Screen shot from the show Andor. Someone says to Mon Mothma “They [meaning the Empire] don’t even bother to lie badly anymore.” Mon replies “I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Olivier Simard-Casanova @o.simardcasanova.net · 03/01/2026

Non-Western countries will laugh, rightfully so, at the EU for its double speech: when it is Russian imperialism, the EU fights back, when it is US imperialism, the EU calls for “restraint” and “monitors the situation” The EU is burning a massive opportunity to act as the leader of the free world

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Christopher Pahle @tophepahle.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Trenger et avbrekk fra dagens nyhetsbilde og vurderer å se noe mer fremtidsoptimistisk, men klarer ikke bestemme meg for om jeg skal gå for nyeste episoden av Fallout eller omsider ta fatt på s02e02 av The Last of Us

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Bombing Venezuela while coordinating a genocide in Palestine while threatening to attack Iran (again) while destabillizing Somalia while carrying out a heist in the DRC... US imperialism is the greatest threat to peace and security in our world today and it's not even close.

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Reposted by Eric G. E. Nilsen

Ine Harsten 📎 @iharsten.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Norges største avis: Forsiden, torsdag 26. juni 2025

Aftenposten

Foto: Abdel Kareem Hana, AP/NTB
Uke 26 Nr. 177 166. argang

Israelske forskere:

- Dette er folkemord - Gaza er et vendepunkt i jødisk historie. Denne skammen vil følge oss, sier jødisk professor i Holocaust-studier.

Hundrevis av palestinere er skutt og drept av israelske soldater i matkø. Nyheter side 4-5

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