iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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DrLostCauses @acpacek.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Elite cues are a helluva drug. Sadly.

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Democratic Party has let a consulting industry exploit elderly donors in its name, wreck its reputation and finances in the process, and walk away rich whether the party wins or loses. When a mirror is held up, the instinct is to break the glass rather than look. On why the press looks away:

data4democracy.substack.com

The Bulwark Killed an Investigation into Political Fundraising Spam After Its Publisher Took the Consultants’ Side

This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

There are four overlapping scandals here: 1. Fundraising spam tactics are hallmarks of elder financial exploitation 2. The Dem establishment is in on it 3. Most of what is raised goes to fundraising consultants 4. Capitulation to legal threats by NYT and The Bulwark on a fully vetted story 🧵👇

data4democracy.substack.com

Hook and Squeeze

How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The fundraising texts you delete are working on someone. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking. An 85yo in Ohio gave more than double the value of his home. A 91yo in an Indianapolis senior facility gave 25K times. The DCCC/DSCC don’t just tolerate the spammers who exploit seniors. They take part.

data4democracy.substack.com

Hook and Squeeze

How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.

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Alex B. Rivard @alexbrivard.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

New article published at the International Journal of Political Science with @ericmerkley.bsky.social and @stecula.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ijpor/articl...

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Chagai Weiss @chagaiweiss.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🚨Deadline approaching! Send in your applications for the Toronto Political Behavior Workshop by Saturday, July 11.🚨 @dktrdr.bsky.social @ericmerkley.bsky.social @mjdonnelly.bsky.social @sborwein.bsky.social

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Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

A monumental loss. Ran was not only a trailblazing and brilliant scholar; he was also a remarkably generous colleague and, what's more, a dear friend. www.politics.utoronto.ca/news/memoria...

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Jon Green @jongreen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

new WP (w/ @ntd.bsky.social): we use the case of Christian nationalism to make a broader point about "niche ideologies" in mass opinion research, and why you shouldn't scale them the same way you'd scale more general attitudes Link: osf.io/wbdut/files/...

Title: Niche Ideologies in the Mass Public: The Case of
Christian Nationalism
Authors: Jon Green, Nick Davis
Abstract: It is common in survey research to measure political attitudes by inferring latent dimensions along which all respondents can be scored. We argue that this approach is ill-suited for the study of “niche ideologies” that organize the beliefs of concentrated minorities within specific political domains. We support this argument with the case of Christian nationalism, which is theorized as an ideology but typically measured as an attitude. Across two survey samples, we show that response patterns are better explained by a process in which individuals endorse, reject, or are unfamiliar with clusters of beliefs associated with Christian nationalism than by processes in which responses are dimensional. We then demonstrate that measuring Christian
nationalism as an attitude can distort its relationship with theoretically relevant policy preferences. Our results clarify distinctions between attitudes and ideologies and offer suggestions for how to investigate other niche ideologies in mass opinion research.

Figure 1. Distributions of Posterior Probabilities by DGP. Group-based is strongly preferred (higher probabilities for vast majority of respondents) in both BRS and PRRI samples.

Figure 3: Ideological identification by DGP. The Rejecter group is majority liberal across both samples with few conservatives; the Adherent group is majority conservative across both samples with few liberals.

Figure 6: Comparing group- versus dimensional-based estimates of the relationship between Christian nationalism and abortion attitudes (PRRI 2022). All models control for age, education, race, gender, party identification, and ideological identification.

When Christian nationalism is measured as a single dimension factor, it has positive relationships with both support for overturning Roe v. Wade and for more restrictive abortion policy. But when Christian nationalism is measured via a group-based mixture, being in the Adherent (vs. Innocent) group is only positively associated with more restrictive abortion policy, but not with support for overturning Roe v. Wade.

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uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social @uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

How polarized is #Canada? More from @uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social @ericmerkley.bsky.social on his latest book with former provincial cabinet minister John Milloy. centreforpublicethics.substack.com/p/how-polari...

centreforpublicethics.substack.com

How polarized is Canada?

…And Should We Worry?

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Chagai Weiss @chagaiweiss.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

🚨The Toronto Political Behaviour Workshop is back for its 12th edition! Join us on Nov. 13–14, 2026 @UofT! We welcome paper/poster proposals on any topic in political behaviour, broadly defined! 📅 Submission Deadline: July 11. Apply here: utorontops.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Thanks to Jamie Druckman, Richard Johnston, Peter Loewen, and all those who came out to the launch of “Polarization, Eh?” Now available to purchase. It is also freely available on @uoftpress.bsky.social thanks to a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Link 👇

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

📢Book launch for 'Polarization, Eh?' on April 21st in Sid Smith Hall at @uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social. It will feature comments by Jamie Druckman, Richard Johnston and Peter Loewen. Come on out!

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

📢Book launch for 'Polarization, Eh?' on April 21st in Sid Smith Hall at @uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social. It will feature comments by Jamie Druckman, Richard Johnston and Peter Loewen. Come on out!

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Finally coming out this month! Also available to pre-order on Amazon www.amazon.ca/Polarization...

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Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

New w/@scottclifford.bsky.social. Lots of work uses agree-disagree scales, and a lit review shows these are 1) frequently just measured in one direction (agree = higher trait) and 2) correlated with each other. This has potentially big issues for conclusions. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Acquiescence Bias and Criterion Validity: Problems and Potential Solutions for Agree-Disagree Scales - Political Behavior

Political Behavior - Scholars frequently measure dispositions like populism, conspiracism, racism, and sexism by asking survey respondents whether they agree or disagree with statements...

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The Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy @lispop.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

In November, LISPOP hosted @ericmerkley.bsky.social to present research from his forthcoming book, "Polarization, Eh? The Causes and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Canada". We have since compiled a policy brief that outlines the major themes from the event! scholars.wlu.ca/lispop/7/

scholars.wlu.ca

Policy Brief: Affective Polarization in Canada

On November 6, 2025, The Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy (LISPOP) hosted Dr. Eric Merkley (University of Toronto) to present the research from his forthcoming book Polariz...

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Wow, talk about unprecedented. The Fed Chairman makes official statement that the President is using criminal charges to threaten him over monetary policy.

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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life. apply.interfolio.com/178796

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Top of 9. One run lead. Unreal

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Chagai Weiss @chagaiweiss.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

🚨Registration is open for the TPBW🚨 Join us on Nov. 7-8 to discuss exciting political behavior/behaviour research. We have an awesome list of presentations and posters from all around the 🌏🌍🌎 Program: www.rubenson.org/events Registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Registration

Registration is now open for the 2025 Toronto Political Behaviour Workshop, taking place November 7 & 8 at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy The deadline to ...

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Daniel Rubenson @dktrdr.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

🚨The Toronto Political Behaviour Workshop🚨 Back for the 11th time with another great line up. Join us Nov 7-8. Details 👇🏼

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

He's right, and it's not just Brazil. Around the world, at least 31 democratic leaders who committed similar crimes have been jailed or banned from office since 2010. The failure to hold Trump accountable in the US was a unique and systemic failure of our institutions and political culture.

open.substack.com

An Exceptional Failure of Democratic Accountability: How American Institutions Protected Power While Global Democracies Upheld Justice

How Elite Deference Eroded America's Rule of Law, Defying the Global Norm.

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Melissa Baker @melissabaker.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

New paper with @ericmerkley.bsky.social! Relationship between personality & precautionary pandemic behavior is mostly stable as pandemic circumstances change but relationship between personality & gov policy support/risk perception weaken as circumstances improve. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Big-5 personality traits and their dynamic and conditional effects on COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors | Politics and the Life Sciences | Cambridge Core

Big-5 personality traits and their dynamic and conditional effects on COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

PEARL @pearl-uoft.bsky.social is now on BlueSky. Give us a follow! bsky.app/profile/pear...

bsky.app

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Chagai Weiss @chagaiweiss.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

🚨 The Toronto Political Behavior Workshop is back for its 11th edition! 📍Nov 7–8/25 @uoft.bsky.social @uoft.bsky.social #Munk Apply to present a paper/poster by July 11: nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... @dktrdr.bsky.social @ericmerkley.bsky.social @sborwein.bsky.social @mjdonnelly.bsky.social

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William Adler @williamadler78.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

"The American regime today arrested a member of the legislative opposition, after declaring it would 'liberate' that senator's province from opposition control using the armed forces"

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

PIZZABALLA ROLLED BY CHICAGO DEEP-DISH CARDINAL

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

A display of force designed to send a chill through the judiciary. We are heading into very dangerous waters.

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Association for Politics and the Life Sciences @asnpls.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

MPSA attendees! Join us this Friday for a great panel + wine and snacks! If you’re interested in joining APLS, please sign up for the newsletter here: aplsnet.org

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

If you are visiting the United States, having a negative view of Trump is enough to get you denied entry. If this was coming out of Russia or China, we would deplore such an authoritarian attack on freedom of expression.

"I learned with concern that a French researcher" on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) "who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled ," said the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste, in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher's phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy ," he added

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

New article forthcoming in @CJPS_RCSP "Evaluating the Partisan Media Echo Chamber Hypothesis in Canada." Here I measure the prevalence, and test the correlates of domestic/US partisan news exposure in Canada using data that tracks online behaviour 🧵👇1/ osf.io/preprints/os...

osf.io

OSF

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

UofT facilities worker: "I have to apologize, I saw you walking down the hall and thought to myself 'why is J.D. Vance at UofT?'" To whom do I report this grievous assault? 😑

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Trump isn't simply misinformed. He's a Russian asset. Treat him as such. The gravity of the betrayal currently unfolding against Ukraine by the U.S. is both predictable and staggering. Along with *waves hands at everything* I don't know how any country trusts the U.S. ever again

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Eric Merkley @ericmerkley.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

American democracy is crumbling, and the Times is here horserace'ing Canada's conquest. Incredible stuff. But also: 1) there would be war, 2) we will never accept U.S. institutions, and 3) U.S. democracy would be long gone if this ever happened. So no, Dems don't benefit. Get it together NYT

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