Sign in

Eelco van der Maat

@evandermaat.bsky.social
589 followers 299 following 76 posts

Tenured scholar of genocide, authoritarian politics, and elite rivalry at Leiden University. Argue that mass killing is driven by elite rivalry in authoritarian regimes. Dad to two terrible little dictators. Husband and co-conspirator.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
to be clear, the admin is alleged to have deported AT LEAST 25,447 individuals TO COUNTRIES THAT ARE NOT THEIR OWN with, evidently, ZERO PROTECTIONS. this is a scandal and crime of historic proportions.
forbiddenstories.org
The Deportation Project Map
Between 2025 and August 2026, the Trump administration deported over 25,000 people to countries other than their country of origin. Very few of these removals were publicly announced by the US. The De...
3822421171
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 22/09/2026
Trump's third-country removal scheme may be suspended, but the cruelty of ICE flights continues. This is yesterday, Monday, Sept. 21. --72+ flights, nearly every adult onboard shackled --12 removal flights --A removal flight headed to Myanmar
An ADSBx map of the lower continental US plus Mexico and Central America down to Nicaragua. There are dozens of flight lines across the map, mostly converging on Alexandria, Louisiana.
4477234
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Nadia Bouras @nadiabouras.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Mijn persoonlijkste column tot nu toe 👇
53589135
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Elon Musk, owner of X, has called the editor of the Economist "a traitor to the West, plain and simple" after her recent interview with him. He now argues that "anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor" Musk has been socialising violence since Aug25: "fight or die, that's what it comes down to"
30039301293
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Inability to adjust pedagogy against the interests of trillion-dollar corporations, the indifference of key decisionmakers, the hostility of many policymakers, and a fiendishly clever artificial intelligence? Skill issue
922539
Eelco van der Maat @evandermaat.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
The United States of America is an awesome place. When my wife and I where living in the US, we didn't own a car. So we would each rent a car, go to a drive through, very conveniently eat in our seperate cars, while having a dinner conversation over the phone. It's an amazing country.
110
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Lotfi El Hamidi @lotfielhamidi.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Jezus, hoe Haagse agenten tekeer gaan tegen kinderen die hun handen al in de lucht hebben of tegen de muur staan. En maar blijven knuppelen.
2617138
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Lotfi El Hamidi @lotfielhamidi.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
234624
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"
468320966926
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Steve Saideman @smsaideman.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
#civmilsky: I had an RA come up with a list of the Trump Admin's violations of American norms of civil-military relations. I'd like to get feedback on it and have it serve as a public good. Especially handy when folks say this is not so bad docs.google.com/spreadsheets... 1/
Bart Simpson: This is the worst day in US civil-miltiary relations.

Homer: worst day so far
2112535
Eelco van der Maat @evandermaat.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
‘No way to detect this.’ Say doctors treating women’s symptoms as anxiety.
000
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Seva @seva.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
an autocrat successfully fragmenting his coercive apparatus to deter coups: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! same autocrat realizing a fragmented coercive apparatus cannot wage war and will instead eat itself: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.
311921
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Props to the WSJ, they managed to pack almost every Trump decision-making pathology into a single story. It’s all here: 1) Short attention span 2) Impulsive behavior 3) Knowledge deficits 4) Gambling for resurrection 5) Belief in the madman theory www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
wsj.com
Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears
The president’s impulsive style has never been tested in a sustained military conflict, and he’s been ruminating on Jimmy Carter’s failure in Iran.
23442171
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Palantir put out the most cartoonishly evil statement possible. They’re so arrogant and self-confident they don’t seem to believe their fascistic plans can be opposed. We must get rid of Palantir altogether. twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...
twitter-thread.com
Because we get asked a lot. by @PalantirTech(Palantir) | Twitter Thread Reader
Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affir...
19074652012
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
as @marietjeschaake.bsky.social has been arguing for a long time, the European answer can only be a European techno-infrastructure. However, that must be publicly owned and democratically accountable! Europe cannot simply build its own technofascist counterforce!
011531
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Daniël Boomsma @danielboomsma.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
“Waarom zo persoonlijk?” Daarom zo persoonlijk. Mooi stuk van @lotfielhamidi.bsky.social. www.groene.nl/artikel/voor...
groene.nl
‘Ik schijn een ‘fanatieke activist’ te zijn, vanwege mijn kritiek op Israël en de verrechtsing in Nederland’
Bij debatten over ‘remigratie’ moet ik als journalist maar niet veronderstellen dat het over migranten als mijn ouders gaat?
02714
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
There's no greater sign of the iron grip that "both sides" framing has on American journalists than the repeated descriptions of the unhinged tantrum Trump is throwing over the pope's anodyne statements on Catholic doctrine as a "feud" or a "fight" or anything else that implies they're both to blame
593692757
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
whomst among us hasn't looked at a pope and thought, hmpf, weak on nuclear weapons
17887104
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 11/04/2026
A primer on Hungary’s electoral system. Hungary has a mixed-member pseudo proportional electoral system. 106 elected in first past the post constituencies 93 by proportional representation in closed lists 1/
517796
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Kori Schake @kschake.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I love @jdryan08.bsky.social's description of it as the Heroditus Trap
37615
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
This is not the rhetoric I expect from a FIFA Peace Prize winner
321341
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Don't think I've ever been as terrified in all the Trump security crises. As @pkrugman.bsky.social said, "It’s the most astonishing, awful thing that I’ve ever seen, and we’ve all seen a lot of awful things." Mainly as cope, and to teach it, I keep asking why. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
open.substack.com
Living in Hell
War crimes coming: A horrifying update
271097402
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Tisiphone @tisiphone.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Rabbit meat in a butcher shop with a sign that reads "Watership Down - You've seen the film, read the book...Now eat the cast!!"
07416
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
I used to write the WaPo editorials on US-Africa policy, as well on as human rights and politics on the continent. To describe hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent as “messy” is an absolute abomination.
10187222343
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 02/04/2026
"The real threat is a slow, comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Not a dramatic collapse. Not Skynet. Just a generation of researchers who can produce results but can't produce understanding."
312027636
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 01/04/2026
Wow, guys, I used Attie to code that edit button that Bluesky has been denying us all this time! You can test it out here: edit-button-production.up.railway.app/jcsalterego....
the new bluesky edit button that i made
8559694
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
I think often of a New York Times photo of a little Iraqi girl tending to her parakeets in a bombed house, probably from 20 years ago now. I will think of this man and his sweet dog often now too. People just want to love what they love, care for their little beings, and instead we do this to them
5180282143
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Jim Teeth @drjamesjteeth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
This is an excellent summary of the US War on Iran current situation. I’m an existentialist and borderline absurdist and even I struggle with the current moment. This summary is just fantastic.
no01.substack.com
March, 19-21: God is a comedian
A stiff drink is recommended
8731841410
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
This bridge is a primary civilian artery linking southern Lebanon—a main agricultural region—with the rest of the country. Its destruction isolates southern communities and cuts off the flow of goods to the north. Israel plans to annex the southern territory under the auspices of a “buffer zone.”
11226150
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Moscow's had a pretty good week, thanks largely to Trump's Iran misadventure. Oil prices are booming, sanctions are suspended, Iran is hewing even closer to Russia, the US is even more diplomatically isolated from Europe, and now Russian intel + tech are throwing sand in the gears of US war effort
59345
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Oh hi, just a political scientist who studies war, and yes, putting Marines on Kharg Island would, in fact, be "boots on the ground in a combat situation." Thanks for coming to another of my TED talks.
1525141
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Shower Cat @shower-cat.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I’m sorry, you are right. I should have included the possibility of Iran mining the Strait of Hormuz in the war plan. It is a critical shipping channel that Iran can block and cripple the world economy. I failed to take that into account. That’s on me.
216230
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Prof Melanie O'Brien @drmelob.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
IIFFM #Sudan found 'hallmarks of #genocide' in the attacks on El-Fasher. BUT this is in the context of almost 3 yrs of such violent, ethnically/racially targeted crimes, where non-Arab communities are targeted for rape & killings. A resurgence of the early 2000s genocide. news.un.org/en/story/202...
news.un.org
Sudan: ‘Hallmarks of genocide’ found in El Fasher, UN investigators detail mass killings and ethnic targeting
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances during their late-October takeover of El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region...
0157
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
You know how American intelligence was pretty excited to do to the USSR in Afghanistan what Soviet intelligence did to the US in Vietnam?
36481122
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
OsoPeligroso @oso-peligroso.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
These are all answers given by trump and his various sycophants in the last five days to the question, "why are we doing this?"
6323101
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 03/03/2026
So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for: - Who takes over; - Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation; - How to defend US bases in the region; - Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and - How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.
601111563460
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946. In 2007, the US president was born in 1946. In 2017, the US president was born in 1946. And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.
195107103232
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
How are those security guarantees looking to, well, everyone?
28221
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
There are at least 10,000 Amcits in Qatar alone, and the US government is saying we are on our own
501374506
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Micah @rincewind.run · 01/03/2026
I have never seen a politician more directly copy this speech in my life
media.tenor.com
shrek is standing on top of a set of stairs with two knights .
Alt: Lord Farquaad Some of you may die but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make gif
3079512061
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Viet Thanh Nguyen @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
I think the last time the USA created regime change solely through bombing was in Cambodia, when a massive carpet bombing campaign so destabilized the country that the Khmer Rouge came to power and wiped out the Royal government—the American ally. Genocide followed.
421992
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I have spent the past several months studying the cutting-edge research on modern democracies that have defeated authoritarian leaders. I've learned that the conventional wisdom on the topic is wrong — in ways that have clear implications for the US going forward THREAD www.vox.com/politics/479...
vox.com
How to stop a dictator
I spent months studying how authoritarians like Trump lose. The answer is shockingly simple.
312106892
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 22/02/2026
This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen
9969152260
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
This is a really good piece by Aziz Huq and @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social. I've been highlighting similar themes in my recent power-of-the-purse scholarship. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Is Raising Billions in Federal Funds. That’s Not a Good Thing.
25228
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Marcel Dirsus @marceldirsus.com · 11/02/2026
Quite the chart
551420655
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 10/02/2026
allllll together now: BAN THE PERVERT GLASSES
22612183
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
ProPublica @propublica.org · 09/02/2026
6/ “When I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well, I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.” 9-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya, detained on her way to Disney World, spent 113+ days at Dilley.
Page 1 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in pencil in Spanish. Colorful doodles of a rainbow and hearts are found throughout the page. Translation: “I am Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya and I have been 113 days in detention I miss my friends and I feel they are going to forget me. I am bored here. I already miss my country and my house, I came on vacation for 10 Days and they took me into an ice office an officer interrogated me 2 hours without my mom, I was traveling with flight attendant because my mom lives in new york, they only wanted to arrest my mom, because my mom didn’t have documents to live in U.S.A., I always traveled with my tourist visa but ice used me to catch my mom and now I am in a jail and I am sad and I have fainted 2 times here inside. When I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well, I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.”Page 2 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in pencil in Spanish. Translation: “They don’t give me my diet I am vegetarian, I don’t eat well, there is no good education and I miss my best friend julieta and my grandmother and my school I already want to get to my house. Me in dilei [Dilley] am not happy please get me out of here to colombia.” Below the text is a drawing of the girl and her mother in the government-issued gray sweatsuits of the detention center.
2732291330
Reposted by Eelco van der Maat
Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
these people have a moral rot
516740