iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

@chknutsen.bsky.social @inalkristiansen.bsky.social - another flippant reference to the existence (and greatness) of benevolent dictatorship 🫣

030

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've started teaching the Bellingcat way to students in my qualitative methods course. None of them had any idea of the possibilities that were out there, so I think the future is bright for everyone becoming an investigator. Keep up the terrific work!

171

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

To defeat authoritarian regimes, opposition parties need to fight a two-level game for the outcome of elections AND the rules of the political system itself. Since the Democrats only care about the result of the midterms, they are doomed. There I said it ok. I will sit down now.

030

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

American's media was never ready to defend democracy - and still has not learned a thing. Yes, this story is stupid as shit, but the sheer amount of coverage is already disproportionate to its importance. Providing it with oxygen simply aids the Trump administration in its distraction. Focus FFS 😠

020

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We can only imagine how the Whatsapp chat between the world's dictators is going...

072

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

It’s the Manosphere in diplomatic form. Men so unsure of their own identity that they attach themselves to men promoting masculinity (and ultimately violence). It would be funny if it weren’t so catastrophic.

061

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The best way to understand America is to think of a late-stage dictator combined with an early-stage authoritarian regime. You get all the madness, corruption, and paranoia of an old man who has been in power 40 years, but combined with a seizure group trying to consolidate power in typical ways.

12610

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Unless mass protests now emerge in front of the Supreme Court, this is just another Monday in Trump’s America.

060

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The importance of this story rests on the antiquated idea that security clearances still have value in Trumplandia. Instead, if we accept that the United States is an authoritarian black knight counteracting global democracy, then *not* getting clearance is actually a sign of in-group loyalty.

031

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Despite celebrating itself as a beacon of democracy for more than two centuries, the simple fact is that America was not built to withstand democracy backsliding. I have never seen an aspiring autocrat do it so easy, anywhere.

082

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

His eyes, voice, body language, and cloths just scream complete psycho.

010

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I never understood why this guy had such a following. His understanding of authoritarian politics was almost always wrong. He was part of a cottage industry of scholars who made up concepts to advance their public profile, but those concepts had no grounding in academic scholarship.

150

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Last year when I wrote about the passivity of the resistance movement to Trump's authoritarianism, I listed political consumerism as one of seven missing tactics. @juddlegum.bsky.social is correct. Hit their corporate earnings and political dominos will fall. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...

0137

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Only a handful of dictatorships don't hold national elections, and that is because they are monarchies, never institutionalised them, or are in a state of prolonged conflict. Disbanding elections outright means you are betting against the notion that international democratic norms will be enforced.

0124

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Well at least the author mentions Don Bradman ffs. A rarity for these debates.

010

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Is this normal for Bluesky? Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention…

261

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Do you think there is a ”chance” card in here where the American president corruptly interferes on your behalf? But then that interference inadvertently backfires and you lose the game? It would be quite the flex from the developers!

092

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Americans shrugged their shoulders about Trump so far looting two billion dollars in office, so they certainly won’t care about corruption of this kind. They really need to get passed the belief that written criticism is a sufficient response to democratic backsliding.

030

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I am really not sure Americans care

100

Reposted by Lee Morgenbesser

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

PUBLISHED! My latest piece addresses the inactivity and passivity of the anti-Trump resistance. From my vantage point, it is not doing enough 🫣 I highlight seven lessons from those who have resisted authoritarian rule around the world. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...

theconversation.com

Has the Trump resistance been too passive? Here are 7 ways to effectively protest authoritarian rule

The ‘No Kings’ protests have been important, but smaller, more sustained acts of resistance have proven successful in other countries around the world.

35522

Reposted by Lee Morgenbesser

Daniel Tavana @danieltavana.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

How many Iranians support the Islamic Republic? In a new working paper, we answer this using a nationally representative survey of 2,000 adults in Iran—and the list experiment, a method for measuring sensitive attitudes.

3279

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Why do Americans gather in front of the Kennedy Center to watch the letters be pulled off the building, but not in front of Congress, Supreme Court, or Department of Justice when they destroy democracy a little bit more? www.youtube.com/live/aAhm880...

youtube.com

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

YouTube video by MS NOW

131

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Just an amazing piece of investigative journalism by @heidiblake.bsky.social. I lost count of how many people need to rot in jail for the rest of their lives. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

newyorker.com

Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse

How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women.

051

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Like I’ve said a dozen times now, America’s mainstream media was never ready for democratic backsliding. It has proven to be woefully inept for this moment. Led by the NYT, it has failed to act as a watchdog, educator, and scrutineer for Trump’s racism, corruption, and authoritarianism.

140

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Yes saw your name attached to some measure and his method 😳

010

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Watching the Australian media gobble Trump’s social media propaganda up without any sense of hesitation or learning from past mistakes is fucking infuriating. If they simply reported nothing, they would be better off. So would we.

070

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I see there is no space left for the comparative yumminess of Southeast Asian cuisine 😁 Obviously your brain is trying to deal with the trauma of the episode.

010

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Equally insane is the complete lack of both condemnation from political elites and spontaneous mass protests from citizens. Indeed, grand corruption is already a fully normalised feature of authoritarian rule in the United States.

0104

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Waiting to access Canvas to start marking assessment. Waiting to hear from the university's Cyber Security Officer. Waiting to see how my personal data will be sold again. Waiting to be freed from our corporate tech overlords. Waiting to hear how I have to bear the consequences. Waiting 😢

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Do anthropologists have a formal set of criteria for a functioning society? Asking as a political scientist, with America in mind of course.

020

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

America’s mainstream media was never ready for democratic backsliding. It has proven itself to be woefully inept at this moment. Historians and political scientists will write - with ease - about the failure of the fourth estate to act as a watchdog, educator, and scrutineer for what has occurred.

06728

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I don’t get why people simply accept his professed Catholicism? Surely we can be more cynical in the age of Trump? Maybe, just maybe, his varying faith - look it up! - is a means to a political end… www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

nbcnews.com

Vance warns the pope should 'be careful' when talking about theology

Vance, who is Catholic, said the pope was wrong in saying Jesus wasn’t on the side of those who wield the sword, pointing to the U.S.’ helping defeat the Nazis during World War II.

061

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Reposting my own thread in the hope it makes a difference to all those in Hungary who believe in democratic ideas, values, norms, and institutions. Best wishes to them.

020

Reposted by Lee Morgenbesser

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

With Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...

valasztas.hu

International observers registered for the parliamentary elections to be held in 2026

22211

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

So what happens next? Assuming Orbán’s Fidesz is declared the winner, look for the 153 fake observers to be paraded before the media so that their positive endorsement of the flawed poll can be quickly and loudly disseminated. Ignore them, wait for the preliminary statement of the OSCE/ODIHR.

0103

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The second takeaway is the 91 individuals from a group called the Liberty Coalition for a Free and Fair Election. It came into existence two weeks ago and has no website, contact information, methodology, or member list. I like the level of detail on the screen being studied by its “core team.”

190

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The first takeaway is the 43 individuals from mostly far right parties in Europe, including ANO, Danish People’s Party, Dawn of Nemunas, Freedom Party of Austria, Georgian Dream etc. Also, there are EMPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group as well as the Patriots for Europe Group.

181

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

In Hungary, there are a range of different fake observers on the ground. There are lone individuals from foreign government’s supportive of Orbán’s regime and wonderfully named groups like World Peace Volunteers from Ghana. Overall, though, there are two key takeaways …

150

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Here is a table on the differences between genuine and fake observers. The latter only care about the grey shaded boxes, i.e., the bright lights of the final days of a campaign and the day immediately after voting.

151

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

If genuine observers seek to foster clean elections and advance democracy, fake observers support dirty elections and defend authoritarianism. Today, there are 1000s of fake observers in operation, covering many of the most flawed polls taking place in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.

160

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

This leaves 153 individuals – or what I call fake observers. This is “an individual, group, or organization that superficially mimics the behavior of genuine observers for the purpose of endorsing an election held by an authoritarian regime.”

151

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Next, there are 132 individuals from 31 foreign embassies or central election commissions. I would not trust those coming from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan etc., but this type of exchange is very common in international election observation today. Protocol makes them mostly benign.

160

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Next, we can identify what scholars call medium quality observers – i.e., those that agree with the intent of Declaration of Principles but lack the capacity to fully implement it. In Hungary, there are 156 individuals spread across six groups –

140

Lee Morgenbesser @lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

A starting point is identifying the genuine observers present. We can do so by looking at who has endorsed the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation … (2005). In Hungary, there are 418 individuals representing OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE-PA & PACE 👍 dop-elections.org/endorsers/

dop-elections.org

Endorsers – DOP Elections

150