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«Sam•Forsythe»

@polymetis.bsky.social
277 followers 372 following 98 posts

🌩️ Polemologist, Peircean & μῆτις enthusiast 🕵🏻‍♂️ Adversarial epistemology & international security @prif.org 🕊️

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Reposted by «Sam•Forsythe»
Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Those who repeat history are doomed to misunderstand it.
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brasidas @brasidas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Note - this isn’t how Bayesian statistics work, but it’s why they say things like “AI has a 10% chance of killing all humans.”
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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Obligatory pinned post: my new book, The Revenge of Reason, is now available to buy: www.urbanomic.com/book/the-rev...
Me holding a copy of The Revenge of Reason.
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Raffaele Mastrorocco @raffaelemstr.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Challenger parties don't just confront mainstream foreign policies-they redefine what counts as national security in the first place. New open-access article on political entrepreneurs and foreign and security policy⬇️ link.springer.com/article/10.1... @jird-jour.bsky.social @eui-sps.bsky.social
link.springer.com
Politics defying threats: how political entrepreneurs reconfigure national security agendas - Journal of International Relations and Development
The emergence and election of new parties challenging mainstream status quo in democratic countries is one of the most critical features affecting the definition of national security priorities today....
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Tom O'Shea @tomoshea.org · 01/07/2026
He may not dream, he may not have a favourite poem, he may well have no significant interior life whatsoever, but Keir Starmer has finally admitted to liking Worcestershire sauce crisps.
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Realising belatedly it's a similar problem to long-term storage of nuclear waste in the absence of historical continuity. Besides the famous "This place is not a place of honor" meme, people tasked with studying the problem in the 80s also considered the possibility of an "Atomic Priesthood"
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
forget "hybrid warfare", "covert action", or "secret statecraft". the correct term for the irregular use of military ways & means is WARCRAFT, but we won't call it that because we're cowards
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Joseph Sommer @bayesandbounds.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Thrilled this is out! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🧵 Do we have 2 kinds of beliefs? Some beliefs seem insensitive to evidence and rarely guide behavior, etc. To explain this, several theories divide belief into 2 types. I argue the explanation isn't in the *mind* but in the *world*
tandfonline.com
In the Mind or in the World? Types of Beliefs and the Locality of Evidence
People’s beliefs appear to be divisible into two distinct types. Some beliefs refer directly to the observable world, readily guide behavior, and are easily revised when challenged. Others, includi...
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
A generation ship is the only form of interstellar travel viable without FTL. One of the main challenges in this would be making sure that successive generations maintain the mission they did not opt into, making political scientists the most important scientists for space exploration.
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PRIF @prif.org · 03/03/2026
Why European leaders should oppose the attacks on Iran and affirm the limits on the use of force established by the UN Charter: in the latest #PRIFblog post, Sidney Michelini offers political, strategic, and moral reasons. blog.prif.org/2026/03/03/a...
blog.prif.org
Attacking Iran Isn't Just Illegal, it's Illegitimate and Dangerous - PRIF BLOG
European leaders should clearly oppose the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. Yet for the most part they have called for more negotiations and condemned Iran. While European leaders may appear to h...
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PRIF @prif.org · 05/03/2026
eLearning 2.0: our fully revised course on Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation is now online! The new version features fresh content, more expert diversity, a new user-friendly design, and flexible learning. Find the course here: nonproliferation-elearning.eu @eunpdc.bsky.social
Screenshot: A scale filled with the same icons on both sides. Among them are tanks, guns, and airplanes. On the left side of the scale, all icons are blue, while on the right side, all icons are red.
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
LMMs may be hastening the epistemic poisoning of an already denuded social niche but i'm getting a kick out of the new genre of crank essay swamping google scholar: Retired Civil Engineer Dad Develops Mathematical-Political-Theological Proof That He is the Only True Republican
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
[foreign mercenaries making up ~40% of UAEs armed forces]: lol. lmao
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
"It's not a war. It's a Special Military Operation. And... [staffer cuts in to whisper something]... ok apparently that name is taken. It's a Major Combat Operation now. Which is different, and also not a war"
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
I don't think 20th century IR theory designed around a post-1945 order is going to help much in a 21st century world without order
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Clear arguments from my @prif.org colleague, Sidney Michelini. Insane that one has to argue publically for what is obviously the only morally, politically, and strategically sound position.
blog.prif.org
Attacking Iran Isn't Just Illegal, it's Illegitimate and Dangerous - PRIF BLOG
European leaders should clearly oppose the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. Yet for the most part they have called for more negotiations and condemned Iran. While European leaders may appear to h...
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
at work hiding out in the Sensitive Compartmented Introversion Facility
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Duncan Bell @duncanbell.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
JOB Assistant Professor of Political Theory University of Cambridge @thecambridgeschool.bsky.social www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
cam.ac.uk
University Assistant Professor in Political Theory
Applications are invited for an Assistant Professor (Grade 9) in political theory, to be based in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. The post will be
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
no one needs, or asked, for this, and yet...
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
This sounds like a shitpost but I am being serious for once. What are the best IR/FPA works on stupidity? Because from a theoretical standpoint, the ability to signal clearly and interpret the signals being sent correctly is nontrivially important in the bargaining process.
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Olivia Garard @teaandtactics.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Oldie: The Psychology of Military Incompetence by Dixon Critique: Pois and Langer’s Command Failure in War. Carl was already there. The primary fault of the commander is Eigensinn — lit. “own sense,” aka unresponsive to the actuality of the world; “authoritarianism” (D) or ”inflexibility“ (P&L)
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 03/03/2026
i honestly never thought we'd half-ass a war with iran. it seemed like the end goal of a certain strain of powerful foreign policy interest such that if it ever happened it would be the culmination of decades of careful plotting and maneuvering. but nope, they got there and they're just YOLO'ing it
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
US gov has a habit of dissolving counter-deception functions the moment they become politically relevant. 2016 Obama-Clapper end NIC Foreign Denial & Deception Committee; 2024 Trump-Blinken close StateDept Global Engagement Centre; 2025 Trump-Rubio kill ODNI Foreign Malign Influence Center. 2026:
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#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
*I don't think LLMs are very "cyber" *Actual "cyber" ideas and approaches and people, they're so old now that they've become historically exotic, even humanly tragic youtu.be/Qi6jaKaaaEs?...
youtu.be
Bruce Sterling: Futures of Cybernetics
YouTube video by Hanart Forum
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Tobias Wille @tobiaswille.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
"From trust to trusting: Bringing a practice perspective to bear on trust research in IR" Just out with @coco-journal.bsky.social! The article explores how ideas from practice theory can improve our understanding of trust in IR. @normativeorders.bsky.social @prif.org @trust-ir.bsky.social 1/3
journals.sagepub.com
From trust to trusting: Bringing a practice perspective to bear on trust research in International Relations - Tobias Wille, 2025
In this analytical essay, I aim to advance the debate on trust in International Relations (IR) by clarifying how trust can be understood in practice-theoretical...
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Screenshot of websearch results showing a webpage titled “Carl Schmitt Facts for Kids”
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Peli Grietzer @peligrietzer.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
When the magazine asks me how the 2 pieces I promised them are progressing
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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Trump is ready to accept the $50 million reward for capturing Maduro.
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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
I’m going to call it. Today is the day we’ll look back on and say was the end of de facto US hegemony. The Trump regime have been dismantling US soft power, but this is full abdication in favour of Trump-Putin spheres of influence international relations as competing petrostates.
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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
YIKES: NSO floats Pegasus spyware used in hypothetical "time of domestic crisis" in 🇺🇸America. I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA. To hack Americans. 1/
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Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
terrifying myself by imagining that, somewhere out there, someone with more security clearance than brain cells is planning covert operations using chat gpt
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
religiondispatches.org/latest-ice-r... there it is. it is really out in the open
religiondispatches.org
Latest ICE Recruitment Materials Include Overt Neo-Nazi Reference and Nazi-Nazi Script
It’s not the first time we and others at Religion Dispatches have had to point out that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is firehosing the internet with white supremacist propaganda. And it wil...
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Olivier Jutel 🇵🇸 @ojutel.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
This is wild but I went on my fav podcast QAA Pod to harp on about the phoney baloney NatSec social science of Disinfo Studies. Big thanks to @travisview.bsky.social and Julian! www.patreon.com/posts/135278...
patreon.com
The Problem of Disinformation (E334) | QAA
Get more from QAA on Patreon
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#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
*The "Ljublen Set" Ancient Roman Multitool was unearthed from a dual grave with a married woman in it, while the "Ventimiglia Set" Ancient Roman Multitool came from a grave with an alleged woman's hairpin in it
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
starting to think we might need an Ingrate Man Theory of History
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Vincent Traag @vtraag.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Surprisingly, we find that users who share unreliable URLs are more likely to share science. Moreover, this is particularly concentrated in more untrustworthy domains classified as fake/hoax or conspiracy theory. (3/10)
Pairwise overlap percentages between reliability categories. Each row shows the percentage of users who shared content (i.e. at least one tweet) in that row who also share content (i.e. at least one tweet) in the category in the column. Note that percentages do not add up to 100% because users can share multiple types of content.
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Just arrived in Kraków for the 2025 'EISA European Workshops in International Studies Conference'. Any friends fancy some pierogi? #EWIS2025
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Do you think Trump’s insistence that it be called the “12 Day War” is because someone briefed him on the Six-Day War and he wants ‘his’ war to be bigger?
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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Another short piece from me (apologies) on the pitfalls of military tech and VC logics and their fraught relationship to the realities of war. In this piece, I bring back Norbert Wiener to illustrate that technological progress should have ethical limits. untoldmag.org/when-war-bec...
untoldmag.org
When War Becomes a Tech Product: How Silicon Valley Logics are Reshaping Military AI - Untold
AI-driven weapons born from venture capital logics treat war as a beta test and failure as progress.
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Dan Öberg @warrhizome.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
I’m halfway into this amazing work by Erik Rechborn-Kjennerud that just dropped. I assume it will quickly become a go-to book in the genre. If you are interested in how and with what consequences militaries wage war, do yourself a favor and grab a copy. direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
direct.mit.edu
The World According to Military Targeting
A revealing account of the prevalence—and alarming ubiquity—of military targeting, and how it has become a self-propelling worldview driven by dominance, v
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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I've ever seen. Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not "low risk" and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm. Great thread from Sarah, and I have additional thoughts. 🧵
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
excellent thread on our present political economy from my pal the Wolf
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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
@thelastinstance.bsky.social weighing in on LLMs as symbolic prostheses: codepoetics.substack.com/p/ai-as-symb...
codepoetics.substack.com
AI as symbolic prosthesis
Where LLMs might take us next
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
it's strange to read a scientific or scholarly paper and not find a single question mark. i can understand wanting to avoid a rhetorical style, but isn't addressing doubt the point of any inquiry?
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«Sam•Forsythe» @polymetis.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
All eyes on Serbia today. Time for the EU to end its cynical & anti-democratic cooperation with Vučić—a man who was Milošević’s actual propaganda minister. No deal with Vučić & Rio Tinto for lithium (DE); no sale of fighter jets (FR); no cooperation with repressive Serbian intelligence. #pumpaj
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