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Maurits van der Veen

@amauritsvdv

Political scientist. Teaching Government & Data science @ William & Mary. Eppur si muove. Opinions, reposts, etc. are my own, _not_ those of my employer.

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Latest posts by Maurits van der Veen @amauritsvdv

No, I don't think so either. But I'd still be curious to know.

12.03.2026 11:16 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, but the problem is that progress like that does nothing to help what are probably the most common uses people actually put LLMs to, which are writing and information retrieval.

12.03.2026 01:19 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Question for you as an expert: I assume this figure does not adjust for inflation? A billion today would've been about $670mn in 2010. Do we know how much people at that wealth level and above contributed to campaigns back then? That's the better comparison.

12.03.2026 01:02 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Literally everything this administration does suggests they are unaware that other countries have agency & domestic politics, too.

11.03.2026 03:54 πŸ‘ 537 πŸ” 94 πŸ’¬ 22 πŸ“Œ 7

Today’s fun fact: the reason shipping lanes in the Baltic are so damn narrow is that there are anywhere from thirty to one hundred THOUSAND unexploded mines in the waterway from the World Wars, and the lanes are where the bottom has been swept

10.03.2026 22:18 πŸ‘ 782 πŸ” 221 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 8

Nick Fuentes is an outspoken white nationalist who has railed about "organized Jewry," denied the Holocaust, praised Hitler, and promoted the racist "great replacement theory" that inspired several mass shootings, but to this College Republican, he's just a funny and thoughtful role model.

10.03.2026 20:06 πŸ‘ 698 πŸ” 251 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 6

The Left has to fundamentally explain to millions of people that the rank-n-file of the Republican party is being systematically staffed by literal neo-Nazis.

10.03.2026 19:30 πŸ‘ 1215 πŸ” 384 πŸ’¬ 17 πŸ“Œ 9
Preview
Mamdani Chooses His Words Carefully After Alleged Terror Attack

One day the NYT's editors will read these stories again and be ashamed of themselves. Mamdani called the attack "heinous," "criminal," "reprehensible," "terrorism," and "the antithesis of who we are." The insinuation that he's conflicted about this is disgraceful. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/n...

10.03.2026 12:15 πŸ‘ 9456 πŸ” 1950 πŸ’¬ 357 πŸ“Œ 197

From the abstract of this study:
"The big math changes to small math by same change"

Sadly, this is not a joke (see www.nature.com/articles/s41...). So much for thinking of Nature Scientific Reports as a decent outlet.

"old study no much talk"

09.03.2026 15:41 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Sure β€œcreate supply.” And reward Russia, at a time when it not only continues its war against Ukraine but also reportedly provides Iran with intel to harm Americans. The Trump Russia First policy continues.

08.03.2026 21:40 πŸ‘ 105 πŸ” 38 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2

There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the US is "surprised" by how Israel is attacking Iranian civilian infrastructure. How dumb do you have to be to believe that?

08.03.2026 21:38 πŸ‘ 263 πŸ” 27 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 0

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

08.03.2026 12:22 πŸ‘ 5190 πŸ” 1592 πŸ’¬ 46 πŸ“Œ 17

Once again, normal pro-democracy political parties do not make restricting suffrage <the> central pillar of their policy platform

08.03.2026 14:15 πŸ‘ 100 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1

Challenge for people who believe Claude *is* conscious and use it anyway: Explain how you’re not a slaver.

07.03.2026 19:04 πŸ‘ 2549 πŸ” 548 πŸ’¬ 74 πŸ“Œ 24

"Who gives a shit about foreign countries targeting American soldiers in the reckless war we started?" is just a hell of a take for a White House press secretary

07.03.2026 20:58 πŸ‘ 2251 πŸ” 570 πŸ’¬ 69 πŸ“Œ 9
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So according to the WSJ a US Senator conspired with another country to manipulate the US into starting a war, am I getting this right

07.03.2026 16:25 πŸ‘ 12411 πŸ” 4838 πŸ’¬ 551 πŸ“Œ 473

Yes!
And a thing I keep coming back to: these models can "vibe code" in part because trained on stuff like StackOverflow. But what happens when people stop contributing to SO?

07.03.2026 11:30 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

The killing of Iranian children during an illegal war is an impeachable offense (not to mention a grave crime) and Congress should really act like it.

15 Republicans in the Senate could end this nightmare before it somehow gets even worse.

07.03.2026 02:13 πŸ‘ 13013 πŸ” 3629 πŸ’¬ 472 πŸ“Œ 171
A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best

A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best

Americans: we live in a fallen stateβ€”embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best

Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!

05.03.2026 16:09 πŸ‘ 5979 πŸ” 1564 πŸ’¬ 290 πŸ“Œ 530

It is so damning of US news media that so many outlets refuse to just straight up say that Senator Tim Sheehy assaulted an activist.

He did not "help" Capitol police. They did not need his help. He wanted to assault the guy and did. He should resign.

05.03.2026 03:28 πŸ‘ 20133 πŸ” 5704 πŸ’¬ 512 πŸ“Œ 218

"AI has a transformative effect on my writing" sure and that fly had a transformative effect on Jeff Goldblum

05.03.2026 01:32 πŸ‘ 313 πŸ” 68 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 1

Same!

03.03.2026 23:02 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

πŸ‘‡πŸŽ―πŸ’―

This and it’s not particularly close. Stop the nonsense, folks.

03.03.2026 05:15 πŸ‘ 123 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Congressman Brandon Gill

@RepBrandonGill
How many Americans have to get Allahu Akbar’ed before we realize Islam is a problem?

Congressman Brandon Gill @RepBrandonGill How many Americans have to get Allahu Akbar’ed before we realize Islam is a problem?

The way sitting politicians can say this stuff about Muslims while facing zero consequences is an indication of just how entrenched Islamophobia still is in our institutions and culture.

02.03.2026 22:48 πŸ‘ 2633 πŸ” 519 πŸ’¬ 59 πŸ“Œ 32

you can have a dinner that celebrates the First Amendment or a dinner that features Donald Trump but you cannot have both

03.03.2026 00:17 πŸ‘ 2759 πŸ” 680 πŸ’¬ 67 πŸ“Œ 13
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You cannot talk like this about any other minority in America.

And if it was any other president’s adviser who said something like this about any other minority, it’d be the instant end of their presidency.

02.03.2026 07:54 πŸ‘ 23923 πŸ” 5975 πŸ’¬ 1736 πŸ“Œ 634
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The NYT style guide

02.03.2026 04:09 πŸ‘ 8219 πŸ” 3322 πŸ’¬ 71 πŸ“Œ 105

β€œUntil 2018, all sides did what they pledged to do in the JCPOA.”

02.03.2026 02:41 πŸ‘ 56 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

ai is a rhetorical technology.

when it produces a list of permissible targets, its value is not producing targets but producing permission

05.02.2026 21:20 πŸ‘ 844 πŸ” 283 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 10
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28.02.2026 13:17 πŸ‘ 5871 πŸ” 1885 πŸ’¬ 176 πŸ“Œ 112