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Christopher Fariss

@cjfariss

Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan. cjfariss.com

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Latest posts by Christopher Fariss @cjfariss

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Russia’s Lawfare Playbook: How the Kremlin Weaponized Human Rights Courts to Launder Disinformation When the Kremlin wants to legitimize a lie, it doesn’t just hold a press conference – it files a lawsuit.

Proud to publish this piece from my former student, who writes that Russia's lawfare in the European Court of Human Rights is "transforming [it] into an unwitting accomplice in one of the most sophisticated disinformation operations of the modern era.”

americansunlight.substack.com/p/russias-la...

31.10.2025 12:53 👍 120 🔁 52 💬 5 📌 10
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US withdraws from key UN human rights report, draws criticism from rights advocates The United States will not participate in a U.N. review of its human rights record, officials said, a move that rights advocates called a worrying retreat from Washington's global engagement on rights and justice issues.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a peer-to-peer evaluation of a country's rights record. All 193 UN member states are expected to participate, and even states like Russia and China do.

Today, the US took the unprecedented step of withdrawing from the UPR www.reuters.com/world/europe...

28.08.2025 22:25 👍 45 🔁 33 💬 2 📌 7
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Rubio recasts long-held beliefs with cuts to U.S. human rights reports The State Department’s annual human rights reports arrive a half-year late with significant cuts and little fanfare from America’s top diplomat.

May infamy follow him for the rest of his days. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

13.08.2025 13:19 👍 70 🔁 29 💬 3 📌 5
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As of today, Elon Musk is thought to be responsible for the death of 300,000 adults and kids due to the illegal closure of USAID (source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...)

That's a 103 deaths per hour, each day. And it will get worse.

His legacy is one of death, destruction, and failure.

30.05.2025 01:57 👍 4062 🔁 1595 💬 107 📌 80

On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n

05.05.2025 07:11 👍 1136 🔁 391 💬 37 📌 142
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01.05.2025 21:25 👍 19 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 4

If we know where they were sent, but it isn’t to detention: exile.

If we know where they are & it’s in detention: extraordinary rendition.

If we don’t know where they are, but we know someone’s holding them: kidnapping.

Otherwise, if we don’t know where they are: disappearance.

27.04.2025 12:56 👍 253 🔁 142 💬 2 📌 15

Heparin is just like an iPhone, except it's a bit more compact and you use it to prevent blood clots instead.

12.04.2025 22:04 👍 741 🔁 169 💬 14 📌 6

The only way forward, that I can see, requires both courage and collective action. If we’re not going to fight for our students and our scholarship, then what the hell are we doing anyway?

09.04.2025 01:02 👍 1627 🔁 456 💬 30 📌 9

A good reminder to follow everything Eunji Kim does. She is so smart and just has an intuitive understanding of how people engage with entertainment media. She’s also hilarious. oh and her new book is coming out in a month:
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

26.03.2025 16:28 👍 40 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 0

As someone educated outside the elite doctoral programs, EITM was huge for me.

If you want to be good enough at finding stuff out (i.e., "research") to be paid to do it, there's no substitute for being around the best of the best and trying to learn from them.

01.04.2025 19:33 👍 14 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0

This year we will be in Michigan in August. Apply if you are midway through your PhD program in the social sciences to learn from the best in the discipline how theory and empirical methods come together!

01.04.2025 19:01 👍 9 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 1

This segment from @maryannefranks.bsky.social is an incredibly tight argument that captures the breadth of the Trump assault on free speech perfectly and in less than a minute.

Spread it far and wide.

26.03.2025 00:25 👍 4703 🔁 1984 💬 49 📌 52

I knew Dan Drezner when his headings were like "Sanctions work somewhat better than you think."

25.03.2025 13:29 👍 1779 🔁 337 💬 29 📌 8

A competent Democratic Party would have this clip all over the airwaves and social media inside of 24 hours.

21.03.2025 19:36 👍 2230 🔁 656 💬 101 📌 39
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Current and Historical Challenges to Birthright Citizenship The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect, even as the initial executive order is blocked nationwide by three federal a...

I'll be moderating a panel on Birth Right Citizenship at @umfordschool.bsky.social (and try to bring a comparative perspective). The panel includes legal scholars and historians (see below), join us on FRIDAY March 28th!

fordschool.umich.edu/event/2025/c...

21.03.2025 19:02 👍 16 🔁 14 💬 0 📌 1

The people Attorney General Bondi is calling “terrorists” have had no trial and no chance to defend themselves. We do not know who they are. Ignoring the Constitution does not make us safe. It puts us all in peril.

17.03.2025 01:34 👍 38217 🔁 10785 💬 688 📌 333
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Ex-Facebook Employee Is Blocked From Promoting Tell-All Memoir Meta has forcefully denied the allegations in a new memoir, “Careless People.” Now, an arbitrator has prohibited the author from distributing it.

Great way to advertise the book 👍🏼 I didn't know about it but now I do and immediately bought the book.

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/m...

15.03.2025 23:38 👍 182 🔁 65 💬 8 📌 2

They will not stop until Americans stand up to them. Today, the Senate Democrats failed that test. Tomorrow, I hope that the rest of us come together to defend our values and principles.

15.03.2025 01:31 👍 54 🔁 12 💬 0 📌 0

vote your vote, but don't lie to constituents. have some fucking dignity.

14.03.2025 20:52 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

...topics such as the Civil War..."???

It literally became a national cemetery *because of the Civil War.

We're not a serious country. Or, more accurately, this isn't a serious government

14.03.2025 19:45 👍 1021 🔁 257 💬 55 📌 11

Trump and Republicans set this up as an unprecedented power grab so they can slash and burn government services on their terms.

I’m a firm NO — on cloture and final passage — on this ‘CR’

13.03.2025 21:35 👍 7653 🔁 946 💬 816 📌 153

Again, if university presidents/leaders want to shape public opinion & the politics of the moment, rather than idly sitting by why Trump destroys free speech & dismantles the entire business model of 🇺🇸 higher education, here is the opportunity to do that. Loudly. Collectively. Publicly. Immediately.

10.03.2025 19:34 👍 87 🔁 21 💬 4 📌 1
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Last week, I presented at my final Conflict & Change PhD Workshop @uclspp.bsky.social. Once again, ECRs from around the world shared their projects. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been involved as both an organizer and a presenter from the beginning of my PhD! Hope to come back someday. 🙂

03.03.2025 17:27 👍 17 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

We find similar evidence from residence of Texas across two different types of natural disasters: doi.org/10.1016/j.gl...

27.02.2025 13:59 👍 18 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 2
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Another paper showing climate shocks lead to support for climate action among conservatives. Analyzing data collected in Florida, the paper finds Republican positions change after personally experiencing loss from climate-exacerbated extreme events.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

27.02.2025 11:28 👍 268 🔁 90 💬 18 📌 26
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Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance.

Democracy requires your courage.

20.02.2025 02:14 👍 77348 🔁 21086 💬 2376 📌 1670
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📢 “He’s trying to steal Medicaid to enrich himself. He’s gutting NASA to line his pockets with SpaceX. He’s looting everything good in America for private profit.” - @aoc.bsky.social at today’s #SaveOurServices NYC rally.

The fight isn’t over. Join us: go.savepublicservices.com

19.02.2025 23:48 👍 32764 🔁 9324 💬 548 📌 356
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This event is happening this Wednesday at the #Umich Ann Arbor campus, come and please share!

09.02.2025 22:13 👍 92 🔁 36 💬 1 📌 5