Dan Silverman

Dan Silverman

@dmsilverman.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology (CMIST) Ohio State PhD. International Security, Political Psychology, Middle East Politics Opinions my own, don’t reflect employer, etc.

4.7K followers2.2K following5.7K posts

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 Even aside from the gross dismissal of contemporary Arab achievements, it could hardly explain the decline of MENA wealth and science relative to the West -- which began like 400+ years earlier?

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Like, a few things happened after those 13th C. Muslim princes you mentioned RFK. Such as the Mongols smashing up the entire Islamic world, the rise and then slow decay of the Ottomans, the whole *Western colonialism* thing -- which the Muslim Brotherhood was a response to -- etc.?

Honestly, if we're looking for a little bit of a silver lining, the current decade has helped me understand interwar Europe and the politics of the 1930s better

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social

There is a lot going on here.

Dan Silverman reposted

In about 24 hours, poles will open here in Israel. In what is a strong contender for Israel’s most critical elections. The election pits Netanyahu’s extremely unpopular coalition against a non-coherent, but moderately more liberal, opposition. Here are some thoughts as we head into it.

The most frustrating part of Yglesias’s paradigm is the failure to recognize that you can shift what the “issue” is The Minnesota anti-ICE protests and killings of Pretti and Good made the issue at hand be about civil liberties and state killing/violence more than it was about “immigration” per se

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

A helpfully clear exchange here Hasan: "So your argument is that [Minnesota ICE protesters] should stay at home because immigration is a salient issue for Donald Trump. Opposing ICE is only going to help Trump. Wait until we win the election in 2028." Yglesias: "Yes that is what I would have said"

WOW. What a day — Vucic ousted. Lula dramatically holds off Bolsonaro Some interesting international winds blowing here…

Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came from behind to win Brazil’s runoff election, halting a right-wing wave sweeping Latin America and defying predictions that the 80-year-old political veteran had finally reached the end of his extraordinary career. bloom.bg/4BsvV24 📷: Maira Erlich/Bloomberg

Dan Silverman reposted

“Interesting in overthrowing your leftwing government? Looking for foreign support? Try a discreet partnership with the CIA! Just reply to this message by our Secretary of State or go protest suspiciously right after it. Don’t worry, no one will be on alert for you due to how discreet we’re being!”

Eric Levai@ericlevai.bsky.social

Did he think this was a private message or something?

Welp, preliminary results show that we're all plenty biased about what we call antisemitic speech These are responses to the same exact rhetoric by the same exact fictional but realistic candidate in the same exact news story, just swapping the party label R and D "News story" I gave shown below

Dan Silverman@dmsilverman.bsky.social

Survey experiment on antisemitism in the field Tacked on a few questions at the end about opinions of Israel, Israelis, the U.S.-Israel relationship, etc. to see if anything moves substantially in the event of a decisive electoral defeat for Bibi while it’s underway

Granted, the speech there is pretty bad but still somewhat ambiguous. I'd think -- hope? -- that if I gave an example of *truly* extreme and unambiguously hateful rhetoric you'd get less room for partisan motivated reasoning But as is those are some *large* the in-party/out-party gaps

Dan Silverman reposted

As we approach the midterms, remember that the Alt National Park Service is a merch sales operation claiming without evidence to be a group of federal employees, and is not a genuine source of news about elections of any kind. Please get your election info from a local, reputable source.

The RSF reportedly killed 6,000 people *in the first 3 days* after they took over El-Fasher a year ago

ysph.yale.eduUN Concludes RSF Committed Genocide in El-Fasher; Yale Lab Provided Key EvidenceA report released Thursday by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan—concluding that paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed genocide against
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

"A BBC investigation has found evidence that Sudanese paramilitary fighters systematically destroyed el-Fasher's healthcare system during their long siege and subsequent takeover of the city in Darfur a year ago." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Survey experiment on antisemitism in the field Tacked on a few questions at the end about opinions of Israel, Israelis, the U.S.-Israel relationship, etc. to see if anything moves substantially in the event of a decisive electoral defeat for Bibi while it’s underway

Yeah and I'd like to play starting shooting guard at MSG next to Maxey, Embiid, and LeBron

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Breaking news: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday night that the Iranian regime must be overthrown once and for all. So long as the Iranian regime remains standing, Netanyahu said, Israel faces an “existential threat.”

When will America learn that all of the key “veto players” have to be on board to reach a real peace deal We tried to make agreements without the Taliban. How did that go? Israel has tried to “end the conflict” without Hamas, just the PA. Now we’re trying without Ukraine at the table? Good luck!

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Zelenskyy on Fox & Friends: "I always said we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics, but don't speak about us without us please"

It’s kind of weird to just be living through the President repeatedly using Bobby Newport’s fictional election stunt in Parks and Rec

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump on Camp Lejeune water contamination claims: "If we win the House and Senate, I am directing the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible ... if we don't win, there's no money."

Dan Silverman reposted

We were investigating Wedgewood for faking their data and emailed them for comment this morning, ahead of publishing the findings tomorrow. They are now trying to cover up their fraud with the "we were doing a social experiment" excuse. Full story here: blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/fiftypluso...

blog.fiftyplusone.newsFiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data — and they copped to itIn response to a request for comment on a FiftyPlusOne investigation, Wedgewood Polls admitted their data was bogus

Dan Silverman reposted

ironically, a program seemingly designed to just give money to the regime's friends and allies is textbook fraud

Ana Marie Cox@anamariecox.com

Incentivizing Trump voters to call in their suspicions about about black and brown people? What's the worst that could happen?

It’s very interesting when the ADL seems to be charitably inclined toward a politician’s intent or not Look at their reaction to Trump’s “Shylock” use vs. Mamdani and his “globalize the Intifada” controversy

The Nexus Project@nexusproject.bsky.social

Who said it?

Actually the most frustrating contrast here is with the ADL’s *own* post when Trump used “Shylock” the first time in the summer of 2025 They were apparently willing to call him out and rebuke him much more clearly

To be clear, I think a softer, educational messaging approach that doesn’t presume malice by the speaker is often fine! It may even be more effective (though, c’mon, you can name the person) But they should consistently apply that to both right and left-wing political figures

Dan Silverman reposted

We’re back with our second story about how Trump’s purge of the FBI killed a sweeping bribery probe in D.C. This time, we take you to South Carolina, where two powerful politicians escaped scrutiny: Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. James Clyburn. THREAD 👇

CNN@cnn.com

Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America a stake in SpaceX, his $2 trillion aerospace and artificial intelligence company, as tech firms face intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society. https://cnn.it/4yWTjTJ

I think folks are overlooking this line Trump says Russia is doing little to help Iran vs. what it could do, and he wants to keep it that way He *explicitly* frames the pivot to Russia in terms of the coercive leverage it has over the U.S. re: his failed Iran war. He suggests it’s the top reason!

“Letting the mask slip” is a perfect phrase Hard to think you can just do an apology tweet for that kind of jaw-dropping demonstration of bias and then go back to presenting yourself as one of the most respected, austere authorities on the court bsky.app/profile/just...

Justin Baragona@justinbaragona.bsky.social

"The masks have not just slipped but have come clean right off. Journalists should not be publicly taking political sides," a former CBS News senior staffer told me. "It goes against any journalistic standard and in this case it’s fuelled by israel bias."

“We screwed up so badly that no one knows how to fix it. Anyway, vote for us again” isn’t really the most airtight closing argument I’ve ever heard

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

JD Vance: "I see what Abdul El-Sayed says about the war in Iran. I see him criticizing decisions the president has made, the military has made. But fundamentally we are where we are.I'd like to know what's Abdul El-Sayed's solution for the problem we have right now? It's easy to criticize"

Dan Silverman reposted

Meta took down the No Kings organizing page today - the biggest day of protest this fall. They provided zero explanation. It stayed down for the entire afternoon until most of the protests were done. Outrageous. Put this on the January investigation list.

I mean, it’s pretty much the same story we’ve seen around the world. There are Bolsonaros, Trumps, Chávezes, and Dutertes everywhere. It’s just MUCH more consequential when they take power in the global hegemon.

Schooley@schooley.bsky.social

Decades from now people will not understand how the most powerful nation in the world became the exclusive domain of tag teaming con artists. I’m not sure I fully understand it even now.