Cynthia Miller-Idriss
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milleridriss.bsky.social
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
@milleridriss.bsky.social

Founding Director @perilresearch.bsky.social, testing ideas to prevent violence & build social cohesion. Author, Man Up, Hate in the Homeland, The Extreme Gone Mainstream. MSNow columnist. New book on Gen Z & gender divides coming 2028. .. more

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an American sociologist. She is a professor in the Schools of Public Affairs and Education at American University. She is the founding director of the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL). .. more

Political science 54%
Sociology 25%
Pinned
New followers! I’m an academic & scholar who writes for the public about upstream prevention of violence & analysis of misogyny, white supremacist extremism & more. But my favorite essays are this trio I wrote about my mom & what it means to be forgotten. 1/

www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenti...
Perspective | My mother forgot who I was, and it made me a better daughter
Watching my mother’s erasure has been vicious. But I have also come to realize that despite all I’ve lost, I’ve gained something, too.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

I wish ai had words for this. All I can say is that the thing about frogs and boiling water is a myth. We know how this plays out, but we just don’t want to believe it. Propaganda and lies right on the White House website? Violent military takeovers of other countries? Troops on the ground at home?
fuck outta here
fuck outta here

It takes 9 years on average for democracies to get off the global lists of “backsliding democracies,” one way of the other (either they are restored, or they collapse into autocracy, dictatorship, etc). By my count we are halfway through that average…
Props to the scholars and researchers who identified January 6 for what it was. @milleridriss.bsky.social said this to me in the July 2nd 2021 episode of @onthemedia.bsky.social
Props to the scholars and researchers who identified January 6 for what it was. @milleridriss.bsky.social said this to me in the July 2nd 2021 episode of @onthemedia.bsky.social

Honestly, if the authors don’t issue a retraction for this quote alone, I’ve lost faith in my own press.
@princetonupress.bsky.social this is so sloppy (at best) that it undermines your credibility & is exactly the kind of damage we don’t need to knowledge producers. This is absurd.
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:

My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.

Huh? When did I say that?!

thank you!! so kind of you to say.

Thank you so much!
In Teen Health Today, I share my 10 favorite books of 2025, including great reads from: @margaretgmyers.bsky.social
@milleridriss.bsky.social
@sorayachemaly.bsky.social
@sdtaylor.bsky.social
Matt Richtel
Melinda Wenner Moyer
+ Ashanti Branch.

Read here: www.teenhealthtoday.com/p/teen-healt...
Teen Health Today's Favorite Books Of 2025
AMAZING books on fatherhood, sex ed, puberty, adolescence, and more.
www.teenhealthtoday.com

Honored to have Man Up on this list, which will reach exactly the people I hoped would read it: mental health counselors, parents, educators store, coaches, & other teen caregivers.

www.teenhealthtoday.com/p/teen-healt...
Teen Health Today's Favorite Books Of 2025
AMAZING books on fatherhood, sex ed, puberty, adolescence, and more.
www.teenhealthtoday.com
"And I never say no"

We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control.

We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.

Thank you!
Welcome all the Twitter refugees.
You are very welcome.

Here's a book recommendation for those who want - by Cynthia Miller-Idriss

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Happy holidays

@milleridriss.bsky.social
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:

My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.

Huh? When did I say that?!

Shameful. I cite CCDH’s work constantly. Imran Ahmed is a leading voice
raising the alarm on online harms, algorithms, and accountability. This is fascism, censorship & authoritarian overreach.

They Seek to Curb Online Hate. The U.S. Accuses Them of Censorship. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...
They Seek to Curb Online Hate. The U.S. Accuses Them of Censorship.
www.nytimes.com

I’m so glad- and love, love CJ’s work!

Wow, thank you so much! Really appreciate it.

Grateful for this review of Man Up in The Irish Times:

“particularly sharp on the hypocrisy of western observers who scrutinise misogyny and gender-based violence abroad while overlooking its pervasive role at home, including among domestic terrorists.”

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
Man Up by Cynthia Miller-Idriss: A bracing, vital intervention against misogyny
Miller-Idriss writes with clarity and urgency, showing how everyday sexism provides the scaffolding for extremism
www.irishtimes.com

thank you Arlene!

Honored to share a bit of my grandfather, along w/ the incredible work @perilresearch.bsky.social
doing to safeguard families & communities from online harms, as part of this terrific Einhorn Collaborative Through the Prism series. Such good questions!

einhorncollaborative.org/through-the-...
Through the Prism with Cynthia Miller-Idriss | Einhorn Collaborative
Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is the founding director and chief vision of...
einhorncollaborative.org

& more. There are so many things to be upset about this week alone, but these gross images of women’s literal containment & erasure can’t be ignored. Shame on these designers.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/s...
Why Can’t Fashion See What It Does to Women?
www.nytimes.com

It’s hard not to see parallels between rising misogyny & normalized sexism (“male standards” in the military, “masculine energy” in the corporate sector, so many varieties of “quiet, piggy”) & runways full of women whose faces are covered, physically distorted, bodies restrained & contained
1/
Our rights are slipping away. Young women nowadays have less rights than my mother did in the 70’s.
This wasn’t as long ago as you might think.
Women couldn’t even have credit in their own name until 1975. Equal rights for all hurt no one.

#Pinks ##ProudBlue #ERA #BostonMarathon
@milleridriss.bsky.social discusses with KERA why we need to confront misogyny head on to prevent future acts of violence, and why attackers so often blame women for their hateful beliefs.

Listen here:
Misogyny drives all types of violence — not just against women - Think
Cynthia Miller-Idriss joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why we need to confront misogyny head on to prevent future acts of violence, and why attackers so often blame women for their hateful beliefs.
think.kera.org

patriarchy!

It’s a lifetime of programming for all of us, women included. It’s hard to recognize water when you’ve been swimming in it your whole life.

You & @msentropyrobinhood.bsky.social & so many others have banged this drum before, again and again… still hoping the field will start listening! Thank you.

Have a listen to my interview with host Krys Boyd on KERA’s THINK podcast, where we talk about why we need to confront misogyny head on to prevent future acts of violence, and why attackers so often blame women for their hateful beliefs.

think.kera.org/2025/12/16/m...
Misogyny drives all types of violence — not just against women - Think
Cynthia Miller-Idriss joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why we need to confront misogyny head on to prevent future acts of violence, and why attackers so often blame women for their hateful beliefs.
think.kera.org

Wow, thank you Chris. 🙏