Jacob Montgomery
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jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery
@jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
3.7K followers 1.2K following 930 posts

Political (Data) Scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. Data science, social media, American politics, and grumpy Bayesian. All opinions my own.

Videos
Political science 32%
Computer science 20%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Jacob Montgomery, Shelly Lundberg , and 2 more

crampell.bsky.social
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 18h
Who’s gonna tell ‘em

Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Lisa W. Fazio, David Lazer , and 10 more

martylederman.bsky.social
Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 19h
How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?

"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

soodoku.bsky.social
soodoku @soodoku.bsky.social · 1d
www.nber.org/papers/w34131

Reposted by Rebecca Solnit, Robert W. Wallace, Jacob Montgomery , and 1 more

nikitagill.bsky.social
Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 1d
Since people find being hopeful and optimistic so cringe these days, let me remind you once again that there isn’t a single liberation movement in the world that wasn’t built on hope and optimism.

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery, Rebecca Sear, Juan Cole

elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1d
This article provides more data showing how easy it is to manipulate humans on social media.

These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”.

It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
Reranking partisan animosity in algorithmic social media feeds alters affective polarization
Today, social media platforms hold the sole power to study the effects of feed-ranking algorithms. We developed a platform-independent method that reranks participants’ feeds in real time and used thi...
www.science.org

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Jason Mittell, Joe R. Feagin , and 18 more

amandaweavernovels.com
Amanda Weaver @amandaweavernovels.com · 2d
ICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
‘Northern Exposure’ actor gave ICE agents in Redmond her tribal ID. They called it ‘fake,’ she says
Indigenous actor Elaine Miles of "Northern Exposure" was detained by ICE at a Redmond bus stop. When she showed them her Tribal ID, they told her it was fake.
www.seattletimes.com

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio , and 25 more

killgrove.bsky.social
Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com

Reposted by Simon Hix, Ben H. Ansell, Jacob Montgomery , and 4 more

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 3d
People on BlueSky: AI is useless! A stochastic parrot!

Mathematicians/biologists/physicists: It is already helping us do frontier technical research and in some cases solve open problems arxiv.org/pdf/2511.16072

(There are of course, as always, many caveats, but the paper is genuinely remarkable)
arxiv.org

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 3d
And shout out to the amazing leaders of Pack 400/Troop 21/ and Troop 21G featured in this story. My kids benefitted so much from their work.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 3d
This is what our secretary of defense is spending time worrying about.

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

parkermolloy.com
Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 3d
Kirkification www.gq.com/story/charli...
The Shocking Online Afterlife of Charlie Kirk
A wave of AI-assisted “Kirkslop” has twisted the right-wing personality’s carefully molded legacy beyond recognition.
www.gq.com

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 3d
My preferred solution is an irt-like model that also accounts for class difficulty. I want the students demanding tough grading.

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

ryanenos.bsky.social
Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 3d
The thing is, this shouldn't even be a discussion in a free country. If any member of the public says the government's orders are illegal and should be refused, that is clearly protected speech. The speech of members of congress is even more protected than that of the general public.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 4d
My only platform will be to release Northern Exposure from IP jail for streaming.
benjaminkabak.com Ben K. @benjaminkabak.com · 4d
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 4d
The problem is that many of these systems generate speech. So it’s all going to run right into the first amendment.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 4d
Our shard reality continues to fray at the edges ….

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

mkonnikova.bsky.social
Maria Konnikova @mkonnikova.bsky.social · 4d
When (and how) should AI be used in creative settings — and when is it a betrayal of your audience? My latest: open.substack.com/pub/mariakon...
Is it ever ok to use AI in a creative setting?
A poker-world fiasco with real-world creative implications
open.substack.com

Reposted by Jamie Morgan, Jacob Montgomery, Daniel W. Drezner , and 6 more

benjaminkabak.com
Ben K. @benjaminkabak.com · 4d
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

davidingram.bsky.social
David Ingram @davidingram.bsky.social · 4d
“Nobody knows who’s liable if things go wrong.” www.ft.com/content/abfe...
Story in the FT: Insurers increasingly view AI models’ outputs as too unpredictable and opaque to insure, said Dennis Bertram, head of cyber insurance for Europe at Mosaic. “It’s too much of a black box.” Even Mosaic, a speciality insurer at Lloyd’s of London marketplace which offers cover for some AI- enhanced software, has declined to underwrite risks from large language models such as ChatGPT. “Nobody knows who’s liable if things go wrong,” said Rajiv Dattani, co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company, an AI insurance and auditing start-up.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 4d
The Great Depression
samulmschneider.bsky.social Sam Ulmschneider @samulmschneider.bsky.social · 4d
I figure Ken Burns has one, maybe two big documentary series in him before he fully retires. What do you think they should be? My votes include Football, Hip-Hop, World War 1, Reconstruction (though Skip Gates did this one well), Iraq/Afghanistan, 19th Century Expansionism.

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery, Alan Richardson, Brian Keegan , and 1 more

samulmschneider.bsky.social
Sam Ulmschneider @samulmschneider.bsky.social · 4d
I figure Ken Burns has one, maybe two big documentary series in him before he fully retires. What do you think they should be? My votes include Football, Hip-Hop, World War 1, Reconstruction (though Skip Gates did this one well), Iraq/Afghanistan, 19th Century Expansionism.

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 4d
I actually had a startup idea to bioengineer a star phage that would grow across the surface of the sun and reduce luminescence. Please send money!
politico.com Politico @politico.com · 8d
A 25-person startup is developing technology to block the sun and turn down the planet’s thermostat.

The stakes are huge — and the company and its critics say regulations need to catch up.

Read more: politi.co/4iaojIc

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · 5d
Part of the process of slowly morphing into a hedge fund with a side hustle in government subcontracting and "educational sales" (a term one admin recently used in a meeting to my horror).

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery, Daniel W. Drezner, David R. Miller , and 1 more

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 5d
Ultimate Kinsley gaffe
ericcolumbus.bsky.social Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 5d
Trump didn’t read before posting:

“OUR AMERICAN CODE OF MILITARY OBEDIENCE REQUIRES THAT, SHOULD ORDERS AND THE LAW EVER CONFLICT, OUR OFFICERS MUST OBEY THE LAW.”
Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump + Plaque: LOYALTY TO THE CONSTITUTION THE UNITED STATES BOLDLY BROKE WITH THE ANCIENT MILITARY CUSTOM OF SWEARING LOYALTY TO A LEADER. ARTICLE VI REQUIRED THAT AMERICAN OFFICERS THEREAFTER SWEAR LOYALTY TO OUR BASIC LAW, THE CONSTITUTION. WHILE MANY OTHER NATIONS HAVE SUFFERED MILITARY COUPS, THE UNITED STATES NEVER HAS. OUR AMERICAN CODE OF MILITARY OBEDIENCE REQUIRES THAT, SHOULD ORDERS AND THE LAW EVER CONFLICT, OUR OFFICERS MUST OBEY THE LAW. MANY OTHER NATIONS HAVE ADOPTED OUR PRINCIPLE OF LOYALTY TO THE BASIC LAW. THIS NATION MUST HAVE MILITARY LEADERS OF PRINCIPLE AND INTEGRITY SO STRONG THAT THEIR OATHS TO SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION WILL UNFAILINGLY GOVERN THEIR ACTIONS. THE PURPOSE OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY IS TO PROVIDE SUCH LEADERS OF CHARACTER. 1.23k ReTruths 3.93k Likes 11/23/25, 7:41 PM

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Jacob Montgomery

lkfazio.bsky.social
Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 5d
"The more persuasive explanation... is that they are demobilized & demoralized. But it would be a mistake to blame them for this attitude. Older generations should instead recognize that the world we have created does not seem to offer a viable path to making change"

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o...

Reposted by Norbert Schwarz, Philip N. Cohen, Jacob Montgomery , and 7 more

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 5d
My @nytimes.com op-ed: The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o... (gift link)

The key point: "The absence of young people from conventional protests is both a problem and a warning."
Opinion | The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z?
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Jacob Montgomery

mayasen.bsky.social
Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · 5d
A big trend in higher ed and I absolutely hate it
larryglickman.bsky.social Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 5d
Handing the keys of governance to unqualified billionaires and allowing them to far exceed the proper role of the Executive Branch in dictating to other agencies (i.e. Musk/DOGE) or institutions of civil society (as with Rowan/ Compact) sure does not seem "populist."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/u...
Wealthy People Have Always Shaped Universities. This Time Is Different.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

nameshiv.bsky.social
Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 6d
decades of writing near future dystopias and yet so few "some rich dipshits will be stupid enough to read our near future dystopias and try to make them happen" stories

Reposted by Jacob Montgomery

jnovkov.bsky.social
Julie Novkov @jnovkov.bsky.social · 6d
This says a lot to me about the people programming it.

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Simon L. Lewis, David Dunning , and 8 more

okwonga.bsky.social
Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 6d
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Dispensing false information in a confident tone, rather than offering no answer when none is readily available, is a major flaw of generative AI, experts say. An audit of the top 10 generative AI models including ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta’s AI by the media literacy non-profit NewsGuard revealed that the non-response rates of chatbots went down from 31% in August 2024 to 0% in August 2025. At the same time, the chatbots’ likelihood of repeating false information almost doubled from 18% to 35%, NewsGuard found. None of the companies responded to NewsGuard’s request for a comment at the time.