AI Extremism, Pepper Spray, and More

We’re in the final crunch of finishing the next Lawful Extremism paper, so it’s going to be a short newsletter this week. But you’ll have lots of reading from this direction very soon!

VOX-Pol Report Launch: AI Extremism

VOX-Pol has a new report out on AI Extremism. The authors are Stephane Baele of UCLouvain and Lewys Brace at Exeter University, and you can learn more about it in this event launch video hosted by my very sharp VOX-Pol colleague, Dr. Ashley Mattheis.

Oleoresin Capsicum: The Racial-Political History of a Ubiquitous Chemical Munition

As soon as I finish putting the final touches on this paper, I am looking forward to digging into this deep history of pepper spray and related technologies, which questions claims of nonlethality and examines the racial dimensions of the technology’s ugly history over hundreds of years.

Gender, Race, and Interruptions at Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings

I’ve spoken in the past about the importance of research that confirms things that “everybody knows,” and this is one of those. Reviewing 80-ish years of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the study finds “that male and white participants are more likely to interrupt women and person of color speakers, respectively, relative to male and white speakers.”

Mapping the Movement: The Antidemocratic Coup in Public Education

Human Rights Watch published this timely report on election denialism, including a look at their infiltration of local election offices, their recruitment of military veterans, and recommendations for how to reduce the risks presented by the current environment.

J.M. Berger is a writer and researcher focused on extremism as a?Senior Research Fellow for the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS). Views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of CTEC or MIIS.?

Support my work

This newsletter is free, but you can support it by purchasing and/or spreading the good word about my books. They include:

• Optimal (2020) : A dystopian novel about a future world run by algorithms, but (surprise) it's really about human nature. Kirkus Reviews called it "gripping."
• Extremism (2018) : As part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, I give a brief introduction to extremism and the elements of extremist ideology.
• ISIS: The State of Terror (2015, with Jessica Stern) : Still the definitive introduction to ISIS and its history through 2015.
• Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (2011): The definitive history of the American citizens who participated in jihadist wars and terrorist organizations from the 1970s through 2011.
• Let the Game Do Its Work (2020) : A long essay/short monograph on my favorite genre of dystopia.