@zeitzoff
Professor @au-spa.bsky.social Pol Violence | Pol Psychology New Book: “NO OPTION BUT SABOTAGE” https://global.oup.com/academic/product/no-option-but-sabotage-9780197796849 1st Book: "Nasty Politics" https://www.zeitzoff.com/nasty-politics.html
I saw we were fighting about what AI will do to (social) science.
I have some thoughts (originally written for a book on scientific inquiry) and decided to turn them into my first substack article. Co-written with Nat Rabb!
tomstello.substack.com/p/standing-o...
Also, the real crime is that The King’s Speech beat it and won the Oscar for Best Picture.
So we’re 15+ years out from The Social Network, and it’s pretty clear that the critique at the time—that it overdramatized Zuckerberg’s pettiness and Silicon Valley more broadly—was wrong.
If anything, the film was too understated.
Bookstore owners turn tables, question why they were targets of FBI probe - The Buffalo News, 03/18/2016
Earth Liberation Front 1997-2002 (e-Book) https://burningbooks.com/blogs/news/116071299-bookstore-owners-turn-tables-question-why-they-were-targey-of-fbi-probe-the-buffalo-news-03-18-2016?srsltid=AfmBOoqZM0-bI_zauPQtXhxdeUZK_wRyAIbPXpf6fUPCUiOO3T34Mpm0
The co-owner, Leslie Pickering, was one of the spokespeople for the Earth Liberation Front and has been involved in social movements (burningbooks.com/blogs/news/1... ).
He also has written his own book on the ELF. See www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=...
If you want to support a cool independent bookstore with deep roots in activism, you can buy No Option But Sabotage at Burning Books in Buffalo, NY burningbooks.com/products/no-...
Thanks, Dana, for the boost!
This new paper by @zeitzoff.bsky.social looks at the evolution of tactics in the environmental movement in the US, finding that repression has a substantial affect. Read all about it here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Conceptualizing and Measuring Geopolitical Alignments - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Picture of me presenting
UCD campus
Really enjoyed talking activism, democracy, climate change, and my book No Option But Sabotage today at @ucddublin.bsky.social
~NEW EPISODE~
No Option But Sabotage!
In our latest, we talk w/ Prof. Thomas @zeitzoff.bsky.social about his new book that looks at the radical environmental movement and the #climatecrisis.
🎙️: bit.ly/4rO8Hyg
~NEW EPISODE~
No Option But Sabotage!
In our latest, we talk w/ Prof. Thomas @zeitzoff.bsky.social about his new book that looks at the radical environmental movement and the #climatecrisis.
🎙️: bit.ly/4rO8Hyg
I wrote about the recent killing of El Mencho, what the evidence says about decapitating the leadership of major criminal organizations, and whether things could actually be different this time.
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/el-m...
Had a great time talking climate, social movements, repression, and my new book No Option But Sabotage with Scott and Bob on @podcastgreenred.bsky.social
m.youtube.com/watch?v=lTPf...
Read in companion with Thomas’ book on the radical environmental movement! www.zeitzoff.com/no-option-bu...
My book No Option But Sabotage (Oxford UP) builds on this work: 150+ interviews telling the full story from Earth First! to the ELF arsons to today's climate activists deciding how far they'll go.
[see pinned link bsky.app/profile/zeit... ]
Survey data comparing Activists, U.S. general population, and U.S. youth acceptability of Tree Sitting, Demonstrating at CEO's Homes, Leaking Emails, Occupying Buildings, Vandalizing Websites, Damaging Pipelines, and Vandalizing SUVs. Overall, we see that Activists are more supportive of all tactics, but when looking at more extreme tactics like Damaging Pipelines or Vandalizing SUVs the gap between activists and the general public is much smaller.
And even current activists are now leery of sabotage
Yearly counts of eco direct actions (pink region is the Operation Backfire). No the large drop off during this persiod
Diaggregated data on eco direct actions. Shows that vandalism and sabotage, and arson drop during Operation Backfire, while civil disobedience increases.
Pathway into the movent, show that past wave activists were more likely to come from animal right and the punk the punk scene.
Using new data on 1,300+ eco direct actions (1995–2022), surveys, and interviews (N=97) I find:
-Repression did two things:
1) Targeted activists willing to use high-risk tactics
2) Disrupted punk/animal rights networks, replacing them w/ climate activists who favor civil disobedience
Where’s the Sabotage? Repression, Recruitment, and Tactical Evolution in the U.S. Radical Environmental Movement. Thomas Zeitzoff Why did the U.S. radical environmental movement shift away from tactics like arson and sabotage in the mid-2000s? And given the rising threat of climate change, why haven’t these more contentious tactics made a comeback? This puzzle is particularly significant to scholars of terrorism because radical environmental groups like the Earth Liberation Front appear in major terrorism databases, and faced heavy repression from the government, despite causing no fatalities. I argue that repression and recruitment networks play a central role in shaping tactical repertoires. To test this theory, I combine original data on eco direct actions (1995–2022), surveys, and interviews of activist experts. I find that repression sharply reduced the pace of direct actions—particularly sabotage and arson—and disrupted the punk and anarchist recruitment networks that had supported them. In their place, the climate justice movement emerged, favoring civil disobedience and mass protest over clandestine tactics. Repression thus altered the movement both directly (by targeting high-risk actors and their tactics) and indirectly (by reshaping recruitment pipelines). I conclude with a discussion of how climate politics, activist subcultures, repression, and the contested boundary of what constitutes terrorism may influence the future trajectory of radical environmentalism.
New in Terrorism & Political Violence: Why did radical environmental groups stop using arson & sabotage? And, given the threat from climate change why haven't those tactics returned?
My article "Where's the Sabotage" seeks to answer these questions.
Free link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QYFAW...
When they update the cases of diversionary foreign policy, a disproportionate number of them will come from Trump II—and it’s going to read like a farce.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversi...
1) Trump is unpopular.
2) The airstrikes are also unpopular (www.reuters.com/world/us/jus...).
This could mean that Trump has an incentive to end the war quickly. But it also means that he might want to escalate if he feels that his political future and "legacy" depends on its success.
Highly recommend @kylesaunders.bsky.social on why AI is so unsettling to higher ed - one of the best pieces I have read on this issue:
"[U]niversities don’t merely teach. Universities certify, sort, and signal. And AI interferes with all three at once."
kylesaunders.substack.com/p/why-higher...
This is an analysis very much worth a read: www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Picture of the book cover
For a history of the IRGC and Iran I highly recommend @osto.bsky.social‘s book:
“Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards”
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
A few more thoughts. USFP/natsec usually works from bottom up, even for prez-directed policies. Bureaucrats, mid-levels, political appointees work the problem, then top people bless it. Diplomacy (JCPOA) works like this. Military planning can move faster w/ prior plans, but similar. 1/
404 days into Donald Trump's term The president's net approval rating is -17, up 0.0 points since last week. 39% approve, 56% disapprove, 5% not sure
From @economist.com
www.economist.com/interactive/...
Like others, I see lots of bad outcomes—and very few good ones—from Trump’s war of choice against Iran.
A lot of this is driven by Trump being unpopular and gambling for resurrection.
I doubt you see this if he is at 48% approval.
Quick reactions after learning that no, nobody could stop him. 1/ goodauthority.org/news/trump-m... 1/
Breaking: A North Dakota judge finalized the $345 million verdict against Greenpeace in lawsuit brought by Energy Transfer over DAPL protests www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/c...
Sort of an obvious point but one drawback to firing all your attorneys and bombing random boats in a way all experts say is illegal is that partners will no longer trust you to follow the law.
