Democracy dies in daylight while we offer assistance
Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Suicide, emotion, and personality research. Advocate for robust science. Also jiu-jitsu and combat sports š¤š¼
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Democracy dies in daylight while we offer assistance
I get the desire to deconstruct the logic of Trumpās choices (inefficient, false dichotomies). But I think we need to call it what it is: authoritarian moves to consolidate power. I donāt know how we stop it. I think we should at least name it.
Iād say more but at this moment you prefer your rhetoric world to the real-world ā youāre in an in-group echo chamber that filters the info you receive and the interpretations you are allowed to make. I used to argue that only those on the right suffer this affliction; no longer š¢š
I state that an increasing % of progressives have a disease of rhetoric ā and you respond by asserting a rhetoric-based progressive purity test š¤š¬ Also, Germany doesnāt support genocide against Palestinians, and invoking the holocaust in this context only means you donāt appreciate the holocaust.
Iām a lifelong progressive, but an increasing % of us suffer from āRhetoric Exaggeration Diseaseā. Consider this postās content & conclusions: 1. Condemn police brutality ā 2. Germany makes Palestinians pay the priceāš¤ 3. Germany genocided Jews āInvoking the holocaust to score rhetorical pointsā
Ugh, this is concerning. Having human readers call police on AI users in crisis can go poorly. What happens next is like a high-stakes coin flip: some police respond skillfully and kindly, and some accidentally or aggressively escalate the situation the moment they perceive ānoncomplianceā.
Cool study. I think Iāve assumed interoception is subjective, like dissociation ā so I didnāt see a need to distinguish objective vs subjective (person feels unreal, but are they?) But that assumption was reflexive, not thoughtful. Glad folks are pursuing this work from multiple angles and methods.
I don't pretend to know what's best, but in case anyone cares, I declined. My reply read in part: "Iām going to decline this time...I have concerns about whether the review/funding process will operate according to the scientific and ethical principles that I value...I'm hopeful things will shift."
Suicidology has been waiting a long time for this! A measure of capability for suicide that is both reasonably comprehensive and concise. Great work by @meganlrogers.bsky.social and colleagues. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
A question for my psych scientist friends please! Iām in Canada and a step removed from the situation at NIH. Are we still participating in study sections as reviewers, or is the process/oversight tainted enough that we should steer clear? š
yes. it is like the Holocaust in this way. you have never seen a truthful depiction of either of those things on screen because it is impossible to accurately depict them. you could not do it to actors, to children, you could not make it as bad as it was.
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I am pleased to announce that our APA accredited Counseling Psychology program at Colorado State University has officially transitioned to an APA accredited Clinical Psychology program, adopting the clinical science training model. psychology.colostate.edu/clinicalscie...
That number has nothing to do with your accusations. Youāre grasping for reasons to hate and condemn an entire people ā that has happened before in human history, and those who perpetrate it always have their justifications. I will always stand against it.
āVast majorityā? You are trying so hard to dehumanize and demonize an entire country of 10 million. Take your hate elsewhere.
So ChatGPT 5 is terrible, right? I know a key feature is that it selects more or less advanced models to respond depending on the complexity of our questions/prompts. But I wonder if the default model is significantly less mature than 4o (to conserve resources?) because it seems truly terrible.
Nice š 8 years here š
How long have you been training?
Amazing!!! Be safe. Have fun.
Just want to add I greatly value your contributions to Jiu Jitsu and political discourse, and I have a lot of anxiety and discomfort over this issue. I apologize for any mistakes in tone or content.
ā¼ļøAcademic job alertā¼ļø Our dept at Queen's University (Canada!) is looking to hire a TT assistant prof in clinical psychology... Applications due end of Sept! Re-posts very much appreciated www.queensu.ca/psychology/n...
only continues because Hamas chooses for it to continue. Gaza would lose nothing, and gain everything ā the world would rally to rebuild Gaza! ā if Hamas simply agreed to free civilians and not seek Israelās destruction. But as long as the progressive world blames Israel, Hamas has no reason to stop
but the promise of peace. What happened? Hamas was elected, militarized the infrastructure including billions $ on tunnels beneath civilian infrastructure, started this war, and wonāt stop. Hamas could literally end the war tomorrow without Gaza losing a single square inch of territory. The war
Thereās much more I could say (and much I already deleted bc this is a hard format for this topic). Iād be happy to discuss in-depth back channel if you saw value in that. But Iāll end on this. I was happy when Israel left Gaza in 2005 ā removing their living and even dead ā in exchange for nothing
And things like documented casualty figures (eg, civilian to combatant ratio) and Israelās simple demands to stop the war (return of hostages and for the party that started the war to surrender; echoed by world leaders including Carney and the 22 nation Arab league) look like war, not genocide.
Itās all horrible. And I donāt trust Netanyahuās judgment about whatās best for Israel or the region. But I also think your terms are exaggerations (words that are hyperbolic more than literal truths - carpet bombing, concentration camps, systematic), and real genocides do not require hyperbole.
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It is ofc 100% possible to condemn Netanyahu & the war in Gaza without being antisemitic (most Israelis do). BUT there is also a ton of antisemitism that cloaks itself in Palestinian flags and marginalizes Jewish progressives like me who dare to criticize Hamas, eg, see these recent lies about me.
Please donāt oversimplify antisemitism or genocide. Klein does not conclude there is genocide; he considers it earnestly. Thatās in stark contrast to the prejudiced/fanatical efforts to claim of āgenocideā within weeks of Oct 7, and expel the UN advisor on genocide (Nderitu) when she disagreed.
šØThe Call for Proposals for #SRS26, cohosted with @afspnational.bsky.social, is live! We look forward to seeing your groundbreaking science again this year. Abstract deadline is October 30. Visit our website at suicideresearchsymposium.com to learn more/submit!
The Call for Proposals for #SRS26 is live! Looking forward to another excellent year of science and community.
Upcoming free webinar from CAMS care: Fact vs Fiction: What Actually Works in Contemporary Clinical Suicidology cams-care.com/resources/ev... #suicideprevention
Free webinar tonight on the attack on science funding related to suicide research Stand Up for Psych: Suicide Research zoom.us/webinar/regi... #suicideprevention
An antisuicide āneuroplasticityā hypothesis for ketamine is the opposite of parsimony. K has mood effects such as mild euphoria and calm. These would plausibly ā¬ļø unbearable psychological pain (UPP) and thus suicidal desire. Further, even brief relief from UPP can ā¬ļø hope for a diff and better future.
When I teach 1st year grad students I argue passionately that science is the best tool humans have to gain knowledge. But as an aside, I also note itās unclear (and above my paygrade) whether this has been good for humans, as we now fight worse wars and have many ways to extinct ourselves.
I donāt have a code, just a spike
It definitely reassures me it's being honest when I ask it to be, in its very very llm voice š "I prioritized accuracy over tone, in line with your explicit preference for honestyāeven if it risks friction. If anything, I actively guarded against biasing the answer to flatter you." Sure you did LLM.
What about telling it to prioritize honesty over my feelings? (This is actually a serious question.)
:( Thank you for fighting ā¤ļøš
Hahahah āŗļø You can say it too! Iām sure itās a common thought.
Classic tactic of authoritarians. To paraphrase many scholars: give people someone to hate, and you can empty their pockets while they support you.
The President sees a bad jobs report, and responds by getting rid of the person in charge of the statistics. This is how America becomes a third-rate country.
This is scary stuff. I wonder if itās parallel to the classic allegiance effect in psychotherapy outcome research, or involves different/additional/even more nefarious mechanisms.
We disagree on this point. There is a unique glee and in-group high fiveing that results from cursing one country and not the others ā like itās fun rather than simply necessary or important. I donāt like noting this, bc it makes people like you dislike me. But itās real and wonāt pretend otherwise.
I donāt like pointing out the prejudice ā that thereās an unprecedented glee and ingroup high-fiveness that results from cursing just one country ā because I know it makes people dislike and block me. But the prejudice is there. And I wonāt pretend itās not.
I get that Trumpers care about power, not antisemitism. Butā¦there *is* prejudice here (whether antisemitism or something diff). Folks direct anger at Putin, not Russia. At Trump, not the US. At Xi, not China. But for Israel, itās fuck Israel, all of Israel, all 10 million, from the river to the sea.
Sincere but naive question from a non-bio researcher: Are these image duplications more likely a symptom of fake/fabricated results, or someone too lazy to depict genuine results?
This emotion measure can be viewed as a mini-test of your question. It asks people to separately rate the intensity, frequency, and duration of specific emotions. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Endorse šÆ. Iām worried about this.
My pre-order of @kathryngordon.bsky.social's beautiful new journal arrived! Looks and feels great. Content is, of course, top notch. A must for anyone who works with people managing suicidal thoughts and feelings. Congrats, Katie! amzn.to/3Im0bVe #SuicidePrevention #Therapy #CBT #3ST
Thank you for this! Your post at different times mentions popular science books and academic books, which Iāve thought of as diff endeavors. I notice your press is Johns Hopkins, which I associate with academic (vs popular) audience. Can you share how you thought about choosing an audience & press?š
One of the best lessons Iāve learned from my friend Elizabeth Dunnās research on happiness and money: money spent to free up time is often a phenomenal investment.
Wow, thank you for joining in the middle of the night! And thank you for the kind words, there was so much to convey in less than an hour and Iām very glad it felt worth your time.
Hard agree. This echoes what I tell grad students about latent class analysis itself: Itās great if your goal is to publish in a journal that likes āsophisticatedā analytic techniques ā which is most! But itās not a great way to discover replicable or real subgroupsā¦
ā¦. NOT procedures, which at best are proxies for our goals, and lack consensus anyway.
We all agree the replication crisis would be solved by reforms of: 1. sample size, 2. analytic honesty/cherry-picking, 3. behav/bio) measure validity, & 4. robustness checks. THIS is what we should trumpet to the field/media/etc ā¦.
Iām fine with folks advocating for procedures they think will help the field. But centering them in the discussion is off-target.
But at best OS procedures are tools, not the outcomes that matter. And at minimum thereās disagreement about which OS procedures are critical ā and some feel (me) that centring OS procedures is actually a mistake reminiscent of centering p-values as the signifier of trustworthy findings.
Thank you re + š I mean to center these behaviors/aims in our communications. Instead, our communications with media focus on open science procedures. Our social media threads are about whether people follow OS procedures. Our journals and even badges highlight OS procedures.
I mean, I get messaging is important. But large subfields have been a clown show for decades ā like a Saturday night live mockery of the scientific process ā and deserved and needed to be called out strong. The messaging was only wrong by not accounting for a fascist president.
First a Mayor. Then a Congresswoman. Now a US Senator. Trumpās administration is trying to silence their opposition. Through threats & physical intimidation . Itās not American. We stand with Sen Padilla slate.com/news-and-pol...
ps. if i had more characters i would have elaborated #2 as honesty/transparency about analyses conducted and reported.
Here's my point. Since sci reformers AGREE on behaviors that caused the replication crisis: 1. ā¬ļøsample size 2. cherry-picking 3. no robustness checks 4. unreliable (bio/behav) measures ā¦ but HAVE DIFFERING VIEWS on the OS procedures to mandate, we should center the behaviors that require change.
True. Yet evidence for seatbelts and airbags is overwhelming. In contrast, we have evidence of weak relationships between use of OS procedures and other indicators of robustness, and considerable diversity among sci reformers/editors about which are needed/useful.
I appreciate diff opinions on best procedures. Butā¦ If we know/agree that studies doing *all* procedures can violate conditions for robustness (eg, a fully OS fMRI study with a small sample that doesnāt check measure reliability), it can mislead to publicly conflate OS procedures w/ robust science.
What authoritarians say
Three good options: 1) publish small n studies without p-hacking/cherry-picking so findings from underpowered studies can be meaningfully aggregated; 2) fund sufficient sample sizes (knowing that funding less throws $ away); 3) ManyLabs collaborations and the like.
Trump weaponizes and distorts all sorts of inherently good principles: freedom, law and order, merit, protections against anti-semitism. That he also does this to science ā and the skepticism and rigor necessary for science ā is not special, and not our fault.
Sorry for any content/tone issues due to brevity. This platform has both and weaknesses.
š 1. Grant justifications donāt fix this, why would prereg. 2. If you abuse df, the field will expose your work as non-robust. *That is the incentive. All procedures can be gamed*. 3. Agree robust checks matter before/during/after review; see #2. 4. Many ways to address. 5. Agree, but see #2!
Iām a bit comfortable equating robust science with open science workflow. I think the key reforms are: larger sample sizes, donāt cherry pick āsignificantā findings, incorporate robustness checks, ensure measures are more signal than noise. None require, and most not even supported, by OS workflow.
I am thankful for everyone that thought science should be more rigorous and pointed out all the poor practices we were/are doing and provided ways to improve on them.
āDemocracy is under assault right before our eyes,ā Newsom warned. āThe moment weāve feared has arrived. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
This is in 10 days! If of interest to you, I'd love to see you there. If you know someone or an organization that might have interest, please feel free to share.
Oh, look, I wrote this two months ago.
This has happened to me too, especially with fellow progressives. Biases take many forms, implicit not explicit, shifting standards, selective confirmation bias, labels that demonize rather than clarify. Antisemitism is rampant and has spread to many on the left. It sucks but itās true.
This is a common phenomenon that's not unique to this site. As a reporter, I post things about antisemitism in America as part of my job. The posts do not mention Israel. I will nonetheless get many reflexive replies saying "anti-Zionism is not antisemitism." These people are telling on themselves.
Agree this is pretty awful.
Thank you!!!!!!!!! Canāt wait to watch.
Graduation ceremonies should be maximally inclusive. Whatever your views on Israel, Palestinian leadership willfully commits atrocities against civilians with ties to students and families. It is 100% appropriate to ask grad speakers to avoid divisive rhetoric and bar those who agree in bad faith.
Care about suicide research? Then you should care about how we measure suicide-related constructs! Very proud to share this viewpoint led by @kirstenchristensen.bsky.social, recently accepted at J Psychopathology and Clinical Science š„³ osf.io/preprints/ps...
Make no mistake. This is an extinction level event for American scientific dominance.
Iām so sick of these stories. Iām exhausted, enraged & frustrated. Misogyny in medicine kills. The patriarchy kills. The health gap kills. We all have these stories. Some of us are lucky enough to survive, but many arenāt. Tell your stories. Keep screaming until this never happens again:
šØ URGENT RESPONSE CALL šØ Trumpās Foolās Gold Science EO is a dangerous sham. It gives his appointees the power to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with his agenda. Weāve launched an open letter. SIGN & SHARE NOW: actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...
I helped draft this open letter about last Fridayās gold standard science executive order. Take a look and consider signing if you agree.
PSA: When you publicly pontificate over whether the shooting of the Israeli embassy staffers was "antisemitic or merely anti-Zionist", every Jew--of any view on Israel--understands that you're silently evaluating our connections to Israel to decide whether our murders would be worth mourning over.
America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.
For those of us not attending, I hope youāll share all of this with the rest of us as soon as possible!
Hi, it's me, a younger scientist, not feeling supported
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Wonderful CE opportunity with @klonskylab.bsky.social, who has had an enormous influence on my work! Iām excited to learn more from him & if youād like to sign up too, the details are here: www.zurinstitute.com/webinars/und...
Wait, he was just about to explain that jiujitsu technique for defeating a gorilla and the video ended! Now weāll never knowā¦
Dr Gordon is a wonderful teacher on the topic of suicide risk and prevention ā she brings a unique combination of research expertise, clinical expertise, empathy, and compassion. I imagine this course is fantastic.
#ProudBlue #MomSky Iām happy for Canada, but so jealous. Carney knows whatās up. He is no coward. Way to go Canada!šØš¦
The crowd on the Capitol Steps is growingājoining Sen Cory Booker & Rep Hakeem Jeffries in a profound moral moment. A beautiful mix of ages, races, cultures & faiths stands togetherāthe true spirit of America. My hero, Randi Weingarten joins to share a powerful way for us all to rise & be heard.
Ugh, this quote is so dumb. Sorry to be blunt. It seems to address the nonexistent belief that a reproducible result necessarily supports a researcherās specific interpretation. In reality, these steps are distinct: 1) produce replicable results, 2) figure out what they mean (artifact or otherwise).
So so thankful for @keyneckylaw.bsky.social , @meganlrogers.bsky.social , @drjasminbstephens.bsky.social , @drlindaoshin.bsky.social , @amybrausch.bsky.social , @klonskylab.bsky.social , and Dave Jobes for putting together such a wonderful conference. #SRS25
@kinjalkpatel.bsky.social ās #SRS25 talk has been my favorite presentation thus far. Such a cool study š¤©
I think this measurement/modelling thread is widely applicable. In psych we seem to treat all constructs as latent constructs. But many are not. For example, in my field, I think suicide capability often fails structural tests because it is a formative construct being modelled as latent.
Link for sharing?