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Lilliana Mason Profile picture
Lilliana Mason
@LilyMasonPhD
Associate Professor of Political Science. Also over at LilyMasonPhD@mastodon.social and Bluesky
5 subscribers
May 3, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Personal story: When I was 37 wks pregnant with my 2nd kid I got an eye infection that I was told normally makes people incapacitated with pain. I handled it - the dr was astonished. Most men come to him screaming. In labor a few weeks later, I begged my husband to kill me. With my first kid’s delivery I almost died. I spent 5 hours in transition (moms know what this means). Both of these were very much wanted pregnancies/babies. They were both terrifying and torturous experiences.
May 1, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
One really important thing that’s revealed by this piece is the extent to which Carlson takes advantage of us/them language and identity-based threats. These are the most powerful tools for generating strong identities. @M_J_Lacombe has a great book on how the NRA generated a strong identity among its members using very similar tactics. press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/97…
Apr 30, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Found these baby animals in a nest under the grill. Dog was trying to eat them. What are they? Image They’re about 2 inches long.
Mar 20, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Academic thread: Please read @NathanKalmoe's thoughts below on our recent academic debate. As he says, we address a lot of the issues from the article in our book, which doesn't come out until May. I'd like to add a few thoughts on the ethics of all this: We did send a free copy of our book proofs to the authors of the PNAS article so that they could better understand our arguments before this article was published. Our competing (and complementary!) arguments from the book are not acknowledged in the article.
Nov 12, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I spoke with @colvinj for this article and I can't overstate how dangerous it is for public officials to condone violence - even "symbolically." Norms (like anti-violence) are enforced through social sanction. When nobody sanctions violent messaging, the norms are weakened. 1/ Winks and nods are exactly how Trump encouraged the insurrection on Jan. 6. If they aren't widely denounced, it doesn't take very many people to cause serious chaos. Once violence occurs, it can spark an uptick in approval of violence, which can lead to a vicious cycle. 2/
Sep 20, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
It took me a while to get to this, but I just wanted to point out that @NathanKalmoe and I don't really disagree with most of this article in our forthcoming book. The problem is that it takes a long time to write and publish a book! But here are some previews: First, the point about disengaged respondents is I think the most important point made by @seanjwestwood et al. It is a very legitimate concern and obviously has real effects on average levels of support for violence. That is something that we should keep in mind going forward.
Jul 2, 2021 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
This new @apsrjournal article by me, @julie_wronski and @UptonOrwell includes an implication that we really only hint at in the conclusion and that I'd like to elaborate on here. cambridge.org/core/journals/… Image First, the people who really like Trump in 2018 are the same ones who really disliked Blacks, Muslims, LGBT+, and Hispanics in 2011. It's NOT THE SAME for the GOP in general, or even for Ryan or McConnell. Trump is drawing on this particular group of people to a unique degree. Image
Dec 9, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The fact that most GOP leaders don't condemn any of this means that we don't have a polarization problem, we have a democracy problem. I study polarization and I'm increasingly convinced that it's the wrong problem to address. The two parties are not equally extreme. 1/ The fact that Dems and Reps hate each other (affective polarization) is bad - but worse is that Republican leaders and voters are actively undermining democracy on a regular basis, and Democrats are trying to defend it. 2/
Jun 7, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
I’ve spent the last few years writing about how the race-party alignment has increased affective polarization in US politics. But I haven’t written as much about what *could* be an upside of this sorting. 1/ The partisan sorting that has divided Americans has also changed the minds of a huge number of white Democrats who previously did not believe that systemic and institutional racism exists. This provides unprecedented political power to a movement toward racial justice. 2/
Jul 28, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I feel like it’s time for a reboot of the show Alias. (Spoiler) She was a quadruple agent by the end. That seems relevant to current politics.
Jul 23, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
A little political psychology for election season: anger is what we call an “approach emotion.” Anxiety is an “avoidance emotion.” This is important for understanding political mobilization. Anger makes us participate. Anxiety does the opposite. Here’s how to induce anger: Threaten a group with which voters are strongly identified. Add certainty about who is to blame for that threat. Strong group + identifiable threat = anger.
Jul 19, 2018 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Thoughts on new voters: Today I saw someone put their bike on the front of the public bus. I realized I had no idea how that worked, and that I would never try to do it because it looked complicated and I was scared that people would get mad while I fiddled and made mistakes. This is the thing about voting. Once you do it one time, you learn the rules and steps. Before you do it, it’s scary! You worry that it will all be too complicated and/or that you’ll be embarrassed. That people will make fun, get mad, or scold.
Jul 17, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
SO MANY HAMILTON JOKES AVAILABLE.
Jun 26, 2018 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
There needs to be an honest conversation about asymmetric expectations of civility. (Thread) It is not “hateful” to point out the influence of systematic and institutionalized racism on public figures.
Jun 20, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I'm actually pretty startled to see a real-life example of a partisan commentator admitting that partisanship is just another sports game. The logic here (I think) goes that it makes no sense to vote for the other side on *principal*, because that would allow them to win. Team victory is more important than policy disagreements with the party. This is an admission that partisan politics is relatively devoid of content and focused largely on winning at all costs. Even when those costs were explicitly noted to be the welfare of innocent children.
Jun 1, 2018 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Ditto @povertyscholar on a lot of this. I did not have a book conference. But I was lucky to have a well-cited article on the same topic that got some attention. I would say one lucky break was that Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort, and a journalist, found one of my early articles and reached out. While I was still in grad school, he started referring me to random journalists who wanted to know more about sorting.