Jan Broersen

Posting about AI, philosophy, politics, climate, logic, music, film. Professor of Philosophy, Logic, and AI at Utrecht University. I ignore anonymous accounts.

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

In our unfolding battle with AI, we are obviously fighting our own fears. Not metaphorically, but literally. Our fears are in the texts on which our AIs are trained.

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

@YourAnonNews The biggest problem is his ego and warped self-image. He can no longer think of himself as possibly being wrong.

[Aes🇺🇸 @AesPolitics1]

This ad is brutal.

[NXT EU @NXT4EU]

The Netherlands has apparently hacked the phone of Trump's son in law, Kushner and has found hundreds of millions of funds on shady accounts linked to middle-east conflicts.

Well well well....

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

The GRU hacked into Jared Kushner's iPhone. Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) then recruited a GRU spy who gave them access to the hacked phone. What MIVD discovered was that Kushner had access to two bank accounts --one Azerbaijani, the other Israeli --where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed deposited money. It sounds like a slightly far-fetched episode of "Slow Horses," but it's real. And it proves just how eye-poppingly corrupt this administration was and continues to be as its "special envoy" decides the fate of tens of millions in Europe in the Middle East. Simply incredible reporting by Matthew Cole, drawn from his new book on Kushner. https://t.co/8AyV60gg1X

[Akash Maniam @ManiamAkash]

This Bartlett interview with President Zelenskyy was incredible. Highly recommend watching it start to finish.

This is what all those with a platform should do - amplify the truth about russia's war and Ukraine's heroism under russia's monstrously barbaric siege.

[Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman]

WOW. New SEC filing: Zuckerberg is preparing to pay California’s billionaire tax, AND has signed an agreement to stay in the state for 8 years.

Two myths down: no, billionaires won’t all flee, and yes, they can pay their fair share without losing their companies.

Just 12 days left to win this! Holy shit this could be historic.

[Ukraine Evidence Hub @UkraineEvidence]

The verified record of Russia's crimes in Ukraine: case files, UN statements, fact-checks, sanctions, the cost of the war, and a calendar of where Ukraine is on the agenda. Every figure has a source, a date and a tier. Open data, 6 languages. https://t.co/CMKDV1Ziem

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Bucha. It was a genocide, recognized by everyone. They buried hundreds of people. They tortured people. We found the grave. There were, I believe, around 500 people. When we liberated those towns near Kyiv, there emerged this, you know, this kind of hatred for the Russians, right at that moment. Not even at the moment when they started the full-scale war. Back then nobody understood what it really was yet. People understood what this war was and what Putin did personally when we found those mass graves of tortured adults, children. I mean they didn't just kill them, they tortured and killed them.

When we liberated Bucha, I said, bring every journalist here. Don't touch anything, just bring the journalists. The whole world simply has to see this. Imagine finding a mass grave in the U.S. or in Britain, God forbid, with 500 tortured people, adults, kids, dogs, animals shot dead. I mean, they held hunting sprees there from military vehicles. People were running, they were shooting, just hunting, playing games. They literally just played with people, like slavery. So how, after this, can you listen to Putin? And how, after this, can you forgive?

From The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett. (2/3)

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

Every day we are fighting to prevent French stats from looking like this.

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

Can we please protect the protectors and destroy the destroyers?

[UAVoyager🇺🇦 @CrimeanVoyager]

It’s now officially confirmed.

Tonight, russia struck Kyiv’s historic centre with an Iskander ballistic missile carrying a cluster warhead.

58 submunitions explode in mid-air, designed to inflict maximum casualties across a 400 × 400 metre area.

“This strike had no military purpose. The goal was to destroy part of the old city and injure as many people as possible,” said a Ukrainian presidential adviser.

No military objective. Just terror.

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

I welcome the Sakharov Prize awarded to the International Criminal Court.

For victims of the world's gravest crimes, justice means a voice.

The @IntlCrimCourt must be free to pursue its mission, independently, and without pressure or intimidation.

Europe stands firmly behind President Tomoko Akane, the Court's judges and officials, and their vital work for a world governed by rules.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

The US government is now forced to ask a ketamine-head private citizen not to aid a hostile foreign regime in it's partnership with the White House in their invasion of Europe.

A bipartisan coalition of 23 U.S. lawmakers, including seven Republicans and 16 Democrats, is calling on President Trump to press private citizen, Elon Musk to expand Ukraine’s access to Starlink satellite services, enabling Ukrainian forces to locate and target Russian missile launchers operating inside Russia.

[Igor Novikov @igornovikov]

Last night, Russia hit Kyiv’s historic center with an Iskander ballistic missile carrying a K5 cluster warhead.

58 submunitions detonated over a roughly 400×400m area.

This was not about a military target. It was about maximizing harm to civilians and damaging the old city.

People were wounded. Historic buildings were hit.

[Beach Roy 🤙 @Beach_Roy33]

De Republikein Eric Pratt laat per ongeluk zijn AI prompt op de site plaatsen waarin hij aangeeft dat zijn agent er rekening mee moet houden dat Trump niet populair is. 🤡

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

Not crazy at all. Welcome to Dutch egalitarian culture.

[NXT EU @NXT4EU]

Kind of crazy this is the town Europe's biggest technological company is located in.

( Worth €600.000.000.000 )

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

Correct analysis.

[Mykhailo Rohoza @MykhailoRohoza]

THE TRUMP EFFECT AND THE CONFIDENCE TRAP: HOW PERCEPTION DEFEATS INTELLIGENCE

It seems that hardly anyone still doubts that Trump is an idiot. His absurd behavior, economic ignorance, limited vocabulary, narcissism, contradictory statements, and constant reversals have even earned him the nickname TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out. But the real question is: how did someone like him become president of the United States?

Niccolò Machiavelli offered an explanation 500 years ago. Power is a performance. The winner is not necessarily the person who knows the most, but the one who performs most convincingly. Politics rewards appearances, confidence, and the ability to create an image of strength. People do not always seek truth. They seek certainty.

Intelligent people recognize complexity. They understand consequences, compromises, probabilities, and uncertainty. They hesitate before making promises because they know reality rarely offers simple answers. But crowds often interpret caution as weakness. One person says, “We need to analyze the consequences.” Another declares, “I know exactly how to fix everything!” Guess whom the crowd follows.

Modern psychology describes a related phenomenon: the Dunning-Kruger effect. People with limited competence may overestimate their abilities, while genuine experts are often more conscious of what they do not know. Confidence becomes a substitute for competence. The louder someone speaks, the more certain they appear, and the easier it becomes for others to mistake conviction for knowledge. As Shakespeare wrote, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

This is the trap of modern politics. People who speak as though they know everything can attract enormous audiences, while those who carefully explain complicated realities struggle to be heard. But the greatest danger begins when such a leader actually gains power.

Machiavelli wrote: “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.” A weak leader fears strong personalities. He dislikes independent judgment, criticism, and anyone who might demonstrate greater competence. Instead of surrounding himself with experts, he chooses loyalists. Instead of people who identify problems, he appoints people who conceal them. Instead of advisers who challenge his decisions, he prefers those who applaud every word.

And incompetence spreads downward through the entire system. Eventually, the government becomes an ecosystem of mediocrity, where loyalty matters more than ability, criticism is treated as betrayal, and uncomfortable truths are systematically suppressed. Such a leader does not strengthen institutions. He gradually destroys them from within.

He fears independent experts because they expose his limitations. He fears honest feedback because it threatens his carefully manufactured image of greatness. And when a genuine crisis arrives, this system reveals its weaknesses. There is no depth, no independent expertise, no flexibility. Only mutual fear, personal loyalty, and illusions of strength.

History has repeatedly demonstrated how dangerous such political structures can become. The tragedy is that societies continue to reward the very qualities that make these systems possible. Why do people follow leaders who promise easy solutions, speak loudly, and never admit uncertainty? The answer lies not only in Trump, but in human psychology.

Our brains seek shortcuts. Confidence, decisiveness, and simple explanations feel reassuring, especially during periods of fear and instability. But confidence is not intelligence. Charisma is not competence.

The greatest political danger begins when a society can no longer distinguish between someone who understands reality and someone who merely sounds certain about it.

And that brings us to the most uncomfortable question of all: why do voters repeatedly mistake the performance of leadership for leadership itself?

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

@FlyingDutchPall Also a sign of a conspiracy-prone mind.

[Shaun Pinner @ShaunPinnerUA]

Unbelievable that I even have to repost this.

Elon Musk now appears to have been thrown firmly under the bus, with Trump openly denying any involvement in the restrictions and Rubio insisting that control over both Starlink and Starshield lies with Musk.

Something Musk himself has denied.

So who actually authorised the restrictions, and why?

[Jan Broersen @broudsov]

@Beach_Roy33 Ik ga het proberen.