randy r. potts

NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats" subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."

you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate

please RT!

so I just rechecked the NYT piece, it now says they're to trying leave again today - I sent Mark a DM (we're acquaintances) but ofc he's likely getting hundreds of DMs, I hope he and his family are able to make it out safely

6a E Mark.mp4 - 6a E Mark - Frame.io

Spoke with cnn while sitting on the floor of my hotel room hallway bc my family were asleep in the other room.

yeh I've seen conflicting reports, apparently they were able to get on a different flight and made it to Spain?

This is the winner.

but, having lived abroad - and now doing it again - I think it's still true for most ppl that no matter how bad things get at home you will usually have more rights than you'll have elsewhere; no matter how much Trump disdains your rights, foreign govts often disdain them more - so - there's that -

just recently, Trump has made comments wherein he talks about closing the border, but from within - as in, not letting anybody out - and while the man says a lot of things, most things he says have at least some connection to something he would like to do if he could -

during the early pandemic era there was a period of time (just a few months, I think?) when you couldn't apply for a passport and that fear kicked in in overdrive - my conspiracy brain, suddenly convinced the first Trump admin was intent on locking us all in

as a kid I was obsessed with tales of escape from authoritarian regimes: WWII Nazi POW camps, "iron curtain" escapes over the Belin Wall (or, momentarily, via Hungary), flights from the USSR, etc; friend of mine as a teen lived with her bags packed for 3 yrs before her fam found an escape route

granted I was a weird kid but I grew up on a Pentecostal compound with armed guards and this is pretty much my oldest, most reptile-brained fear

This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY

I'm reading the archived version and it definitely doesn't state that - but maybe they have updated the story since the last archival version.

Incredible.

Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.

well, the long story is that I was an English-lang editor for a Ukrainian pub a friend helped found right after maidan in 2013 and it's def been a long term plan to eventually move to this region, at least for awhile - Warsaw is a great city, def does not get enough respect

oh! well, I was DOGE'd from Natl Archives and though a judge restored my position NARA told me they would be laying more ppl off all summer, so I took a great job in Warsaw and moved in July

yeh, it's the same story as the US - the libs in power have no real plans except maintaining the status quo and they keep trying to move right on immigration, among other things - so they might lose power again

This is a professor at Rutgers who teaches a class on the history of anti-fascism. He also teaches about human rights. He has received multiple death threats and been doxed. He is relocating to Europe for his safety. This is where we are in the US now. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

What exactly is Antifa? | CBC Radio In late September, Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization. Today, we’re tracking the meaning and history of antifascist protest — from 1930’s Europe, to today — and asking: how ...

This is a really clear yet meaty interview with @mark-bray.bsky.social about the actual tactics and history of antifa movements. Will be sharing with students! www.cbc.ca/radio/frontb...

Frame from Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” with Russian troops shooting at civilians in Odesa.

Re-watched "Battleship Potemkin" for tomorrow's class. The Odesa staircase sequence in these United States in 2025: it’s about the use of the military to suppress a peaceful urban protest, isn’t it?

Trump wanted to STEAL A SWORD from the Eisenhower library and present it to the king of the country we fought for independence from - as our former colonial overlords would say, what a fucking servile twat

EXCLUSIVE: NARA Ousts Eisenhower Library Director Over Proposed Trump Gift to King Charles The director, a historian and Army veteran, declined to allow the Trump administration to remove a priceless artifact from the library's permanent collection

BREAKING: sources say NARA has forced out Dr. Todd Arrington, the federal director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, after he declined to allow the Trump administration to remove a sword from the library for a gift to King Charles

lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

a key part of concentration camps throughout history has been the use of extra legal and quasi legal spaces - sometimes explicitly so as in Guantanamo, sometimes more of a gray area like this where people are moved into new jurisdictions where families, lawyers, etc are hard or impossible to find

Mark doesn't blow his own trumpet much but I have no such qualms - he literally wrote the book on Antifa and you should definitely buy several copies as stocking stuffers this year:

I teach a history of antifascism course @ruhistorydept.bsky.social and figured I'd start an ongoing thread this semester to share some insights from course readings and recommend some great works on antifascism.

🧵

they draw the line when it might affect their stock investments

I checked first thing when I woke up! Bc I live here I'm esp watching one Polish guy in particular. I really do think this one is already getting more attention than the last.

Trump and his allies can now influence content on Google search, Youtube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X. This is a pretty fucking big deal.

insanely scary development