Itay Lotem

Also. On a personal note, nothing gets me angrier than a tedious mediocre man who decides to take his aim at Brum. I’m allowed to slag it off. Wankers who never set foot there should put a sock in it.

As someone from Small Heath, I’m allowed to talk shit about Handsworth. But it won’t be anything about “feeling uncomfortable,” because Handsworth also represents the best of Britain, big warts and all.

One reflection talking to other Jews today is how unshocking this is.

Numbing, upsetting, scary but not shocking. We all knew it was coming. Given the enormous rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, it's a surprise it hasn't happened more often.

I realize many people don’t quite get that not every single professor in every single university teaches computer science and might actually be trained in and invested in teaching other things, like let’s say, history? Or poetry.
Or sociology.
It is not our job to teach students how to use AI.

Bibliography on the Extreme Right in Western Europe A bibliography of more than 1600 titles on the parties of the Extreme Right in Western Europe (aka the Populist Right, Radical Right, Anti-Immigrant Right)

Do you know of interesting research that I'm missing? Check out the bibliography at https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/extreme-right-western-europe-bibliography, DM @kai_arzheimer

Possibly also any dish that I enjoy.

Any dish that makes the world a better place.

I actually don’t get the point of waffles.

Don’t @ me. I don’t make the rules. Waffles are pointless.

Wow. Das ist wirklich ein wirrer, peinlicher Wortsalat (und hat nichts mit irgendwelchen verständlichen Kritikpunkten an unsauberer Arbeit Schärs zu tun. Aber einfach unter der Gürtellinie mit den gröbsten „anti PoCo Einsatz“). Echt eh.

Yes, it’s a pretty basic political job (to think about how to use words, reception of one’s own base vs others). Thing is I’m not sure how coalition building works in the current frenzy in the US.

I’ve seen the word become increasingly detached from its institutional meaning on social media, and I’ve often thought the way my students use it now,for example, has very little to do with how I (and many other people) would have understood it.

I agree it’s counter-productive to use that language, BUT I also think there’s a lost-in-translation element here. I don’t think AOC meant educated as “someone who went to university,” but rather in the GenZ use of the word, where everyone should “educate themselves” (via social media etc).

Statement in Solidarity with the Intern. Assoc. of Genocide Scholars by the Genocide & Holocaust Studies Crisis Network:

We condemn attacks on the IAGS Gaza genocide resolution & abhor the denialism & bad faith that persist among some in the fields of Holocaust & Genocide Studies.

Haha yeah. It’s also a pretty local and unknown grape from a region people do not tend to “respect” as a big quality wine making region. So makes it harder to break into the big French market, but in the UK it only takes a Tesco buyer.

It’s a small and pretty old appellation from around Sète that was definitely not engineered, but for some reason broke into the British market (about half of all Picpoul de Pinet is consumed in the UK).

Let me get this straight. So a day before what could be a large wave of French protest due to widespread anger at presidential arrogance, Macron decides the PM should be the one person who really seems like raising the middle finger to basically everyone because… he’s a smooth operator?

I can’t thing of a worse choice for “stitching together a parliamentary majority” than Lecornu. There’s always the weird moment of looking at Macron’s being too smart by half and wondering: “is it a genious maneuver or is it as awful as I think it is?”

Lecornu? Huh? Ils sont fous, ces macronistes.

2) After a recent visit to Lithuania I was astounded by much of the startup discourse there in taxis: people who had grown up without public transport think of it as irrelevant and see the future through different taxi apps, plus find public transport backwards and want to be picked up by drivers.

Ugh NO? Because public transport obviously. BUT 2 things:

1) Sustaining high-level public transportation services requires continuous investment and governments looking to save money can be inspired by this bollocks. So this is dangerous.

That might be true, but I am too old for the endless tedium of short videos.

cover of book "The Art of Status" by Jelena Subotic

So over the next few days I want to tell you a little bit about my new @oxfordacademic.bsky.social book about looted art. The book is about art so there are many great pictures! A very short, mini-thread 👇

Also… hasn’t reading always been performative to get people’s attention? Or for that matter, one’s social media feed?

This is blasphemy. How can anyone claim that a period that saw the emergence of Toxic and Anglo Shakira can in any way be bad? This is NOT acceptable.

בואו לקחת חלק במיצג חירום נגד רצח העם בעזה.
חמישי | 7.8 | 17:30 | לונדון

Emergency act of protest against the genocide in Gaza.
Thursday. 7 Aug. 17.30. London.

The impact of the action depends on the number of participants! Sign up and share with friends: actionnetwork.org/forms/public...

It’s the same process that happened elsewhere in Europe, so no reason to think the UK is that different (despite smug belief that we are). @valentimvicente.bsky.social wrote about that normalisation process (from people sharing some racist beliefs that are marginal to said beliefs becoming central)

Oh definitely. But I also saw how “being online” hasn’t been entirely good for certain colleagues either. It’s weird to see how being “too online” actually poisons their being.

I think there’s an idea that “everything that’s more effective should be cheaper,” but that’s also often… false? I think the reason non-renewables have been so popular is because they’re cheaper. Bad things are often cheaper.

Yeah. But why would renewables be cheaper though?

I don’t think the general public cares much. Media coverage of the academic crisis is what it is because most people consider academics to be people who got a good deal despite not really doing any “work.” I don’t know how that can be changed, but that’s kinda where we are?