Ingrid Robeyns

Dutch seascape.
#APictureaday

ik doe mix v papieren boeken lezen (wat ik soms zwaar voor mijn ogen vind) en luisterboeken. Maar sommige boeken werken helemaal niet als luisterboeken. Sommige daarentegen zijn fantastisch als luisterboek, vb. The Ministry of the Future van Kim Stanley Robinson. Alsof je in een theater zaal zit.

I should read this (and my husband has a copy!). But I need to be careful not to read too many books about autocrats after each other, since such books have a tendency to make me feel powerless. Which, collectively, we are not (at least, that's what I [want to] believe).

I started reading @jonathanpjwhite.bsky.social's 'In the Long Run' on my last trip to London, but when I came back home put it aside due to work. But I also plan to finish it this Summer (luckily 'Summer' goes until 21 September, so we have more than just annual leave, haha).

Nadeel van Bluesky is de erg krappe begrenzing van het aantal tekens per 'tegel' - dan moet ik die hele boekbespreking in 10+ tegels opdelen. Maar als het nodig is om de bespreking zichtbaar te maken, zal ik het doen :)

Ingrid Robeyns #Books #Summerreading Het tweede boek dat ik deze zomer las, is 'Mannen die Zwijgen' van Tomas Vanheste. Toegegeven, ik zou dit boek waarschijnlijk niet gelezen hebben als ik Tomas niet zou kennen...

I heb even gecheckt maar het stond als "openbaar". Werkt deze link? www.facebook.com/ingridrobeyn...

But since we can never have enough discussions about books here, let me ask YOU:

which books have you been reading this Summer*, and would you recommend them to others?

* that is, "Summer" in the Northern Hemisphere, where many of us are enjoying annual leave.

#Books #Summerreading

I have two more writing deadlines - including, excitingly, the book proposal for my next nonfiction book - so I won't have time to write up my thoughts on books #3 and #4 soon, and since I'm then going on a train trip *without a laptop* it will have to wait.

One wonders whether, in 2024 and 2025, Israel has given a final blow to any moral credit it had over the last decades. It's one thing to act wrongly (many countries do, though few on this scale); it's another, worse thing, to act wrongly and think you are/act morally superior.

On the Genocide, he said: "...to do so starting from our history, from our supposed sensitivity to the suffering of humanity, from the moral responsibility we have always claimed to have towards every human being and not only towards Jews... all this is devastating."

From Haaretz:
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

"...Israeli writer David Grossman said coming to the realization that Israel is committing genocide was extremely painful, but he now has a moral obligation to speak up: 'I feel an inner urgency to do the right thing, and now is the time to do it'."

#Books #Summerreading

Het tweede boek dat ik deze zomer las, is 'Mannen die zwijgen' van @tomasvanheste.bsky.social. Ook aanbevolen!

Mijn bespreking vind je hier (ik gebruik FB doorgaans niet voor publieke discussies, maar deze post is openbaar). www.facebook.com/ingridrobeyn...

But you might be right there might be missing pieces.

Do you have books to recommend for those who want to read more on this topic?

I’ve read this book as really wanting to make one big point - how they help and support eachother. (She does discuss the tole that social media are part of this global authoriarian support network, and how China is selling it’s surveillance technology).

Trump's rolling revolution, with Anne Applebaum A conversation with Autocracy Inc author on Trump, LA, and how we can resist the global authoritarian playbook

Bonus: watch this very interesting interview with @petergeoghegan.bsky.social, who has been following dictators and dirty money for years, on his (also highly recommended) website 'Democracy for Sale': democracyforsale.substack.com/p/trumps-rol...

I highly recommend this book. It's short and highly readable; admittedly, I found it somewhat depressing to realize what the threats to democracies are, and how difficult it has become to effectively resist those autocratic regimes, even more so given how they support each other in various ways.

but, as Applebaum argues, this no longer appears strange if one sees that the ideology is only a fig leaf for the real thing: absolute power and more money.

and training, across what looks (superficially) like ideological divides. Whether it's "communists" in China, a dictator who started as a liberation leader in Africa, theocrats in Iran, or the unavoidable Vladimir P.: they support each other in various ways. This may look like strange alliances, >

and kill dissidents and critical journalists to stay in power and become billionaires along the way (and how that money is then again used to stay in power, preferably forever). But I did not know to what extent these different dictators support each other, share their oppressive technologies

First book: @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's Autocracy Inc.

This book is about dictators (whether or not they look like one). I studied them for a chapter in my Limitarianism book, and hence knew to what extent they are prepared to suppress and frighten their people, manipulate & steal elections >

#Books #SummerReading
Prompted by a discussion on Bluesky, I want to share brief impressions of books I've been reading this summer. Don't expect very many; I guess I'm just too lazy and/or occupied with other things. I'll discuss the Dutch books in Dutch, and the English and German ones in English.

We were not able to escape all of it, but that was OK.
#eveningwalk #apictureaday

Nederland moet de Palestijnse staat erkennen | GroenLinks-PvdA Het is tijd dat Nederland de noodzakelijke stap richting duurzame vrede zet en de Palestijnse staat erkent. Teken de petitie!

Uiteraard. Had allang gebeurd moeten zijn. Ik heb meteen getekend. groenlinkspvda.nl/petitie/pale...

has anyone considered whether it is time to send in the UN peace corps to protect ALL Palestinians from being massacred or evicted? Why not?

Also, if different people write positive comments on a book, which would mean I read multiple BSK post about them, then I'm also more likely to go and read that book.

Yep. I'm currently reading Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck with follows from praise for another book of hers by @crookedfootball.bsky.social here. I had not read anything by her, read up on what she wrote, and then bought this book. The book Chris recommended will be the next one.

Indignity When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up, she was told record...

Here! :)
www.penguin.co.uk/books/458930...

this is an awesome cover and I have no doubts this will be another great book by @leaypi.bsky.social.

For my fellow inhabitants of the Netherlands:
26 September in Rotterdam - www.oaserotterdam.nl/items/lea-yp...
and 27 September in Utrecht - ilfu.com/profile/lea-...

“Every entity or person who participated, enabled or perpetuated Epstein and Maxwell’s sex trafficking crimes must be held accountable.”

It surprises me that this even needs to be argued for; seems pretty obvious, since these have been cases of rape.

Two more weeks and this is all purple.
#apictureaday