@bostonreview.bsky.social
A magazine of ideas, politics, and culture, committed to the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world. Independent & nonprofit since 1975. Newsletter: bostonreview.net/newsletter Subscribe: bostonreview.net/memberships
“The opposition remains deeply fragmented. Many constituencies—including liberals, democrats, leftists, women’s groups, and marginalized communities such as Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, and those in southern Khuzestan—do not align with Pahlavi.”
@alexshams.bsky.social talks with Asef Bayat:
“Does what we are witnessing amount to a ‘national revolution,’ as some have claimed? I would hesitate to use that term. The recent uprising and the developments that followed are better understood not as a revolution but as a signpost along a revolutionary course.”
An interview with Asef Bayat:
“Only through autonomous and organized civic agency can Iranians safeguard their own future—and the future of their country—amid profound and uncertain transformation.”
Iranian sociologist Asef Bayat talks with @alexshams.bsky.social about the war, democratic resistance, and what may come next:
The war comes as Iranians are still reeling from the government’s crackdown on mass protests in January, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets and security forces brutally responded with the worst mass slaughter of protesters in Iranian history.
An interview with Asef Bayat:
“In a sense, we have witnessed the ‘Syrianization of Iran,’ not in terms of civil conflict (though it remains a risk) but in the brutality of governance.”
Just online, @alexshams.bsky.social talks with sociologist Asef Bayat about the U.S.-Israeli war, recent protests, and Iran’s uncertain future:
www.bostonreview.net/articles/ira...
Superb interview with Asef Bayat:
‘Iran’s leftists are also frustrated with the Western left, which they believe mischaracterizes the Islamic Republic as “anti-imperialist” and overlooks the real struggles of Iranians fighting for dignity and democracy.’
“In a sense, we have witnessed the ‘Syrianization of Iran,’ not in terms of civil conflict (though it remains a risk) but in the brutality of governance.”
Just online, @alexshams.bsky.social talks with sociologist Asef Bayat about the U.S.-Israeli war, recent protests, and Iran’s uncertain future:
fucking useless
these centrists & their billionaire donors spend all their time, energy and money trying to defeat Dems
they have this warped view of "the middle" that only makes sense to them
read @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social & @adambonica.bsky.social on that
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
“Pahlavi is fond of pretending that his ‘restoration’ to the crown is a fait accompli. He spent the 12-day war in June insisting he would return to Tehran on the back of U.S. tanks and Israeli missiles, going so far as to boast of plans for his first 100 days in office.”
02.03.2026 18:52 — 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 6 📌 0
The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran mark a dramatic escalation of Trump’s belligerent foreign policy.
Essential reading from the BR archive on the folly of regime change, with Alexander B. Downes, Greg Grandin, Neta C. Crawford, @alexshams.bsky.social, @tparsi.bsky.social, Aslı Ü. Bâli & Aziz Rana:
“We have an elite impunity problem. Twenty years ago the United States invaded a country on pretenses now widely acknowledged to be basically fraudulent. This fact barely merits an ‘oops’ from the many actors who promoted it—most of all George W. Bush.” @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
27.02.2026 22:31 — 👍 105 🔁 41 💬 1 📌 0
Promises made, promises broke.
“I’m not going to start wars,” Trump declared on election night in 2024.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/war...
The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran mark a dramatic escalation of Trump’s belligerent foreign policy.
Essential reading from the BR archive on the folly of regime change, with Alexander B. Downes, Greg Grandin, Neta C. Crawford, @alexshams.bsky.social, @tparsi.bsky.social, Aslı Ü. Bâli & Aziz Rana:
“Hardly anything could be more damaging to Iran’s pro-democracy movements than making this unpopular, deposed monarch with ties to Israel and U.S. neocons the face of opposition.”
@alexshams.bsky.social on Reza Pahlavi and regime change ambitions in Iran:
“I think this is one of the biggest stories that has not been told: so much of Israel’s military success reflects the lifting of all U.S. constraints on how Israel could use force, breaking all codes of conduct.”
@tparsi.bsky.social after the Israeli and U.S. bombings of Iran last June:
“I think this is one of the biggest stories that has not been told: so much of Israel’s military success reflects the lifting of all U.S. constraints on how Israel could use force, breaking all codes of conduct.”
@tparsi.bsky.social after the Israeli and U.S. bombings of Iran last June:
“We have an elite impunity problem. Twenty years ago the United States invaded a country on pretenses now widely acknowledged to be basically fraudulent. This fact barely merits an ‘oops’ from the many actors who promoted it—most of all George W. Bush.” @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
27.02.2026 22:31 — 👍 105 🔁 41 💬 1 📌 0
“The claim is not that progressive policies are bad on the merits, though popularists do sometimes criticize them on this basis. The claim is that too many voters are turned off, dooming any agenda to the left of the GOP.”
@adambonica.bsky.social @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social on what this gets wrong:
“I cannot accept that it is over. In the most difficult of circumstances, facing famine and destitution, people have banded together.”
Joshua Craze on Sudan, with photographs by Salih Basheer:
“I cannot accept that it is over. In the most difficult of circumstances, facing famine and destitution, people have banded together.”
Joshua Craze on Sudan, with photographs by Salih Basheer:
There are only a couple days left to take advantage of our joint subscription deal with @bostonreview.bsky.social! Get a year-long subscription to both magazines for the steeply discounted price of $65.
www.nplusonemag.com/n1-and-bosto...
“Progressive taxation is the single most important policy lever for reducing the power of the rich—not because it raises revenue that can be redistributed via public programs or directly to the poor, but because it imposes a de facto statutory maximum on income or wealth.”
24.02.2026 16:47 — 👍 21 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 1
In Putin’s speech four years ago, announcing what would become a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a whole paragraph was dedicated to the West’s supposed undermining of “traditional values.”
@emiledenborg.bsky.social on homophobia as geopolitics:
The insular world of Melania Trump is a microcosm of the country Trump is presiding over in his second term. In Trump’s America, tech bros invent apps, like Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, that “nudify” and sexualize images of women and children without their consent and direct the deepfake sexual assaults where the user requests, including the victims’ social media accounts. This is a nation in which pregnant women who miscarry are prosecuted—or allowed to die—lest they be seeking an abortion, while the president’s Nazi podcaster pal Nick Fuentes declares, to an audience in the hundreds of thousands, that they should be sent to “the breeding gulags.” It is the world of Jeffrey Epstein, where women and girls serve as personal accessories, interior décor, and instruments of gratification, and the powerful, wealthy, white men they are compelled to serve are protected from legal accountability, or even embarrassment.
@judith-levine.bsky.social watched Melania so we don't have to. Techbros, Fuentes, Epstein and Musk: On women in Trumpland. www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
25.02.2026 14:59 — 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
“The middle class already pays taxes on its wealth in the form of property taxes. The wealthy don’t, since most of their wealth consists of financial assets, which are exempt from property tax. In the 19th century, by contrast, property taxes of most states fell on all assets, real and financial.”
24.02.2026 19:37 — 👍 33 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 0
In Putin’s speech four years ago, announcing what would become a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a whole paragraph was dedicated to the West’s supposed undermining of “traditional values.”
@emiledenborg.bsky.social on homophobia as geopolitics:
“The middle class already pays taxes on its wealth in the form of property taxes. The wealthy don’t, since most of their wealth consists of financial assets, which are exempt from property tax. In the 19th century, by contrast, property taxes of most states fell on all assets, real and financial.”
24.02.2026 19:37 — 👍 33 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 0
"There’s no need for pretense anymore: women, even the wife of the most powerful man in the world, are put on earth to be dominated." Devastating new piece by @judith-levine.bsky.social: www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
24.02.2026 17:24 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
