@jksteinberger.bsky.social Profile picture
Oct 29 11 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Listen up. Gaza is a blueprint for all of us this century. This is what the first real signal of this new century looks like, out in the open, clear for all to see.
1/
I am finding it hard to put into words. It is not just the knowledge of deliberate mass death and atrocities being committed: it is the realisation that our goverments are brazenly, proudly, supporting it.
Switzerland cancelled funding for human right NGOs last week ffs.
2/
France banning demonstrations (Switzerland had previously as well). The UK & US proudly supporting, funding, arming Israel. People being threatened, fired, forced to resign for simply standing up for human rights. Media dehumanising Palestinians, across the spectrum.
3/
Much more than before, this feels like the multiple walls of hegemony closing in: military and police force, propaganda, economic and cultural spheres all aligned, with little to no political opposition, except on the very margins.
4/
And the lesson here is clear for all: if you are undesirable by any force within this hegemony, you will be brutally erased from the face of the earth, swiftly, without a murmur of protest or a hint of recourse.
Gaza is a blueprint for all of us this century.
5/
Here are some rules of this new hegemonic world order:
1. If you are on the wrong side of a border you want to cross, you & all yours will be shot and massacred.
2. If you & all yours are on a piece of land that someone else wants, your cities & villages will be destroyed, ...
6/
you and yours will be killed, imprisoned, displaced.
3. If you dare protest and criticize the hegemon, you will lose everything: work, reputation, protection.
4. At every turn, you will be forced to chose sides: stay part of the hegemon ...
7/
and align yourself with destruction, inequality, atrocities - or lose everything, become an unperson, with no power to protect those you love. At every stage, the circle of unpersons will become larger, and the pressure to conform to the hegemon more intense.
8/
At first, when I read these words from the Colombian President @petrogustavo , I thought he was correct in some academic sense. Now I realise he was simply reading the situation completely correctly, and I was late in seeing it.
9/
Do not mistake this for a war of religion, a regional skirmish, a particular historical blip. The powers that rule us are trying something out, and it spells out a very dangerous future for all of us - unless we successfully organise an international resistance.
End/
I had another point to make on antisemitism on the left and why it is both inhuman AND counterproductive. Love you and appreciate you. 😘

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More from @JKSteinberger

Oct 22
Wow. When a third rate, fascist-wannabe German "political columnist" attacks a the daughter of a Holocaust survivor as an "insane antisemitic liar" ... you cannot make this up. Maybe he should lose his job?
My father stood for Palestinian human rights as well, btw. Image
He said this after I had the temerity to criticize a thread and published column (!) where he calls for unconditionnal support for Israel and harsh, immediate, repression against any critics. Then he blocked me. His words are here, for all to read.
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1715445…
My original tweet: "In Germany, any criticism of Israeli policy or support for Palestinian human rights should meet with an immediate violent response or by losing ones job, according to this "political columnist". Honestly gobsmacked. No historical lessons learned. None."
Read 5 tweets
Oct 3
The only news coverage of the outrageous firing of a climate scientist FOR NOT FLYING I can find is by @juliakconley in @commondreams .

This is ... also outrageous. Why is this not a bigger story, shared more widely by journalists & scientists? 🤔🤔🤔
1/ commondreams.org/news/flying-ca…
I think it's because @GGrimalda 's integrity & consistent actions are uncomfortable to many of us. So many academics & even climate activists continue to fly, we make up convenient excuses for ourselves. Dr Grimalda refuses to & his integrity holds up an uncomfortable mirror. 2/
But instead of wallowing in silent guilt, and withholding our solidarity, we should see this as an opportunity to grapple with both: What does it mean to be fully human in the Anthropocene/Capitolocene? Precisely grappling with these topics.
3/
Read 4 tweets
Sep 29
A Terra Nullius of the mind:
When long-termists (& the leftist thinkers who align with them 🤦‍♀️) say that the awakening of human intelligence to its place in the cosmos is the most precious aspect of progress, they are saying no previous cosmic consciousness was worth anything.
1/
This corresponds to a Terra Nullius of the mind: the idea that previous centuries and millennia of human observation, wonder and imagination are worth nothing because they were not modern, not supported by space-age technology or divided into current scientific disciplines.
2/
This is a convenient way for an oversimplifying, unequal, disconnected and impoverished imaginary, of human-originating artificial intelligence in space, to get rid of far more sophisticated, time-tested and complex competitors in the realm of thought.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Sep 8
I wanted to not engage, but honestly this kind of nonsense really needs to be called out. There are some people who want to pretend, basically, that socialist cars would be made from fairy dust 🧚🧚🧚 and run on unicorn farts 🦄🦄🦄. This is clearly bonkers. Image
Yet these people (and there are WAY more than 1, so no picking on MH in particular, m'kay) are often celebrated as Serious Leftist Thinkers, especially in the US.
I have not the faintest idea where their delusion comes from, except some kind of social science "social systems have a dominant influence on material reality" kind of upside down hubris which runs counter to any reason-based, reality-based or basic physics principles.
Read 13 tweets
Aug 23
Occidental culture is fuddled up, and fuddling our entire planet up. This sounds like a woke platitude, but it's fundamental, and has very precise manifestations and implications.
🧵 1/
Thoughts from a #heatwave morning.
First disclaimer, still doing twitter right, none of what is written here will be new or original. All comes via Indigenous and/or Global South thinkers, from Robin Wall Kimmerer to Molly Whickam to Amitav Ghosh to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o to many others. I am in their forever debt.
2/
I was reading RWK's "Braiding Sweetgrass" this summer. So I decided to think about how Europe and our history represents the living world, our more-than-human relatives, the basis of our life. Let's just say I was impressed, in a bad way.
3/
Read 24 tweets
Aug 18
Hi all, I had a nice recent chat with employees & union organisers of [redacted large company name] who want to bring climate & labour together. Through discussion with them, I tried to formulate basic principles of climate-serious companies. What do you think of these?🧵👇
1⃣ Getting off fossil-fuels fast. Credible plan for no more gas, oil, coal, within years, not decades.
2⃣ Not simply planning to replace fossil fuels with other so-called "sustainable" fuels, like biofuels or synthfuels or some other bullshit. (Paging @IATA 🤡 lol).
3⃣ Getting away from animal-based products, especially food, within years, not decades. Moving towards plant-based alternatives.
4⃣ Participating in ramping up renewable generation, electrification infrastructure, investing towards 💯 % renewables.
Read 12 tweets

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