So... thoughts. This book is great and honestly essential reading for our time. I'll try to loop back around with a chapter-by-chapter selection of strongest points, but am not there yet timewise. But there are some, just a few, flaws, and they are things I care about VERY much.

https://twitter.com/JKSteinberger/status/1815686387451973965

So in case I get run over by a stupid SUV tomorrow, as could happen any day, here are the points I would make in a book.
1. The neoliberal ideology has us convinced we need to f*k other people over to survive, that this is normal. We need to put forward the vision and FACT that

I am completely shaken. The combination of reading Quinn Slobodian on neoliberalism's anti-democratic rampage around the world, and the Chevron decision of the US Supreme Court destroying the ability of the state to regulate industry AT ALL, basically, is so very clarifying. Predatory monsters live among us, mega-profitable industries and their ideologues-enforcers. They have been actively destroying the foundations of democracy to enable their domination of land, water, resources, labour, everything, since the 1950s. Our societies are their prey.

So yesterday we had quite the victory at Uni Lausanne for both the Palestinian rights student movement, and for the university as a whole against political violence & silencing pressure. No time to detail the whole thing, will just add links.
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Image: Keystone/Valentin Flauraud The students won concessions on all 4 of their demands:
1. public university statement of solidarity with Palestinian academics and scholars
2. active support of Palestinian scholars and rebuilding Palestinian academia
3. transparency on collaborations with Israel
2/

Should have seen this coming, but apparently my building is the first student-occupied pro-Palestinian Uni building in Switzerland. Super proud and going to prepare my courses in a slightly noisier environment than anticipated. 😍😍😍 not sharing pictures because, but right now everything very peaceful, people becoming friends, just sitting, working, talking. Some lucky folks moved a couch in, sitting pretty.
Ah was for colleague with crutches.

Some recent pro-Palestinian tweets went viral, so I got to be exposed to pro-Israeli accounts, some real people, some trolls. And they exhibit behaviour I remember from the good (not good) days of Holocaust denial in Europe in the 1980s. A short 🧵 which will please no one.
1/ The "argument" has four phases.
1⃣ Denial. The bad stuff didn't happen, isn't credible, isn't plausible, wasn't that bad really.
2⃣ Justice. But, if it did happen, the victims had it coming to them. They were the bad guys, they did bad things, they deserved it for sure.
2/

The Columbia student activists are NOT targeting Jewish students FFS. THEY ARE ALSO JEWISH STUDENTS. The White House lies and lies and lies, here putting non-violent students futures, health and lives at risk. The biggest megaphone in the USA just called them violent antisemites.

https://twitter.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1782131891253985517

They lied about Palestinians lives, diminishing them and calling them all violent terrorists, enabling their elimination. As predicted, they are now using the same rhetorical tactics to justify the elimination of undesirables at home. And all for their own violent Islamophobia.

I managed to catch up on two talks/panels given/organised by @ER_Roberts_ and her organisation Working Class Climate Alliance @_WCCA over past days and I have lots of (mostly extremely positive) thoughts to share with you all. A 🧵.
1/ First, links to the talks.
1⃣ By Emma herself, hosted by @ProfJohnBarry in Belfast, link here

2⃣ And a panel hosted by Emma, featuring my old friend @payalclimate as well as @assad_shoaib @Matthuber78 and Michael Albert.

2/

Je reviens dans cette discussion, car je veux clarifier la contribution scientifique de @ysaheb. Valérie Masson-Delmotte a bien sûr raison, le terme de sobriété (=sufficiency) a apparu dans de précédents rapports du GIEC. Par contre, il n'a jamais apparu dans le résumé pour...
1/

https://twitter.com/Cobra_FX_/status/1778767372456783890

décideurs (=Summary for Policy Makers=SPM) qui est approuvé par les gouvernements et donc a le poids d'un texte onusien, c'est à dire que tous les gouvernements reconnaissent la validité précise du contenu et des termes. Non seulement c'est grâce au travail scientifique ...
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Not entirely comfortable doing this, but Twitter is where I think my thoughts out loud, and I recently read (*) "How To Blow Up A Pipeline" by Andreas Malm, and I have ... thoughts. A 🧵, obviously.
😍 First of all, I LOVED it, which I was not expecting. It is a thoughtful ...
1/ careful book, interested in people and ideas and history. It is much less a rah-rah manifesto, and much more a "what have people done in the past, what can we do now, let's think through pros and cons, ok?" kind of book. It is lovely. Read it. It is not long, 3 main chapters.
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I have something unformed to say, but basically it comes down to hiding or refusing to face reality being, at their very core, evil.
Israel is determined to kill-expel every single man, woman and child in Gaza. 99% of their actions and words point clearly that way, since Oct.
1/ Pretending otherwise, paying attention to the 1% words, deflection, Holocaust-washing and symbolic actions designed to draw attention away from a thorough and deliberate genocide, is evil. Because it gives protection to the genocide and the genocidaires.
2/

I need everyone, esp in academia, to watch this clip and understand what @mayaywind is saying when she says that Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the Gaza genocide. Hebrew Uni is helping define targets. Tel Aviv Uni is developing arguments against human rights.
1/

https://twitter.com/democracynow/status/1768623553560097189

Read this commentary based on her book "Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom."
It is one of the most chilling pieces I have ever read. Israeli legal and ethics scholars are trying to redefine international law ...
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dawnmena.org/how-israeli-un…

Ok listen up. some people in replies are saying that a port is better than airdrops of aid. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS CON.
There are 1000s of trucks full of aid waiting outside Gaza. Israel is the one stopping them. If they can let trucks in to construct a port, they bloody well...
1/

https://twitter.com/JKSteinberger/status/1767193737388589160

can let trucks full of actual aid in. Like right now. This second. Full of food and medicine and vitally needed supplies to save lives RIGHT NOW.
This port, like the airdrops, is a smokescreen. If Israel and US wanted the aid to get through, it would happen instantaneously.
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A bunch of people in replies trying to use the opportunity to dump on Navalny. Let's get things straight. Navalny was not perfect - he was a racist. But he was also an immensely courageous anti-corruption and pro-democracy activist, with more guts than 99.9999% of humanity.

https://twitter.com/JKSteinberger/status/1761650308696977602

He was a hero, flawed as all heroes must be. It should be possible to criticise his major flaws while also recognising his immense qualities, and to mourn him and what his murder means for dissidents and citizens in Russia an beyond.

It's becoming clear to me how generalised Western Islamophobia has prevented "us" (media, politicians, public...) from truly understanding the violent, extreme Zionism that rules Israel. For instance:
1⃣ we recognise indoctrination of children by ISIS, but not by Zionist orgs.
1/ But Zionist organisations teach children false history and indoctrinate them into violence against Palestinians and Arabs more generally.
2⃣ we recognise violent terrorism as 'belonging' to Islam, but we fail to recognise the long patterns of violent terrorism ...
2/

Speaking of UK institutions sliding into fascism, the new social media policy of my former employer, @UniversityLeeds is a piece of work.

Based on this policy, a whole bunch of vital communication would be banned.
1/
hr.leeds.ac.uk/info/83/social…


1⃣ Campaigns like fossil fuel divestment could not call out "Petroleum@Leeds", the Leeds institute funded by fossil fuel companies and advancing their interests, since it would (absolutely rightfully) bring the university into disrepute.
2/

Honestly it is hard to do any kind of work right now, between the accelerating of planetary destabilisation and the breakdown of any pretence of international law and human rights.
It's hard to breathe, even.
There has to be a way of working towards good. There has to be.
1/ One thing that has been very striking is that the neoliberal (or whatever this is) world order is in some ways even worse than aristocracy or theocracy. With aristocracy or theocracy, from time to time, by chance, a few decent people occur who can shift things for the better.
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Which is one core reason why the green transition must also be a sufficiency and equity transition: the less energy we use, the less of these minerals need to be dug up.
And also why the database @OurWorldInData should include material use. The choice *NOT* to account ...

https://twitter.com/Prof_FSultana/status/1753989245042139441

... for materials is an explicitly political one. For CO2 emissions, we see some decoupling with GDP, even if it is not universal or fast enough. For materials, there is none. Accounting for materials puts the lie to green growth. Material use is a core part of environmental...

3 full months of ACCELERATING genocide in Gaza & there is something that paralyses me: what could possibly ever cause anyone, apart from the most exceptional monster, to justify this?
I know Hannah Arendt answered this question. I know the monster is banal & unexceptional.
A 🧵. I know/knew people who support this. I know/knew people who soft-pedal their criticism out of regard for the perpetrators. I know/knew people who are trying to play 'greater good' long term games in their reasoning. I know/knew people like this. I should understand. I don't.
2/

Lots of people (not that many actually lol) are asking me my opinion on COP28. Here it is.
1. Loss and Damage fund major breakthrough thanks to Hana Al-Hashimi, no thanks to Al Jaber.
2. OF COURSE fossil fuel companies and petrostates will do everything to stop climate action.
🧵 I wrote about this earlier this year and don't have much to change. ""We continue to witness the rise and triumph of the fossil fuel industry over our societies."

3. I don't want to write about climate any more because the climate science community ...
2/ climatica.lamarea.com/climate-2023-j…

I have something unformed to say, and it's not safe to speak without the right dose of nuance these days. It makes understanding worse, or entails disproportionate consequences. But here goes:
Palestinians have a right to self defence, including violence. But violence sucks.
1/ I am seeing a lot of people, both pro-Palestinian and tired/uncreative around climate, advocate for potential further violence as a means to an end. And none of these people have (a) first-hand experience of violence (b) the slightest strategic notion of how it might help irl.
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The @derspiegel hit piece on @GretaThunberg (researched by 6!!! journalists) is sooooo much worse than even its critics are making it out to be. I can't go through the whole thing, it would take waaaay too much time. I'll just cover some parts.
🧵 1/
spiegel.de/international/… While @derspiegel minimizes and glosses over the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza as "civilians are suffering and dying", it at the same time accuses those who support Palestinian rights of "ignoring" the Oct 7 Hamas massacre "because the victims were Jewish". 🤯🤯🤯
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